Farm Visit

Elizabeth used to call my grandparents who live on a farm "Farm Grandma" and "Farm Grandpa". We went out to visit them on this unscheduled Saturday afternoon when our family was finally all healthy enough to not pass on anything to aging and ailing grandparents. (Hopefully. You never know with tiny kids!)
As soon as I told the kids that we were going to visit them, they asked if they could play with the cool marble track. That's the first thing they asked Grandma and Grandpa too.
My grandma asked Elizabeth if she would read her a book that she picked out previous to our visit. I took a video. Grandma Zora is why we have an Elizabeth Zora. She read the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" if you can understand her with all the background noise. Andy was telling Olivia about how long it's going to take to get to Las Vegas this summer after she complained about the 45 minute trip to Mesa.

My grandma used to be the librarian at a school when her kids were in school and I always loved reading books there and smelling them. They had a great old book smell. A few books I have that were hers still have that great smell in the binding.
My grandpa was not feeling very well. He is in bad health. He is dealing with pain from shingles on his head right now and told us that it feels like a bunch of needles stuck in his head. He asked me if I would hit him in the head. I wouldn't do it. He said that he went to the doctor this past week and the doctor told him that it should feel better by June. That's WAY too long to deal with it. Poor grandpa. The doctor also told my grandma that if grandpa was hurting, that she could hit him in the knee with her cane (she has osteoporosis and needs a cane after fractured bones) and then he'd be distracted by that pain instead. I'm fairly certain she would never do that. I know my time spent with my grandparents is limited and I want to make sure my kids remember them.
We also watched a home video collection of a family gatherings from when I was nine. My hair was in it's giant red triangle stage at that point, but at least my kids could see who I was in the group. It was fun to point out who was who and laugh with my grandparents.
While they read Vincent wanted some camera time. I told him to smile and this is what he did.And then I got this one. I'm a little worried about his two year pictures that I have to have taken soon.My kids were "starving" so grandma asked them if they wanted ice cream. I remember always being hungry (not really hungry, my mom was always embarrassed when we'd ask for graham crackers from her cupboard) there. My grandma was always so sweet and would give us each a whole graham cracker. The little things really do mean so much to kids.
We played some Scrabble with grandma before we left while the kids finished their ice cream and watched the beginning of Shirley Temple's Heidi (one of the only movies I remember watching at their house). Grandma enjoys Scrabble and plays against herself all the time, so we try to play with her when we get the chance.
We had a wonderful visit and a fun ride home (most of the way-it's about 45 minutes or so and the kids like to poke at each other some of the time). The kids wanted to eat dinner immediately, but I told them we could go to "Mom's Restaurant" instead. Elizabeth decided that Andy was the taxi driver. I was the cook. Elizabeth was the mom with Olivia as her "sweetie" daughter and Vincent was a burglar that they caught (he had a toy water gun that he brought in the car with him.) They even offered to pay us for our services. We earned six cents each. When we got home I told them to take their seats and that their meal would be right out. Elizabeth "ordered" chicken pot pie and tater tots with Orange KoolAid. Olivia ordered the House Chili (the chili I made last night) and tater tots with Orange KoolAid. We even kept up the use of polite talking and manners and it was great.

