Friday Favorites: Favorite Moments and Conversations with The Brothers Lately

I  have a one and two year old boy until tomorrow when Shane turns three! I love the stage of life they are both in. The Brothers are full of energy and personality so today I am sharing a few special moments and conversations with my boys. A friend suggested that I start writing down these sweet memories so I don't forget them.

Shane

1. I asked Shane if he wanted to invite Jesus to come and live in his heart. His response: "Jesus can't come live in my heart mom. My heart goes boom, boom, boom and Jesus will get hurt in there. Maybe we should find Him another place to live." His reasoning was flawless.

2. Shane is currently obsessed with flags and has been for the past year and a half. His third word was flag. He can identify a variety of flags without prompting but his favorites are USA, Liberia, and Mongolia all because they have stars and stripes on them. When he was asked by a friend if he could find The United States of America's flag on a map my son proceeded to point it out along with a half dozen others.

3. In light of his continual flag obsession, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Shane responded that he would like to either be a doctor like his pediatrician or be the Governor of Washington. He likes to use flashlights to look in ears if he were to be a doctor. If he were  in politics  he could work with flags and still be close to Dad and Mom. Be still my heart. You go get it buddy...and still be close to home. Politics run in the family and I completely support the medical profession.

4. Shane really likes music. He sings and he dances to Froze, Away In A Manger, Down By The Boy, and as of late I've Got The Magic In Me. Only instead of Shane singing "every time I touch that track it turns into gold" he sings " every time I touch traffic it turns into gold."  Last week, caught in traffic, Shane asked if he should sing to the traffic to make it go. Ha!

5. Shane Brian has learned his middle name. At a doctor appointment, when asked if he knew his name, he proudly stated " I am Shane Brian." What a sweet gentleman.

Keith

1. For his first birthday, Keith was given a book of baby faces to teach about emotions: sad, happy, angry, silly, stinky, yummy. He has mastered the silly face and sticks his tongue out. I love it!

2. Keith figured out how to say "Oh, ya" this week and it has become a bonding moment with his dad who finds it hilarious. I hear the two of them chatting back in fourth, "Oh, ya!" When Brian left for work today Keith waved through the window and yelled out "Oh, ya!"

3. When I found out I was having a second boy I was beyond thrilled! I had these dreams of the two bonding, being thick as thieves, and being the best of friends. However, I feared that Shane and Keith being so close would mean that I would have to continually be teaching Shane to be kind, sweet, and gently with his little brother. To my surprise, Keith weighted 24 lbs at his 1 year appointment
and gets complete joy out of wrestling or full on tackling his big brother. I think the two are well matched because as much as Shane can challenge Keith to a wrestling match Keith happily reciprocates.

4. Keith started cows milk this last week and it is not his favorite. Our pediatrician keeps telling me that it can take up to 20 tries to really decide if you like or dislike a food so I should keep at it. My problem is that Keith won't really try the milk any more now that he has figured out how to blow bubbles with a straw. Those sweet cheeks and eyes light up when his lips wrap round a straw and he gets those bubbles rolling. I guess I will just keep trying and enjoy his delighting in a new skill of bubble blowing.

5. Keith is quite a sweet personality. He loves to crawl over and rest his head on my lap for a snuggle between mini exploitative adventures around the house. I cherish those moments he craves closeness with me and offers up a sweet snuggle.


I am linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals today as well as Jennie from The Diary of  Real Housewife. 

Thankful Thursday: Shane

Our spirited, spunky, fun loving, and adventurous first born turns three on Saturday! Shane has been an adventure from the start with challenges during his delivery and a rocky start to life with some health concerns. It is all the more reason to give thanks for Shane, for his life, and for his health. Our little man is growing and thriving in life. He daily delights us with is questions, interests, conversations, and an energy level that keeps us on our toes.  Happy Birthday to our sweet and spirited Shane Brian. 

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If You Give A Mouse A Cookie 2nd Birthday Party

Last week I shared how we celebrated Keith's first birthday and yesterday how we celebrated Shane's first birthday. In keeping with the birthday party theme I am sharing Shane's second party with you today so I am all caught up on my kid's party fun. 

I suppose I had my teacher hat on still as I planned the first and second year parties for Shane because I did book themes for both of them. For his second birthday we picked If You Give A Mouse A Cookie which also happened to be a spring off from  Keith's cookies and milk baby shower (and it was darling!). We had a HUGE group of toddlers come over and the whole 32 of us crammed into our little house for some fun. 

