Overheard

{Interesting Comparison by Emily}
"Eewww.... I just put some water in this Princess cup and it tastes like mouse blood!"

{Unique Compliment by Emily}
"Wow Abby... you look flowerless!", meaning to say "fabulous"as she modeled her new Easter clothes.

{Financial Analyst Style Response by Daddy}
After having to say goodbye to our dog of 11 years, Noah began a conversation with me about his desire for a new pet.  The conversation took an unexpected turn when Vance overheard it and chimed in!

Noah:  Mom, could we at least get a small pet?  Like something that doesn't cost very much money.  Like a RAT!  Did you know that rats only cost between $8 and $12?

My response:  Lots of yucks and other commentary about how disgusting RATS are and about how we will NOT be getting a pet rat!

Vance's response:  "Son... this would be a great time to give you your first lesson in supply and demand economics...." followed by a discussion of WHY rats are such cheap pets in light of supply and demand :)  

{A Good Tattle-Tell}
Emily was relaying a conversation Noah had with our next door neighbor and she said... 
"Noah told Brennan that his mom is really good at taking care of kids."

{Emily's Disney Standard Pre-Ride Question}
"Will there be blood?  Or fire?"

{Molly's Disney Standard Post-Ride Response}
When asked whether or not she liked the ride, she responded...
"I go sleep." {which I later figured out meant that she closed her eyes!}

Shark Bait {Noah Turns 8}

I'm not really sure how this happened, but Noah turned 8 last month.  

EIGHT.  
8!  
eight.  

It doesn't seem possible.  

Given that he was turning a big number like 8, I assumed this might be the year that we dropped the birthday party"theme" and standard decorations.  

But at Noah's request, it wasn't :)

He warmed my heart in such a big way this year as we talked about his birthday.  He desired a small party and asked to have 3 friends spend the night (a first for him). He also wanted to play mini-golf and arcade games at our local All Star Sports place.  It was a reasonable request and I immediately told him that would be a great idea.

Just to be sure that I didn't let him down in any way, I asked him if he just wanted to play Wii and other games with his friends when they returned from the Sports place or if he was wanting me to plan activities for them.

He responded by saying they would just play Wii and Basketball.  And then came the part that warmed my mama heart.  The conversation went like this...

Noah:  But can you still decorate a table for me?  Like you did for Emily and Abby.
Me:  Of course!  What kind of decorations do you want?
Noah:  Sharks.  Because everyone that I'm inviting likes sharks so they will really like it.
Me:  Ok.  I'll see what I can come up with.
Noah:  And can we still have goody bags?
Me:  Sure!
Noah:  And do you think you could surprise me with the table?

Now I know party decorations are not the key to every mama's heart, but his simple and enthusiastic request for something that I have always done for him made me realize how much he notices and actually likes the special-ness of his past birthday celebrations.

And so I obviously obliged and decorated a shark-themed table for 4 cute little 8 year old boys!

It was fun for me to do something on a smaller scale and because there were only 4 kids, I was able to splurge a bit on the requested "goody bags" and place settings.

Balloons hanging from the ceiling were meant to be reminiscent of the ocean...

The centerpiece was a cupcake and cookie tower topped with a shark head!

The "shark bait" goody buckets were a lot of fun to put together!  I stuffed the bottom with spanish moss and filled the buckets with a shark tooth necklace (great deal from this Etsy seller), shark cookie, "Sharks of the World" coloring book, Shark water squirter, blue bubbles, gummy sharks, and a few other shark-y goodies.  The boys loved them!

The boys got a kick out of drinking "shark blood" from a sea bottle!

I think this face shows how much he liked his shark table!

And we all survived our first sleepover with 4 sugar filled, silly 8 year old boys!

Happy Birthday to my 8 year old 

shark loving boy!

{blue teeth courtesy of yummy cupcake}

In Her Mama's Shoes

I recently wrote this post in which I wondered about what "mom things" my kids would learn from me.  

In addition to the things mentioned in the post, a new inherited trait is emerging in my Emmie Kate...

The girl loves to iron!

And yes, she gets that from me!  It's one of the few domestic traits I actually do well.  I 

She asked for a play iron for Easter and has since ironed all of the baby clothes and PJs she can get her hands on.  I love that she even hangs her finished pieces on the edge of the ironing board... just like I do!

So now I can add another little "mom thing" to the list of things my girls will get from me... an ability to iron well!  

Maybe one day, they too, will be the only mom's who iron the uniform shirts of their kids.  I like that thought.  A little act of love that they might one day pass on to their own little families.  Something they learned from standing in their mama's shoes... figuratively and literally!

{UN}Happy Easter

It's Easter Sunday 2013.

I should be posting "picture perfect" images from the gorgeous day showcasing kids dressed in darling Spring attire and smiling from ear to ear.

But I'm not doing that because I don't have any pictures like that!

Instead, I'm posting some pictures of A FIRST that I did manage to capture on film...

Abby's 1st full blown TEMPER TANTRUM!

Oh yes... she threw herself down on the floor in her sweet Easter dress and kicked her feet and bawled her eyes out as if she were a two year old tantrum-throwing professional!

The culprit behind this {un}happy Easter behavior?

A blue sucker that I took from her sticky hands in an attempt to keep from further ruining her dress!

She was NOT having it!

Thankfully, my friend saved the day by offering her a glimmer of hope in the form of a red jellybean...

With one taste of the red sugary goo, she picked herself up off of the floor, dried up the water wells, and the tantrum ended.

Just.like.that!

Did I mention she is only 13 months old?

So despite the grimaced faces in the picture below, we actually are having a Happy Easter... all of us except the strong willed one who needs a constant sugar drip to keep her happy!

So {UN}Happy Easter from all of us!

Abby's Winter ONEderland

It's been a month.

My baby turned 1 a month ago.

I can't believe it.

I still can't put all of my thoughts together about her reaching this milestone.  Like the others, it seems to have come much too quickly... hitting me with the hard reality that life continues to move at warp speed despite my increasing desire for it to slow down.  Her 1st birthday, while obviously a happy occasion, left me feeling overly teary and emotional about possibly not having a "1st year of life" in my home again.  

Like I said though, I can't intelligibly put my thoughts about the subject together, so for now, I'll focus on sharing the pictures from my sweet girl's Winter ONEderland family birthday lunch and celebration!

So I recycled the decorations from Emily's "Snow Much Fun" party in December.  They were too cute not to use again and they made for a perfect "One" theme... just don't look too closely or you might see a few circles that still say "Emily" and "5" :)

Although technically she was uninvited, Mother Nature showed up to the party too and delivered a gorgeous snow covered landscape for us to look at out the window...

Because the cause for celebration was 12 months of Miss Abby Grace, I made a few extra snowmen and lined the table with 12 snowmen holding the honoree's monthly photos...

The double centerpieces included Abby's newborn pictures... the ones that seemingly were taken only a few short months ago; not an entire year...

I made creamy chicken noodle soup and my mom made potato soup for our  family lunch...

And there was no lack of sugar to celebrate this milestone...

The extra special sugary treat was SNOW CREAM... ice cream made from the snow gathered from our own yard!  I've never made Snow Cream before and I have to say, it was surprisingly delicious!

It was a perfectly snowy Winter ONEderland!

Although this attempt at a family photo might speak otherwise :)

On to the "cake eating" rite of passage...

Although she managed to get sufficiently messy, she didn't really eat much of the cake leaving me to ponder whose child she is!

But she did enjoy the snow cream!  That's MY girl!

Happy 1st Birthday to my Brown Eyed Baby Girl!

You are smart.

You are strong.

You are funny.

You are precious.

You are loved... so very much!