Beautiful

Every so often, I realize how absolutely beautiful my girls are. There are those times I look at them and they smile and I suddenly realize they are growing up. Whether it be the look on their face that lets you know they understand a little bit more today than they did yesterday, or the fact that they dress themselves and seem to have their very own sense of style. My girls are growing up, beautifully.

Elle's 4th Birthday

On Saturday, we had Elle's 4th birthday party. She wanted to have a tea party with all the girl cousins and friends. All the girlies were dressed up in their finest tea-party dresses. I had been buying things at the DI and dollar store for a month, so the decorations turned out really cute. We had pretend rose petals scattered over the table cloth and fresh flowers as our centerpiece. Each girl had her own (real) tea cup and saucer.They got to choose from pink lemonade or pink hot chocolate (Fancy Nancy brand bought off Amazon!) There were tiny cucumber sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and fruit and cheese kabobs. While the girls seemed more interested in the "tea", Miles probably ate 8-10 peanut butter sandwiches. I think he was feeling a little left out that he was the only boy, and found comfort in food. After tea time, the girls all sat around the coffee table. I gave one girl a little present and while music played it was passed around the circle until the music stopped. Whoever was holding the present got to open it. We did this until every girl got a present. Then we played the princess tea party version of pin the tail on the donkey, called Kiss the Frog. It was really cute!

Finally, the adults ate cake and the girlies ate mini cupcakes. (And yes, I made them myself! I stayed up until just after midnight the night before. It was seriously fun for me!)

Elle then opended her presents and we called it a day. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming to the party and for all the presents! Elle is ecstatic with everything and can't decide what she wants to play with first.

Why Are Kids So Cute When You're Mad?

Mom: Elle!! Don't slam the car door! You almost slammed Miles' hand in the door!

Elle: Oh no!! Did his whole arm fall off?

Mom: Ummm...no.

Kid-isms of Late

Miles: "Mom, is Hazel a good guy?"


Morgan: "Mom, what are we having for lunch?"
Mom: "Grill cheese sandwiches."
Morgan pats Miles on the arm.
Morgan: "Don't worry, Miles. You don't have to have a girl cheese. Mommy can make you a boy cheese sandwich."

My New Blog

As some of you know, I have started cake decorating classes at Michaels. I am loving it. So I decided that since my skills in this area are very basic, I would like to watch how I am progressing. With this goal in mind, I created a new blog http://www.nillacakes.blogspot.com/. The posts are probably going to be quite long and maybe even a little boring, so I don't really expect anyone to follow it. But I also expect a plethora of pictures, so if you get bored, you can always just scan the pictures to see my latest creation, or disaster, as the case may be. Anyway, thought I would let you know. =)

Elle's First Day

Elle had her first day of preschool today. We all walked to school, and by that I mean I walked and pulled the kids in the wagon. My friend Allison stayed outside with Morgan and Miles and I took Elle in. She found her name on the coat rack and hung up her backpack. Then we went over and found a book for her to read. She was feeling a little nervous, but then Mikey from her sunbeam class came over and sat with her. She looked up at me, smiled, and said bye.
When I picked her up, the teacher said she did very well. She would stop sometimes in mid-coloring and say that she missed her mom, but would take a deep breath and go back to coloring. Elle said she had crackers and white-all-over cheese and apple juice for a snack today. She was pretty disappointed when I told her she didn't come back until Tuesday.
I can't believe how grown up my little girl is.

By Popular Request...

For those of you have enjoyed Night at the Museum 2, here you go:

"Hey baby, check out the gun show goin' on over here. Boom! Bang! Firepower!"

Ready for Church

...and actually on time for once! Just thought my family looked especially cute today and wanted to share.

Princess Hazel

We had Kristi, Tom and kids over the other night for pizza and Guitar Hero. When they showed up, we were still waiting for the pizza to be delivered, I took Hazel into Morgan's room to play dress-ups. I kept reading on Kristi's blog how she loved to put on different shoes and hats, so I was sure she would love the girls' selection of hats, dresses, and princess slippers. Every time she tried on a different outfit, she would walk out into the living room and walk around the island to show off her new attire to Mom and Dad. She was perhaps the most adorable little princess I have ever seen!
Tom, you were a rock star as usual, and Kristi, you were awesome! I never would have guessed that was your first time playing. We had a blast and can't wait to do it again.

More Bolt Quotes

Miles was playing with the princess cell phone this morning. It has a pretend camera phone that flashes and makes a shutter sound. He held the phone up to me, said cheese, and pushed the button. Then he looked at the phone and said with a smile, "That's a keeper!" So cute.

Morning excitement

I dropped Morgan off at school this morning at 8:15. I pulled Elle and Miles in the wagon past the construction and at the corner of the street across from my house I started to break up the usual argument of who gets to open the garage door today. Then I hear this little boy yell. I look up to see a little boy of maybe 2 chasing a dog into the street. It is not a terribly busy street, but it is long and straight so people tend to book it down the road. So I called to him to stop and NOT go into the street. He kept calling after a dog who had ran across into the townhomes. The little boy was tiny, thin, dirty, and only wearing a pair of camo shorts.
I made my was slowly over to him as not to scare him. I tried asking him his name, and he pointed to the sky and told me that was a bird. I asked him where he lived, which one was his house, and he pointed to Elle's feet and told me that was a shoe. I could see I wasn't going to get anything out of him, so I ended up calling 911. I had been standing with this boy for almost 20 minutes by the time a policeman showed up. Just as he finished taking the information, a mom down the street came out yelling. Yes, it was his mom. She walked over (I would have been running, but that is just me) and asked where he was. I told her I found him trying to cross the street. She picked him up, no hug, and told the policeman he would have to come to her house if he wanted to talk to her and walked off.
Now, obviously, I only did all of this out of concern for this boy's safety. But would it have been too much to ask for a simple "Thank you"? Thank you for finding my boy, thank you for staying with him, thank you for anything?? I would have even been happy if she seemed happy to see him, if she seemed at all relieved that he was ok.
It is certainly not the way I would have liked it to happen, but I feel like a better parent today.