Rainy Day

Today was another rainy day and the dollar store umbrellas again made an appearance. I'm just glad that we normally don't need them, but I do keep them in the van for incidents like this.Olivia and Vincent ran some errands with me this morning. We went to Kohl's and by the time we got out at WinCo, they needed the umbrellas. I let them carry them in and we were going to close them, but we were only picking up nine things (three of them were gallons of milk) and I'm not superstitious and it wasn't hurting anything, so I let them keep them open. It was cute and fun. Vincent was sitting in the baby seat part of the cart and was holding it over his head and I'd ask him where he was and he'd peek out. I loved it and it kept him busy and happy. Half of the store Olivia had her's closed and was pointing at things with it.
After WinCo, we still had too much time before we needed to pick up Elizabeth and it wasn't worth it to go home for a half hour so we went to the video store to get a free five day rental with a coupon (we picked a Care Bears movie for that), Hallmark for a free kid encouragement card, and then Starbucks to use part of a gift card Andy got from one of his "kids" at Nutcracker this year for donuts and a blueberry scone. Then it was time to pick up Elizabeth. Then I whipped out the camera to take a few cute umbrella pictures. There really is something about umbrellas that is fun. (It's only fun because we live in a part of the country where it rarely rains hard, and when it does it only lasts for five minutes.)Olivia was doing this on her own. I caught her at just the right second. She really does have two legs.
Vincent held his umbrella like this most of the time. He didn't care much whether it covered his head or not. His little tongue out reminds me of a few of my brothers who would always put their tongue out the corner of their mouths when they were intense.Tonight was the chili/chowder cook-off at the church. They also have prizes for the best bread and dessert. (Andy says: I was considering making bread, but I won the bread award last year, and I wanted someone else to have a chance. NaDell reminded me that she's won the bread award before too, but I've won it twice.) I made a chili and a dessert. For dessert I made these delicious brownies with marshmallow creme and then a rice cereal/peanut butter/chocolate chip layer. I didn't have the marshmallow cream, so I made it myself from another place that had recipes and Elizabeth helped too. The lady who writes that food blog was a year ahead of me at school and church and her recipes and pictures are great! The chili I made had pinto, white, and black beans. I really liked it and Olivia had a bowl for her lunch today. It didn't win, but most of it was gone out of my 6 quart crockpot that was mostly full, so it was good enough, I guess. The people who did win had much more experience than I had (NaDell is trying to say they're old in a polite way), so I have something to aspire to next year. I actually was at the dessert table when one of my friends tried my dessert and she turned to me to ask if I made it and told me it was good and picked up another. I think that's a good sign.
So, the only real annoyance I had (other than not winning, which really isn't an annoyance because I don't like getting up of everyone anyway) was that apparently there was a flyer that was handed out in Relief Society on Sunday that announced to bring muffin tins or cookie sheets to hold the little bowls of different chili's and chowders. We didn't get the flyer because we are both down in the nursery taking care of 14 tiny kids, so we didn't get the message, which bugs me! They didn't have big plates or anything else to hold the tiny bowls, so I made Andy go in the kitchen and get us two real bowls out of the cupboard for our chili. I did take them back and rinse them though. So take note: Don't leave out the nursery when announcing things!!! It drives me crazy!
At least I felt cute in my new sweater from Kohl's.Yes, I made Elizabeth take my picture.

I had the strangest dream

I did. It was really strange. Here's the scoop.
I was in my junky van, but it seemed like a car instead.
The gas pedal was in the seat behind the driver, so I was back there doing the gas and one of two friends was in the driver's seat steering. We were going down the highway and it was hard for me to see how fast we were going because I couldn't see over her head very well. Anyway, so the speed limit is 55 and I was going between that and 62. At 62 MPH, a police officer pulled us over and asked if we knew how fast we were going and all that. We decided that my friend had to take the blame and not mention the gas pedal in the backseat stuff for whatever reason. Then the cop asked us to pop the hood and started looking under it pulling things out and telling us how crummy it was and how stuff wasn't in the right place and called it a "jalopy". He started yelling at my friend and so I said it was actually mine and that was the end of the dream. Strange. My favorite part was the jalopy part.
I don't even know why I acted all offended in the dream because I know my van is junk. Soon it will give out and won't go anymore. We bought it last May though for so cheap and it's getting closer and closer to it's year mark. It just might make it until then. I hope so.
Any strange dreams for you?

Independence

I love that my kids are independent. Elizabeth is getting better and better at doing things for herself and Olivia and Vincent. Earlier this week she asked to give them their bath. I eagerly replied in the affirmative. She wanted to help them again tonight and, how could I refuse? I guess so. I was SO looking forward to doing it myself. Who doesn't like hunching over the tub having kids squirm and splash and squeal in the tub where it echoes?
Elizabeth likes it. She takes off her shirt so it doesn't get wet.
I could get very used to this!Vincent always seems to turn around as soon as I'm taking pictures. Exactly the opposite of how I wanted him to sit. There is more water on the bathroom floor, but I really don't mind that much.

