Things I've Heard (And Seen) Lately...the Moving Edition

So, things have been really crazy around here lately.  But, there have been some very funny moments.  Here are some of my favorites related to a move.

Mark: (trying to explain stepping out on faith to Aidan)  It's like stepping off a cliff and knowing that God is going to catch you (or something along these lines...I can't remember the exact analogy, but it was about a cliff).
Aidan:  Why don't you just turn around and walk away from the cliff?  (duh)


Mark:  So what do you think about moving?
Aidan:  Well, part of me thinks it could be really bad.  And, the other part of me agrees with the first part.


Aidan:  (while driving through a small town near where we are going to live)  Wow, this town is what they call a "fixer-upper."

This one has nothing to do with moving, but is still funny:
Ella:  Are the Veggie Tales real?
Me:  No, it's a cartoon.
Ella:  Well, who's singing then?
Me:  It's just people pretending to be vegetables.
Ella:  That's really weird.

We've had many misadventures while trying to rent our house.  And they all seem to involve the restroom.

For starters, we had potential renters show up an hour early!  I should have told them to come back, but we really want to get our house rented, so I said it was fine.  I had 6 kids here and we had just gotten back from swimming, so it was a little hectic.  I rushed all the kids to the car so we could get out of here quickly.  In doing this, I forgot Anna's diaper bag.  When we got to our friends house, she was in desperate need of a diaper.  "What's the worst that could happen?" someone said.  I took her soaking wet diaper off, wrapped her in a towel and headed home...surely she could make it home without incident, right?  Wrong.  She pooped.  And it was the worst poo you can imagine...of all the times to have diarrhea.  Seriously.  All over her, all over the car seat...but surprisingly very little on the towel.  You're welcome for that visual.

When we got home, the Realtor had locked our new kittens (that's a whole other story) out of the bathroom where their litter box was.  So, guess what I got to clean up.  More poop.

So, I decided to take the kittens to Arkansas so Mark could take care of them for a bit.  While we were gone, we had a showing and the Realtor let our outside cat in the house...and left her in...all weekend.  With no litter box, food or water.  So, guess what I got to clean up?  I'm really glad she was okay.  I'm not sure how much longer she could have made it without water.  :(

And one final incident...we were getting ready for a showing this week.  I noticed that the kids had left some clothes on the bathroom floor, so I asked them to put them in the hamper.  When I walked by again, they were gone.  So, naturally, I assumed the kids had picked them up.  When we got home that afternoon, I went into the kids' bathroom and guess what I found in the toilet.  Yep, the kids' clothes, a couple of diapers and 3 bath toys.  Have I mentioned that Anna has developed a fascination with toilets lately?  I hope the potential renters enjoyed that little spectacle.  And I hope the big kids learn to pick up their clothes when asked...or else they're going in the potty.

So that's been our life lately...2 more days and NO MORE showings to get ready for...alone...with 3 kids and a half dozen pets.  Hopefully, I can make it.

And one more funny thing...would you care to guess what both Aidan and Ella have been worried about lately?  Leaving friends?  Leaving church?  Leaving family...yes, but the main worry they've been talking about the last few days?  They are worried that Santa won't be able to find them in the woods.  It IS in the middle of nowhere...and there are lots of trees.  We'll have to get a spot light for Santa.

Have a good LONG weekend...and if you don't have anything to do, I know some people that could use help moving.  :)

Ella fishing in the pond

Things I've Heard Lately

Ella:  Aidan, do you like cub scouts?
Aidan:  Yeah, you should be in girl scouts.
Ella:  No
Aidan:  You get to sell cookies.  And, if you sell the most you get a prize.
Ella:  Oh!  I hope it's a machine gun.

Heaven help the girl scouts.  :-/

Anna:  Ella!!  (when they are supposed to be going to sleep)
Ella: Yes baby?
Anna:  gobbledy gobbledy blah goo gah
Ella:  Look!  Listen to me!  I know you want to play, but I am TIRED.  My legs hurt and I need to get some sleep.  You may not want to go to sleep but I do!
Anna:  Ella!!
Ella:  (Sigh)

Ella's Fake Life

Ella has a great imagination.  I've mentioned before, that I love to sit and listen to her play with her toys.  The stuff she says, cracks me up.
For instance, tonight, she was pretending that she was making donuts.  She was talking to an imaginary person about the donuts and said, "this is so romantically weird."
Romantically weird?  That's a new one...now, I will have to try to think of some other things that I can describe as "romantically weird."

