Party Madness

So we had a great weekend celebrating Jill's birthday with friends at a local arcade, celebrating another friend's birthday, having dinner with some of Ben's co-workers, and having a youth fireside here at our house. I even got to go to a movie theater for the first time in a LONG time to see "Mamma Mia"! I love musicals, so that was a special treat. It was pretty good but a lot of stuff in it I wouldn't want my kiddos to see or hear, so I doubt I'll own it anytime soon. Anyway, we were BUSY and somehow I happened to get sick! Just a minor cold but it's still annoying. :P

The girls are doing great and I hope they don't get sick. Jill is still enjoying kindergarten and after the monthly rearranging of chairs, she actually sits at the same table as the aforementioned "hot" boy, so she thinks that's great. :)

Our Kansas grandma and a cousin are coming to visit today and spend a few days here, so we're all excited about that. Enjoy the pictures of the parties.

SIX

The day has come. My baby is six years old. It's been a fantastic day for her and pretty fun for me! I can't believe that the tiny baby I met six years ago today is this beautiful, fun, smart, social butterfly who loves to tell me all about her day, play games with me, read mystery books together, and giggle or guffaw depending on how funny something is to her. Yes, I'm bragging and every mother has the right. :) I just love her so much and I wanted her for so long and she was the beginning of fulfilling my dreams of motherhood and I couldn't have asked for anyone better. I LOVE YOU JILL!

The week started off with her Texas grandparents coming to visit a couple of days early and celebrate her birthday. We went to dinner and the wait staff sang to her and she was a bit embarrassed at first but enjoyed the chocolate cake! I think she was shocked because the waitress asked her to stand on her chair so the whole restaurant could see her. She looked at me like, "You're not supposed to stand on chairs at dinner!" Ha ha. What an obedient child! But she got up once I said it was ok. :) Then she got their presents and enjoyed starting her birthday early! Today I took Miranda and Natalie to playgroup and my friend Eliza offered to watch them at the park while I went to Jill's school to have lunch with her in the cafeteria. Yay for friends who are so generous!

I walked into the school and passed the library where a cute girl was chatting with friends and holding her library books. It was Jill! :) I tapped on the window and she saw me and started telling her friends that her mom was in the hallway! She knew I was coming but was totally thrilled. Made my day! So she showed me where to get my tray, where to get my chocolate milk carton, and where we needed to sit. They have a parent's table, so she didn't sit with her class today. I met a lot of her little friends in line and they were hilarious. Some were quite friendly and wanted my attention; others were shy but curious about this adult in line with them. :) I loved putting faces with all the names I hear about daily.

Then after school, we worked on her Student of the Week poster for next week, decorating it and coloring it. Then we went to IHOP for dinner and ate her favorite food--pancakes! We came home and gave her presents from us. No cake because her "friend" party is Saturday and there will be cake there. Plus, I'm bringing the Friday snack for her class tomorrow and I'm making cupcakes. So because I wanted to do something different (and because I totally procrastinated putting the presents in bags!), I had Jill cover her eyes and Miranda and Natalie handed her gifts one at a time. Jill thought that was great and the little girls loved participating. Miranda kept insisting the Barbie clothes were really for her Barbie though.

I bought Miranda a Barbie as something to work toward. She has a sticker chart and if she gets a small sticker in each category each day (morning routine, obedience, kindness, evening routine), then she earns 1 BIG sticker. We've been doing this chart for about two months. She usually gets 2 or 3 stickers every day; rarely four. I told her she could earn the Barbie with three big stickers. I'm afraid it's never going to happen! She does so good for a while and then is talking back to me, throwing a tantrum, hitting a sister. *Sigh.* I know it's typical for her age but I though the Barbie was such good motivation! She has earned one BIG sticker and today she did pretty good, so I'll probably give her one for today too. Maybe I need to lower the bar a tad. :)

Anyway, the party was fun and I just love my kids. I really need to appreciate them this much every day. Enjoy the pics of my cute girl! (I added two adorable pics of my other cuties for your enjoyment too.)

"I just think he's hot."

Yes, these words were uttered around our dinner table last night by my FIVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER! Yes, she'll be 6 a week from today but STILL, she's way too young to talk like that. She just calmly started the conversation with... "I have a boyfriend."

