Birthdays and Updates

Exercise update: I finished 29 days of a 30 day workout routine before they removed the episodes I needed. No significant changes in weight, for which I had been hoping. The program was called the 10 lb slimdown. I know that my body shape has changed for the better, but the scale went the wrong direction. I have had a hard time sticking to exercise since and need to get back to it. I have also been doing fairly well with the bedtime goal.

It was birthday time for Miss Isabella last week. She invited friends from school and most of the girls were able to attend. I had Isabella plus 4 other first graders, a kindergartner, my almost 5 year old and the little brother for a grand total of 8. Most parents dropped their girls off, but one mom stayed and helped me with all that energy. Isabella had requested bobbing for apples and I figured, "why not, it's her birthday." But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that it would be a serious germ fest. She settled instead for Mommy's version of bobbing for apples. We took a toy broom, with the bristles removed, so basically it was a short stick, and wrapped it with crepe paper. Then I washed the apples and tied yarn to the stems. (Tobias and I had gone shopping and spent several minutes trying to only find apples with stems) They we tied one apple to each end. Hands behind backs, the girls took turns trying to be the first one to capture the apple. I'm happy to say that it was a success and that there were no teeth lost and no germy water to deal with. Natalia liked it so much that she wants to do it at her party. We also made crowns and recycled the "kiss the frog" game from last year. I had drawn a picture of a frog on poster board, then I recovered it in Glad cling wrap (yes, I through last years cling wrap away). The girls got to pick one of my lipsticks, we applied it and then blindfolded them and spun them. The goal was to kiss the frog on the lips and transform him into the prince. Half the girls loved it and the other half have reached the "kissing is gross" stage and wouldn't even participate. We revisited the butterfly design from Natalia's cake last year. This year was strawberry cake with chocolate icing. We topped it all off with a movie that none of them could agree on and only one or two of them really even watched. Fun times.

Poor Natalia, though, is having a difficult time with this birthday thing. She is the last one to have a birthday and is feeling very left out. She has been very sad that Isabella has received all these new things and she hasn't gotten any. We pulled out the clothes from the attic that I have been saving for warmer weather and she kept asking why she didn't get new clothes. Of course, it didn't help that I discovered a purchase that had been set aside for Isabella and Tobias. The only things for Natalia were the hand-me-downs (which were also there for her siblings) and a pair of new flip-flops.

Cream Cheese, Mint, Chocolate....Yumm!

My beautiful 3 year old will be 4 tomorrow. However, how many kids would come to a birthday party on Father's Day? Yeah, I didn't think anyone would, either. We had a little get together for her today with a butterfly theme. Our tradition is for the birthday girl (the little man isn't big enough yet) to help make and decorate her cake. Isabella has made castle cakes for the last two years. Natalia wanted a castle cake, but only because of all of the candies we use to make it. Thoroughly bored with castle cakes, I convinced her to do something else with candy. Mark suggested a chocolate mint cake. I think he was joking, but it sounded kind of good to me. I'm often trying to make something look spectacular and this was a chance to make something super tasty.
I had made cream cheese mints for my bible study group several weeks ago. It was my inspiration for her cake. Mint frosting on a chocolate cake would be good, but mint cream cheese frosting...I'm resisting the urge to go get some more. I almost immediately stumbled upon a promising recipe at Epicurious. I didn't want to bake a sheet cake though. My vision had been a round cake with soft green icing and candy butterflies. I really didn't want a square/rectangle cake. So I opted for my grandmother's chocolate scratch cake and added 1 tsp of peppermint extract. It smelled so wonderful baking. I then used Epicurious' recipe for the frosting along with a few drops of "neon" blue and green food coloring. The result was a luscious minty cream cheese frosting.
Spreading on the cake was another story. Not fun. The frosting was too soft and runny, even now, hours after resting in the refrigerator, it is still very soft. Oh well, how pretty can a cake decorated by a 3 almost 4 year old be anyway? I had cut up pieces of black licorice for the body and used Jordan almonds for the top wings and Dutch mints for the bottom wings. Outside of the saggy frosting, it was just what I had pictured in my head. Purple being her favorite color, the butterflies were predominately purple. A pink butterfly for sister and some white ones for balance.
Mark made a homemade chocolate ice cream that tasted like a frozen hot chocolate (or at least what I would imagine a hot chocolate, that had been frozen, to taste like) It was the perfect balance to all that mintiness. Such a sweet daddy. Happy birthday beautiful! It's been wonderful watching you grow these last 4 years. I wish I could stop the clock and hang on to my precious little girl. I suppose the only thing holding me back is the desire to see what amazing things you will do with your life.