While she was playing this game, she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I've found a boy I want to marry!"

I said, "You have?  Who is it?"

Ella:  "Well, in real life, I want to marry Aidan.  But in fake life, I want to marry Sun Slice."

Me:  "Wow, what an interesting name."

Ella:  "Yes, it's because he's like scissors."  (Huh?)

Me:  "Well, what is it about Sun Slice that makes you want to marry him?"

Ella:  "He eats wildly.  Just like me.  Moon Slice is nice but he eats all calmly, so I don't want to marry him."

So, there you have it.  The girl's got standards!  It's a start anyway.

On another note---you maybe, just maybe, have a strong willed, controlling child if she spends half the day telling your dog that he is panting the wrong way.  (Apparently, Ranger likes to pant with his tongue hanging out to the side of his mouth.  Ella thinks he should only pant with his tongue hanging out the front of his mouth.)  She finds it completely exasperating that we cannot get this dog to pant the right way.  Maybe he's just too romantically weird for front of the mouth panting.

Ella's Noah Complex and My Hairless Belly

Before you can fully appreciate the story I am about to tell you, I need to explain 2 things about Ella.

1.  You may already know that Ella is obsessed with animals.  She loves all animals.  What you may not know, is that Ella loves animals in pairs.  She never wants just one of an animal toy.  She has to have 2 of the same animal.  They have to have family.  Like Noah, she prefers her animals two by two, and really has a hard time if she only has one of a particular type of animal.

2.  Ella has always been somewhat of a daddy's girl.  You may remember this story from when she was younger.  She loves me for sure...it's me that she wants at bedtime or when she doesn't feel well...she loves to have "girl time."  But daddy...well, he's on a pedestal.  You're about to see why.  :)

Now for the story:

We were at the museum and Ella wanted to buy a dinosaur.  She had enough allowance to buy just one.  I carefully explained to her that if she spent all of her allowance on this one thing, she would not have any money for the rest of the month and wouldn't be able to buy anything else.  But, she really wanted it, so she bought it.  Almost immediately, she was upset that she couldn't buy two.  She pouted the rest of the time that we were at the museum, because her dinosaur was lonely and missed his friend.

The next morning, she woke up and immediately asked to go to the museum again to buy another dinosaur.  I reminded her that she was out of money and couldn't get the other dinosaur until next month.  She was very upset at this point, and this is the tirade she unleashed on me:

"You think you're so strong, but you're not.  You can't even drive the tractor and you don't have a furry belly.  You don't even have those hairs in your nose to keep you from getting germs!  Alls you can do is have babies and get snacks!"   (translation--you're not daddy!)

Seriously?  I had to walk away.  Quickly.  So she didn't see me laugh.  I have never had a harder time trying to discipline a child for being rude while desperately trying not to crack up.  Where does she get this stuff?  When Mark got home from work that day, he was very sure to point out how thankful we should all be that I do NOT have a furry belly.  On the bright side, I can get snacks like nobody's business.  :)

Ella's Rainbow-Unicorn, I mean Ocean, I mean Sea Horse Party

This year, Ella wanted a rainbows and unicorn party for her birthday.  She talked about it for months.  I tirelessly scanned Pinterest for ideas, and pinned many of them.  (You should check out my party ideas board--lots of unicorns and rainbows).  I had all of my ideas ready, and was preparing to make the invitations, when Ella informed me that she no longer wanted a unicorn/rainbow party.  She wanted a seahorse party--not an ocean party, a seahorse party.  (She's nothing if not specific).

So, I switched gears...revisited Pinterest and threw together a ocean seahorse party.  Here are some pictures:

The invite:  for the invitation, I bought plain white cards, glued a little white sand to the bottom and a cut out sea horse that I made using my mom's silhouette cutter.  I also glued on a couple of seashells.  I wrote the info by hand.  I would have loved to have had it printed nicely, but we decided on this sea horse theme only 2 weeks before her birthday---so I was working on a time crunch.

