Earth Day/ Easter/ Abrielle's 2nd birthday weekend

Busy weekend. But, so very fun.

Earth Day was Friday, and girlies had been dying to do another trash pick-up again this year. So, we made our signs the night before and they decorated them with Planet Earth stickers that day. Faith and Maddie were not kidding around about wanting to collect every single bit of trash that they saw. They were funny. We walked down to the duck pond, and then came back for a snack of dirt pudding with gummy slugs. Abrie was my helper for the dirt pudding this year, and it was delicious.

*****

Dan's family came over yesterday afternoon to celebrate Abrie's birthday with us. We had fun, and my girlies were so excited to wear their Easter dresses. The first half of the day was so ugly with non-stop raining, so we went to the library while Dan went fishing. The day actually turned bright and warm by mid-afternoon, and we were able to spend the second half of the day outside with Molly and Tyler. Girlies had a great time.

*****

Today was my baby girl's 2nd birthday!! It feels surreal to know that my BABY is 2 years old. This one hit me hard for some reason. 2 years old seems so much older than 1, and it feels like Abrie is more of a 'big' girl now, and less of the baby that she'll still always be to me.

I will admit to having OCD this week about the weather. I literally watched the forecast about 12 times a day, hoping the forecast for today would change. It wouldn't budge though, and every meteorologist under the stars was calling for rain ALL day long. My big dreams of having Abrie's party at the lake were slipping away rather quickly. But, we woke up to brilliant sunshine and not a raindrop in sight (despite weather.com's forecast still insisting that even at that moment it was supposed to be raining), and I felt so relieved (only problem was I overlooked the need for sunscreen, and Maddie got quite sunburnt from spending the whole day outside!). Abrie loves being outdoors, and this weather couldn't have been better for her big birthday day.

We spent the whole morning outside setting up her Bambi and friends ring toss game. Girlies all helped decorate the sidewalk with chalk drawings, and Abrie and her sissies spent the morning blowing bubbles. Abrie just loves practicing with Faith's scooter too, and so she went up and down the street on the scooter. She's actually really good at it for still being so little.

I had decided to go simple and incorporate 2 of Abrie's favorite things for her birthday cake: hopscotch, and Thumper/Bambi/ and friends. Thus, the hopscotch cake. She loved it.

Cousins Donovan, Ella, and Chase (and Aunt Lisi and Uncle Nate) came today and Nene, Grampa, and Tia Rosa. We all had so much fun. Cousins got Abrie the coolest water table (I've always wanted one of those for my little girlfriends) and needless to say, all 6 played so happily with it! It was a hit. I am excited to get a lot of use out of it this summer. We had an egg hunt over at the little day care, and they all had a lot of fun. And, then they decorated their little Thumper flower pots when we got back home. I made posole (with girls' help) since Abrie loves it, and she sat at the table tonight with the tupperware of spinach dip all to herself.

Tia Rosa got Abrie some really cool Crayola Wonders stuff, and they were all happily drawing tonight after a bath. And, Nene got Abrie some Thumper books which, of course, she loved.

I think Abrie's 1st ever birthday party was a success, and she had a lot of fun which is what counts!

My precious 2-year old:

The age of the... gap!!

My little Maddie has lost her first tooth!

This was quite a milestone. I feel like she's all of a sudden now turned into a "bigger" kid right before my eyes-- she has a 'window' in her cute little smile now! She could not be prouder either. She's been showing everyone today. She has made 3 envelopes already since she kept ripping the others open to show the neighbors and Dan. She went to sleep as happy as could be tonight with her envelope that read: "Dear tooth fairy, I love you. There is a tooth in here (that part made me laugh!). From, Maddie."

********

And, my little cowgirl with her Jessie doll and her cute little sissy. They were both so intrigued today by Maddie's new smile, and are so proud.

Miss Tina Cocolina...