Disneyland!

Although I had some reservations about going, we decided that we should take them while we had the money. We started driving on June 16 and spent the night in Los Banos (not the bathrooms). The next day we drove to Anaheim and cringed everytime we turned a corner. We hadn't told the girls where we were going and there were Disney signs and characters EVERYWHERE. After getting to our hotel and seeing several kids wearing Disney hats, we decided that we couldn't wait any longer. We went to our room, pulled out the camcorder and made our announcement. We had a great first day touring Disneyland until I lost my camera on "It's a Small World". Just one more reason to hate that ride. It's August now and still no sign of my camera (I think it might have fallen in the water). We went to California Adventure the next morning and were fortunate to be there with only a few other families in the bug ride area, which meant next to no wait time. The highlight of our trip was dinner that evening. We took the kids to Ariel's grotto as a pre-birthday dinner for Natalia. The food was so-so, but the looks on the girls' faces were priceless. They were greeted by Ariel and also got to see Cinderella, Snow White Belle and Aurora during the dinner. Natalia was the most animated of the whole week and couldn't stop petting Belle's dress when she came to our table. The final day, Natalia's birthday, was spent at Disneyland with Mark's 2nd cousins CeCe and Laura. We made some great memories!

School House Rocks!!!

We went to the library on monday and I found it. Instant nostalgia. Saturday mornings, still wearing PJs, eating breakfast while laying on the living room floor and watching cartoons. Of course, I had to borrow it. I was a little saddened when the girls both protested. "I want Mickey" and "I don't want a singing one" didn't daunt me. I started it none the less... Okay, so I had to bribe them with princess shaped graham crackers within the first five minutes, but they will thank me...someday.

And who decided to call them crackers anyway. They are just a glorified cookie...

Port Orchard

We had the pleasure of visiting some dear friends at the beginning of March. Mark and I both went to school with Katherine and when she married Kevin, Isabella was in the wedding party. They have lived in Port Orchard for the last several years, but with three small children, this was our first visit. The girls promptly struck their claim on Kevin while watching cartoons. After a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and eggs (requested by Isabella) and cinnamon rolls, we decided to go to Poulsbo for a late lunch and some site seeing.

We ate at J.J.s (you will have to correct me if I'm wrong, Katherine) and being indecisive, I went with peer pressure and had the Halibut fish and chips. Delicious!

Mark and Tobias

Kevin helping Natalia clean up.
Kevin let the girls hold the leash to Fergus (Golden Lab) while he held on to the lead closer to the collar. They thought it was great!

Fergus poses with Natalia.

"Don't take my picture!" Although she didn't see me sneak this one.

The whole gang at the water front. Isabella called it the lake. Well, what else would a large body of water be? Port doesn't really translate in Toddler speak so I just let it be.

Thanks Katherine and Kevin for opening up your home and all of the wonderful memories we crammed into that too short day. We love you.

Heartwarming

I can think of nothing more exciting as a mother, than watching your children play nicely together. Especially the more children you add to the mix. The kids are playing with some Mr. Potato Heads, current and vintage. Well, vintage if you count items from the late 1980s. So funny to see their creations. And it lasted all of 30 minutes.
And my old childhood standby, card table forts!

One of My Favorite Pictures

Piggyback ride with Daddy.

February Funnies

Natalia is 2 1/2 and very precocious. She is constantly into everything and creating messes. Her vocabulary far exceeds the expected at her age and she seems to comprehend so much, yet she still wants a pacifier. Her love language is definitely touch and you have to be careful that she doesn't smother you. Yet, her spirit is so sweet and she will do anything to gain approval. We are also in the midst of potty training, still. And while most days are great, we still have some days that I wish I could wave a magic wand and be done with it. Now if I could just get her to stop picking up Tobias, I will feel that I have accomplished a great deed.After being told to leave the grapes alone, she stuffed as many into her mouth as she could. Daddy, unaware of mommy's directions to her, thought it hilarious that she had so many grapes in her mouth and rewarded her by taking a picture. Oh, what to do!

