Tangled day!!

Rapunzel and Flynn day here. This day has been heavily anticipated by 3 little girls for many weeks now-- the release date of 'Tangled' on DVD. We've been counting down the days.

It's quite a funny sight when you go to Target to pick up the movie and your 4-year old and not-quite-2-year-old daughters start screeching like teenage girls. And, from what Dan told me it was the same screech that came out of Maddie's mouth after she got home from school and saw that Rapunzel and Flynn are now part of our collection.

Coming to a consensus

This was my girls coming to a consensus yesterday about which playground we should go to in the morning. It was making me laugh so much because Abrie was raising her little hand for both Maddie and Faith's suggestions!

Thumper birthday party preparations

Show Show's 2nd birthday coincides with Easter this year.

It couldn't work out better.

She is so in love with Thumper and the Bambi characters, and that all works perfectly with Easter and its bunny theme. We started last week with the beginnings of party decorations/preparations. Big sisters love making drawings for their little sister, and they are SO excited to throw Abrie a birthday party. This will be Abrielle's first birthday party.

We all went to Michael's yesterday to get some odds and ends for her party, and the little flower pots that I had wanted for them to decorate. I used colored pencils this afternoon to draw a Thumper outline on each of the flower pots, and the colored pencils actually worked really well. I was excited! I colored in Abrie and Chase's for them, and figured the big kiddos could color theirs in by themselves. Faith already had fun coloring in her Thumper. I painted the tops for Chase and Abrie, and Maddie and Faith are now looking forward to their next movie night to do some painting of their own. And, the rest of the fun flower pot creations will be done on Abrie's actual birthday.

I am so, so excited for Abrie's birthday this year. I love having a spring baby, because it means fun outdoors ideas. We're hoping to be able to do her party (just family) at the lake, and I am really hoping that Easter brings nice weather. The five of us went up to the lake last year for Abrie's 1st birthday, and it was quite windy. Nice, but windy so the girlies didn't get to actually get in the water. But, so long as it's nice and we can take some beach buckets up to the sand and just let the kiddos run and have fun, I will be more than happy.

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More Abrielle pictures:

Pirates, cupcakes, chapter books, creative writing, etc

This week's medical news (how sad that I have weekly medical reports.. oh, how I wish spring would just hurry up and get here to stay..): all 3 girlies have now had run in's with pink eye, Faith had fevers off and on for 3 days, and Abrie got a fungal infection from her antibiotics that she was on for the double ear infection. Despite the multitude of illnesses though, these girls show no signs of it and have been happy as can be this whole week.

Pirate news-- big girls are obsessed with pirates. It all started with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney that all 3 loved. Faith then found a pirate CD at the library a few weeks ago, and the five of us can sing these songs verbatim now. (They are quite catchy songs). Dan and I have recently tried watching the Pirates trilogy (with the 4th one now due in theatres apparently in May), and Faith and Maddie have gravitated towards Captain Jack Sparrow just by looking at the cover of the movies. They have not watched any of the movies, and yet they talk about Captain Jack Sparrow and the legend of Davey Jones constantly. They are too funny. They've been busy collecting "treasures" (beads, shells, etc) in their wooden treasure boxes for weeks now, and they had so much fun when Uncle Nate was drawing maps for them last week. They drew these pictures today of their beloved pirates. And, yes they are now "in love" with Captain Jack Sparrow. (** Maddie likes to write everything by herself, so she sometimes misspells words that she writes phonetically. I am always impressed though with how much she tends to spell correctly without asking for help).

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Little sisters love to have Maddie read to them, and Maddie just loves being able to read to them. It's really neat to watch. Abrie will go and ask Maddie to read her a book if she sees that I am busy with something.

Faith loves to read to Abrie too; those 2 are so funny together. Faith of course reads mainly from memory, but she does sound out some words.
The three of them are very much into chapter books. Maddie and Faith started reading chapters of American Girl books when I was pregnant with Abrie (Faith was 2 and Maddie was 3 going on 4) and I was always impressed at the attention span they had for chapters that didn't have illustrations on every page. Well, Abrie is the same way. She likes to listen to any book, and she'll often come to us with one of her big sister's chapter books in hand. They really got into "Charlotte's Web" recently, and it's fun to relive old classics. This past summer they got into the "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" books that I always loved, and they read a chapter every night when we were in Maine. The American Girl's series and the Disney Fairies chapter books are still a hit, and now they've gotten into the Rainbow Fairies series and the Disney Princess chapter book series. It's fun, and I am looking forward to introducing them to other classic chapter books that I remember when I was little.