The cake.  This cake was actually pretty easy.

I made 2 9" chocolate cakes for the bottom, and 2 7" white cakes for the top.  (I didn't have a 7" cake pan, so I made 9" and used a small plate to cut around).  I made a buttercream frosting and dyed it light blue and spread this over the whole cake.  Then I used the slanted frosting tip to put the waves all around the cake.  I kept adding more food coloring to make a darker blue as I got lower on the cake.  I sprinkled brown sugar on top for sand and topped it with candy shells.  I made the shells using a candy mold that I bought at Michael's.

I wish I was better at taking food pictures.  :(

I have discovered that kids really love to eat food on a stick.  So this blow fish made out of a cantaloupe and fruit kabobs was a must.  One of Ella's friends called it a "fish"kabob.  :)

So, maybe he's a little scary.  :)

For decorations, I used a blue table cloth.  Scattered starfish that I found at Hobby Lobby on the table and made tissue paper pom-poms to hang above the table.  I loved making the pom-poms.  They were so easy and fun.  

I also served gold fish and peanut butter and "jellyfish" sandwiches.

I searched the whole town for jelly fish cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches...but with our short notice, triangle shaped sandwiches had to do.

Because I'm cheap, and did not feel like spending a fortune on little pieces of junk and candy to send home in goody bags, we made oceans in a bottle instead.  A craft, and a party favor to take home.  2 birds, 1 stone.  

I didn't get many pictures of this, because I was trying to supervise kids with sand AND water, funnels and tiny bottles around my kitchen table.  Basically, I found little plastic bottles in the sand art section of Hobby Lobby.  I also found sand there (imagine that).  I bought the bottles, white sand and tiny sea shells.  The kids used funnels to pour in the sand.  Picked out the sea shells they wanted, and topped it off with a little salt water that I tinted blue.  It was fun and cute.  

Ella and friends with their finished oceans.  They shook them up, which is why they look cloudy.

Pouring in the ocean water

And, that's all I did. Simple, right?  I could have gone crazy, planning more stuff...spending more money.  But, at the end of the day, Ella just wanted to play with her friends and open presents.  She loved it and had a great time, and I got to visit with our friends and family instead of running around leading birthday games.

It looks like Anna will be having a rainbows/unicorns party this year.  :)

Ella is Five

Ella turned 5 last week.  Wow.

This is her 5 years ago...

My beautiful first daughter.  She won our hearts and wrapped us around her dainty little fingers right from the beginning.

She is feisty.  She ALWAYS has something to say.  She makes us laugh. all. the. time.  She is opinionated and always knows exactly what she wants.  She is a force to be reckoned with.

But, she is also sensitive.  She hates to disappoint.  She cares deeply about her family and always wants to be surrounded by them.  

She loves animals.  Really loves animals.  It's all she talks about.  Most of the time, she is pretending to BE an animal.  It is always a hybrid of some sort.  Her favorites are the chipmunk-squirrel, the chicken-duck, the flamingo-penguin, and the horse-unicorn.  

She is a scrappy wrestler.  She fights like a little spider monkey.  If Mark and Aidan are wrestling, she will fling herself at them from across the room and tackle them with arms and legs flailing wildly.  

She is a great little sister.  She adores Aidan and wants to be with him all the time.  She takes an interest in what interests him.

She is also a great 2nd mommy big sister to Anna.  She watches out for her, teaches her things, helps take care of her and plays with her constantly.  

She is beautiful.  With wild blonde hair and big blue eyes, she has taken our breath away right from the beginning.  And with a big personality, and an even bigger heart, we could not be prouder of our first born daughter.  I can't believe she is already five years old. 

My Ella:

My precious 5 year old.

She is such a ham

Ella on her 5th birthday

Because I Just Realized...

...I haven't updated my blog in over a month.

Oops.

So, since life is crazy, I thought I'd share a quick list of what is going on with us.