We celebrated Shane's second birthday on January 4th, which is 27 days early, because I was due on January 24th with Keith. Little did I know at the time Keith would arrive a week early so our timing was perfect! I did not want to skip over Shane's party just because he was being promoted to big brother nor did I want to be recovering from childbirth while hosting 30 people so to me early was better.

For the party food we had cookies, fruit, veggies with dip, and some rice crispie treats that my awesome neighbor contributed. This empty plate hosted sugar cookies (which my mother made) that were egg, nut, and dairy free due to Shane and another sweet friend's daughter's food allergies. 

We served milk, water, juice, and root beer for drinks along with coffee and cucumber water. Just like all my parties I like to label food and I incorporated lines from the book and little clip art pictures of our happy little mouse mascot. 

We decorated sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles as a fun activity. These were also the dessert and we let Shane blow out a cookie candle this year. 

In the book the mouse colors so we had a coloring table for the toddlers who attended. 

Lastly, as some fun party favors (and a horrid picture of them!) we gave each child a cookie cutter to take home. I loved the idea of a non food/sweet/candy party favor and found these gems at World Market for $0.99 each. 

In addition to what I have dug up on my computer hard drive from last year before I started blogging I also hung a cute mouse from the chandelier and we had blue balloons. My mom, who is also a teacher, happened to have a stuffed mouse from the book and he joined one of our tables. 

That was Shane's second birthday. It went so smoothly having a couple little activities for the kids to do while there and the snacks were perfect for a 3pm party. We had a wonderful time and 13 days later we welcomed Keith! What a month last January was. On the 31st, which is Shane's actual birthday, we took him out to dinner and had a little birthday breakfast at home to keep it special for our boy. We love our sweet Shane and look forward to his third party this Saturday!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Party

I had to dig way back into my computer hard drive but I found Shane's first birthday party decorations to share with you today. Sadly, I don't have every little detail of his party photographed but I did find most of the decorations to share and hope you enjoy seeing how we celebrated our first little mans 1st birthday. If you missed it, you can read about Keith's Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Starr 1st birthday party from last week here.

For Shane's first birthday I picked one of our favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a theme. Shane loved reading that book at the time and it has always been one of my favorite children's books of all time. In fact, the copy you see in the pictures below was given to me from Brian the first Christmas we were dating. We just love The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

On our mirror that is on the wall right by our dining room table I made giant paper rosettes in green with one red one to look like a caterpillar. I used tissue paper that I had on hand and folded and stapled them together for a quick decorative burst of color. 

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I printed two copies of the food that was mentioned in the book: cupcake, lollipop, sausage, watermelon, a slice of cherry pie, and cheese. Next I cut the images out and glued them back to back with string in between and hung them from our chandelier. 

I set a few decorative touches such as printed signs and copies of the book on coffee and side tables so people could set their food down and continue to see the theme. 

For party favors I purchased jelly beans that had the same bright colors as the book and wrapped them in cellophane and tied it with a bright green ribbon. 

I added a Thank you sign that said "Thank you for inching along to Shane's 1st Birthday" with the party favors. 

That Christmas my brother gave me a cute gift that let you make banners with letters and the colors and print were perfect to spell out happy birthday for the party.

On the tables I cut out leaves that were print outs from the book and I used some pre made labels I found online that had wording from the book to mark the food. 

I made vanilla cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes for the party so that the dessert was a bit more finger friendly for the little ones. I also had coffee, tea, water, and some juice for the kids. Shane's cupcake had a number 1 on it. The cupcake stand I made the night before out of a boot box, a shoe box, and the box that my cupcake liners came in and I simply wrapped in some leftover Christmas wrapping paper. 

For food we served a selection from the book. Each bit of food had labels with wording from the book and we made a wild looking center piece of flowers and ribbon in bright colors. We had salami, cheese, crackers, pears, oranges, plums. 

We also served strawberries...

and pickles...

and oranges so guest could eat their way through the book just like the Caterpillar.

I have such fond memories of being exhausted after this party but feeling like all the work was worth it. Poor Shane had an ear infection, we had family from out of town attend, and we had 27 guest at his party! It was such a special day and I love being able to look back at pictures and remember how we celebrated Shane turning one!