Thursday after school the girls played a game together on the Wii. I was the narrator/director because Elizabeth still can't read very well. I can't wait until she's better at that!

My giveaway for the Chore Chart ends on Sunday evening. There are only four comments. If you comment, you have great odds.

Park in the Dark

On a lark. (Did I already say it was the park and it was dark?) We didn't hear any barking or do any markings. Too far? Yeah, I thought so.
I took the kids to the library and then a park right after school today. We got home just before Andy and then ate dinner (French Dips) and were off to a bigger park for our family night activity. We had to do it backwards in an attempt to get there before it was dark. Too late. Andy asked the girls in the car if they would rather play now for 15 minutes or an hour tomorrow when it's light. They decided now. Go figure. Kids always want what they want now.
The lights on the tennis court came on soon after we got there (and made me want to play tennis SO bad!), so there was a little light. There wasn't anyone else there to have to share with either. It was actually pretty fun!

Elizabeth was just a little excited about the playground.I took Vincent on the zipline. He liked it enough to go with Andy too.Olivia on the zipline. She liked it, but not enough to go again.I'm pretty sure Elizabeth enjoyed the zipline.One of the few shots of Vincent that his coat hood didn't cover his eyes.
Andy with Vincent on the zipline.
Obviously, my camera doesn't do all that well in the dark with all the little spots. I actually took 60 pictures and deleted all but 16 because some of them the flash didn't go off and others Vincent only showed the top of his head.
The girls with the huge fish.
Vincent on the huge fish.
Vincent tried out the slides. He likes when I count down 3-2-1-blast off!!! He also likes, 1-2-3, Go! and Ready-Set-Go!Olivia climbing through the "spider webs" right before the spider webs swallowed up her shoe. And, yes, that IS her candy cane dress. It won't fit next year and I forgot to get it out at Christmas, so I'm letting her wear it now. She loves it.And then it was time to go home to finish FHE and get ready for bed.

The rest of the week

So after I finished my last post about feeling like I was on top of things in the chore department, I started feeling a little like I was a machine (sort of) and that I have everything in a system and then I didn't want to do it for a few days. Really, I did it a little, but I didn't do everything. I still like it. I'm just extra moody this week or something.
Other tidbits:
*Vincent went to the doctor for his ear check and is done with that ear infection. That night he was coughing in his sleep, so hopefully the ear infection stays away. He seems to cough only at night and in public. Two of the worst times to have a cough.
*The Olympics are kind of fun to watch lately. Andy especially (not Xpesially) likes the skeleton, luge, and snowboarding. We watched the men's snowboarding in the halfpipe and then the women's the next day and Andy said that the women should go first because they just aren't as fun to watch. The men go so much higher out of the halfpipe and do huge jumps and after watching that, the women's are a letdown.
*On Wednesday night I made an awesome beef, potato, carrot stew. Normally I just add in beef broth, parsley, garlic, onion powder, but this time I had some garlic-chili sauce that I added to spice it up. Andy doesn't normally like a lot of soup, but he had a few bowls of this. I roasted the beef the night before and most of the morning and then cut it all up to make the stew. It was spicy and yummy.
*I did terrible at our game night and was all moody, which is strange. I'm normally not like that, but I was doing awful and just quit the game and went to bed.
*That kind of put me in a funk on Thursday and I was talking with a buddy at Elizabeth new dance class and we were having all the same moods lately, so it cheered me up. There's something about knowing someone else who is in the same position as you having the same troubles that makes you feel normal again and feel a relief. I felt much better after that.
* I like the figure skating, but not for the reasons you are thinking of. I watch because it reminds me of when I was little watching with my mom and my brothers would laugh and bug us when skaters fell down. Well, now I'm like my brothers and laugh when skaters fall. I like it. It surprises me how often they fall, even in the Olympics. Now, I'm not saying that I could EVER do what they do, but it is fun to watch. I watched the ice dancers last night and they weren't near as exciting to watch. No falls. No jumps.
*Elizabeth went to play at a friend's house right after school on Friday. She was there for almost five hours until Andy got home. I was almost getting bored without her around. I made up for that on Saturday when her friend came here and then I babysat my cute nieces that afternoon. Boredom was cured.
*We started Elizabeth's science project this afternoon. We made some salt crystals in four different cups with different amounts of salt. Hopefully they can do something before the science extravaganza on Thursday.
*Tonight was a wedding reception for someone from church and while we were eating our cheesecake, fruits, veggies, and drinking our punch, several couples came by and told us how cute our kids were. One couple said that we were the cutest family in the ward. Now, I don't really believe that, but it was super nice and made me blush. I told the kids those are their extra grandparents. They are some of the people who the kids shake hands with each Sunday before church starts. Little did they know that it took one child 15 minutes to change into her reception outfit and another ten minutes to cry while I brushed her hair.....
*All three kids rode in the car cart at Home Depot tonight when we went in there. They each picked a paint sample too. Vincent said "Beep, Beep" everytime someone walked a few yards away from the cart while pushing his pretend horn. I'm pretty sure they were all far enough away that they didn't hear him. I noticed it and then laughed each time afterwards when he did it. It was funny.
*I made some microwave poppycock popcorn as a snack Andy was watching COPS with the kids. I wasn't done until after it was over, so they ate it while Andy read them their scripture story and bedtime books. The kids really enjoyed it.

