amelia turns six

Guess who turned 6 last week?!!  She spent the day with Grandma doing some birthday shopping, and they also went to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman which they both enjoyed.  (On a side note, when Josh came home from work, Amelia excitedly announced that she and Grandma had watched Mr. Peabottoms!!  So funny.)

Her grandmas and grandpas gave her a book light, a tea set, sandals, a swimsuit, a watch, and nail polish. :)

Claire and Meredith gave her some play jewelry and playdoh.  

We gave her the new Tinkerbell movie (The Pirate Fairy) and a bicycle bell.  

Her 21-year-old friend, Nina, came over and watched The Pirate Fairy.  (Have I mentioned that Amelia has best friends of all ages?!  She makes friends more easily than anyone I've ever met!)

For her birthday dinner, she wanted pancakes, blueberries, smoked sausage, Hershey kisses, and punch.  

She asked for an island cake with dolphins, and her friends James, Lauren, Landry, Colson, and 9-day-old Noah enjoyed cake and ice cream with our family.  

Thankfully, we had everything for the cake already in the toy bins...loved that we had mini-birthday hats for the octopi. :)

Amelia Kate,
You are energetic, non-stop, and a complete chatterbox.  You are not a smidgen short of being one-of-a-kind.  The dramatic fashion in which you handle disappointment could use a bit of work, but you love people, offer forgiveness, and enjoy life more than the vast majority of the population.  Child, you set a beautiful example without even being aware of it.  What a blessing you are!  Hope you had a wonderful 6th birthday!!

olivia turns three

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the fact that all mothers drop the ball from time to time.  Friday, it was my turn.  I uploaded some pictures to my computer, and I obviously didn't include them all in the upload.  It makes me very sad because the ones that didn't make it included little stinker pot's third birthday cupcakes.  

IF I had made them perfectly and taken perfect pictures, they would have looked like these:

Image: Erica's Sweet Tooth

Olivia's were similar...not as rounded on the top...no white mickey buttons...lighting not as great for the picture.  I'd say maybe it was better this way because the ones in the picture above are just so darned perfect, but then we miss Olivia's sweet little smile for her birthday cupcakes.  And you miss how three of them were lined up in front of her with a candle in each.  And you miss how she had to blow at them about 10 times to get them out because she was blowing up rather than out.  It was so cute, and I'm a bit teary-eyed just thinking about how I don't have it captured in a photo. :(  I'm sentimental like that.  

I'm sorry, Olivia.

And now I'm moving on because there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to bring back those pictures, so I'll happily show the pictures that did make the cut.  

The girls talked Olivia into a Mickey Mouse theme for her birthday party because they insisted that they do a Disney Day for Olivia since she didn't get to enjoy Disney with us in September.  They have been planning this for at least a couple of months.  They are so, so sweet to her, and they just couldn't love her more than they do.  

All three girls stayed up late on a Friday night to decorate and woke up at 6:00 a.m. the following morning to make cinnamon rolls, Mickey Mouse pancakes, and the works for breakfast.  Here's sneak peek at Disney Day:

Breakfast goodies: handwritten menus, Mickey stickers, autograph book for the day

fruit tray while we're waiting for our pancakes and cinnamon rolls

Loving the day already...and who wouldn't love Mickey Mouse chocolate chip pancakes?

Disney employees hand these stickers out everywhere.  The girls saved them for Olivia and used them in lots of places.  Love their creativity!!

Bippity-Bobbity-Boutique right in our own home!!  Complete with glitter hairspray, a tutu, fairy wings, and a sash.

1st Visit :)

She met Minnie Mouse...

...and Princess Anna...

and Queen Elsa.

The whole group together. :)

She rode Toy Story Mania.

This is a bulls-eye from TSM.  

They had her throw little sponges at the bulls-eyes that were all over the hallway.

They had the Mad Tea Party in the kitchen and used the roller coaster scene from Despicable Me as another roller coaster ride.  They put a kitchen chair in front of the t.v. and would lean the chair all around depending on which direction the roller coaster appeared to be heading. 

Is that so sweet or what?!  

At three years old, Olivia loves...

-reading books

-playing Legos

-taking baths

-playing outside

-being with her sisters

-eating snacks

-giving hugs

-being a helper

-playing with dolls

-talking

She's not so much into...

-sitting still

-trying new foods (although once she does, she often likes them)

-having her hair brushed

-being fully potty trained

-telling Daddy goodnight (not sure why?!)

Olivia,

We love you more than words can say.  You make us laugh every single day, and we can't wait to watch you grow this year.  What a joy and a blessing you are to our family!

too much information

Most kiddos really don't have a filter when it comes to appropriate topics at the dinner table, and my amazing six year old definitely falls into that category.

