Another new system...

Seems like these past few months have been full of trying to find new ways to do things to help our house run more smoothly. Most of them have been implemented to help with parenting Peyton and consequently they are used with Graham. Parenting a strong willed child is a challenge.....parenting by itself is a challenge. I feel like with Peyton I am constantly having to be on top of things, consistent and looking for ways to help us achieve success as opposed to always entering into power struggles. I so very much want and desire that her strong will stays intact and that she grows up to be independent, strong willed and a force but that I have given her the tools to still be successful in relationships and in life. 

Anyways....after a couple of rough mornings getting her ready and off to school I knew I needed to come up with a better system. My goals were to give her the power and responsibility to do things on her own while still making sure that there was a guide/system to get the things done I needed her to do. So, I created a morning and evening checklist for her that is hanging up in her room. This gives her the steps to follow and also the responsibility and ownership to work through them on her own. 

 

She responded really well to them, was excited and worked through them in the morning and evening. She often even has Graham following her and doing everything in the morning routine which certainly helps me. 

Everything was going great for a couple of days and then I encountered the problem of getting her started on the checklist and we had a ROUGH morning getting her to school. She is always pretty slow in the mornings getting going and always very particular about what she wears...this itches, this hurts, the sleeves are too tight....which can lead to rushed mornings and I get so frustrated. So, after another morning of feeling rushed, and losing my patience which leads to me yelling and her getting upset, I sat down and try to brainstorm what was our problem. The major issue was that we were not leaving ourselves enough time and that I felt that I was constantly nagging her to get started. 

So, I came up with the clock.....

 

The clock is in our playroom, next to the TV. It has the three tags next to the times for when key things should be starting. I kept the start times on the hour to make it easier. I contemplated getting a digital clock but I figured this would help in exposing her to telling time and could serve two purposes and I had this sitting around and didn't want to buy a new clock. The three activities are the morning routine, evening routine and then a TV off time in the afternoon which is designed to help her prepare for evening activities without a hassle.

I explained it to her and she was somewhat receptive but not impressed that I found another "rule" or system to help guide us. And this morning we started with the morning routine. I also went ahead and set the timer 15 minutes before to help her start looking at the time. I told her when the timer went off to look at the clock and that the small hand would be at 7 which meant to start the morning routine. I left her to finish her breakfast and cartoons to finish the dishes. The timer went off and she didn't move, I came in and reminded her that the timer went off and offered the solution to pause the cartoon so if she was done her routine quickly enough she could finish it and so she agreed and off she went. She did GREAT! There was no whining, she did it on her own and quickly and it was so much smoother than normal. Certainly a big help. I did the same thing in the afternoon with setting the timer 15 minutes before to help her transition and then again in the evening and it went really well. 

I know we will still have some rough days but I am hoping this is something that can give her power/ownership and help guide us through those times better. I certainly do not have this figured out in any way BUT I do always want to share things that work and don't for us in hopes of helping another parent out there. I certainly do not come up with all of this on my own and am so thankful for the blogs, Pinterest boards and friends who help me find solutions for my parenting techniques! 

Surfs Up Party!

Graham celebrated his birthday all day on Friday! We started with waffles and a cupcake in the morning and he opened his presents from us and then we had his birthday party that afternoon. 

We had a Surfing/Beach birthday party for him! One of his first words was "beach" and he LOVES the beach! And considering we live down the street from one we have spent tons of time there over his first year. So, my plan was to have a fun/casual BBQ at the beach....then I started planning more and more and realized we should have an indoor back up space in case of the weather so we moved it to our Yacht Club/private beach area on camp. And then moved it inside for sure when we were hit with a cool front/wind storms over the weekend. I was pretty bummed we were not going to be able to be outside and let the kids just play in the water and sand and have to have more traditional/indoor birthday party but I had no other option and it all worked out.

View of the room with all the decorations, minus the cake.
 

