Birthday Celebration

Today was the day... birthday party day... Nora was so excited!! She could barely contain it... the cake was picked up...
the balloons picked up...
The room was all set...
we just needed the guests...
Every time the doorbell rang - Nora pushed her way to the door - she had to open it herself. One by one the guests arrived... as they came in they got their Strawberry Shortcake hat and decorated their "berry" box.
We played "Pin the stem on the Strawberry"...
Then played "Pupcake's Mess" (the kids used the boxes to pick up the candy mess that "Pupcake"(AKA Mary Claire and Emily) made)....
We then played a strawberry bean bag game...
And the last game was the "Strawberry Cake Walk"...
Onto cake...so yummy!!
Then presents... Nora was so sweet - thanking all her friends, giving them hugs...
After that, we wrapped up the party with balloons and goodie bags... whew! What a day... lots of fun but I'm pooped... so off to bed I go.. ready to do it all again tomorrow!!

The Shoes Have It

Someone's sporting her first pair of shoes!!! We did a little shopping today and hit Stride Rite with Nora and Rose... Nora had a blast and Rose just soaked it all in...


Now if I can just find where I put the little shoelace locks with bells that we used to put on Nora's shoes ... hmmm.. wonder if I still have them?

After getting Emily from school I headed back out to the airport to pick up our 2nd set of visitors. Mom and Dad's flight got here on time as well as their luggage which was nice! :o) After settling in a little, we had dinner and then got everyone settled for bed. We are so glad to have everyone here to celebrate the girls' birthdays this weekend!!!

Still a 4 Year Old

What a whirlwind of a week - sorry I haven't posted the last few days. With Rose only feeding once a day (before bed), the thrush has been extremely painful... so much so that I have had to go to bed right after getting the girls to bed. Tonight's been better - I didn't feed her and I got a prescription to help with things.

Nora's birthday bash went off without a hitch - and we even got to sing her "Happy Birthday"! She was convinced that we couldn't sing to her since it was her "Strawberry Shortcake Birthday" yet... at dinner I finally got her to realize that we can sing to her tonight (Tuesday night) as well as at her birthday party on Saturday... oh she was just beside herself with excitement... funny girl!!

So we went out to Colton's for dinner then home for presents and cake. She was so so excited. I was amazed that she actually went to sleep... before saying good night she turned to me and asked me... "Mommy, will I still be 4 in the morning?"... so sweet!!

http://photos2.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5105609004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/
Here are the rest of the pictures from her birthday... more party guests arrive tomorrow. Mom and Dad will be here in the afternoon - then parties all around all weekend!!!

Ware B&B Open

Ware B&B is officially open for the season. We finally got the guest room (and all other rooms) all ready and set up just in time for our first visitors of the year to arrive. Morgan's parents got here today to be here for Nora and Rose's birthdays - my parents get here Friday for the big birthdays too...
Shortly after they arrived we headed to brownies... we are working on Thinking Day stuff and learning about India.
Back home again through some lovely freezing drizzle we headed to McAllister's... looking forward to full week of party prep...

Drink to That

Today started off so nice - just laying around ... the girls were either entertaining themselves or actually sleeping in. Rose was up a few times but kept putting herself back to sleep.. nice to just be lazy in the morning especially being up a bunch last night - it's funny how all three of their coughs, cries, etc. are starting to all sound alike! But either way - there was lots of coughing and some crying out last night but by the time we checked on them they were back to sleep...so they had a restless sleep and we were just up bunches.

We headed out to the store this afternoon after lunch - party stuff, some meal stuff to start off our week and pet food. Boy what a mistake - Walmart on the weekend is bad enough but Walmart on the weekend in the afternoon is just insane!! Totally a stressful experience - didn't get everything on our list... so we'll be heading back tomorrow... what a pain and just a crazy afternoon!