1.  Anna is 15 months old.  She is not walking yet.  She is standing, cruising, climbing onto the couch, pushing furniture all around the room, but not walking on her own.  Aidan is convinced she is going to crawl down the aisle at her own wedding.  Has anyone else had a late walker?  I'm curious to know if this is all that unusual.

2.  She is, however, bossing everyone around already.  If you pick her up, she will point where she wants to go and say, "One, two, three, GO!"  She also loves to tell her brother and sister and the cat "No!"

3.  Ella is going to turn 5 on Saturday.  I still don't know how this is possible.  This was not cleared with me. She is alternating between excited and sad about her birthday.  She cried last night at bedtime because she does not want to turn 5.  In fact, at one point, she was sobbing, "Dear God,  Why are you making me have a birthday?!?  How can I stop it?"  She doesn't want to grow up, and she doesn't want to leave me.  She will, however, take the presents she would normally receive for having a birthday.

4. Have you seen the news about the kid that got suspended over a gun shaped pop tart?  Is that just beyond ridiculous or what?  Come on people.  Gun shaped pop tarts don't kill people.  People kill people.  (On a side note...have you ever noticed how many calories are in a pop tart??  It's crazy...so in a way, maybe pop tarts DO kill people.)

5.  Aidan and I discovered a really cool website today.  We have been studying continents in geography.  We are using Ann Voskamp's book, Explore his Earth, A Child's Geography.  At the end of every chapter, she has some outreach ideas to allow you to "reach out to his world."  Today's was a website that tells you about a different country every day and tells you how to pray for that country.  Check it out:  http://www.operationworld.org/today2

6. We are really getting into a groove with the home school thing.  At first, it was really stressful, but this semester, we have really started to figure out how to make it work best for our family.  I am so thankful that I am able to do this.  I am so excited about the education Aidan is getting, the experiences he is having and the memories we are making.

7.  I have been in a serious cleaning/remodeling/reorganizing phase lately.  I have redone our laundry room, reorganized our closet and taken a ton of stuff to goodwill.  Is it weird that I get an extreme amount of satisfaction from taking car loads of junk out of this house?  It makes me happy.  I am officially a nerd.

8. Since I started writing this post, Ella has asked me 367 questions and told me 114 facts about various animals.

9. Aidan has been working on a new art curriculum.  He LOVES it, and he's good at it.  It is such a fun thing to see.  He gets so much joy out of being creative.  I hope he chooses a job some day that will allow him to be creative.

10.  That is all I have for now.  :)  Which doesn't really deserve a place as #10 on the list...but you can't have a list of 9 things.  You just can't.

Dear Santa,

This made me smile:


Dear Santa,
     I want a medium-sized big horse that's black, and a medium-sized big horse that's brown, and a small medium-sized small horse that's an old paint.  Santa, I hope you give good presents to my baby sister that she will love and make her smile.  Santa, I love you when you give awesome presents to everyone in the townville at Christmas.  Santa, tell the boss elf to make good presents for everyone in the world that God made.  I love you Santa and the awesome presents you bring on Christmas Eve.  And, dear Santa, I know if I love you, you will love me back.  I love Christmas.

                                                                                                                  Love,
                                                                                                                    Ella

A Few More Things I've Heard Lately:

Ella (to her friend Ellie):  I have to hide to do bad things.
Ellie:  What kind of bad things?
Ella:  Sometimes I stick my face between the couch cushions and spit.

Lovely.  Don't go digging around in my couch cushions.  You're welcome.

Aidan:  When I die, I hope they fly the flag at half-staff.  I want to be important. 

Aww

Me (to my nephew, Cooper):  Hey Cooper, it smells like Up Dog in here.
Cooper: Oh, I farted.
(Ideally, he would have said, "What's up dog?" and I would have said, "Nothing, what's up with you?)

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Adventures in the Alphabet

Ella and I have been working on learning to read.  We are making an alphabet book with a page for each letter.  Here are some of the interesting things she has drawn for each page:

Letter B:  a demon fish (for those of you without big brothers, this is half fish/half man with scary teeth)
Me:  "Ella, demon fish doesn't start with B."  (Things only parents get to say, right?)
Ella:  "Yes it does, buh, buh, demon fish.  Plus, I really like to draw scary fish."

