Fire Pit

Ellie went to bed early tonight and Kayla, Nate and I had a fire in our fire pit. It was the perfect night for it. Cool weather, no bugs, bright stars, full moon...shall I go on? After we ate our fill of smores (which were extra yummy with the new limited edition chocolate/vanilla marshmallows), I layed down on the trampoline with Kayla, wrapped us in a blanket and we stargazed. She brought a little notebook to draw pictures and take notes of the constellations she saw. When she filled up a few pages, she read them to us: "A trapezoid, a triangle, a square, one that I don't know, a diamond, and a squid." Very precious. The memories I have of my childhood are various snips of here and there. There is no reasoning why I remembered some things and not others. I'm constantly wondering what will become a memory with the girls. I have a feeling that moments like this might.

Ellie

Ellie and I were sitting on the deck today eating orange sherbet push-ups together. She looked like she was really thinking about something and said, "You know, sometimes naughty happens." "What do you mean?" I asked. "You know, trouble happens." Wow, thanks for reiterating for me. I wish I really knew what in the world she was thinking about.

Minutes later, we were climbing onto the trampoline together. We noticed she was still wearing her big pink slippers. Elyana cracked me up once again when she said, "Kangaroos can't wear slippers...cause of the springs on their feet." I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm really really enjoying her at the age of 4! Very very loving, caring, potty trained and cute.

On a side note and as an update, I had another post surgery check up. I'm going to have physical therapy on the scar tissue issue twice a week for awhile. I had a splint made for my left hand and are trying to figure out when I'm going to get surgery on my left hand now. That's all for now as my left hand is already going numb. : (

New Trash Bin/Cabinet

I have wanted a new trash bin cabinet. One that will hold the trash and recycling. It also has a beautiful glass hutch on top. I'm ordering half of the whole thing at a time as I save up for it. I received the trash bins and counter top in the mail this week. They were padded with great Styrofoam boards. We had a slow day and so crazy as I am, I told the girls to be Karate pros and karate kick the boards in half as I held them. They loved that idea. Right about then, I received a phone call and stepped out onto the deck so I could hear better. I swear I was only gone a few minutes. When I returned, my living room had turned into a winter wonderland. They had broken up all the boards into tiny snowflake pieces. Ellie was doing snow angels and throwing them in the air. Kayla was trying to make the biggest indoor snow pile. Instead of being mad, I grabbed the camera. It's not everyday it snows inside! I'll take a picture and add it when I have the complete cabinet/trash bin/hutch set up. You can peek at it the modular cabinets at: http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/XGN.aspx?SearchString=modular+cabinet&submit+search.x=0&submit+search.y=0&JSEnabled=false&mscssid=&cmResetCat=true&hdnOnGo=true I'm annoyed because I can't find trash cans to fit inside! I think I might make a trek out to Lowe's today...








Oh yes, this picture must be added. Mikayla received a rock star guitar from her cousin, Sophia. With some crazy colored hair, and maybe some boots, she wants to be a rock star for Halloween.

Mikayla's Birthday Party

It was a few weeks after her actual day, but it was wonderful for my sister, her daughter Sophia, and my mom to come up for it. Mikayla wanted a craft party at our house this year. We had 4 different card tables set up in the basement with a craft project on each. At one we had some plastic masks to glue feathers to. Another we had a make your own chalk station. Another we had markers set up to color little wood castle people. And the last station we had make your own foam sticker photo frame. During the present opening, I took a picture of Kayla with each person, got them developed and stuck them in each child's frame to mail with their thank you cards. They turned out great.

Mikayla wanted a #7 cake this year. Easier said then done. I didn't want to waste cake so I decided to cut it just right and make a double-decker cake. I ended up using a dozen toothpicks to hold it together and tons of frosting. Designing cakes aren't my specialty, but it tasted amazing! I can't believe my baby is already a second grader!

7 Year Old!

Happy Birthday to my 7 year old! I can't believe how fast Mikayla is growing up. This year she received a new bike! Now we just need to teach her to ride without training wheels...


Polly Pocket's swimming tube and the palm tree is edible! Very easy cake to make. Polly Pocket looked like she tried to dive into the icing by the end of the night. She looked like one of the guys from the Blue Man Group!

The Girls At the Sprinkler Park

I wish my cell phone took better pictures. The spent an hour in the 90 degree weather cooling off yesterday.

They like to play with their umbrellas under the sprinkler.


Ahh, their hugging each other!

Shadow Box Frame

I got the idea of a scrapbook frame/shadowbox frame from my friend Sue. I didn't have enough pictures to make a vacation scrapbook of our trip to FL, but wanted to frame a page of our favorites. I found a shadowbox frame and filled it with some of the sand and shells from our trip and added an ocean scrapbook page in the background. I liked how it turned out!