Oh, how Abrie just loves this book. This has been another of her favorites for months now, and it's a book we have to renew constantly from the library. She keeps asking to see this picture of herself; I think she gets a kick out of the fact that she has a cupcake on top of her head just like in the book.

******

And, these are Miss Tina Cocolina's other daytime stunts:

Funday Sunday

Finally a lull in all the harsh rain from yesterday. Of course, today was a one-day respite from the rain and we'll get more tomorrow and Tuesday, but we loved it nonetheless.

Our sweet, sweet Rhonda and Dave organized a little neighborhood Easter egg hunt for this morning. Oh, my girlies were so excited. They were outside at 10am on the dot (Rhonda had made up invitations for them the day before). Sharon came with Easter bunny ears on her head, and a Kleenex ball for an Easter bunny tail. Girlies LOVED that! And, they had so much fun at their Easter egg hunt. Rhonda had little baskets made up for each of them as a treat too. I remind these girls every day that they are so lucky to have such wonderful neighbors.

******

And, this afternoon we had Chase-y boy's 1st birthday party! Girlies had been so excited for this as well. They affectionately call him "Fuzzy head" (just like they do with Abrie), and were so excited to see him turn one. They all had a blast with their cousins, Nene, Grampa, Tia Rosa, and Aunt Lisi and Uncle Nate.

Buddies

The Flop and the Show Show:

Yo ho, yo ho

Small glimpse of summer

86-degree day... we just love you!

Deja vu

I get deja vu fairly regularly when I see something that Abrie does that is reminiscent of something her sisters used to do.

This was Abrielle's face today:

(23 1/2 months old)

This was Faith's face in February 2009:

(26 1/2 months old)

Pre-Easter fun/ cool new spot

Took advantage of the fact that Redner's eggs are on sale for $.99/dozen, and bought 3 dozen specifically for Easter egg dyeing purposes. We went old school on the eggs, and did without the packaged dyeing kits this year. Girlies had so much fun using crayons on the eggs, and then rolling the eggs in their designated color "baths." And, the eggs turned out great! I was impressed-- Abrielle had some really neat designs.

Big girls did a fun Easter weaving project this afternoon. The museum had a weaving display the last time we went, and they had been intrigued by the idea. So when I found this idea in a book, I figured it'd be perfect. They had a lot of fun with it.

******

Dan has been looking for good spots for fishing that would be ideal for him to take the girls. He has high hopes for lots of fishing this season, and will be getting his fishing license this week. He's always enjoyed sharing his love for fishing with his girls, and they have always enjoyed going out with him. Maddie even caught a few sunfish last year all by herself!

Anyway, he found a little stream behind the duck pond when we took Faith and Abrie last week to play. And, I wanted to show this spot to Maddie so we walked down to the duck pond this afternoon (sans Dan, who was sleeping due to a late hold over at work). They had so much fun-- stomping through the stream in their boots, tossing rocks, picking wildflowers, pretending they were fairies, and just getting dirty.

Girlies had helped make posole yesterday for dinner (it was perfect in that it had so many ingredients, they could each help with several AND it made enough that it's been lunch and dinner now for 2 days straight) and a chocolate cake for dessert. It was a fun weekend!

My Faith

Faith is always telling me, "Momma, you the best Momma in the world." And, I always tell her, "you're the best Faith-y in the world."

This girl is notorious for cowgirl boots or rainboots. It's one or the other. They are her favorite shoes. She is notorious for sideways eyes when asked to take a picture. She never looks straight for a picture! She is obsessed with the ocean- beluga whales specifically. She is an absolute germaphobe. It's quite funny to hear a little girl ask so often, "am I touching germs? Can I wash my hands yet?" We make pit stops at all bathrooms so that we can make sure Faith washes her hands. She wants to learn and do everything that Maddie does. She's an expert at lowercase letters now, and asks for homemade "spelling charts" so that she can spell 3-4 letter words by herself and hang them proudly on the fridge to show Maddie.

She's got the biggest heart, the sweetest personality, and the funniest sayings.