I just had to get out today though - with all these antibiotics I've been on - well, it leads to yet another problem - thrush (yeast)... painful, painful, painful... yup, have had it with all three of the girls... in case you're interested- you can read more here...

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/t083100.asp

Aren't you glad I experience all these things just so you can learn about them?! HA!! So anyway, I had to get cream for that... ugh!

Then home for dinner and then making Emily's drinks. In her latest American Girl magazine there was a calendar of treats in it. So she has been asking all month to make the January treat which is a strawberry drink. So here we are drinking our drinks for desserts.. my were they filling.. good but filling!!

We were supposed to get more snow tomorrow but it looks like it will be staying north of here for the brunt of it.. so our brownie meeting can go on and Morgan's parents should have smooth sailing getting in tomorrow afternoon. I'll still stay up and watch the weather just to make sure but seems like the girls will be heading to school on Monday..

Thaw Out?

Not quite a thaw out yet.. we spent the morning inside - playing, preparing meals for a friend that had a baby and just hanging out ... starting the morning with a temperature at 5 degrees, it just makes you want to stay inside...

The girls were busy busy as usual - lots of playtime.. baby dolls were the hit today. Rose was practicing her latest trick... standing on her own - so cute too because she'll stand there and clap for herself too! :o) We did venture out to Target - it was nice on one hand to get out but boy do I have to work on handling all 3 of the girls out at the store at once.. whew! It's exhausting!!

After getting Rose and Nora to bed, Emily had been asking to check out the pictures she's taken with her camera. So I transferred them to the laptop and let her have at 'em. She's already created 3 scrapbook pages with them and can't wait to do more.

SNOW!!

We got our snow last night and today - the girls were so excited... up at the crack of dawn already planning their moves! I thought I was being all stealthy tip toeing upstairs to turn off Emily's alarm when I found out school was closed.. but as I walked down the hallway I heard little voices chattering and found Nora and Emily nestled in Emily's bed together! So sweet - Emily heard Nora awake and told her she had to wait 'til 6 to come down and wake me! :o) Who knows what time they woke up?! They couldn't wait to get outside! But it snowed all morning so I told them they'd have to wait until after lunch..
I took a ton of pictures once we headed out - here are some of my favorites - I'll put a link to a Walmart album of the rest if you'd like to see them..
http://photos2.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5077647004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/
(You have to click on this one to make it bigger - huge smile on Nora's face after her first sledding run down the hill!)
Hot chocolate and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to warm up these little snow bunnies while Rose napped...
The lovely pile of wet clothes....
To finish off the afternoon - some Just Dance (the outfit is one that Nora got for Christmas - how Emily fit into it is beyond me!)
and some "first feeding herself" time for Rose!!
Happy snow day - we'll be home again tomorrow - they've already closed schools due to road conditions.....

Arrivals

Nora is just beside herself with excitement.. her first birthday package arrived today - her card proudly mounted on the mantle. She just can't wait for her birthday - so fun!!
Thank you Ms. Cecilia for the great book (she loves it!!!) and the adorable scarf... she had so much fun wearing it and saying "I can wear this out in the SNOW!"
Rose loved her book as well - Nora couldn't wait to get the CD in to hear it! I can't believe their birthdays are just around the corner - how is it possible that Rose is almost 1 year old?!!!
Emily was so excited to do her homework - it was about lines of symmetry and she got to cut out shapes.
But this is the big story - a beautiful sunset leading into an interesting night. Everything winter will be hitting us starting around midnight and ending tomorrow afternoon - but they are saying about 6 inches.. oh the girls are so excited! The chance for some good sledding snow... I'm surprised they even got to sleep tonight!
PS: Little update on health - Nora and Rose are coughing in their sleep - Emily is stuffy too but not as bad. Morgan seems to be recovering ok but I continue to have some achiness so I'm on another round of antibiotics to make sure that the Mastitis is gone!

Random Day

Lots of little things today... like checking off life's little checklist...