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Girlies were so excited to have spent the morning with Daddy planting their flower seeds. Dan is really anxious to get started with his fruits and vegetables for this year (saying he has high hopes is putting it mildly), but he has waited since we keep getting crazy weather. But, he and his 3 girlies did plant a mixed bag of flowers today in the back. Maddie hand wrote a little sign and put thumb tacks in it to keep it to the fence. "Our Garden, and it is the best garden. We love it" is what the sign says.

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Made some jello cupcakes tonight with my little helpers. I suppose it's an oxymoron to say that we like these jello poke cupcakes because it gets them to eat the entirety of their cupcake instead of just the icing. It's not like they NEED to eat cupcakes, but girlies have so much fun making them and they actually eat the entire cupcake instead of just licking the icing and leaving behind the cake part. Girlies have been talking all winter long about wanting to have another bake/drink sale in the spring, so we've been making lists of the different things that they want to make to sell. Jello cupcakes are one of them.

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Creative writing department: Maddie was telling us the other day on the walk home from school that she is so excited to bring her kid's writing folders home at the end of the year. She is so excited that she gets to keep those folders. I am excited too. I love going in to her class to see her work, and her pictures and stories are always so elaborate. She and Faith were looking at a scrapbook that they have (a scrapbook that Aunt Lisi made for Maddie's 1st birthday that she loves to look at all the time) where they used all the extra pages last year and would color pictures every day, and I would write the titles for the picture according to what they would tell me. Maddie thought it was so neat that she's always done kid's writing here at home. She and Faith were dying of laughter looking at how their pictures have progressed with time and age. The three of them looked at that for their bedtime book the other night.

Yet another reason we love miss T. Swift

I was making piles of discard books yesterday at the library, and found out that the space needed was for some 6,000 books that miss Taylor Swift has donated to the library and its branches!

Girlies were so excited that she has now left her mark at the places they visit regularly.

Crannie-isms

Two things that made me laugh today that Maddie said by accident:

1) She and Faith were talking today at breakfast about eating breakfast with the princesses, and she kept referring to the 'Akershus' breakfast at Epcot as "Jaq and Gus." Apparently, she thought the name of the restaurant was 'Jaq and Gus' since it sounds the same (which, coincidentally could make sense!).

2) She was telling me tonight about how Victoria from school let her have $1 for the school store tomorrow. I told her she shouldn't have accepted the dollar, and kindly told Victoria that she didn't need to buy anything from the school store. Maddie said, "well, I tried to tell her that Momma, but she existed" (as in.. insisted!).

Beautiful March weekend

Illness wise, I have absolutely had it. Dan and I succumbed to this recent bout of nasty illnesses. But, that has been the theme of winter 2011 for us.

Weather wise, this past weekend was absolutely gorgeous. It hit 80 degrees on Friday!!! That is unheard of in March. We spent the majority of Thursday-Sunday outdoors. Illnesses didn't stop us, and girlies thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful weather.

Only if you're a Show

Madison has always been notorious in our family for sleeping in the strangest places, and falling asleep in the strangest positions.

But, I think Abrielle now wins first prize for the way I found her napping the other day. She was wedged in between the rungs of the bunk ladder. There was evidence that she had been playing (what else?) hopscotch with her pals Thumper, Aurora, and Squirt.

I love my girl.

Gone swimming

I am quietly dying here of laughter.

Earlier tonight when I kept sending Abrielle back to bed after finding her setting up her hopscotch in the dark yet again, I was clueless as to where she had put her stuffed animals. I kept asking her where her Thumper, baby Aurora, and Squirt (from 'Nemo,' and who she insisted on sleeping with tonight) were, and couldn't figure out how they could have disappeared. She kept giving me fish lips (the way she tells us she is swimming, or what she does when you ask her how a fish goes), and I kept laughing at how cute she looked. But, I was still baffled as to where her trio of stuffed animals had gone.

I just found the answer.

I was just about to go to bed right now, and happened to notice out of the corner of my eye something in the bathtub. Oh, yes... Squirt, Thump-y, and baby Aurora were all in the bathtub.

No wonder Abrie kept giving me fish lips when I was asking her where they were. They had obviously gone for a swim;)


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My latest in our household of winter medical marvels:

Baby girl has a double ear infection. No specifics needed, but boy was it hell hearing her scream on the other end of the phone when Dan called me at work wondering what to do. I hate, hate, hate not being there.

