Happy Birthday Evie!

I know this is where you'd usually say something like, "I can't believe my baby girl is three!" But frankly, I can. I love having daughters. Girls are just so much fun to accessorize. Evie is my sweet, busy girly girl who loves shoes, chocolate, jewelry, and watching shows where the girls wear pretty, fancy dresses.

We started off the morning with a breakfast of toaster waffles. Evie wanted cake, so Daddy very cleverly stacked them up and added syrup "frosting" and a candle, and pretty much saved the day!


Of course she managed to blow out the candle right after the camera stopped filming. Ah well, I figure it was just the trial run. I'll make sure we get the actual moment with the cake tomorrow.


She got to open three of her presents after breakfast. (We are doing the cake/ice cream/party thing tomorrow with the families.) She got the dress I made her so she can wear it to church, a princess tiara set, and a sash so that everyone knows it's her special day! Plus it's my new tradition.


Evie got her wish! She wanted to go to Build-a-Bear and make a pink bear. We had a fun "girl time" afternoon with Aunt Caite and Lila along for the ride.


Here is Evie with her bear that she named Evie Two and picked out a Cinderella outfit for, complete with glass slippers. After all the bear making fun we headed over to the food court and enjoyed sharing a frozen lemonade. Then Caite and Evie played in the fountains at the Gateway.


Since I'd brought a change of bottoms we were able to let her dry off and change at the car, but I didn't have an extra shirt. So the birthday girl rode home in her birthday suit!


We went to Dad's for dinner, he grilled salmon. Yum! The kids got to jump in the pool for a little bit before dinner and when they were changing into their swimsuits Evie hit hyper-drive! She was running all over my dad's house absolutely naked and shouting, "It's my birthday! Oh my goodness!! It's my birthday! Hooray!!" It was hilarious.

She got to open her presents from Caite and Patrick after dinner. Two pairs of adorable shoes! One, a pretty pink church pair, and one brown and pink canvas with stripes and polka dots! She was in heaven! (I had a hard time getting her to take them off for bed.) At one point when she was opening the 2nd pair she said, "Oh my goodness, how many pair of shoes does one girl need!?" (...you have to imagine that said in a very excited voice.) I don't know how she'll survive the excitement of the party tomorrow with more presents and cake!

Whys and wherefores...

Have you ever thought that the title of this blog was random, like those tags on Facebook where you click a link that looks up a random article on Wikipedia and that is the name of your band? Well it's not. The reason behind it is told in my very first post over two years ago. Recently I was thinking that maybe it had been a mistake to use something that specific to try and encapsulate my memories. (Plus I have been blog surfing a lot and seeing some fun and clever titles...) But tonight as I was doing a batch of laundry I was attacked by a ninja.


I guess some things will never go out of style...

Little Lila

I can't believe my baby is almost 8 months old. It all goes too fast...

Somethin' Stinky

Tonight as I was making dinner, Evie was sitting in the door of the kitchen complaining that she "smells some-pin stinky"! She says this to me at least once a day. I don't know if she has a really refined olfactory sense, or is just crazy. I told her to go tell her daddy, mostly just to get her out of my hair for 5 minutes. She marched in the living room, looked at Brian and pronounced, "There is some-pin stinky in here! And it is probably you, Dad!"

I so wish I had pictures of this...

Jake has either been blessed to be able to sleep through anything, or it's a learned trait. But that boy is out five seconds after his head hits the pillow and once he is asleep you could drive a truck through the room and he wouldn't stir. I now have definitive proof of this. Two nights ago he was sleeping upstairs in Evie's room. She, as usual, was being a stinker and not going to sleep. Brian went to check on them when we heard her talking. He came back and told me that she was curled up next to Jake with an arm around his neck and telling herself a story. Fifteen minutes later I went down the hall to get something from my room and peeked in expecting to see a sweet tableau of my two children snuggled up and sound asleep. Wrong! Jake was asleep on his back and Evie was sitting on his chest and had her hands around his neck. She was lifting his head up and down, up and down, trying to get him to wake up and talk to her! She got moved to the end of the bed and told, sternly, that she was not to touch other people when they were sleeping. She started wailing because she got in trouble, and still Jake slept on. Two hours later he rolled out of bed. Yeah. That woke him up.

Why Caite is the Best-est Babysitter Ever!

Saturday night Brian and I got to go on a date night! Love date nights. And with three little ones at home they are usually few and far between. (The cost of dinner and a movie is hard to justify when you are buying formula and diapers.) My cousin Sarah had invited anyone who wanted to, to go see the new Harry Potter and we jumped on it. It was so much fun! I really enjoyed the movie and then we had a great time visiting with Kyle and Sarah at dinner. I am really lucky to have 3 great cousins that are my same age and live close enough that we can get together on a pretty regular basis.

Caite was kind enough to come hang out with the kiddos and give us the night off. My kids love it when Aunt Caite comes to play with them, and who could blame them....


We came home to find a very large blanket tent had taken over the living room and they were all snuggled up watching cartoons. Jake was sound asleep, but Evie couldn't wait to give me a tour of their "fort"!



Caitlin had also not only made dinner, but done all the dishes as well! Best babysitter ever! And the price for almost 7 hours of her time? A skein of soy silk yarn in a beautiful teal color... I love it when I can pay people in yarn! I wonder where else that could work for me, hmmmm.

My little helpers

One of Evie's favorite "chores" is to put away the silverware. I love the help, but even more I love her running dialog about each and every piece as it gets sorted into the right place. "This a big fork or a y-ittle fork Mommy?" "Oooh! This one of Lila's baby poons!"


And moments like this are both helpful and sweet. Jake is a great big brother who loves to help take care of his sisters.


About the only things he can't do on his own now is make bottles and change diapers. We did have a diaper changing lesson a few days ago. He started (with my supervision) to change Lila, he undid her sleeper, peeled back the tabs, opened the diaper and surprise! Not just a wet one. His face was hysterical, he looked so nonplussed. I took over at that point and while I finished changing the diaper Jake said, "Okay. I do not want to learn how to change diapers!" When I told him he needed to learn anyway, he replied, "Fine. But I am not changing the poopy ones." Just like a man...