Three for Three

To round out the trifecta of birthday celebrations for Lilly we had a small family dinner on Saturday night. I cooked her favorite, beef stroganoff and broccoli. Then we sang, had cake and ice cream and then moved right along to opening presents. Lilly loves decorations, so while she was napping we surprised her by decorating her chair. Then, after rolling his eyes when I asked him to help with the chair Bryan got swept up in the excitement and decorated the rest of the dinning room with streamers and balloons. Lilly's princess castle cake. I worked so hard to make this cake for her, it took two days to make, from scratch, the strawberry cake, the butter cream filling, the strawberry meringue butter cream and the rice crispy treats to make the spires. Lilly's reaction when she saw it, "Um....why did you put my princesses on there?"

Lilly's cards and gifts.

Singing 'Happy Birthday'.

Digging in to the presents.

Taking a break. Aunt Tiki was kind enough to take pictures during the party so I could actually participate. She asked Lilly to smile so she could get a picture of her pretty birthday outfit. This is what she got. Please note: Lilly picked out her own outfit and then added pearls, a bracelet and a ring to it...and sparkly shoes, not pictured.

....and another mushroom stick carved by Papaw.

Bryan and I got Lilly a small play kitchen for her birthday and spread the word so she would receive a few accessories to go with it. She as a happy girl. She loves her kitchen. We have been cooking almost nonstop since Bryan carried it in the house. Well, we did take a little break to watch her new movie, 'Tangled'.

Thank you everyone. Lilly had a great birthday!

Lilly Turns Three

Last night I tucked a two year old into bed and then this morning a three year old came into my room and woke me up. The fact that she was able to get out of her room all by herself is another matter all together. Lilly got up kind of early, which was annoying, but it actually worked out great because Jack continued to sleep. So, Bryan and I had about an hour to spend with just Lilly this morning. We started by making cinnamon rolls and opening two of her birthday presents, crazy hair and all. Modeling her new umbrella and boots. We were hoping for rain today, but no luck. Maybe tomorrow.

Lilly was very excited when she got up from her nap (in which she didn't sleep at all) to find that Aunt Cammie, Uncle Ed, Matthew and Morgan had sent her a balloon bouquet.

Doing a little birthday painting.

Today just happened to be gymnastics day too!

Then, we went to Red Robin for dinner. Lilly was happy about the sundae, but buried her head in Papaw's arm when the servers started singing.

Opening another present.

....and modeling that present after her bath.

Happy Birthday Lilly! Mommy and Daddy love you! Hope you had a great day, there's still more to come.

It Began with a Butterfly Birthday

In my family we don't really do the whole Birthday thing. We do more of a birth weekend. You get your actual birthday and the weekend that is closest to it. Sometimes, depending on scheduling conflicts, you can drag your birthday celebration out to two weekends. And that, is exactly what Lilly is doing for her third birthday. This year we decided to split the party up a little. We started this past weekend by having a couple of Lilly's friends over on Saturday, and their parents too...we aren't that crazy yet. I made cupcakes, Bryan grilled hot dogs and the kids played. We did a spring theme with butterfly and flower cupcakes. Jack and I made it into a picture. Thanks Russ!

Here are the party goers. Russ, my photographer, tried to take a nice picture of all four kids smiling and standing still...This is what we got. The phrase "herding cats" came to mind during the photo shoot. From left: Lilly, Morgan, Avery and Georgie Blowing out her candle.

Avery opted for a cupcake with a flower sucker and peanut butter bug on top.

While Morgan chose a butterfly.

I didn't get a picture of Georgie with his cupcake, but I'm certain that he got one. A family photo. Very rare. Again, thanks Russ for using my camera and taking some pictures. Tania took lots of pictures too, but realized too late that her memory card was at home in the computer. Lilly opening her gift. For this party Bryan and I wanted to give Lilly something that she could play with outside and that all of her friends could enjoy with her. So, we got her a croquette set for kids. We thought this was a great idea, but after Lilly opened it we realized that all we had done was armed four sugared up three year olds with mallets.

We had a lot of fun on Saturday. The playset got a lot of use and Avery was kind enough to bring her bounce house. We also painted flower pots and planted bulbs in them. (By 'planted bulbs' I mean that we intended to plant bulbs, but the pots took longer to dry that I anticipated so I sent everyone home with their bulb in a bag. Hopefully, they are in their pots by now). We moved the party inside after dinner and watched the Butler game while the kids played. It was a great way to kickoff Lilly's birthday celebrations and I'm pretty sure she had a good time. She slept until almost 9:30am the next day.