Toddler Activity: Counting Beans

Last week I was looking for a 20 minute activity for Shane to do before bedtime. He has been excelling with counting and phonemic awareness lately so I tried to incorporate one of those areas of interest into our evening. When asked, Shane wanted to work on counting so we made a little game that reminded me of Hi, Ho, Cherry O in that we had a given number and counting was involved. We used what we had on had which was a dice, muffin tin, and some beans and Shane loved rolling and counting. He stayed fixed on this game for about 30 minutes and for a 2 (almost 3) year old I will count that a success! If your toddler needs a little help with counting one to one and fine motor skills as well as practice taking turns this activity will be a great one for you.

Supplies

30 or so dry beans, any kind

muffin tin

dice

Directions

1. Each player will roll the dice to determine who goes first. The highest number rolled will go first.

2. The first player rolls the dice. Count the number of beans out that corresponds with the rolled number on the dice. For example, if a two is rolled, count out two beans and  place the beans into one muffin cup.

3. The second player will repeat step 2, rolling, counting, and placing the beans into a muffin cup.

4. Continue taking turns and repeating step two until all the muffin cups on the muffin tin are filled. The game is over when you run out of muffin cups.

*For an extension activity you can have two kinds of beans and count who has the most beans at the end of the game.

Date Night

One of my new years resolutions was to plan a date for my husband once a month. You can read about all of my resolutions here but this specific resolution of dating my spouse after years of marriage is so easy to overlook during the baby years. In the past I worked so hard at putting in effort, at being purposeful in spending time with my husband. Perhaps I am that way because I only get to spend alone time with him a few nights a week due to work and The Brothers schedules. It was the same way when I was in graduate school and Brian and I only saw each other on weekends or when the other was sleeping. We have always battled opposite schedules and been very purposeful in making time for each other but with the arrival of little ones it has somewhat slipped. 

This past year, on Monday nights, we did movie night.Every other week one of us picked a movie and the other planned a snack. I ate a lot of popcorn and watched a lot of war and history movies but I spent time with Brian. We could be still. We relaxed and snuggled under a blanket. For the past year we were physically tired from midnight wakings of a newborn so this movie night worked.

This year we both wanted a bit of a change. Movie night still happens every few weeks but we are sleeping through the night, the chores are more easily accomplished, and I found myself missing my husband intellectually. I was craving a conversation with a humerus, intelligent, and insightful adult because as a mom I spend a lot of my day singing Down By The Bay and teaching my babies how to brush their teeth or sound out letters. I love what I do but I missed my husband. This year it was time for a change so I made the resolution to plan a date that did not involve a movie each month.

This past week I planned my January date night and it was wonderful: popcorn, Prosecco, Scrabble. Back in college Brian purchased Scrabble for me one Sunday and made lunch. We sat in his apartment and ate and played and laughed. I don't' spell well but I still love the game because I used to play with my Grandma growing up. We got those wooden tiles out a lot the year we were engaged and it bonded me in an unexpected way to this man I was going to marry. We laughed at how much my words brought out the Scrabble Dictionary, we found we were both competitive but in a way that brought a healthy challenge and joy to the game, we took turns cooking for each other and we made time every couple Sundays to play a game and practice investing time in our relationship. We dated in the most simple and inexpensive way but little did we know, 9 years later, the practice of dating this way was going to bless us because we now have to little ones tucked in bed at night and in order to consistently date my husband I sometimes still look to a game of Scrabble on the couch. It bonds me to this handsome man I call my husband. 

Thankful Thursday: Parks

I like in the Pacific Northwest, Washington to be exact. I love the fresh crisp air, the evergreen trees that seemingly pierce the blue sky, the way that we get to experience every season here in their full sunny, crisp, chilly, fresh way. I am thankful the the parks where we live, too. We have so many beautiful locations from fun rock climbing walls to scenic boardwalks and The Brothers can run (or crawl) and play. I feel like my boys are happiest outside breathing fresh air and exploring so today I give thanks that despite my small backyard there are a host of parks to take advantage of.

How We Named Shane

Last week I shared how we named our sweet little one year old Keith Brooks. You can read about it here. This week I wanted to share how we picked out Shane's name because he was named in the same thoughtful, meaningful, and purposeful way. We love our kids names and spent so much time picking them that it brings me great joy to write and share about our little Scottish named boys.