And, my big girl has 2 wiggly teeth!!!!!!!!! I am SO not ready for this stage in her childhood. I was screaming in excitement for her when I noticed, and on the inside I felt like crying. It's a constant battle this thing called 'watching your girls grow up in front of you-' excitement mixed with the bittersweet tears. Maddie was grilling me on which foods might prompt her teeth to fall out quicker, and I kept picturing my sweet girl without her two bottom teeth. We'll see when they actually come out. It was so sweet though because she immediately said, "ohhhhhhhh, Momma! I've got it! When I get my 2 quarters from the tooth fairy, I'll put it in our envelope for Disney money!" My sweet girl.

And, my Faith? She's just as cute as can be, and has an immune system that apparently is made of gold. Or steel.

Cute movie

I just finished a movie called "Flipped." It is adorable, and I highly recommend it. Picture "The Wonder Years," only better. And, for some reason, the movie reminded me of my hopeless romantic who answers to the name of Madison Caroline. I don't know if it was the innocence of the "first flutters of love" feel to the movie, or the fact that the little girl in the beginning resembled my Maddie.

Speaking of my Maddie, I failed to jot down that my big girl did see an asthma/allergy specialist on Thursday of last week. She was diagnosed last week with (drum roll, please..) pneumonia (yes, this is the 4th time since the last week of November) AGAIN, and the doctor believes that she has a viral-induced asthma. We did start nebulizer treatments that Thursday, and for now her cough is better.

Little Cran started working today on writing a book. She is too funny. She told us a few months ago that she wants to be an illustrator, and now today she said she wants to be an author/illustrator. This girl has her sights set, and worked very diligently today trying to recreate a story about 'Katie the Kitten Fairy' (they now love the chapter book series of 'The Rainbow Fairies'). She's got about 4 pages paper-clipped together, and was so proud to show Rhonda this evening when we ran into them outside.

Even more anecdotes, and some closet confessions

Closet confessions first, I suppose...

Closet confession numero uno:

I stood over Maddie's bright yellow dress this evening with a Tide stick in hand trying to get out some red sauce stains before putting it into the wash with more stain remover. I have different categories for my girlies' clothes- a) clothes that I don't mind at all if they get dirty, b) clothes that doesn't matter too much if it gets dirty, c) clothes that I will put all efforts into removing stains from if they do happen to get dirty. I am so much less OCD about all of this than I used to be, but there's still certain things that these girlies have in their wardrobes that I particularly like for sentimental reasons, or just the mere fact that they're extra cute clothes.

Closet confession numero dos:

I think I have an OCD about being outdoors. I've started to really consider the fact that I should just live outside in a tent at times. I LOVE being outside, and I get antsy when I've been indoors for too long. I particularly despise working on sunny days when I know I could be outdoors with my three girlfriends. Is this normal? I'm not sure!

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Anecdotes:

In relation to my second closet confession, we had torrential downpours last week that provided wonderful puddles for "puddle walks" with Faith and Abrie. Maddie has rain boots on her Easter wish list this year because she wants to stomp in puddles as well! Luckily, we've gotten some wonderful hand-me-down rain boots, but only in Faith and Abrielle's size.

We went to the museum on Friday when Maddie was off from school. That library museum pass sure does come in handy, especially when the museum is showing off their new exhibits. We went with little Nora who we hadn't seen in forever, and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The four of them played wonderfully together.

We went to Lancaster yesterday after I got off from work. Pauliolio is headed to the Air Force Reserves on Tuesday, and we wanted to see him one last time before he left for Lackland. Girlies were excited to be sleeping over at Nene's house (with us, of course). Big girls were in heaven trying on Tia Rosa's scarves and high heels, and Abrie was in heaven giving out free kisses;) My night ended abruptly after I got a call from Grampa at about 10pm, and all I could hear in the background was Abrie screaming. My poor baby. I was able to calm her down, and we both fell asleep together on the old day bed.

And, today?? Cousins came today!! We hadn't seen cousins in what seems like forever also. Abrielle was making me laugh because she was so excited to see her 3 buddies, and she and Ella played Play Doh together while hugging each other. It was too cute. Those six always play so well together.

Why must I open my mouth/ Chores lists

I shall learn to keep my lips zipped.. I shall learn to keep my lips zipped.. I shall learn to keep my lips zipped.

I jinxed myself when I wrote my post last night about Abrielle being spared the 24-hour bug. And, I knew I would jinx myself the second I wrote those words. UGH! Abrielle woke up this morning with fits of belly pain, poor girl. I'd ask her if her belly hurt, and she'd say "uh huh" and just cry and cry. My poor baby. She didn't eat anything all morning, but luckily her bug went in and out of her system fairly quickly. She was famished by dinner time, and ate like a horse. We're staying dairy free though in this home for a few days to be on the safe side; Faith threw up her dinner last night after drinking her glass of milk.