Pink Eyed Monster

Poor Lilly, she just got over a cold...but not before passing it to Bryan and I, and now she has pink eye. In both eyes. No biggie though, I called the doctor and he sent in a prescription for eye drops without me even having to bring her to his office. Needless to say she hates getting the eye drops in, but she is very brave and lets us do it anyway. Of course she needs a drink of milk and a cuddle afterward to make her feel better.
After administering the eye drops, drink and cuddle Bryan put the eye drops away (I know, I was as shocked as you are) and this is what he found when he came back into the living room. Lilly was putting eye drops into her baby's eyes.
Then she gave her a drink of her milk and a cuddle.

Then, I asked her to smile and show me her eyes and this is the face I got. As you can see pink eye doesn't bother her a bit.

First Taste of Spring

While sitting on the couch earlier this week I looked out the window at the wind and rain and wondered how cold it actually was. So, I looked up the temperature for that day, but was immediately distracted by the weather forecast for Thursday. It was promising to be 69 and sunny. I wasted no time in planning a park day, the first of the year. After a little discussion my friend Tania and I decided that a picnic at the park with cupcakes at the new pastry shop to follow was just the thing.
Well, as usual, the weather man was wrong. It was not sunny, it was cloudy and windy. And, it was not 69 degrees, it was closer to 50. But, we stuck to the plan, added a couple of sweatshirts and headed to the park.
Lilly and Avery insisted on wearing their sunglasses even though the sun would not make an appearance for another hour or so. They also insisted on holding hands all the way to the playground and then on the walk to the bakery.
Lilly and Avery decided very early in the day that they would both be having a pink cupcake. They didn't care at all what the flavor was, just as long as the frosting was pink. When we walked into the pastry shop they marched right up to the counter, still holding hands of course, and Lilly said to the lady, "I want a pink cupcake, and she does too".
Preparing to enjoy the cupcake. Enjoying the cupcake.

On a side note: The cupcakes were a little different than what the girls expected ad neither Lilly nor Avery finished the icing or took a bite of the actual cupcake. What was meant to be a fun treat after a great day of playing was actually more like a punishment. The girls were excited about ordering pink cupcakes, but that's pretty much where the fun and excitement ended. They each licked a little of the icing off and then declared that they were all done and wanted to get down. But, not before Lilly sneezed all over her cupcake and the table and not before Avery stuck her icing covered tongue in Tania's water and coughed in her face.

The Second Time Around

Being born second means that everything you do has been done before and you need to pull out all the stops to impress your parents, because they've seen it all before. As a second child I have spent my most of my life blaming my parents for this and for failing to remember many of my precious moments like they had most of Wes's. His first steps, first words and many other firsts are all accurately recorded, either on film and paper or simply tucked neatly into my mother's memory. There are pictures of Wes in all stages of childhood. To be fair there are pictures of me doing the same things, but Wes is in most of them too. I have been somewhat bitter about this, swearing that I wouldn't do the same thing when I had kids.
So, when Lilly was born I took pictures, waited patiently for milestones so I could record them and then wrote about most of them in this very blog. I was determined to do the same with my second baby. Then, that second baby was actually born and we became extremely busy. Too busy to take pictures, too busy to make notes, and too busy to record everything. But, I wasn't too busy to notice. And, I'll throw this out there...I wasn't too busy to acknowledge that my mom was right, it is really hard to be involved with my kids and take pictures at the same time.
Jack is flying through milestones. He smiled for the first time right on cue and then recently he added laughing to his resume. We did get some really cute video of that, but we didn't need to because he'll laugh almost on command. (Its a deep raspy little laugh, but its happy and cute). Then, just yesterday he rolled over. And yes, I missed it. I put him on his back on his blanket with a mirrored toy. Then, I went to help Lilly in the potty. When I got back Jack was on his tummy, up on his elbows and grinning from ear to ear. He obviously knew he had done something special and was very proud of himself.

OUTSIDE!

After a series of snow, bitter cold, more snow, the plague and then more cold, today was the first chance, in several weeks, to get outside for more than just the time it takes to walk from the car to the doctor's office. There was already a plan in place to have a family dinner at my parents' house to celebrate Kristy's birthday. It was last week, but in my family we like to celebrate everyone's birthday at least three times. You get your actual birthday, the Friday or Saturday closest to your birthday and then a family get together on Sunday with a homemade (or a pre ordered carry out) dinner and cake. So, we took advantage of the plan that was already in place by skipping Lilly's nap (dangerous, I know) and heading to my parents' house a little early for a walk in the woods.
The weather was great, in the fifties, but there was still a little bit of snow. Perfect for throwing snowballs. Lilly and a couple of her favorite toys.

We knew Lilly and Hank would get wet and muddy, but what else are mud boots for. They both needed a little exercise and it was worth the mess because they each had a great time and came in hungry and tired.Lilly needed a little rest even though she was clearly starved for fresh air. We were out for a long time and took a leisurely walk, but when the rest of us started heading up to the house Lilly turned back towards the woods.

Jack didn't do a whole lot of walking, but he sure got on board with the resting part.