Surfboards I made out of foam core by a food area

Favor bags filled with shark squirt guns, sunglasses and some gummy bears

Snack area, complete with a watermelon carved like a shark

Tables with decorations. I spray painted containers and filled with sand for some and also did some pictures of Graham from a beach session I did with him in fun colored frames from Ikea

Gold fish in little bags and shark fruit snack at the Snack Shack table

Flip flop nutter butters

Cupcakes with graham cracker/brown sugar aka sand on top and umbrellas

Amazing cake that was as delicious as it looks, made by my friend Lindsey Perry

My friend Lindsey is a self taught cake decorator and is so talented! Last year she had just had her youngest and there was no way I was going to ask her about making a cake for Graham but this year it all worked out! I send her some pictures of ones we liked and she helped pull them together into one. It was perfect! And it was delicious as well! Such a talented friend!

 

Since my original plan was to just use the beach and sand as entertainment, I had to come up with some games/activities in the few days before. We had a fishing game with fish cut outs that had paperclips on them and homemade fishing poles. It was fun and kept them entertained enough! And we had a coloring sheet as well as a make your own "Surf Shell" necklace out of fruit loops which provided a snack and entertainment.

Fishing game

Coloring activity and making surf shell necklaces out of fruit loops

We had so much fun celebrating with friends. Graham is so loved and so blessed to have so many friends and families that love on him. He was one very happy and celebrated little guy. We just had a great time catching up and spending time with everyone!

Lighting the candles

The birthday boy!

Graham was so excited about the party and then all the kids did play outside for a little bit before getting too cold. There was so much going on that we didn't get to presents at his party! My plan was to open when we got home but we had some friends over for pizza and more celebrating and he was so tired he just went to bed! The next day though we took our time and got to open everything throughout the day. It was actually kind of nice to be able to explain who got him what, play with it for awhile and then come back and open something else. He was a very spoiled little guy and has tons of new toys to play with!

A truly great day of celebrating our little guy! 

Happy Birthday Graham!

Happy Second Birthday to our sweet boy....Graham Ryerson!

It really feels like yesterday that we were celebrating his first birthday...time goes by too fast :( I feel like the second birthday is harder for me to accept than the first birthday. They change so much during those first two years and last year he still felt like my baby and now he is a little boy. I am really having a hard time with this birthday!

But it is time to celebrate what a tremendous blessing Graham is to our family! And recap the year so I can remember this time in his life when I finally get around to doing a baby book!

Graham is such a sweet, sweet boy with a huge heart. He is in LOVE with babies....he loves baby dolls, real babies and all his friends who are a year younger than him. He is so sweet with them and wants to share with them and take care of them. Graham you are so incredibly nurturing and I love seeing how you light up when you see a baby and how much you want to care for them and love on them. So sweet.

Graham is super easy going and so easy to move from one activity to another, change routines and just goes with the flow. He is easy to discipline and most of the time responds appropriately with a warning. He rarely goes to time out and it is interesting to watch how much more it affects him and how once he has had to go to timeout he won't make an appearance there for several days.

I am amazed at how much he talks and tries new words. I really believe that having an older sister who talks a whole lot and wanting to be involved with her and her friends, he just picked it up. I certainly was not very good about working with him and teaching him like I did with Peyton. I guess he figured that he might as well figure this out in order to keep up and be heard.

Graham ADORES his sister! He loves her, her friends and is constantly wanting to be just like Peyton. He loves picking her up from school and is so excited to see her in the afternoons. He cheers for her at soccer, asks if she wants a snack and they truly are the best of friends. I love the relationship forming between them and pray daily that it continues and that despite the gender difference that they find common things to continue to bond over. It is amazing to watch also how much Peyton loves on and cares for Graham. The other day he fell outside and skinned his knee and she brought him inside and helped him pick out a band aid and she put it on him all the while saying comforting and encouraging words and when I told her thank you for doing all of that she just replied, "well, a band aid always makes me feel better." So sweet to watch them together.

Here they are playing veterinarian and puppy dog... 

