Girls Weekend

I "woke up" this morning at about 8:30 to the delightful sound of my girls quarreling over what show to watch. (Woke up is in quotes because I didn't actually get any sleep last night, but that was the time I realized both girls were up so I should be too).

Rewind a bit to about 11 PM when one of my girls had an accident in the night. Mom gets up and starts some laundry, helps said girl get back to sleep. I can't sleep, though, because I'm home alone (since when do I have trouble sleeping alone?? Oh right, since forever...)

We make it through the epic battle of "SpongeBob vs. Pingu" (both shows equally disliked by me) and start Day 2 of our All Girls Weekend.

It's cool, though. Day 1 started a little rocky as well. I promised Matt I would be home early so he could leave in plenty of time for the airport and I could take Ally to karate. And I even left my 4 o'clock meeting early so I could! But then I forgot that I parked in the other parking lot (after walking to my normal spot) and had to add 10 minutes of walking time to my good intentions. So I was home earlier than usual, but not as early as I had planned.
Not a problem! Ally gets to karate on time, Lily and I have some quality hang time while we watch karate and then we scurry home because it's our night for the babysitting swap. Ally really looks forward to the babysitting swap so it's going to be a good night.

6:15 pm
No kids have arrived. Ally keeps asking when the kids are coming. Mom sends a text to the ladies whose number she has (I'm not sure why I keep switching to third person...like I said, I didn't sleep last night) and finds out they all have other plans. Johnny-on-the-Spot, I coordinate one of the best make-up/tea parties ever held at our house. It was nostalgic having A & L put every barrette we own in my hair (we used to do the same to my Mom while she read us Charlotte's Web. I, however, will be smart enough not to ever let my daughters near me with a curling iron. My mom learned that the hard way).

So now we're back to Day 2 and we have a pretty full agenda today. First, the girls both have their chore money to spend, and A has her heart set on finding a crystal (after learning the crystal she thought she found on the playground was, in fact, salt). I've offered to take them to library and A mentioned last night she wanted her hair cut shorter. We get out the door around 11 and head for World of Variety, where we are able to procure a crystal for A and some loot for L. (I bought yarn, in case you were curious). Then, we are off to the library. OH, and I forgot to mention, today we are going out diaper free. L is wearing big girl panties!
So, after the library, we head to the salon to get A's hair cut. Even though walk-ins are welcome, they have nothing available until 4:40 (it's 12:40 now). We are not deterred! I graciously accept their counter-offer and we head to Epic, first stopping at St. Vincent's thrift shop to see if I can buy a cheap entertainment center to convert into a play kitchen. I don't find anything, but it turns out that St. Vincent's is the best place for a 3 and 6 year old to spend their life savings...you want those bracelets - 60 cents! This barbie? $1.40! They were in Heaven.

After St. Vincent's, we went over to Epic. My girls always say they want to go to Mommy's work and it really is a fun place to just walk around - - for free! Ally really wanted to see the snake - - which is located outside the buildings on the opposite campus, but we had a lot of time to kill, so why not? Everything is connect by tunnels or land bridges, but those connects are sometimes, er, inconvenient with small children. You end up going up and down a lot of stairs or taking the elevators and having girls throw punches to see who gets to press the button this time.

So picture this - - we've probably been walking around for 30 minutes+ and we're just one building away from the giant snake. The only problem is using the indoor route would require another set of stairs. I tell the girls we're just going to hurry outside, it's really not that far. I'm not quite sure what happened next, but I start boldly making my way when I hear a smack and L screaming. I turned around and she is on the ground and her face is covered in blood. I scooped her up and ran back into the building we just came from, into the nearest restroom. I'm panicking wondering if she knocked out a tooth?! (It turned out to be just a nose bleed) and not 5 minutes after this happened, I get a call from Matt checking in on things.

After talking with Daddy, L calms down a bit and we are *finally* arrive at the snake. The girls were champs! Towards the end, we had a couple of requested breaks, as seen here:

And we still had time to eat at McDonald's before A's haircut. And L got her first haircut too! Came home, played with firetrucks and made lists for the fun things we want to do tomorrow. The girls got to Facetime with their daddy before bed AND I was able to talk to the girls about tithing and also "What is the Bible?" during the course of the day while also managing to work in several loads of laundry.