Copies at school done, Nora helped sell more cookies for Emily (actually prompted the biggest hug I've ever seen Emily give Nora - quite sweet!), storytime, cleaning, homework help...

Then onto this evening... just planning - the year seems to fly by when making plans... possible trips - Pella, IA for the tulip festival in May, 20th reunion in FL in July, Yellowstone in the Fall for our anniversary trip (15th this year!)... hmmm... what to do? what to do? Anywhere else you want to go? :o)

Pat on the Back

Are the planets aligned? Is there a full moon? Something going on?

Must be...

The whole day -start to finish... just went so smoothly.. I got so much done! It just makes me think everything will finally be ok and get back to "normal"...

After breakfast (and sleeping in 'til 7am!!!) we began our day... the girls played and played and played... sometimes together... sometimes in their respective rooms... so nice! Emily was even helping Nora sew on her sewing cards while Rose was climbing on her - are these really my girls?!
During lunch we were treated with our bluejay pair - Emily has them nailed and can tell them apart... one swoops in, grabs whatever, takes it to the fence and pecks away... the other sits there flings off the peanuts it doesn't want and takes the one it wants to the top of the shepherd's hook and then flies off with it. Now if we can just tell which is Mr and which is Mrs.
After lunch came Rose's naptime - yes, naptime... Rose has finally figured out how to go to sleep!!! With hardly any sleep training and not much crying out - she takes 2 naps a day and goes to sleep at night (all night!!!) - imagine that! So during her nap, Emily was busy making stuff and Nora was watching TV so it gave me time to set up our new desk/table in the kitchen.. I actually have clean kitchen counters!!! Wow!!!
And to top things off... I stamped some scrapbook pages today, did all the laundry, cleaned up our bathtub (that's where a lot of the stuff from upstairs had been stored), had playtime with the girls (that's a big one - lately any extra time has been getting the house together), and made Babci beef... so Rose had her first taste of Babci beef with mashed potatoes and broccoli... it was quite the hit!!
After getting the two younger girls to bed and while Emily read, I actually got a workout in... the Just Dance 2 Wii game has a Just Sweat option for working out.. so fun! So if I don't say so myself - I think a pat on the back is in order... felt so good to have a normal day with just the usual stuff going on! Ahh... now if I can just figure out how to start tutoring again and catch up on scrapbooking... hmmm...think I'll pass tonight... don't want to over do it today! :o) He-he... :o)

Who's Next?

Yet again, another day of unplanned "excitement"... seems the stomach bug hit Morgan yesterday so today we stayed home from church. He still doesn't feel great and has yet to eat a bunch so we'll see what happens tonight...

So I took advantage of the extra time and did the finishing touches on all the rooms... well, as "finishing" as they will get right now. All the tools are put up, the shelves hung, all that's left are a few mirrors (behind the door kind)... I can see my stamp table again - good thing since I have to make some scrapbook pages tomorrow to send out! But that led me to the bag of Babci goodies that go with her sewing machine. It's a funny thing going through other's stuff like that.. picking through it.. wondering what she was working on... why things were left the way they were... just makes you wonder...
The afternoon moved onto another project... a table! Yup! I made a table! This is the old attic door - a mini door really that lead into the attic space before we demolished everything. Morgan was going to use it as the computer table but it was not the right size for that so instead of tossing it .... I took it! :o)
I've always wanted some desk space in the kitchen. I do everything there, pay bills, balance the checkbook, organize the kids' school papers, sort the mail, plan menus, keep track of travel stuff, on and on.. it's a never ending pile of stuff on the kitchen counters... so this will be perfect!!!
The girls helped me paint some... Rose supervised....
and after adding some trim to cover up the hinges from the door and a final coat of paint...
I have a new desk/table in the kitchen...
Now to just wait for it to dry and I get to fill it up with all the stuff off the counters! YAY! So while I sit here finishing up for the night... I hope everyone sleeps well and gets better... but the thought crosses my mind... who's next?