My little warrior - Tobias is 10 months and closing in on one year. I can't believe it is already upon us. As you can tell, he is very excited by the broom. Not because of the cleaning capacity that it holds, but because of the weapon like quality it possesses. I am amazed that at such an early age he is already completely different than his sisters. He absolutely loves to wave the broom around and it is even better when he has the mop and can bang them together. Look at the great swing!

Tobias is very sweet natured and it is very easy to get him to smile and show off his dimples. He loves to flirt and has started "singing" with his sisters as well as babbling. He has been crawling since six months, pulling up to standing since eight months, cruising since 9 months and I can only imagine that walking is right around the corner. He is such a good baby, I can only pray for the day that he starts sleeping through the night.

Isabella is quickly approaching 5 (birthday in May) and I cannot believe that she will be in Kindergarten in the fall. We recently purchased a booster seat for her and she was so enamored with it that she found an excuse to sit on it all day long. She is my problem solver and can often come up with a great solution if she doesn't let her anger get away with her. She is definitely a first child and tries to constantly control the situation. Mark recently told her that she wasn't the equalizer and she responded by saying, "I'm not an appetizer, you don't eat appetizers, Mom(with a laugh), Daddy called me apple cider." She can write her name and sometimes Natalia's. She amazed me the other day with a grocery list. The first two items were peanut butter (pen bdr) and bread (brad) and the rest were squiggly lines. Apparently, she got tired, although, Mark told me that one of the squiggly lines was supposed to be eggs. She also is very aware of anatomy and recently drew a picture of Mark's cousin that left me speechless. Nothing inappropriate happened and the only one she has seen naked is her brother. It is apparently time for separate bath times. She loves to help cook and I often find her trying to clean, without being asked. But when it comes to her room, the age old rebellion wages strong.

Roller Derby Darlings in Training

My friends were teasing me about Child Services taking my children due to an onslaught of recent injuries, which inspired this posting.

Some of you may not know that I sing on worship team at our church. I had made it to practice and through the first service like normal. I left after we finished singing and went home to pick up the family. I helped everyone finish getting ready and we were actually ahead of schedule. I was getting Tobias' hat when I heard the screaming. Talk about having your heart leap into your throat. Apparently Isabella had her hands in her pockets (there were no injuries to her palms) and was jostled by Natalia enough that she fell on her left side. Words cannot begin to describe the disbelief and fear when I saw her left side covered, head to toe, in dirt and gravel. You could see the violet bruise through all the muck. Luckily, Mark iced it right away and once she was cleaned up, the injuries were not as bad as they first appeared. We were late to second service and I had to sneak back on stage during the greeting time.

Injury #2 happened later that night while I was going to pick up our babysitter. Natalia decided that it was the perfect time to shave her face. Four razor blade impressions on her forehead, two razor blade impressions on each cheek and a cut on her upper lip that wouldn't stop bleeding. I'm still surprised that we were brave enough to leave them home with the babysitter.

Injury #3 Neither girl seems to comprehend the lesson of the monkeys that they know so well. Natalia decided to emmulate them and received injury number three when she fell off her bed and on to only who knows what (it changes each time you ask them and depends on which girl you ask). She received several gashes on the bridge of her nose.

I imagine by now you can reason out the title of this posting. My attempt to cope with the new look with a twisted since of humor.

A Budding Problem Solver

Anyone who has siblings know that there are some days when sibling rivalry can get over the top. I had gotten the easel and paper out for Natalia, as Isabella was otherwise occupied. It didn't take long for Isabella to discover and try to take it over. I was coming to Natalia's rescue and trying to make Isabella understand that it was out for Natalia and it was her turn. Isabella quickly offered me a solution.

She asked if she could draw on the other side. I know that it is silly, but it is one of the moments that I have been most proud of her. There was no fighting or complaining, just a simple request to move herself to the other side so that her sister could have her own space.

Here is Isabella hiding under the paper because Natalia wanted a clean sheet and Isabella hadn't finished with her drawing.And for those of you who couldn't tell, this is Larry the cucumber, of course!

Sisters

Hanging out together while playing Reader Rabbit. It was so cute that I couldn't resist the camera. They were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn't even turn around or ask to see the picture. It's a rare moment when they are not fighting over the computer.