The day ended with Snuggle Requests. What more could you ask for?

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 :)

Time Out

Lily is, um, learning, how to be gentle with Jimmer. It's a slow learning process. She just loves to pick him up, give him choke holds, squeeze him till he squeals...poor Jimmer.

Today Lily was holding him, and I try to praise when she's holding him well, so I told her she was doing a good job. Then he started to squirm. "Oh, Lily dear...if he wants to go play, let him." Followed by, "Lily, if he wants to go, let him go." And a more forceful, "Lily, let him GO!" At which point she did drop him, pointed in his direction as he darted off, "Go! Go! Time Out!!"

Hmm...I'm not sure if she was putting Jimmer in timeout or if she was preemptively putting herself in timeout...

Jimmer

This year, Santa brought the girls a kitty. Ally insisted that it was a girl kitty, but no amount of arguing can change that, and we were finally able to convince her otherwise. She wanted to name the kitty Lola, but we suggested that might offend his manhood. I mean, we are going to remove his manhood shortly, the least we can do is give him a manly name. The Uncles suggested Jimmer, and she eagerly agreed. Meet Jimmer, the newest addition to our clan:



I video-taped the girls opening up the kitty present, but it was not at all what I expected. We brought the box in last and told them Santa had left the present in the wrong room. I expected they would squeal and shriek, but they were more-so mesmerized by this cute little creature. Not a word, just silent, content concentration as they took turns picking him up.

Little Lily elf.

Grandma and Grandpa gave the girls cowgirl hats, an instant hit:


And mom (me) made the girls capes - because the best gifts are made by mom with love:

Here is Lily hugging her cape

Ally showing off her cape.

Yeehaw!

Surprise! Surprise!

I haven't yet blogged about my 30th birthday, and it was a dooo-sie, so forgive if blogger posts this out of order.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to travel to New York for the first time. I was smitten...I came home and told Matt I knew what I wanted for my birthday. I wanted a night on the town, something trendy and reminiscent of New York, I wanted to get "Gaga-fied", and I wanted a limo (I mean, I was turning 30). He was a little offended, I think, because he really likes to take charge and plan the events, so I otherwise let him do all the planning. I was told not to check his email and not to check the budget and I was totally OK with that. I took that Friday off of work so I could go have lunch with Ally and have plenty of time to do my make-up (on a side note, I brought cupcakes to Ally's school since it was my birthday and her birthday is in July. Her teacher even let her wear the "summer-time" birthday crown. Incidentally, she then came home from school thinking she was now 6).

Ally in her birthday crown

Here we are getting ready to go out

"Get my shoes"

The "limo" arrived and it was actually more of a, well, van with "limo" painted on the side. I mean, it was nice inside, but not quite what I was expecting. I didn't think too much of it, and I certainly didn't say anything because I wanted to have a nice evening. We got inside and Matt said he had a surprise for me in the park, something he had "made" and I needed to be blind-folded. I was like, "Are you kidding me? I'm wearing fake eyelashes!" But we compromised and I let him drape the blind-fold over my face so I couldn't see. He walked me down off the van and unveiled...my family!!! He had arranged for all of my immediate family plus Jeff & Lindsay (his brother and his wife) to be there! And my work besties Ariel and Tracey were there, too! (Hence why we needed the larger van, and not a limo).




Here we are in the limo:

Isn't he the sweeeetest???
At Bellini's:






Afterwards, I had everyone try on the wig, even sweet baby Alana.
But the fun doesn't stop there. The next day, he said he had another surprise for me but had to make a pit stop at the church to pick up a manual for a lesson he was teaching (of which he had planted a seed a while back that the manual was being left for him there...) When our "plans" for the evening fell behind, we decided to swing by the church and pick it up. Jeff said he wanted to see our church building and I planned to stay in the car. But when Lindsay got out, too, I decided I didn't want to sit in the car and get cold. And he had arranged another surprise party, complete with karaoke, which I LOVE. (Also earlier in the day, the boys had gone "pumpkin shooting" followed by setting up for the party...)


Life is an adventure with this guy, and I'm glad we're on this ride together!