The best birthday party ever!

I have to call it that after all the work it took! What kind of crazy woman spends three hours decorating for a bunch of 6 year olds? That would be me. Good thing M gasped in delight when she first walked into the room. That helped a little. But it had been billed as a "Fancy birthday tea party," so we had to go fancy! 

Here the girls are making fancy necklaces:

LOVE dude in this picture. Seriously couldn't look cuter.

It's hard to get good help around here but luckily, these guys were available:

Here's M, all ready to drink from the "fancy cups." I think each girl drank half a gallon of juice. It just tastes better in fancy cups!

And J was the ever-helpful big sister. Willing to pour punch and do whatever else when the hired help couldn't seem to be found :)

Here's the girls with the fancy party hats they made to complete their outfits (we painted nails too - that's why M has her hands out like that )!

And what kind of cake should there be at a tea party but a teapot cake and teacup cupcakes? And as a bonus, the cake had a hidden surprise! It was full of jelly beans. Should have seen M's face when I cut it open! I win! (I'm not really that creative - I'd seen a pinata cake on pPnterest and thought I'd give it a try. Lo and behold after a bit of finnagiling, it worked! And was the perfect shape to make into a teapot! Better yet)

And of course there were presents ...

and hugs! 

And total exhaustion afterwards. Happy Birthday beautiful! 

M's Big Day!

So I'm a bit behind, but earlier this month, after weeks and weeks of not-so-patiently waiting, M turned 6!! We had seriously had quite the countdown. And then, after all the excitement, the night before she burst into tears! Why? She was so sad that she'd never, ever, ever be 5 again. Growing up is so tough. But here she is the morning of with her requested birthday breakfast of pumpkin pancakes with chocolate chips AND blueberries in them. Whatever floats your boat!

J got her a set of walkie talkies. Clever girl. Get her a present that to use, she needs you to play with her. Clever indeed.

Some more beloved presents:

We surprised the birthday girl by showing up at school to join her for lunch. Wish I had a picture of her face! And of dude's face. I let him hold a helium birthday balloon that we'd bought at the store and he looked about as pleased as punch with himself and his big "job." We also brought cupcakes for her class. The kids enjoyed finishing the leftovers off after school, even with that crazy dark frosting!

I think it turned out to be a pretty fun day (although just the beginning - the friends party wasn't for another week! Something to look forward to :) ). And this is what she had to say as she reflected on her birthday with me:

What I like about being 6:

"I'm older."

"I got presents like my Dream Lite. I like it a lot."

"I'm gonna have a birthday party that's a fancy 6 year-old tea party"

"That I got that fairy towel from Ninnie."

"That I got those cool science things from Nana."

That it's going to be a better year because dad said each and every year is going to be better."

"That I'm older than some people."

Ha! Love that last one. What an accomplishment!

And looking toward the future, she says in regards to what she wants to be when she grows up:

"One thing - a scientist. Um ... one thing I don't want to be is a gymnasticker because they said you have to do it almost every day and then I wouldn't have time for all the other stuff. I want to help people ride horses at a certain place. Um ... artist. Ballet-er. I just have so much things to be when I grow up that I'm losing track of them. Maybe a person on the swimming team?"

Of bum prints, babies, and brooms

What kind of animal makes a track like this? Anyone, anyone?

A Baby G of course! That would be her complete bum, and full leg print in her puffy snow pants! J can't stop laughing about that picture. Love the tracks as she crawled off as well! For some reason, she was utterly refusing to walk in the snow. Had to get down and crawl :)

And why not? This would actually be Baby G's first time in the snow! Not that its the first time it has snowed in her life. Heavens no. Just the first time that the stars have aligned and there has been fresh snow, warm enough temps, G in her snowgear, Mom in a good enough mood, Dude in a good enough mood, and nothing else that had to be done at that precise moment. She was rather timidly interested in that curious white stuff. She kept touching it daintily, bringing it to her lips and giving me a quizzical look.

And she kept squinting a lot. She hasn't seen much sun lately. Hard to remember what its like frankly. Just so bright! But I think she liked it!

Dude meanwhile was alternating between stomping in the snow and sweeping ... the grass. Gotta keep that grass clear. Forget that the driveway was mostly covered in a fresh blanket... 

Such a cutie. Less cute when I had to wrestle the broom from his hands and drag him, screaming and crying into the house because he was "not done sweepin," but you know.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Of course the girly girlies had to sport a Valentine's Day-do! Now this is how they looked after a long school day of pulling snow gear on and off (a bit fuzzier and more misshapen) but they are still pretty cute!

 And after class parties that filled them with their weight in sugar, they came home to this surprise! Should have seen their eyes. M was in heaven. I mean when does mom let them have a treat THAT big? J was delighted by how pretty her name had been written. Daddy was thrilled that he'd got 4 hearts on his card instead of just 2 like everybody else, which he pointed out to everyone :) And when dude woke up, he didn't waste any time catching up! Does he look happy or what? Hope your day was as sweet as this!

Funnies and cuties

I watched dude work really hard to get daddy dinosaur to hold baby dinosaur (he told me that's what they were). When he succeeded, he let out a big "okay" and sat back to enjoy his work. Course he had to photo bomb his own picture. Never misses a chance!

Awesome benefit of your older kids learning to read! They read to the littles! So cute!

Too tired to even care. Hilarious.

And too cute for words.

And baby G has taken to drawing lately any chance she gets. She always moves the pencil back and forth on the paper, then looks up at me with this huge smile as if to say, "I see you guys do this all the time. Look at me! I can do it too!"

 See, huge smile.

 And sure, she eats the pencil sometimes.

 Or the pencil and the paper.

 Or crumples up the paper while eating the pencil . . . but either way, she would like a round of applause for her accomplishments.

And back to dude wanting to be in every picture. While I took those of baby G drawing, guy was saying the entire time, "I picture too. I picture too." So here the ham is. Texting. Not even sure to whom, so I apologize to whomever received a text from me in Cambodian. My 2 year-old can do things with my phone like you wouldn't believe (example: he was playing some bowling in a Miami nightclub game on my phone the other day. I didn't even know my phone HAD games!). Oh, and one last thing. Yesterday, Coop took Buddy to get some wood and drywall, and when he was loading it into the car next to Dude, he said: "Daddy, that's BIG! I like big!"

Hey, anybody seen Baby G? BABY G!

Happy 100th Day of School!

 For the 100th Day of school, M's class got to dress like they were 100 years old! She was so incredibly excited. We went with curlers in her hair (she was kind of disappointed to find out I didn't have any gray hair spray to make her hair gray. Really? Who has that just lying around the house? I convinced her that her hair is so light it's pretty much white anyway), old-school glasses (which she has continued to wear daily because she thinks they are fancy), pearls, a scarf, and a skirt with it's waist pulled way above her belly button. But the real clincher was the cane. We made it out of a toilet paper roll and a wrapping paper roll and then wrapped it in duct tape to make pretty much the hippest cane ever. It was a hit and made me the best mom in her eyes for at least a day! I win!

And her teacher sent me these pictures from school too:

 I'd say she had fun and looked pretty awesome to boot!