Five is Fabulous!

J turned FIVE last week and her birthday lasted forever! We had a family party with Grandma Crain and the Texas Bryner clan on the Saturday before her birthday and she requested a rainbow birthday cake like M had in May. This one turned out a bit better though. ;) Then she turned 5 on Tuesday and took cupcakes to pre-school. Then she had a friend party on the following Saturday where she was able to be completely fabulous as we danced to High School Musical 2 songs! She's really into HSM 1 & 2 and, to be honest, I am too! It's great fun to dance with the girlies to those songs. J and I have most of the songs memorized and sing them often. Even Miranda starts in with the, "I need, I need," song and we all do "Brrrghh Brrrghh Brrrghh MAH!" to make each other laugh. If you don't know what I'm talking about, find someone with Disney Channel. They play it pretty often. :) Anyway, J wanted a High School Musical party. But a unicorn pinata. O...kay... :) So we got some shimmery, see-through material from Wal-Mart that I cut in 6 inch wide strips to be little scarves, and they had star-shaped sunglasses, and of course MICROPHONES! We did musical chairs, the limbo, pinata (no one seemed to mind that it was a unicorn -- there was chocolate inside!!!), sing along to the last song in High School Musical 2, presents, then cupcakes (with musical notes on top of course!). It was very fun and not that stressful considering a dozen little girls were here. N slept through the whole thing and M was able to sleep through half of it and then enjoy some of it too! Here are pics of our fun time for your viewing pleasure.

Hard to Handle

Sometimes something happens in someone's life and you think, "I can't imagine what they must be going through." Well, this time something happened that hits too close to home. My good friend Courtney Flynn, who is barely older than me and has 3 young girls and a toddler boy, was diagnosed with leukemia last week. Our great group of friends and our church organizations went right to work taking care of everything. I've been helping to organize care packages, benefit garage sales, and bake sales, etc. but still feel so helpless to truly help. She is such a wonderful person that has touched so many people's lives! Even the person who took care of their mortgage loan e-mailed me asking how she could help! I've had dozens of calls and e-mails from people asking how they can serve her family and dozens more informing me of what is already in progress! It's quite inspiring to see the amount of people who love this sweet lady. I hope and pray that this huge bump in the road of her life can be surpassed quickly with modern medicine and all the help from people's prayers all over the world! She's a strong woman and a fine example of a disciple of Christ. If you pray, please pray for her and her cute family. WE LOVE YOU COURTNEY!

At least she's honest...

Lately when I see a mess or something not right around the house, I'll say, "Somebody didn't put this away," or "Somebody got this out without permission," or "Somebody needs to clean this up," and before the words are even totally out of my mouth, I hear, "ME!" M takes blame for pretty much anything around here and for good reason. It really is her I'm usually referring to but it's hilarious that she's quick to point out that it was her fault! She also uses the, "ME!," whenever something good is involved too, like, "Who wants a snack?," or "Who made this bed all by herself?" She's pretty centered on herself most of the time (as any two year old should be) but at least she's honest!

Starting School

Anyone that has talked to me recently probably knows that I was pretty disappointed about J not getting to go to kindergarten this year with most of her friends. She is 17 days too young for Texas schools to let her in, regardless of the fact that she's as tall as some second graders and she's reading as well as a second grader(no lie, she has just taken off in that area and loves it!). So I looked around for a good preschool and they are SO expensive (and I'm sure they're great!) but we decided the budget didn't allow for it. Then a friend told me her friend was going to hold a Pre-K class twice a week in her home for kids that were already 4 or 5 but not going to kindergarten. She's a member of our church, had great references, and a fee within our budget, so I signed J up and she started today! She seemed happy to go but not super excited. She walked right in, put her backpack and lunch down, picked up a new book, and started to read. Never mind that there were 4 kids there playing Legos in front of her! I know she's a bit shy for the first few minutes of any occasion but I'm guessing she'll be her social, talkative self by the next day for sure! Here's a pic of my cutie ready to go this morning!