I am taking the books to our next book group for church. Anyone have any appropriate books as suggestions? I can't think of many right now.

Chore Chart

A little update on my chore chart. I feel all accountable since making it. Keep reading to the bottom for a little surprise.

I made this chart a month or so ago after talking to one of my cousins who said that by the time she is done cleaning the house she has to start all over again. I made it for ME so that I don't have to have marathon days of cleaning. I divided the chores between the days and added a little list of daily chores as well. Instead I look at my handy chart and do the chore for the day.Since I made the chore chart for myself, things have been so much nicer around here. I know what is coming next on the list and if I know I'll be super busy and won't do the chore that day, I can split it up and do it the day before or after and it still gets done.
Today was the kitchen deep cleaning day and I had to clean the oven. I made this chart the middle of January, but just bought the oven cleaner spray, so it had to be done. It's been on my list of "to-do's" since before Christmas. Now, don't think that I actually clean the oven that often. I do clean the burners and top fairly often. I'm pretty sure I cleaned the oven when we moved it (or at least wiped it down), but that is getting very close to four years, so I'm actually really bad at it. After doing it, I forget how easy it is with the spray. Not that bad. Kind of like mopping the floor. It usually takes ten minutes or so, but I put it off. Hence the chore chart I made for myself. Now I have no excuses. Each week I plan on making sure an appliance is clean (oven, stovetop, toaster, microwave, fridge, freezer, and repeat.)

I even had a little four year old helper today who wanted to clean the floor with me with rags and a bucket on her hands and knees like Cinderella. She sang Cinderella songs with me too and asked if we could do it everyday! When Elizabeth got home, she wanted to help clean the floor and wash the walls too. I think she was distracted by the nice weather outside before getting to the walls, but she wanted to ride her scooter. When it was time for dinner, I asked who wanted to wash the table and Olivia jumped right on that. She was all excited.

Just in case you would like a list of the chores I have on the chart they are:
Daily Chores:
*Dishes
*Dinner (I like to make most of dinner preparation during Vincent's naptime, so it's not so hard after school and everything is ready to go.)
*Replace Hand towels and Washcloths
*Tidy House

Sunday: Day of Rest/Family Day
Monday: Launder Clothing/Clean Car and Entry
Tuesday: Kitchen Deep Clean and Mop/Paperwork (kid papers, cards, bills)
Wednesday: Make Grocery List, Vacuum and Dust,Run Errands
Thursday: Grocery Shopping/Weekly Menu
Friday: Deep Clean Bathroom/Organize Toys
Saturday: Change Beds/Launder Bedding and Towels

I'm giving one (or maybe two) of these away.
Tell me which day you do your grocery shopping and I'll arrange it on a chore chart especially for you.
I have set it up in a new program Andy helped to make so I can easily change the chores. For this one, I printed the chores, cut them out, glued them on a different piece of paper, then scanned that, erased all the black lines that showed, and reprinted it. A little too time consuming and my husband is great and fixed it for me, so your chart will look nicer.