Just like with Keith, we kept Shane's name a secret. We were much more hush hush with Shane's potential names that we were with Keith because he was our first and we had the whole lot of boys names to pick from. We waited until September, when we found out Shane was a boy, to start talking names. I thought it would be so easy to name our son but I was quite surprised that Brian and I were very selective and had extremely different taste. Brian being an officer and myself a teacher, we wanted a name we had not encountered before. Seeing as how I have taught so many students ( I worked as a part time substitute over three years) and Brian works with people all day, every day, we had quite a task ahead of us.

Just like with Keith, we did share the middle name. Shane Brian was named after his father, Brian, just like Brian's middle name is after his father. I liked the idea of a family name and we settled upon that fairly early on. For a moment I wanted a Johnson name because I figured the last name being from the male side the middle name should be from my side but in the end we decided to go with Brian. It was a great start for us to pick the first name which was our big challenge.

We wanted a name that was easy to spell and pronounce but as I said before one that was not commonly used. Brian prefers shorter names and I like names that don't lend well to nicknames. I guess I wanted people using the name I picked or, if a nickname was given, I wanted it to be what everyone called our son and I wanted to love it just as much as I loved the legal name. I also really valued the meaning of a name. That shortened our list. Then we narrowed the names down to Scottish heritage because of my family roots. We also double checked that the name did not rhyme with swear words or could not be twisted and teased. We had a long list of opposite names and at the start of January we started to narrow names down.

We really liked Zachery and Sean because Zachery means God remembers and Sean means God is gracious which we both felt were beautiful meanings. While reviewing the list I saw that Shane was a variant of Sean and had the same meaning so I added it to a list of about 50 names and from there we narrowed our list down to Zachery, Shane and Sean. I was not sold on Zachery because of the nickname factor and because it was one I had heard a lot lately. However, we went with our list. 

I had complications with Shane at the end of my pregnancy and was called back to the hospital after a doctor appointment to be induced with him. Brian met me at the hospital and  as we sat there waiting for labor to start we decided that Sean was the name for our son. God was so gracious to find the complication that could have resulted in a still born so we decided that Sean Brian would be a reminder of the gracious gift that was our son. After Shane was born he was taken directly up to the NICU. I got to give his head a quick kiss and he was whisked away with Brian at his side. I sat and waited downstairs while my husband and baby were upstairs. Nearly two hours later I was taken up to see my baby boy and hold him for the first time.

When I was wheeled into his little room in the NICU I remember a mix of emotions flooding my heart. Frustration that so many others had held my baby before me, panic that I did not know what was wrong with my baby, relief and thanks that he was alive, and pure joy and anticipation just being able to finally hold him. Brian looked at me in that moment and said "his name is Shane because I have been looking at him and that is what he looks like." Sean was a wrong fit and in truth Brian could have named him anything at that point but we went downstairs to tell a lot of waiting family members and friends that we had a son: Shane Brian. His name means God is gracious and it was a perfect fit for our boy.

How did you name your kids? 

How We Organize

I married my opposite. Brian and I really are salt and pepper and I think the fact that we were married young (21 and 22) benefited us most because we have been able to age together, to flex, blend, and adapt a bit while still remaining who we are. This means when it comes to organizing we are opposites. Organization and structure are two words that people would use to describe me. I hope cheery, joyful, hospitable, playful, warm, inviting, and friendly are also on that list but when it comes to how I live I am organized and I am very structured (with a little bit of learned and healthy wiggle room from that cute husband of mine). Brian is easy going and flexible when it comes to our home which makes him, for the most part, super easy to live with. We have both grown and shifted over the past ten years in how we organize our home and how we like to run our home so today I am sharing a bit on organizing. It is what works for my opposite and I to make a happy home.

 Closets

We use bins to store almost everything. I was a teacher before I had The Brothers and a lot of the blue Ikea bins are from my classroom (I only had one for 4 months) and they work for our budget and personalities. I LOVE my simple and basic label maker to designate bins for purposes. That way we can find what we need from the bottom to the top of a closet or cabinet. Every closet we have you will find large amount of labeled blue bins.

Shane's closet

laundry room

Toys

For toys we stained wooden crates that I purchased from Lowes. We used to have baskets but they did not hold up from toddlers flipping them over and kept braking. I also like the size of the crates and that they blend in and are pleasing to the eye compared to our blue bin system in the closets. My only complaint is that they are a bit hard and sharp so there have been a few bumps and scrapes with these but I tend to keep them tucked away and only get a few out at a time so, for me, they work.

