A Perfect Princess Party

I simply cannot believe that this "little" one is turning 5! But she is, and to celebrate her birthday we had a party with friends! (this is big, we don't do these every year) and so for the specialness of the day she wanted a princess themed dress-up party. She invited some of her closest "princesses" and they got all dolled up! These gals were SO WELL BEHAVED and really acted like princesses. We first got them all dolled up in the dresses of their choosing, the we had to accessorize (of course!!)We read them the story of Cinderella,
Danced to some fun music. They really loved the hokey-pokey and the Limbo (they asked for it over and over again)Played some games like pin the kiss on the frog and the hot potato/frog opening presents game. Then of course there was cake and ice cream,
A great time was had by all and most importantly our little princess had a great birthday celebration!!

Spring Break

Stephen's been traveling.... almost too much, and while we really wanted to be able to get away during spring break, it didn't happen. But we did have fun while staying in town and Stephen headed off to, Jacksonville I think.

For one thing, the weather was practically perfect and so we took advantage hitting more than one park and even going to one of our favorite places: OWEN'S FARM. Yes, not only do they make wonderful sausage but they have a farm where there is a self directed tour, you can feed the goats and sheep, take a hay ride, see birds, horses, donkeys and the like. We went with some friends and had a picnic lunch. Here are some photos!

This is Kaitlyn with one of her best friends Bradley.

Then Mom & Sam hit the hayride together!And my little flower found a pose for me!

Lindsey's Latest

It's happened.....Lindsey's into everything!! Here is one of her favorite past-times. It's the whole put things into something and then take them back out. The mess sometimes gets to me, but she's just so happy!

Don't cry over spilled milk

You know how almost 3-year-olds don't always think before they act? Well we had an incident on Friday that was UNBELIEVABLE!!

Sam was thirsty. He was in the kitchen drinking from a tumbler cup that didn't have a plug in it. He's had a problem lately with playing with his beverages so we're keeping a lid on them but because he doesn't spill them, a plug isn't necessary...or so I thought.

Kaitlyn is playing by herself in the middle of the playroom, I'm at the computer emailing or something and I hear Kaitlyn begin to SHRIEK!! I glance over and see Sam pouring milk all over Kaitlyn's head and it's running down her hair onto the carpet.
I exclaim, "Sam! What are you doing?!?!?" "Pouring milk on Kaitlyn's head." (matter of factly)

He got sent to time-out until his father got home from work (which ended up only being about 15 minutes) while I bathed Kaitlyn and mopped the carpet. She's inconsolable of course because she happened to be wearing a new shirt (for the second day in a row) that then needed washing.

I then called, Stephen to tell him that his son was ready and eager for him to come home......

That's gonna leave a mark!

Poor Lindsey!

She really is convinced she's just as big as her older siblings so she's constantly amazing me with her attempts of a physical nature (climbing, reaching, balancing). It all actually makes me quite nervous and I'm shocked the following injury didn't take place in one of these situations......

Last Tuesday night Stephen was working late and I was bathing the kids and trying to get out the door to a meeting. I bathed Lindz first and had her dressed and set her down to toddle off to play while I bathed Sam and KP. Well, she tripped over a bathmat and her towel and landed on her face, on her nose, on the edge of our wooden stool the kids use in the bathroom to reach the sink.

Oh!! At first I couldn't tell where she'd hit, but then the blood GUSHING from her nose gave me a hint. She's freaking out screaming in pain, I'm trying not to get blood all over our clothing. It bled a bit and I called a neighbor (wonderful Carol!!) to come and help me with Sam and KP who had begun to wage WWIII in the bathtub. After about 20 minutes of holding a cold washcloth on her face (which by the way I totally recommend it's VERY popular with 16 month olds who are ready to go to sleep) we laid her down for the night. A couple hours later she woke up and it had begun bleeding again and had covered her bedding....

But then the next afternoon, and not until then, I noticed some swelling in her face. It continued so just for kicks we took her in to get some x-rays. (Again an experience I totally recommend with an infant--3 different x-rays of their face while having them hold perfectly still!) I was asked to wait in the waiting room, I could hear her scream for what felt like an eternity. And when the techs brought her out to me she was still short of breath but clutching a very cute purple beanie baby bear. The verdict, no fracture, just a really bad bump and some beautiful bruising!

Here she is as I'm noticing the swelling.
And the bruising begins.

Now the color is just one dark line under her eye. She mostly just looks like she was in a fight and lost! But all in all, she was a real trooper!

The "J" Bag

An exciting event has occured in the life of our pre-schooler. It was her turn to bring home the "letter bag"!!

It's a backpack that rotates the class of students and each time it carries a different letter of the alphabet. This was Kaitlyn's first time to get the letter bag and in perfect Kaitlyn fashion she began planning it's contents while on the way home from school that day.

The instructions: Find 5 things from around your home that start with the letter J.

1. Jump rope
2. Jeep
3. Jello
4. a Jar of Jelly beans
5. A picture of Jesus

Kaitlyn helped a lot with these. On her own she came up with jump rope and jeep. We didn't have a jump rope so we went and found one. She also thought of Jar and I asked her to think of something eatable to put in the jar and we came up with Jelly Beans.

We've begun learning how to jump rope at our home and the jar of jelly beans is now a favorite noisemaker. WONDERUFL!! It's so fun to watch your kids get excited about learning.

Zurich

Stephen has been very good lately, so he got to go on a wonderful 10 day trip to visit his brother Joseph in Zurich, Switzerland! Joey's been after his family to come and visit him during his 2 year stint over there for work. But we've been busy having a baby and stuff so we decided that Stephen should go, use some frequent flier miles and have some bonding time with his bro.

Wanna know what he did?

This!

and this!

He also took a quick trip to Rome to see The Colosseum, The Pantheon, the Spanish Steps or the Hotel Forte, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican, the Trevi fountain, etc. Here are a few pics he shot. He had a really great time. His ankle held up well and even got a bit stretched out.

And yes, he brought home WONDERFUL souvenirs for us, including some chocolate that might closely rival our friend Troy's Sublime Chocolate (www.sublimechocolate.com). Stephen has promised that his next vacation in Europe with have me in tow and will last a lot longer so we can see more stuff! Someday when we're not in the throws of little ones.


What did we do while he was gone? It's pretty non-exotic....but we actually did really well, a lot better than I had hoped. We Skyped Stephen a half dozen times and that was a thrill to see Stephen in Joey's apartment. And it was fun to watch Lindsey totally recognize Stephen on the computer and try to monopolize his attention!

First, on Friday (the day after he left) we hightailed it to the McKneely's in College Station for the first few days, KP didn't have school on Monday so we stayed until Monday morning then we drove to Houston to spent the night with cousins Shelly and Ashlyn (and their parents too.) Then we drove home.

That took about half of dad's trip and then for the rest of the time we just tried to stay busy. We hung out with Grandparents Lewis one evening, played with friends and went on walks. Sam had an incredible day with our friends the Hamblins where he went to Cody's basketball game (they WON!!) and drank pink lemonade, at least those are the highlights in the mind of an almost 3 year old!! Thanks to all for the love and support.

For now, we're just glad to have our dad home again, at least for a few days before the business trips begin again!