Letter C: a bunny
Me:  "What is this?"
Ella: "A bunny."
Me: "Bunny doesn't start with C."
Ella: "Oh fine, it's a cat."

Letter D: a lion
Ella:  "Do you like my lion?"
Me:  "Yes, but lion doesn't start with D." (are you noticing a pattern here?)
Ella:  "Um, there's a DUCK jumping OVER the lion."
Of course there is, what was I thinking?

I Am...

I am...

...teaching my 4 year old to read in 100 easy lessons,

...teaching my 10 month old to drink from a cup,

...teaching my 9 year old geography,

...and geometry.

I am...

...making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners,

...and snacks, lots and lots of snacks.

I am...

...cleaning,
and then cleaning again.

I am researching, reading and choosing curriculum.
I am writing curriculum.
I am doing a Bible study and writing a Bible study.

I am washing, drying, folding, and sometimes I even put away laundry.

I am blogging and scrubbing and vacuuming and nursing, and I even do windows.

I am facebooking, pinning and sometimes crafting.

I am refereeing, entertaining, enforcing and training.

I am snuggling, rocking, kissing boo-boos, singing songs, and telling jokes.

I am counseling, coaching, and encouraging.

I am wiping hands, and noses, and bottoms.

I am praying.

I am tired.

I am taking a nap.

The end.

A Few Things I've Heard Lately

Ella:  I don't like monkeys.  I like unicorns.  Monkeys are SOOO unnecessary.

Aidan:  Sometimes I can tell something is going to hurt before it happens, so I go ahead and scream.  Of course, a lot of times, I just make a fool of myself.

Aidan:  (after killing a moth)  The moth is dead!  The victory goes to the humans!!

Ella:  (to the sweet little boy following her around the park)  I know you want to be my friend, but I already have lots of friends, and I don't want anymore. 


Aidan:  (while bemoaning the fact that he is the oldest, and the little kids get ALL the attention)
 Ella, you've got just a couple more years of attention, and then you'll join the lonely club like me.
Ella:  I can't be in the lonely club, because I'm in the super awesome club.

Score 1 for the Humans!

Super Awesome Club President

The Princess of Taking Care of People

I love listening to my kids play by themselves.  I love how they narrate what they are playing.  Do your kids do this?  Or is it just because mine talk no matter what they are doing?

This is what Ella was saying today.  (To set the stage, she was wearing a crown, holding a wand and playing with animals).

I am the princess of taking care of people.  I have to take care of everything.  But, sometimes, I just want to be alone.  But these people won't leave me alone.  They only think about themselves!  I can't do everything. 

Which has me wondering...is Ella reading my mind???  Creepy.

10 Reasons I Haven't Updated my Blog in 3 Months

Three months!  It's been 3 months since I wrote anything.  Yikes.
Here are my excuses reasons:

1.  My laptop was broken.  We had to send it off for what we thought was a repair covered by warranty.  It turned out we had to get a new motherboard.  There was "liquid damage."  I'm still a bit baffled by this.  I don't recall there ever being any liquid damage, and while I don't doubt for a moment my children's ability to damage something with liquid, I do seriously doubt their ability to clean it up well enough that I would never notice.  Hmmm...anyway, it broke in June and I just got it back a little over a week ago.

2.  Anna is mobile.  In June, Anna started creeping, crawling practicing for basic training?  It's not exactly a crawl, although sometimes she gets up on her knees.  There is a lot of pushing with her feet, pulling with her elbows, rolling and sometimes pushing her face across the floor...I'm not sure what you call it, but she manages to get where she wants to go.  And, where she wants to go, is never where she needs to be. 

3.  It's summer. 

4. I have 3 kids.  wow.  I really have 3 kids.  And they need me.  A LOT.  Like, constantly...who knew?

5.  Television.  Well, not just any thing on television, but just this one certain show...I'm ashamed to tell you which one it is, because it is HORRIBLE.  I mean, it's good...the writing is good, the story lines draw you in, the characters are interesting...but I'm a little embarrassed that I like it so much.  I won't tell you what it is, but I will tell you it rhymes with "Raking Fad."  Don't blame me if you get hooked.