Pantry

Our pantry I one day dream of purchasing beautiful baskets or storage containers but for now I have  been using these ones from Target for about 6 years. I like keeping everything together to make my pantry easy to organize and use. All my oils and vinegar are together. I have a snack bin where I keep  healthy items granola bars, roasted nuts, and apple sauce. Canned fruit and vegetables get a bin and rice and pasta have a bin. I have a few others in there too but it keep items grouped. This also makes it easy for when Brian or anyone helps put groceries away or is cooking in my home. Everyone can easily read. My entire kitchen is structured with grouping. My spices are together, my cooking supplies, my baking supplies, storage, and prep supplies all live together in a little area.

pantry

pantry bins

spice drawer

Schedule

Our calendar is a work in progress. The past few years we had a wall calendar and used color coordinating highlighters to mark different family members events. My husband has an ever changing schedule so we have to have a family calendar. However, this year, in order to clean things up we are trying a little one on the office desk and I am making an effort to utilize our cell phones which have a linked calendar. So far, as with any new system, it is not running quite as smoothly but I have high hopes we will get into the swing of it and make it work. We also try and keep a consistent routine
with our schedule. For example, Sunday is church, doctor (chiropractor, massage, dentist, pediatrician, ect.) appointments we try and make for Tuesdays, and I try and make play dates on Wednesdays or Friday to keep things running a bit more fluidly. We can't always live by this but we make an effort. 

Important Documents 

The last organization area I wanted to share was our finance system. When Brian and I got married I was in charge of organizing and filing the bills, paper work, or important documents and Brian took over the bills and budget. We utilize Mint.come to keep our budget and it is WONDERFUL. Brian and I both can instantly look on our phone and know how much we have left in household, groceries, family fun, charity and donations, ect. It helps us communicate and not over spend. We also use a binder system for our paper work that we store in a fireproof safe in the garage. We have a binder for each person in our family, including our dog, where their health records and other important documents such as birth certificates and social security cards are stored. We have other binders for insurance, retirement, house documents, work (like a running resume with certificates and training completion paper work), car information, taxes, ect. It has worked so well for us to both be able to grab a binder that is clearly labeled and organized when we are looking for a warranty or checking when we last had the gutters cleaned out.

These are the areas that we keep a lot of structure and organization to. The rest I have let go of. When I married Brian I had color coordinated pens, closet sections, and chore charts. I kept excel spread sheets of expatriation dates and carried a HUGE planner with every detail but now we have simplified to a system that works for an organization lover and a easy going laid back personality. Salt and pepper really do go well together and we do it in a well organized, but not to organized, home. 

Today I am linking up with Andrea from

Momfessionals for her Show and Tell series on organization today. You can check out her page for lots of organization ideas and tips!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star 1st Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Keith's first birthday. I try and do a little theme for my kids party and for Keith we picked a Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star birthday party. It was so simple and whimsical. We had several friends and family members come and wish our little man a happy birthday and enjoyed celebrating with them. 

On Saturday, Keith's actual birthday, I decorated our chandelier with about two dozen gold and silver stars that hung from twine. I used a three inch star shape cookie cutter traced onto card stock paper and cut them out. Next, I used a screw hole punch to make a small hole in each star and looped the twine through and tied a bow around the chandelier. I liked how the double twine made a falling star effect and was thrilled how this turned out. 

We made Keith a homemade card and some muffins for breakfast. 

Saturday night I made a white chocolate frosted lemon cake with raspberry preserves. I assembled and frosted the cake Sunday morning and topped it with more stars glued onto skewers. 

More stars were on the mirror by our dinning room table and I wrote in marker happy birthday Keith. If you look close at the reflection you can see I hung stars from the window as well. We had three stars dangling from all the windows at various lengths.

On the table I had some cucumber water with mason jars for glasses. I ordered paper straws with gold stripes and stars. On the left you can see little cupcake paper liners that are gold with white dots and I filled them with raisins and corn nuts for a quick snack. On the far side of the table I had gold paper plates and napkins.

For food, which I completely forgot to photograph, we had cheese, nuts, olives, fruit, veggies, hummus, ranch dip, and some crackers. The party was at three thirty so I did water and coffee along with light snacks. My mom was so helpful in providing most of the food and I just had to clean and make the cake and drinks. 