Graham loves trains, cars, dinosaurs, trucks and all things boy! His favorite game in the morning is to put all the pillows off my bed in front of a chair and jump off. He loves to pretend to be a dinosaur when we walk Peyton to school and scare all the birds. Everything is a sword, weapon or has super powers. So much fun to have a boy around!

This past year has been so much fun with Graham! He is such an easy going fun little boy and completes our family in so many ways. Lots of fun and we are really looking forward to the year ahead and watching him grow! So truly blessed!

Mommy's New Toys...

After nearly two years renting the Aramco washer and dryers which for lack of a better word are a piece of crap....I got new washer and dryers :)

The Aramco ones were old school top loading and with the water here being awful I was constantly getting bleach marks in my darks and my whites being not white. I would have to let the machine fill with water and then add my clothes which resulted in many times forgetting because I ended up doing something else and then having to wait for the water to drain and start again. It took forever!

So, when John asked me one day what were some of the top things that were irritating me about here that could be fixed....the washing machine and dryer was at the top of my list. Thankfully there was a family on camp looking to move and sell their front loading ones and so we got them for a great deal and I am one happy mommy to have cleaner feeling clothes and no more ruined clothes! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Peyton was so excited about Valentines this year. She remembered everything about it from the year before and was really looking forward to her party at school. About a week before we started working on making her Valentines and she had so much fun. Peyton LOVES crafts, art projects and we do something arts and crafts almost every day. I had brought some heart stickers and other stamps from the States back with us (so thankful that Michaels was putting it out on the last few days we were there) and we set up the dining room table as command central. She made a couple a day and by the time the party came around we had made 19 Valentines! She was so proud (and so was I) of all the cards she made!

The day of the party she dressed up in her heart shirt and I surprised her with a valentines bow and bracelet I found at Gymboree. She was so surprised and so thankful which was so cute!

They had a great party at school and she was loaded down with goodies during the bike ride home. And of course she insisted on carrying all of it herself! 

On the actual Valentines Day, John made everyone heart shaped pancakes and gave the kids gifts and a note. Graham got a bubble gun and Peyton a teddy bear. And then we were able to run errands go for lunch just the two of us which was so much fun and less stressful :) A great Valentines Day with all my loves!

Our Playroom Remodel

Something that has been updated/changed since the New Year was our playroom! And by far it is my most favorite thing that has been changed and updated! It was defiantly a spur of the moment idea that quickly grew and I love what materialized at the end of it!

Here is how it all started....

When we got back from the States, I started noticing that the kids were not playing with their toys very much. The TV was becoming a constant problem and they were constantly wanting it on which is why the TV time chart came into existence. But beyond that I was surprised that they were not playing with toys that they hadn't seen in a month. And then when Peyton had friends over they too were not finding toys/spaces to play. So, I thought that maybe they needed new/different toys which I was not all that excited about since I didn't know where I would put new toys. And yes, I know when you look at the after pictures you will wonder why my kids have so many toys....my answer.....spend April-October in Saudi and you try to come up with ways to entertain kids that don't involve constant TV....you need toys! Anyways.... I started researching age appropriate toys and quickly realized that they had most of them. Hmmm....now what. So I started wondering if the space was not conducive to a good play environment.  

So I started researching playroom design and quickly realized that our playroom was designed all around the TV and not for play. This is what it looked like before from when I did my Saudi Home Tour blog post last year.

  
We had the room split down the middle with a TV area that we designed to be a second adult hangout area as well and then the toy area on the other side. We had two large side tables and then these cube ottomans to store toys and act as a coffee table. Not too bad but when I started thinking about it the whole room was centered around the TV, there were more seating areas for TV instead of play areas and too much furniture in there. 

So I started to plan.....

I made a new floor plan/arrangement, moved the TV armoire into Peyton's room for storage, the side tables into the garage for storage and the ottomans into the entry for a bench to sit on when you put your shoes on and the large chair into the master bedroom and bringing in a smaller chair. And then I made my Ikea shopping list which thankfully wasn't too long and even better was able to be completly funded (including a couple new toys) by money I made during some recent photography sessions! It was a pretty awesome feeling to be able to come up with the plan, the list and purchase it all with money I earned and not wonder if we could add it to the already discussed monthly budget....yeah for working!