6. Mark.  Mark is a night owl and a bad influence.  He makes me stay up late watching TV (see #5).  Then, the kids wake me up early.  I think they're trying to break me.

7. I am going to home school Aidan.  Wow.  I'm a little terrified and a little excited at the same time.  I've spent a lot of time this summer researching curriculum.  He is really smart, so I think we can do some really cool stuff, and I think he will get a great education.  But, it's been taking up a lot of my mental energy lately.  And, I'm terrified.

8.  I have 3 kids!  (one of which just came out of her room at 10:00 at night with a puzzle that she wants to put together...she gets this from her father, see #6)
 
9. I have a stupid cat.  I don't know what that has to do with my blogging, but it's true, and I needed to get that off my chest.  Are there support groups for this kind of thing?

10. My family likes to eat.  And not just once a day either.  They like 3 meals a day, plus snacks.  Every single day.  And the little one...the littlest one, that doesn't gain weight...she eats like 10 times a day.  If they would just stop eating...or at least cut back...I would have more free time for writing.

It's good to be writing again...that first post after a long hiatus is always the toughest...and now it's done.  It's not going to win a Nobel Peace Prize or anything, but it's done.  Hopefully, there will be more posts to follow soon.  :)

Today

Today, I am thankful.

Today, I am thankful that Anna's extra long nap threw off our schedule, so that Ella and I ended up eating our lunch in the car, while parked at the grocery store.  She loved sitting in the front seat with me to share our lunch.  And she chattered away...and for once there was nothing to distract me so I chattered away with her.

I am thankful that I had the time this morning to take Aidan's hands in mine and pray with him before he went to school...that he would have a good day, and be a light in the darkness, and point others to Jesus.

I am thankful that every time Anna sees me from across the room, not only does she smile, but she kicks her feet and waves her arms, and if I start coming towards her, she starts laughing.  Pure joy.

I am thankful that Ella pretends my book light is a cell phone...

...and she used it to call God...

...and told Him she really likes his dancing.

I am thankful that Ella helped unload and put away the groceries today...without being asked.

I am thankful that Ella was a perfect angel in the grocery store...that was never the case just a year ago...hey, this parenting stuff really works...if you keep at it, and never give up.

I am thankful that while we were waiting in the LONG line at the grocery store, Ella said, "I am frustrated that we have to wait!  I'm going to tell God." 

I am thankful that after telling God she was frustrated, Ella sang, "I told God I'm frustrated and he said, 'be happy,' so now I'm Haaaaaaaaaaaapppppppppppppppy!!"

I am thankful that Ella loves to find new ways to make her baby sister laugh...and always makes me laugh in the process.

Mostly, I am thankful that I get to be here for all of this...and not somewhere else...hearing about all this from someone else.  I'm thankful that we're making this one income thing work...even though insurance is going up (again), and groceries are going up, and gas is going up and the paycheck is staying the same (again)...I'll leave all that up to God...I'll just call him, tell him it's frustrating, and then, I'll be happy...happy to be here, raising my kids and filling them with good things.  Today, I am very thankful.

Conversations with Ella

This morning:

Ella:  Mommy, I have to tell you something.
Me:  What?
Ella:  I know you really want to have a tea party, but I won't let you.
Me:  Why not.
Ella:  Because you just can't control yourself.

Have a great Monday!

The Day Has Come

I knew this day would come.  I just didn't know it would be this soon.  Only a couple of weeks ago, it still seemed so far away.  But, the day had to come...and today is the day it happened.  Today, Ella said, "because."  Ella said "because," and I almost cried.  If you've followed my blog for a while, you may remember me writing about Ella saying, "cause be" instead of "because."  It was the cutest thing ever.  We would ask her questions, just to hear her say, "cause be."  We even went as far as to forbid Aidan from correcting her, because we wanted her to keep saying it.  (Is that wrong?)  Aidan was sure she would go to her first job interview saying, "cause be."  It would be her ruin.  