A little tip when using a table cloth with little ones: use ribbon or twine to tie your tablecloth down. It only took one second for Shane to pull a table runner down and shatter the vase that was on it all around him last year. Now I always tie anything down or don't use anything at all. 

For party favors I went to Whole Foods and purchased star fruit snacks that are made with natural dye such as beet juice and natural sweeteners and ingredients. I sorted the colors out and used cupcake liners to hold the party favors then wrapped each of them in cellophane and tied with more twine. 

Lastly, I made a little Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star picture and placed it in a frame near the party favors and set them up on the piano which is right by my front door.

Keith's first birthday was so special. We enjoyed cake, coffee, snacks, and fellowship. The kids enjoyed playing together and all the adults talked and took pictures. It was such as special day!

Friday Favorites: Birthday Gifts for Babies and Toddlers

Happy Friday and Happy Birthday!

I have birthdays on the brain! My sweet Keith turns one tomorrow then, in two more weeks, my spirited and adventurous Shane turns three. Needless to say I am in party planning mode and look forward to sharing how we celebrated their birthdays with you next week. However, this week I have been on the hunt for birthday gifts for The Brothers and I am sharing some of my favorite toys for The Brothers today. This list is comprised of a few toys The Brothers already have and a few that they are getting this month from myself or family. I hope you enjoy seeing what my kids are into these days! 

Squigz

I ended up getting these for Shane as a Christmas gift and considered adding to his collection for his birthday. Shane loves these. They are made of silicone so I don't worry about Keith sticking them in his mouth. They have held up great and they really do stick to just about anything! A favorite around here is sticking them to the window or onto your forehead and pretending to be a rhinoceros. They area also awesome to build with. Keith and Shane enjoy these and I see them playing with them for years to come.

Clock

Shane is really into numbers and clocks right now so this one sparked my interest. I like that it is made out of wood, includes shapes, numbers, and colors along with a teaching tool to tell time. So many of my students struggled with telling analogue time so I want to start exposing Shane to clocks now so he can excel at school.

Reusable Stickers

Stickers seem magical to kids. I am not sure if they like the sticky texture, the fact that they can peel a picture off of paper, or that you get them as a reward most often but my kids and any kid I have ever met loves stickers. Shane and Keith can easily go through a sheet of 100 stickers in about 10 minutes because they just peel and stick so this packet of reusable stickers made out of vinyl is wonderful. We were given on pack as a gift for Shane's second birthday and he uses them all the time and I have considered getting them again. You can even stick the to the window for a larger and more lavish working space. 

Tobbles Neo

These are perfect for my sweet little one year old. I remembered reading that they had won some award and these are awesome. The weight on the bottom and the unique shape make stacking so easy. Keith got these from my Grandparents for Christmas and even Brian and I enjoy stacking them. These are great to develop hand eye coordination and practice stacking and if the rest of us are playing with them too I know they will get a lot of use!

Prince Lionheart Wheely Bug

I don't know that I could have justified the price of this with just Shane. We live in Washington and it rains quite a bit. However, now that Shane is gong to be riding a little bike this summer I wanted to explore the idea of something for Keith and these little Wheely Bugs got great reviews. This is the only toy I have not seen in person yet but it has great reviews from Amazon and it is what we got Keith for his first birthday!

Train Set

The Brother's Grandma got this set for Shane his first Christmas and she keeps on adding to it for them. I semi cringe at the price of train sets but they are so worth the money knowing how much it gets used. All of us love playing with this set and it has held up so well from dropping, banging, and dumping onto the floor. I like that it has a bunch of little accessories so The Brothers can pretend play. Shane loves the signs and has a big fascination with them now. 

Vacuum

Kids are wired to learn from their surroundings. They mimic what they see and I guess Shane saw me cleaning a lot because all he wanted last year was a broom and a vacuum. This was his Christmas gift from Brian and I last year and he still plays with it. We have tons of videos of him vacuuming next to me when it is time to clean the house and I love that he has his own. Keith likes this toy already too and it goes on sale a lot from PB Kids!

Musical Instruments

We were given these for Shane's first birthday and they still get regular use! I like them because they are not overly loud and after two years are in great condition. We were also given plastic set that year that has not held up well so I am very partial to this set. The price point is great and the it is so cute. 

I am linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals today! You can check out her Friday Favorite link up on her page and her cute family. She is a mom, teacher, and Christian who I love reading about because of her creative ideas and her drive to do so much!