Giveaway ends February 28th.

New Class

Elizabeth switched dance classes again. She was in ballet for the last semester and wasn't enjoying it, so I moved her to the tap class for her age. She went to tap for one week. I saw one of my good friends picking up her two daughters from their musical theater class and decided to move Elizabeth into their class. She wasn't having fun in tap anyway. A whole hour of tapping for a seven year old just didn't look fun. She started the new class on Thursday with her friends and loved it. She had so much fun and picked up pretty quickly what they were doing, when she wasn't goofing off.
I took some video so you can see what a goof-off she is. I guess the song is from "Singing in the Rain". I don't think I have ever seen that movie all the way through. I should, I'm sure.

Yarn Hearts and more

After school on Monday, the girls wanted to do a craft project, so I got out the magazine article I tore out a month or so ago that I planned on doing with them. It's a yarn heart stitched on paper. The girls enjoyed it.
Olivia working on her heart. Elizabeth used the variegated yarn and it looked really neat. The only trouble was that the middle wanted to arch out, so I weaved a little through the middle to secure mine. The girls took their hearts to the birthday party on Monday night to give to their cousins. I found Vincent watching Dora like this a few nights ago after Andy went to the other side of the house. Makes me wonder what else he does when left to his own devices...He was eating some M&M's with daddy.
I also made myself a chore chart a few weeks ago. I am working on making the type nicer because when I made this one I had to print out the words and then cut and paste (for real, not just cut and paste on the computer) the words into a circle shape, then scan, delete all the black lines where the pieces fit together, and put it into a different file. It was a lot of steps. Andy made a template for me to make a better one, so I'm working on that.
This chore chart has been very good for me. Each day I have different chores and it rotates so I don't forget how long it's been since I cleaned the bathroom (my worst place to clean). I also have dusting, paperwork, and cleaning out the car on my chart so it gets done. I plan on selling these (customized, if desired) at the Spring Event. It will have a magnet on the back and a list of daily chores on the front too. I have mostly stuck with the chores. I dusted the living room last week, so this week I dusted and cleaned mirrors in the bathroom and bedrooms. I am tackling a different major kitchen appliance each week too. This has helped me not clean in a marathon way one day a week. I like it more. Today the bathroom and organizing toys are on the list. Gotta get going on that!

Final Birthday-for a while

Elizabeth and Christopher were born a day apart. Christopher is Andy's cousin. Andy's dad's baby brother's son, born ten years after their sixth child. Christopher has a baby brother, Brent, who is six months older than Olivia. We celebrated with them on Monday night with Andy's family.
I made more Lego cakes. This time they were Nacho Cheese yellow. The frosting helped the marshmallows slip, even with the toothpicks I used to hold them. I also use toothpicks to keep the frosting off the wrap-clever tip for traveling with cakes or covering them in the fridge or on top of the washing machine so no one will mess with them. We are so glad we have fun cousins close by who we can play with. We trade babysitting for doctor appointment or drop our kids off when we go to the Temple sometimes. We also get to combine birthday parties. Here is a picture of their third birthday party. I like that Chris's shirt says, "You don't know me." You probably don't know him.Vincent got a card with some money in it. He really enjoyed this quarter. I think he even said, "Money!"It was a lot of fun to visit and watch the kids play together. They get to play more on President's Day because there isn't school. That should be fun for Elizabeth and Chris.

NaDell in a Nutshell

My sister in law tagged me and it sounds fun. If you already know all you want to know about me, feel free to skip, but go to the bottom to see if I tagged you first.