But, today, the "cause be" era ended.  Ella was in trouble for hitting another little girl at Bible Study.  When I asked her why she did it, she said, "because...."  Ouch.  I died a little.  Surely it was a fluke, so later I asked her again, "so, why did you do that?"  Because.  Not Cause-be.  I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.  I have asked her a few more questions just to test it, and every time...because.

I know it seems silly to mourn this little milestone, but it is just one symptom in a long list.  A long list of symptoms that all point to one thing...she is growing up.  My feisty, dramatic, emotional little bitty girl is becoming a strong, articulate, extremely intelligent big girl.  And while I absolutely adore the big girl she is becoming, I am sad that the little girl is slipping through my fingers.  I know I will miss her, cause-be she is a very special little girl.  So, today, I am a little sad, "cause-be" my baby girl is not much of a baby anymore.  :(

A Fairy Wonderful Party

Last weekend, we celebrated Ella's 4th birthday.  Let me start by saying, that I cannot believe she is 4 already.  I don't know where the time went.  She amazes me everyday with what a big girl she is becoming.  This year, she had a fairy party.  At first, she wanted a dinosaur party, but after 9 years of doing boy parties, I was hoping for something a little more girly.  So, after promising her there would be dragons too...she agreed to the fairy party.  I thought it turned out really cute, and Ella loved it.  She has been telling everyone about it.

Check out some of the things I did for her party:

These are Ella's party guests.  You can't really tell in the picture, but I bought fairy wings and wands for all the girls, and light up swords for the boys.  I got the fairy wings from www.haloheaven.com.  They were about $1.10 each, and super cute.  (Ella's tutu is from that website too...it was only $4!)The wands were from the dollar spot at Target.  The swords were $1 each and from Michaels.  I also got some tubes of fairies and dragons from Michaels.  We hid those in the living room and the kids had to find them.  Those went in their favor bags.  We also did a pinata (the pictures didn't turn out).

My favorite part, was the food.  I covered the table with a pink table cloth.  Then I put white lights on top and covered that with green tulle.  Ella received 2 fairy houses for Christmas, so I used those on the table as well.

I loved how the cupcakes turned out.  I made these fairy sillouhettes using my mom's die cutting machine.  I used a star tip for the frosting.  Then I put edible purple glitter on top.  You can't see them in this picture, but I also found edible star glitter at Hobby Lobby and sprinkled a little of that on top also.  I was really happy with how they turned out.

The kids loved these fairy fruit wands.  I cut a cantaloupe in half to use as the base.  Then I put cantaloupe, grapes and strawberries on bamboo skewers and stuck them inside.  The kids liked these a lot, and they looked really pretty on the table.

For lunch, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I cut out with heart and star cookie cutters--another big hit with the kids!  We also had pretzels, carrots, cheese cubes, broccoli and pixie punch.  (the punch was a bottle of Welch's Mango punch mixed with about 3/4 of a 2 liter bottle of ginger ale...I threw some sliced strawberries in too...it was easy, fast and yummy).

I was so happy with how the table turned out.  :)

Ella got a pink cowgirl hat for her birthday.  She wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up.  I love the cowgirl hat with the tutu and fairy wings.  She definitely has her own style.

Blowing out the candles! 

The birthday girl with some of her presents.  I had a cute purple shirt and purple leggings that would have looked adorable with this tutu, but she insisted on wearing her bird shirt and maroon pants, and I was too tired to argue.  I think she looks adorable anyway.  I can't believe my baby Ella is 4!

So, that's another successful birthday party under my belt.  By successful, I mean it was fun, cheap and loved by the birthday girl.  I could have gotten really crazy with this party...there are so many fun ideas (curse you Pinterest!).  But, this was just enough...Ella loved it, my budget loved it and we all had a lot of fun.  So, how will I top it next year??

