A New Friend

Rose was invited to her very first birthday party at the American Girl doll store.  She had a blast just walking around and seeing all the baby doll accessories (who would've thought they had enough stuff for dolls to fill two floors of a store in the mall?).  

Then, lo and behold, the birthday girl gave out the 'goody bags' and look what was inside it!  Marie-Grace, one of the historical dolls from their collections.  WOW!!  Rose was in love at first sight.

 They had these funny little doll holders in the bathroom stalls so you could keep them clean.  It was actually a good thing, since every little girl in there had a doll with her.  

 Then the party moved into the bistro (fancy word for restaurant if you ask me).  The dolls were provided with booster seats to sit next to the girls.

 And little cups for drinking of course.

 Some cool things about the bistro - the neat light fixture and they way they served the food.

Overall, she had a great time and made a new best friend.  At least she will have an easy time with her wishlist this year!

James' and his favorite meal

Strawberry Picking

Aunt B's graduation weekend

See a resemblance?

Too cute, little man.

Yes, I realize how big I am.

Belly painting

I did it again!  This babe loves to try to get out right about where that foot is depicted so we thought it might be fitting to have a picture of a baby's foot breaking through a brick wall.  Gotta love the graffiti!

Not feeling well...

Rose was sick on and off all week with a low-grade fever.  She doesn't willingly take naps anymore, unless the car is moving in the afternoon and she can't help it.  But today she said she was going to take a rest in her box...and promptly fell asleep.  

Some recent park fun

 Give him a stick and some dirt, you can count on at least an hour's worth of entertainment!

This one's for you Aunt Lori!

Following directions

So even though I haven't put many projects up here lately, it doesn't mean we haven't been doing small ones here and there in between visits to the park.  

I told the kids to color the coffee filters with the markers and then we would spray them with water to make it run, letting it dry to become either flowers or butterfly wings (side note: we got through the drying process then never seemed to pick it back up so maybe it will be one of those that happens after the baby is here and the kids are dying for something to do!).

Anyway, Rose jumped in and started coloring right away.  James also started coloring then opted for a more manly route of becoming the marker cap monster.

Clearly this was not to Rose's liking and she quickly informed her brother he needed to follow the directions and color on the filters.  See the look of panic on her face above?  Crack me up!

Putting the kiddos to work

Saturday mornings usually have us cleaning the main floor, literally. The kids love the broom and swiffer, so we put them to work.

Mom's birthday cake

I made this great buttercream icing with almond extract. It was a hit with the strawberries. But what I was really sharing was one of my cool camera settings, on my newest toy...my old one stopped focusing at the zoo so all my shots had to be from a certain distance. After three tries I finally settled on the red cannon powewrshot?

A fun day

Back when I went on retreat a month ago or so, the idea that we can have a fun day without other day-to-day obligations getting in the way was brought up during one of the discussions.  I decided to schedule such a day for the kids, since sometimes it feels like I am always saying 'not today' to whatever it is they want to do.

 They got to pick everything we did that day...from which park we went to, to what was in their picnic lunch, to if they even took a nap (which after playing at this park, was unavoidable)!

 There was a specific request to have the picnic in the boat play area.  These two cuties really enjoyed the bubbly lemonade I surprised them with.

We also went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and played with a friend at another park later in the day.  Rose didn't want to go to sleep that night because she didn't want the fun day to be over.  

It was hot today!

Easter Egg Hunt

 He started off opening every egg he found and eating the candy asap.  Then I think he noticed how many eggs there were.  

 Rose's piles were nice and neat - money, candy, goodies.  James just ate all of his jelly beans as they came out, the money flew around him, and the goodies were played with.  What different kids!

Showing off one of the goodies in her basket.