Tough

This girl amazes me.

Last Thursday I came home to find out she had fallen on a sewing needle that (I) had left on the ground. She is normally so busy, something was clearly wrong when Lily wouldn't move or put weight on her leg. So, Matt took her to urgent care where X-Ray confirmed that she did indeed have a sliver of needle in her thigh. They didn't have the tools to remove the needle, so they sent her home and told us to take her in to our clinic in the morning.

In the morning, we called the clinic who advised we take her to the ER (thanks, we could have done that the night before). And so our adventure began. The nice resident tried to remove the needle in the ER, but couldn't (really, someone needs to invent a magnetic tool for this type of thing), so we waited for her to come out of sedation in the ER so she could get scheduled for the OR and taken up to have the procedure done there.

Fortunately, the surgeon was amazing, and Lily was even able to come home that night. Saturday and Sunday she spent a lot of down time (and I put up the Christmas tree and decorations to cheer her up). By Monday, she was full speed ahead. I had to remind her multiple time, "Don't jump." "Don't jump off the couch." "Don't jump on Dad." "No you may not go down the stairs by yourself."

But she has a system now and she does everything herself. Except take on and off her right shoe.

Oh Lily

I went to bed at 8 tonight and woke at 11 to the gleeful sound of Lily playing in the bathroom sink (Matt had gone to play basketball). After putting her back in bed, I soon discovered that her escapades extended beyond the upstairs bathroom. Downstairs I found all the lights on and the TV playing Dora. She had found and eaten half a box of ice cream sandwiches, and there was a half-eaten ice cream sandwich smushed in the carpet in the family room. She found, dumped out, and played in a box of graham cracker crumbs.

When Matt got home, I said, "Good call on putting the latch on the front door. She could have escaped." To which he responded, "I didn't." So, I guess Lily took the initiative to safely lock herself in the house. (Scary).
We also then went looking for Jimmer to make sure he was still alive and well. Lily had let herself into the garage, got out the outside toys, and graffiti-ed the floor and walls with colored chalk, we found another half-eaten ice cream sandwich on the garage floor.

That girl.

How to Tell When Your Kids Are Up to No Good

A Bug's Life

We celebrated the girls' birthday with a Bug Party!

There was a Build-A-Bug Station with Bug/Critter Face Painting:

(Lily wanted hers washed off RIGHT AWAY):

And a Dig-For-Bugs Station:

A Beehive Cake (complete with nice bees):

And after a quick costume change:

Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the girls:

Even Uncle Matthew came to help us celebrate:

What a fun birthday celebration!!

Nice Bees

Yesterday I was getting Ally's backpack ready for school and I noticed an sandwich bag filled with little flowers. It made me smile - that girl is always collecting bugs and flowers - so I took it over to where she was eating her snack and said, "Did you pick these at recess?" She grinned. "They're for the bees." "The bees?" To which Matt chimed in, "Yeah, she put bees in her backpack!" "Ally! You have to be careful the bees will sting you." "Mom, these are nice bees."

Apparently she's been collecting these little bees - she had four of them in her backpack, even better she had one in her pocket in class and the teacher made her go put it in her backpack (I wonder if she didn't realize it wasn't alive/real). On the way home from school, she let one out while Matt was driving, he said something to the effect of "there's a bee in the car!" and she said, "there's three more in here!" That crazy kid had managed to collect four live bees without getting stuck. As Lacey said, she's apparently the Bee Whisperer.

Just a Relaxing Day on the Lake

Mother's Day Weekend

My girls love critters. They did not get this from me.

Can't Be Trusted

Matt and I have been playing with the idea of upgrading our home - and *perhaps* expanding our brood in the near future. It seems like houses in our price range are selling pretty quickly, so we (read: Matt) have been working like crazy to get this house fixed up purdy and ready to sell. We listed the house yesterday and today we had our first showing...we weren't expecting it to happen that quickly. So we cleaned like mad to put the finishing touches on it and I was charged to take the girls out for the afternoon. Recalling Ally's excitement at seeing ducks on our way to church this morning, I thought it would be a great idea to take them to Shovelers Sink to feed the ducks. Well, it's not a great place for duck feeding...there's no place close to park, but we parked anyway and made the hike down to the "Sink" with our loaf of bread in hand. About 3 or 4 yards away from the edge of the water, the trail abruptly ended and we were wading through shoulder high reeds...not bad for me, but difficult for Ally and especially Lily to maneuver. But warriors, we persevered! We made it to the water's edge and began throwing our bread pieces into water. Not to the ducks, mind you. Our barrage through the reeds had already scared them away. It was then that Lily tripped and took a plunge into the marsh. She landed in water about up to her mid-calf, but the momentum of her trip propelled her forward enough that the ended up on her hands and knees. And the water was COLD. And green. Gross. Undeterred, we drove the car around to the other side of Shovelers Sink where it looked like we might be able to get closer to the ducks. This time, about half way down to the water, Ally informed me that she had to go to the bathroom. Bad. I suggested that under the cover of all these tall reeds, she should just pull down her pants and go. Bless her heart, she tried, but still managed to get it all over herself. So when Matt called to say that we could come home, I asked him to please have a change of clothes for both girls ready. He says I can't be trusted. These are not the ducks we saw today (we didn't get that close) but this was taken at Shovelers Sink:

Butterflies

It was a paint your face like a butterfly kind of day.

Once there was a Snowman...

Our version of the melted Snowman cookies:


One that Ally made:

Lily approved:

Valentine's Day

The double chocolate raspberry pavlova I made for my valentine:


My masked valentines - so sneaky!

Logorrhoea

I think that Lily wakes up in the morning and just starts spouting off all the words she knows...Matt likes to knock on her door when he hears her awake and she'll call, "Come in!" Followed by, "Hi Daddy!. Shirt. Pants. Ally. Lily. Mommy?" My least favorite thing she's started to say is, "Don't want to."

Nathan reminded me the other day that Ally used to like to talk to herself at night when we'd put her to bed. We'd tell her it was time for bed and "no more talking." To which she'd respond, "How 'bout talk 5 minutes?" "Okay, you can talk for 5 minutes."

Today we played in the snow - an event I never thought this girl would be bragging about, but I built my first snowman ever (that I can remember) and took the girls sledding. It ended a little abruptly when another sled collided with an unsuspecting Lily, who then face-planted into a pile of snow. She came up face and mouth full of snow - but it took a few seconds for her to actually start crying - I think her face was too frozen.

Then it was off to take Ally to her big surprise - Beauty and the Beast. She loved it and got to meet Belle and Gaston and Mrs. Potts at the end.

As I'm writing this, I can hear Matt putting the girls to bed and reminding them there's to be, "no talking", but I think the girls should have plenty to talk to each other about tonight :)