Dan tells me all the time that Faith is his best helper/buddy when I'm at work and Maddie's at school. She helps all the time with her Show Show, and not because she's asked to, but because she wants to.

Faith is her big sister's best friend, and her baby sister's confidante. I couldn't be prouder of my Faith.

Is it baseball season?

Puddle walkers

Maddie's got rain boots on her Easter "wish" list this year, and it's no wonder why. She wants to have good stomping boots for the puddles like her sisters!

Took my two buddies this morning for a puddle walk. They had so much fun. The skies opened up about 20 minutes after we started, and it began to pour! They had fun running back in the rain.

An anniversary of what exactly?

Last week marked a year that I've been working somewhere other than here at home. Instead of being with my family 24/7, I am now away from my family for some of that.

It's not something I like.

Today was not a good day. But, I came home to find that Maddie had made me this:

"Thank you for being the best maker (translation according to Maddie, "chef") in the world. You are the best momma ever."

My heart was full and happy again.

Show Show quips

Oh, my little Show. I can't get over the fact that my baby will be 2 years old in less than 3 weeks. Where does the time go? Seriously.

I ordered off of etsy.com for the first time a few weeks ago, and was so excited to get Abrie's birthday dress in the mail yesterday! I've always loved pillowcase dresses, and used to think they were so cute when we lived in Shreveport and all the little girls wore them. I was able to find someone who made a pillowcase dress with Bambi material, and Abrie just LOVES it. She was proudly walking around with the dress on its hanger. Of course, Thumper and Flower are on the dress too;) And, I ordered Bambi hairbows for the birthday girl sisters. Those came last week. I was quite happy with my first etsy.com order.

Recent Abrie pictures:

This happens to be Abrie's new resting spot... yes, it is the top of the stairs in our hallway. Oh, this girl. She loves to sneak out of their room and lay here. Maddie and Faith always laugh in the mornings: "Momma, I saw a little fuzzy head sneaking out to the hallway. Was she sleeping there again? She's our little fuzzy pet!"

Abrie this morning hugging her "son" Prince Phillip. She was taking such good care of him.

We got this book "Shoe La La" from the library a few weeks ago, and Abrie just LOVES it. She reads it about 20 times a day.

Abrielle and her buddy, Chase

Abrie and cousin Chase are Maddie and Donovan, version 2.

Abrie just adores Chase. Whenever we say his name, she'll do her 'love' face and say "awww" since he's the baby in the family. They are almost exactly 1 year apart; Maddie and Donovan are almost exactly 7 months apart. When Maddie and Donovan were little, I still remember how nicely they would play together. Maddie affectionately referred to him as 'Guy' (for the longest time too; in fact, Faith grew up calling Donovan 'Guy' as well). Abrielle and Chase play so incredibly well together too. They sat at Aunt Lisi's house on Sunday and played Micro Machines together for quite awhile. They were deep in conversation for a good bit, too.

The similarities in the relationships are sometimes surreal. I am looking forward to watching these two grow up together.

Sweet cousin time

Visited with cousins Donovan, Ella, and Chase on Sunday.

It's been so hard to coordinate schedules this winter due to the constant cycle of illness, but we were able to get out to see them on Sunday. My girlies were cheering when they heard we'd get to go visit cousins!

We had a fun day, and even made it out to Valley Forge to run around and explore. The last time we had been there was the summer of '09 when Abrie was a tiny little squirt. Madison and Faith never cease to amaze me though with their incredible memories; Maddie was quick to point out that she had eaten some of Aunt Lisi's watermelon the last time we were there. I had to think for a second because I didn't even remember that little detail. And, Faith asked if we had any "goggles" for her to wear again so that she could spot the deer. Once I thought about it, I remembered she had worn Donovan's binoculars the last time we had gone. I love that they remember even the slightest of details; it makes me happy knowing they have such great memories.

Anyway, we had a blast playing in the old Valley Forge bunkers ("cottages") and sitting on the cannons. The six of them ran to their little hearts' content;)