We went out to dinner tonight at a local restaurant with my dad.  And one of the owners (who my dad and I both know) came over to chat with our family.  

As she was chatting with Olivia, Amelia piped into the conversation: "Yeah, she's not feeling too well.  She had diarrhea earlier."

Of course, we all laughed, and I was thinking that we might need to discuss appropriate topics for dinner conversation sometime in the near future.

The following portion of the story is waaaay too much information, but it's just too amusing not to document for the history books.

  

Shortly thereafter, I took Olivia and Amelia into the bathroom.  As Olivia was sitting on the toilet, Amelia noticed a little bit of poop still on Olivia's backside that I had obviously missed when cleaning her up after her nap. 

A: Mom, she still has a little poop on her bottom.

Me: I see that...sometimes that happens...(and recalling our earlier conversation at the table)...you don't need to mention this to anyone once we go back out to the table.  

A: (slightly shocked) Oh, I wouldn't do that, Mom!  You don't have to tell me that.

Me: Well, you already made the announcement that she had diarrhea, so I thought I should mention it. :)

Love the way she makes me laugh.

age three

I decided to do a little comparison tonight of my girls at age three.  I didn't dig too hard for pictures, but these are the ones that I compiled.

I was shocked to look through the pictures of Meredith and see how much Olivia resembles her.  I don't think you can really tell it in these two pictures of Meredith and Olivia (because Olivia gives her cheesy photo face).

Love these girls!

the melted ice cream cone cake

Meredith chose a super-simple melted ice cream cone cake for her birthday.  It was one of the easiest birthday cakes I've had to do.  (I won't lie, I try to gear my kiddos toward easy cakes on Pinterest.)  She wanted white frosting for the cake and sprinkles for the ice cream cone.  

I made a simple ganache (seriously, it tasted like chocolate gold):

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup chocolate chips

Put the chocolate chips in a bowl.  Heat the whipping cream in a small sauce pan over low heat until tiny bubbles begin to form on the sides and it begins to steam.  (I didn't have much luck with the bubbles, but it was steaming.)  Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and DO NOT STIR for 1 minute.  Whisk the chocolate chips and cream until smooth and let it sit for a few minutes.  

For the "glob" of ice cream, I found some brownies in the freezer, thawed them and formed them into a ball.  I poured the ganache over the cake, held the little cone on top for a minute, and sprinkled some rainbow sprinkles on top.

Glad you had a great birthday, Meredith!

slight exaggeration

Each school day, the girls have to complete their memory work.  It includes all subjects with things like history dates, grammar rules, scripture verses, word definitions, random important information, etc.  There is a rotation so that they are reviewing things about once a month and practicing new things on a daily basis.

Currently, Claire has some definitions that she's working through.  There are probably about 15.  She has to read through them at least 5 times when she does her memory work.

In light of this info, here is our most recent conversation regarding memory work:

Claire:  Mom, these definitions are taking forever to get through!
Me:  There aren't that many.  Just work through them.  I'll go through them with you once or twice if it would help.
Claire: No...I can do them...they just take like 2 hours to go through!
Me: Two hours?  I don't think so.
Claire:  (sigh) Well, they take at least 5 minutes!!!

We don't exaggerate around here at all.

meredith is nine

Our sweet Meredith Ann is nine years old today.  She is celebrating her birthday all weekend.  Yesterday, we went to our church's roller skating party, my mom took her birthday shopping, and we ate her birthday dinner meal.  She requested a pork shoulder on the grill, salad, honeycrisp apples, homemade rolls, and punch.  It was delicious.  

Today after church, her friends (Winter and Rose) are coming home with us for the afternoon, and their family will join us for cake and ice cream after dinner.  She's thrilled.  

At nine years old, Meredith continues to be extremely creative in her love of arts and crafts.  She also loves babies and asked us to have another for her birthday.  (Amelia then asked for twins for her birthday.  We denied both.)  Her sense of humor has completely emerged this year, and I find her absolutely hilarious.  She gets along with pretty much everyone and is the most obvious peace-maker among our children thus far.  

She continues to have an obsession with knit pants and a hatred for jeans.  She wore jeans for our entire family photo with Josh's family in 2011 and again for the family photo in 2013.  I'm not kidding when I say that those are the only 2 times she's worn them in the last 2 1/2 years.  At least we have photo proof.  

Her hair reaches her waist at this point, and her plan is to donate some of it this year.  She's excited to spend some one on one time with me this year as I do some occasional weekly studies with the girls once they turn 9.  

Meredith,

We love you more than you can imagine!  Your love and compassion for others is obvious and admirable.  It is a joy to have you as part of our family and watch you grow.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!