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Maddie cracked me up today. She was reading her Rapunzel book and seemed especially interested/intrigued with Rapunzel's chores list. She got out some construction paper and started writing, and within a few minutes asked me if I could read what she had written:

"Maddie's List:"
I go to school
I will help with laundry
Make the bed
I help cook
I help my sisters
I help when there's an emergency. (** I really needed Maddie's help deciphering this last one, but once she told me, I could see how she had written it phonetically).

Ironically, the last one on Maddie's chore's list coincided with her and Faith wanting to practice calling 9-1-1 this morning. Only thing is, they accidentally pressed the 'talk' button after practicing typing in the numbers. I got a call within just a few seconds from the Berks Police making sure that we were A- OK.

I suppose it's good to know that the police respond that quickly;) Oh my.

Recent anecdotes

There's never a dull moment around here.

We're recovering from a stomach bug right now. Thank goodness, it didn't wreak too much havoc (the one from 2008 when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Abrie still gives me nightmares!). Maddie and Abrie have been spared, but then again Maddie was throwing up all last weekend so maybe she kicked it off for us.

Maddie had her follow-up appointment on the 28th for her pneumonia. The doctor has now diagnosed her with asthma. I still don't even know if this is the right diagnosis for her, but we brought the nebulizer home for the instances that she does start to get a wheezy cold again.

I am so absolutely sick of winter-- no pun intended.
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I willed myself to get my girlfriends down to the museum this morning. I was so looking forward to my Saturday off, and wasn't going to let a darn stomach bug keep me sidelined. The museum has a new seashell exhibit which was cool, but the big draw for them was the new "artist's corner" in the children's section. Granted the Reading Public Museum is not big or extravagant by any means, it still is such a neat place to take the girlies. They always enjoy themselves tremendously. And, the "artist's corner" was PERFECT for them. These three little ladies of ours are constantly drawing. They had markers, colored pencils, pencils, toddler crayons, crayons, paints, etc etc and little tables set up so they could just start drawing. And, there were two big wall murals which Abrie really enjoyed coloring.

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Our beloved neighbor, Sharon, had been pestering me for awhile now to get the girlies over to her house for a "pizza and movie night." She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and we just adore her. It's so telling too of how much these girlies love her because they beg incessantly to go to her house for a movie night, and yet they won't go by themselves with anybody else. We took them over about 2 weeks ago, and they were just in heaven. Sharon is too cute and even made a welcome sign for them on her front door. They loved it, and now it's hanging on their bulletin board in their bedroom. Sharon got them pizza and had gone to the store to get their favorite juice and fruit. And, she had gotten Joie's old (awesome!) dollhouse and elaborate furniture out of the garage just for the special occasion. These girls just LOVED it.

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Speaking of bulletin boards in their room, we finally made some changes to their bedroom. A few weeks ago we took down the crib for once and for all. Abrie's been sleeping on the bunks with her sissies for a few months now, but we just hadn't had the heart yet to take the crib out of the room. It was definitely bittersweet to move the crib, but it's also so fun to see these three all in one room.

Girlies have been wanting a place to showcase their artwork in their room "just like Andy and Bonnie do" (from 'Toy Story' movies), so we got them 2 bulletin boards, and they just love it. There's not a bare space on those boards since they're forever drawing. And, we put up some new pictures from this trip to Disney. I was able to make a free poster from snapfish.com, and it's so funny because now they say 'good morning' and 'good night' to all their favorite characters on the wall;)

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Little Show Show updates:

This girl is a riot. She's so funny, just like her big sisters. She's talking like crazy these days- all in her own language (another thing just like her sisters).

I was so excited that we got to see Thumper and his sister while we were at Animal Kingdom because Abrie just adores Thumper. Faith used to be so attached to this little stuffed Thumper too when she was little, but she outgrew it well before Abrie's age. Abrie has been attached to her "Thumpy" for a long time now, and has to sleep with him for every nap and at night.

And, her new thing is to constantly want to play hopscotch!! Nene got a foam hopscotch set-up for Maddie's birthday, and it's always been a hit with the three of them. But, lately Abrielle is obsessed with playing hopscotch. And, she loves to use little checkers pieces as the throwing tokens. It's quite hilarious when you hear the scuffling of little feet in the nighttime when everyone is supposed to be asleep, and you find a tiny little kid setting up her hopscotch just right and throwing the checkers pieces on to the numbers. My girl!