Me: "You mean a boy who is a friend?"
Jill: "No, a boyfriend."
Dad: "You mean a boy who is nice and you play with?"
Jill: "No, a boyfriend!"
Dad: "I'm not going to let you go to school ever again!" (I'm cracking up inside and trying to be serious on the outside.)
Me: "Sorry, you can't have a boyfriend yet. Not until you're 16. Boyfriends are boys that you like to go on dates with and you can't date until you're 16."
Jill: (only slightly disappointed) "Oh."
Me: "Why do you call him your boyfriend? Did he say he liked you?"
Jill: "No."
Me: "Do you play with him at recess?"
Jill: "No, he sits at the red table and I just think he's hot."

WOW! We were so not prepared for this conversation during her 3rd week of Kindergarten! I explained that it's kind of disrepectful to say you like someone because of their looks. I told her to get to know people and like them because they are nice and friendly, not because of how cute they are. She said, "Ok," and then we went on talking about other things.

I seriously can't believe my baby is already boy crazy. I remember running from a boy named Jeff in kindergarten who wanted to kiss me. Yucky stuff back then. I think I was in 4th grade before I got bit by the love bug and got asked to "go" with a boy named Chad. My mom found the "check yes or no" note in my backpack and gave me a similar talk that I gave to Jill last night. One of my friends said she thinks she was "boy crazy from the womb" so I guess everyone is different! :) I have 3 girls, so I probably won't be able to avoid all of this drama until they're all married in 20 years! :)

Wicked - Popular

My newest favorite musical. They crack me up!

What Was I Thinking?

I don't know how it snuck up on me. I've known for quite a while that it would happen but I didn't realize how bad it might be. The "terrible" phase has hit full force and I've got TWO in that phase! I don't know how people with twins (or more) do it. With Jill, she was a dream two-year-old and once three hit, we realized what everyone was telling us about. But still she was a mild and calm child even in that stage. Miranda has been a challenge since about 9 months old, so I knew we would probably be in for a few years of trouble but all of the sudden, Natalie has made it known that she is almost 2 and boy is it showing! Wow! Tantrums, yelling "no," throwing things, meltdowns over everything, etc. Miranda hasn't exited that phase and Natalie has entered. That's not fair! Not that Miranda isn't much more mature and able to verbalize what she needs these days but she's still only 3 and acting her age. I really miss having a baby who just wants to cuddle and be held or will sit and play by herself with blocks for a while. Now she wants me and she wants me NOW to get this toy down for her or re-fill her cup with juice or put her shoes on NOW! But ONLY after SHE does it FIRST! And then realizes she can't quite do everything and will demand my help at that time. Ugh. I knew she would most likely follow Miranda's example and she certainly has. Perhaps when Miranda emerges from this phase and is a helpful, sweet, calm child (and she is this more and more lately), Natalie will emerge soon after by following that great example. Hopefully!

Holiday

We took a nice holiday vacation to Kansas last weekend and had a lot of fun in a short amount of time. My brother's kids were up for the weekend too, so the girls got a lot of good cousin time in and, as always, got a lot of nature time. They were outside as much as we would let them and had so much fun with Grandma & Grandpa's animals. We got to see my cousin's wife and their cute twins, my uncle threw a party for the girl cousins and they watched "Ariel's Beginning" (and ate ice cream and cookies!), we celebrated birthdays for me, Maren (9/8), Mom (9/13), and Jill (9/18), my uncle took me on a shopping spree for my birthday where I got new clothes and an actual purse (not a diaper bag!), and we got our whole family picture taken together for the first time since Jill was 3 months old!!! It was SERIOUSLY time for an update. One of my friends since middle school is getting really good with her new camera and took them for us. I think she did a great job. Too bad Miranda and Natalie didn't smile their cute smiles in our small family picture but it's still cute. :) So we had fun but since the air conditioning in the van gave out 2 hours before we got home, we were really glad when we got back home to A-town. Well, Miranda wasn't. She says about 12 times a day that she wants to go back to Kansas. I told her that Grandma is coming HERE in only 3 weeks. She said, "Hmmm, how 'bout 2 hours?" She thinks everything is a negotiation! :) Jill is only happy because she gets to go to school. Otherwise, she'd be wanting to go back to Kansas 12 times a day too. :)