*Your cell phone? A play Mickey Mouse phone. I don't have a cell phone.
*Your hair? Curly, long, and red
*Your mother? Quilter and very giving
*Your father? Kind and patient
*Your favorite food? Pretty much anything I don't have to cook, but I do enjoy cooking too.
*Your dream last night? I don't think I slept long enough to dream.
*Your favorite drink? Strawberry lemonade with real strawberries in it.
*Your dream/goal? visit Satoko in Japan.
*What room are you in? Vincent's/Computer/Food Storage Room
*Your hobby? Cross-stitching and other crafts and baking.
*Your fear? Bankruptcy (Not planning on it, but still a fear.)
*Where do you see yourself in 6 years? Out on dates more because Elizabeth will be 13!
*Where were you last night? Home hanging out with my family.
*Something that you aren't? Perfect
*Muffins? Banana Chocolate Chip Crasin
*Wish list item? Serger
*Where did you grow up? Mesa and Umatilla, Burbank, but I've grown up more since getting married.
*Last thing you did? Decorated a Lego Cake.
*What are you wearing? Jeans, Blouse, Slippers, smile
*Your tv? On with a library movie playing for Olivia to keep quiet during Vincent's nap.
*Your pets? None. I have kids and don't like pets.
*Friends? I'm for them. =)
*Your life? Pretty great.
*Your mood? Happy, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna.
*Missing someone? Not at the moment. I'll see everyone I need to see soon enough.
*Vehicle? 7 passenger
*Something you aren't wearing? Galoshes
*Your favorite store? Kohl's
*Your favorite color? Blue or Red
*When was the last time you laughed? Everyday at my silly kids.
*The last time you cried? Reading "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks last week
*Your best friend? Very nice.
*One place you go to over and over again? The Elementary School my daughter goes to.
*Facebook? Yes, I love reconnecting with old friends.
*Favorite place to eat? Olive Garden

I Tag:
JaNae
Carrie
Laurie

Elizabeth's Birthday

Elizabeth had a pretty fun birthday. She spent most of the day playing with Olivia and one of her Primary teachers came over with gifts from the two teachers. When Vincent woke up from his nap she opened her presents from us so she could play with them before the party. We gave her a Lego set, a big plush Pet Shop that has a code to play with it online, and a bulletin board so she can display all her drawings and creations in her room. That outfit is new too. We had quite the party for Vincent and Elizabeth on Saturday night with my family. There was cake and ice cream and then all the regular stuff like presents, accidents, police visits... What? You say that at your parties you don't get to do so many fun things? Well that's how it happened.
My parents, my aunt and uncle, one of my brothers with his family, my sister and her son, and our friend Nathan came to the party. We visited until everyone arrived and then blew out candles on the cakes.
Elizabeth cake is a giant Lego. In case you are wondering, I just made a chocolate cake, frosted it, and used some frosted giant marshmallows for the top.Vincent's cake came from Yoke's because my mom called the country radio station here and won it for him. Andy went to pick it up and the best choice flavor-wise was a cake with flowers on it. (The girl behind the counter didn't think she could scrape the flowers off without wrecking the whole cake.) It was delicious. Clean up was necessary before present-time. Vincent liked this little yellow car and played with it while the dinosaur toy was being opened. After the presents were opened, we had a knock at the door from one of our neighbors. I answered and he asked who the white van belonged to. We assumed he needed us to move it or something, but he actually accidentally backed into it when he left his driveway. This van they went to Portland to buy in December. He came over to exchange information and then decided that we had better find out if we need a police report. My police officer brother in law (Andy's sister's husband) came over to check it out. How ironic, right? So, I took some cake out to him to eat and the birthday girl had a picture with him.If it wasn't for the hurt van, it would be funny. Hopefully this gets fixed quick.

Because I didn't blog when Elizabeth was born, I thought I'd add in some pictures here.
Here is what Elizabeth looked like as a baby. She was pretty chubby (9# 2 oz), so when she wasn't crying or eating, she was sleeping. She actually cried a lot and wore herself out so she'd sleep five hours at night, but the days were awful with all the crying. Looking back, I'm glad I had my hardest baby first because at least then I knew what I could be getting into for the second and third baby. They were not nearly as hard even though they didn't sleep through the night. Elizabeth was born on February 6, 2003. Her due date was on February 5th. I was actually in labor all day on the 5th, but laid on the couch all day to try to not be in labor. The MiaMaids were throwing me a baby shower that night for our ward and I didn't want to miss it. I went to the baby shower, came home, organized all the presents and put them away, and then at 10pm when the Law and Order theme song came on (that's how I remember the time), I realized we had better go to the hospital. We had her the following afternoon. It was hard. I'm sure most of you know the story. I had a c-section after all the labor and stuff and I don't think most of you want to hear my story again. If you do, let me know and I'll tell you.
She has been fun to have around once she got over the crying stuff (well, she's mostly over that!)
She is three months old here. My mom liked to bring over dresses that I had worn as a baby and try them on Elizabeth. Some of them were too little even when she was born, so she had to hurry and bring them over a lot at the beginning. She was even too big for my blessing dress.
Elizabeth really is a sweet girl and we love her.