The Ice Cream Alarm

So, a few months ago, I got this idea from a friend's post on facebook.  She and her husband put their kids to bed, and then sounded the ice cream alarm...everyone had to get up, get in the car and go get ice cream in their pajamas.  Tonight, seemed like a good night to try it.  It is spring break, the weather was pretty today, and let's face it...I wanted ice cream.  So, we got the kids bathed and in their pajamas.  I didn't want to go as far as actually putting them to bed, because that just sounded like a beating.  So, right before they were to go to bed, Mark got our weather radio and started sounding the alarm on it, and we ran through the house and told the kids to get in the car.  We were laughing and smiling, but the kids were a little freaked out.  They kept asking what was going on.  When we got in the car, I told them, "it's the ice cream alarm!  We're going to get ice cream." 
Here are just a few of the comments that followed...all of these took place on the way to get ice cream, or on the way back:

"What?!?!  You scared us half to death!!"  (Aidan)

"Mommy, don't do the ice cream alarm again.  It's not funny."  (Ella)

"Maybe yelling 'get out of the house! hurry!  get in the car!' was a little over the top."  (Mark)

"Don't worry about us, we're just sitting in the back seat, scarred, eating ice cream in our pajamas."  (Aidan)

"That wasn't funny."  (Ella)

"Ella, I have to tell you something.  Our parents have problems." (Aidan)

"Ice cream alarm.  Bad idea."  (Ella)

"I'm in my pajamas, but I didn't even go to bed.  I don't like the ice cream alarm." (Ella)

"Maybe next time we could just get ice cream."  (Aidan)

"The ice cream alarm is not funny."  (Ella)

So, maybe they were just a little traumatized by us running through the house sounding the weather alarm while yelling, "Hurry!  Get out of the house!"  (Okay, so that part was all me...I get a little carried away sometimes.)  At least they will have a good story for their therapist some day.  Sorry kids.

Still Here

I'm still here.  In case you were wondering...I was chugging along updating the blog on a very regular basis when the virus from #&!! struck our house...it won't go away...we've all had it now, some of us more than once.  Mark is its latest victim.  As I write this, it is 11:40 pm and he is out getting us a frosty.  The man knows how to be sick.  Ella has been hit the hardest.  She has been sick for most of the last 3 weeks.  She started antibiotics today, so hopefully, that will be the end of it.

We took Ella to the doctor today and I was reminded what a tough little kid she is.  The nurse did a strep test, and she didn't even flinch.  They said her tonsils were very red and swollen, and the inside of her nose looked terrible.  But, she has not complained one bit about it.  If it weren't for her fatigue we wouldn't have even known she wasn't feeling well.  I love that little girl.  She is fierce and fiesty, and sweet and loving, all at the same time.  She loves animals, she memorizes the names of everything and everyone (first, middle and last!), she's a scrappy little wrestler, and she would be on an all sugar diet if we let her.  I am so grateful she's my daughter, and I love her.

Anna turned 3 months old last week!  Wow!  That was quick.  She might be the happiest baby I've ever known.  The girl just does not get upset about much at all...she only cries if she is hungry.  Most of the time she sits around smiling.  Even if she's sitting alone, she sits and smiles...just because she is delighted that she can, I guess.  And when she spots one of us from across the room, she lights up.  We are having so much fun with her.  The kids adore her.  She is so peaceful and laid back.  This month, she has started sleeping through the night.  She has also started laughing out loud.  It is the greatest sound ever.  She laughs if you do funny voices, tickle her ribs or sway quickly back and forth with her (especially if you do this while using a funny voice...it's hilarious).  Right now, she is completely sacked out beside me on the couch...arms up in touchdown pose, and I love her.

Then there's Aidan...Aidan is a boy...all boy.  He tears holes in his jeans, laughs at potty humor, eats constantly, grows like a weed, hates homework, loves video games, just earned his bear badge in cub scouts, loves to go fast...except when he's getting ready for bed, or school, or doing homework.  He is sweet and funny.  His hair is too long, but he says all the girls like it that way (heaven help us), and when I lie down with him at bedtime, he tells me everything...everything that happened that day, good or bad, everything he's thinking, everything he's worried about, everything he thinks is funny, everything that 's in his sweet little head...and I love him.

And Mark...Mark buys me frostys late at night, takes off work to help me when I'm sick, and uses sweet little songs to be my ring tone on his phone...and I love him.

So, we're all still here...we're coughing, and feverish, and a little snotty and germy...but we're all still here...and I love us.  :)  I hope everyone else is enjoying better health than we are right now!