And this is what we have NOW.....

Biggest changes were removing unnecessary furniture. We don't need a coffee table, or side tables in a playroom and we didn't need the other large chair in there. Also a big change was the TV being put on a shelving unit and taking all of the puzzles, games etc that were high in the armoire and putitng them in more accessible baskets which encourage them to use them more. I put several games on the shelf above the TV to keep pieces from disappearing! I also have plastic bins filled with activities that I have found online for us to play with when we are bored and since the pieces are already together it is quick and easy. 

I have also tried to create more stations. I have the kitchen station with all the kitchen toys near it. Graham is getting a BBQ grill set for his birthday which will go next to the kitchen :) It already has its own spot waiting for it :)

A reading corner with the tent close by (we always had the tent but never had enough space to put it in the playroom permanently but by removing furniture created so much open space). The book shelves were made from painted Ikea spice racks that were only a couple of dollars a piece. I have not put the art supplies in the playroom since Graham still needs supervision and they are in a good location in the kitchen (right off the playroom) pantry in an easy to access shelf/system.

 

I bought a car play rug to create a play space near the trucks and created that more of "boys" toys with cars, trucks, tools and some of the still remaining "baby" toys for when friends come over and then another area for "girls" toys such as baby dolls, My Little Ponies and the few barbie dolls that we have that never get played with until other girls come over. Even though we have the two gender areas..... at our house everyone plays with everything and it is more for my organization and for when friends come over :)

We did buy a train table later which took up some play space but is so worth it. Graham plays with it constantly and when we saw one in a store here for a reasonable price we decided to jump on it as we have not seen a train table here since we moved here two years ago! It was an early birthday present. 

I added in some new bright pillows and curtains and some new artwork that I ordered off of Etsy and printed here to make it more play/kid centered and because I wanted to add some cute artwork in there :)





















Now our playroom it is just a space centered around play with many distinct play areas and all the days are easy to access. I am still working on picture labels for all the bins and just need to find somewhere to laminate them and then I will velcro them on everything to help kids find toys and aid in clean up.

We are certainly so blessed to have a huge and separate play room for the kids and I am so thankful that I was able to create a better space for them to play in...it has certainly made my days much easier!

Soccer Season

The middle of January was the start of soccer season. There are four teams in Division 1 (4-5 year olds) and Peyton's team is called Marseille. There are six boys and two girls on her team. John is acting as a Assistant Coach and having fun at practice and the games and starting his daddy duties acting as a coach. They practice once a week and have a game every Thursday (our Saturday here in Saudi). So far her team has won all of their games and tied one of them.

I got pretty teary eyed the first time she put on her uniform. I can't believe I have a child in an organized team sport! She looks so grown up :(

What I am proud of the most with Peyton playing soccer is how much she hangs with the boys. She is SO TOUGH! The first game she got pushed and I was so nervous that she would melt down. Instead she got right back up and went after the ball. Such a tough cookie and not afraid to push back at times or give the boys a lecture on the rules :) She really does such a good job of going after the ball, kicking it out toward the goal. 

She also is so good at going out there when she is tired and I have seen her fitness improve so much since the first game. The first game she barely played because she was so tired and now she is out there a large part of the game. Such a hard worker! 

Since she was the one who was begging to sign up for soccer, I have been a little surprised that we have such a battle to get her there especially on practice days. She has fun at the games but I don't think she will be wanting to do this again next year. 

Graham LOVES going to her games to watch her. He is her best and loudest cheerleader and it warms my heart! He is constantly cheering her on, telling her to run, kick and go and claps for her. It is so absolutely adorable. I have a video of her playing and just writing about Graham reminds me that I should video him cheering for her. He is also a pretty good soccer player already and his kicks are actually stronger than Peyton so maybe that will be his thing. Either way, Thursday game days have been a blast watching Peyton and seeing her try new things and watching Graham and his support for his sister!