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

I don't know why typing that makes me think "Greased Lightning, go greased lightning" from Grease.....
Anyway, we went to Red Robin tonight for the two birthdays. Elizabeth turns seven Saturday and Vincent turned two last Sunday.We didn't have to wait too long to get to a table which was nice. Vincent kept yelling when the waiters would walk past our table with food for other people. Andy and I played tic-tac-toe with the girls.
Andy and Olivia.Elizabeth and NaDell.After eating our food, they came over and sang to Elizabeth and Vincent with balloons and ice cream sundaes. I wanted just a few pictures and ended up with a bunch because Vincent started being cheesy tonight. It was so strange because he doesn't normally do that. Does this usually start at two? It was so funny (to me at least, hopefully you don't find it too boring.) At least we know where he got it from.
Elizabeth and Vincent while the Red Robin waiters and waitresses were singing to them. Elizabeth was a teeny tiny bit excited for the ice cream sundae.
See? Right after she had a few bites, she decided it was too cold and let Olivia and Andy have some too.
Vincent likes using utensils all the sudden. He started getting mad at us if he doesn't have one, but can't say that, so I just had to figure it out with his oh so helpful pointing. He actually did pretty well with it and only spilled a little on his shirt. Most of the mouth is still covered in ketchup from his fries.
Elizabeth loves her green (doesn't look that way in the picture) balloon. It's her favorite color.
Great outing with the family. Two birthday free meals and gift cards from work make for an inexpensive meal too. I like that.

Little Stories

Elizabeth has been pretty good about sharing things she gets with Olivia, but mostly because I make her. They both really enjoy Vincent's toys too, which is pretty funny. This is the toy they all like the most. The girls like to fill it with Polly Pockets and Pet Shop toys. I make them give it back to Vincent when he wakes up from his nap.
Olivia started starting each sentence with this: "When I was a whittle (little) girl..." I like it because she is four. She hasn't had that long to have memories of so many things, right? I made tater tot casserole last night and today when I heated it up for lunch, she said, "When I was a whittle girl, I really liked this. I still like this." Guess I don't make it very often anymore.

Olivia is also VERY excited about going to Red Robin tonight for dinner. Because of Vincent's and Elizabeth's birthdays, we have two free kids meals and Andy won some RR gift cards from work, so it won't cost us anything. I asked Andy on the phone on Monday if he wanted to go that night or Friday night and she overheard me, so she's been excited to go and on the countdown all week. She's getting so smart, learning her days of the week better, numbers, letters, matching. She's surprising me! Elizabeth was so stubborn about all of that and Olivia will just come up and bring me something to ask what it says.Tomorrow Elizabeth turns seven. Elizabeth had her friend party taken away because she just doesn't stop when it's time to stop, even if we tell her over and over. Two Sundays ago she kept trying to wrestle (for minutes) while the rest of us were ready to say family prayers. I had to take away wrestling for a week and finally took away her friend party. Monday I gave her a second chance because I hate taking away fun things like that. I told her that if she behaved, then she could still have a party. She was terrorizing Olivia and Vincent all week still even with repeated warnings. I did give her another chance this week to be good and one friend can come over Friday after school to play. She didn't do well again.
I hate being the tough mom and taking away the fun things though. I like throwing birthday parties and they love having friends over. Maybe next year will be easier since she will know I'm serious when I warn her that I'll take away her party. We will still have cake and ice cream with family. Don't worry. Olivia keeps asking me if she will still have a party. We aren't talking about her party in August yet. She also likes to tell her friends that it's almost her birthday. Then, I tell the parent that yeah, it's almost her birthday.....in August. Kids are silly.