Anticipation builds!

Girlies are so beyond excited for Christmas, it's not even funny. Well, actually, it is funny... and cute. The second Faith wakes up every morning, she announces the new countdown until both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They are ready!

Maddie stayed home from school today, and it was a wonderful day with my girls. It always feel like a gift in itself to just be able to relax at home with my 3 best girlfriends and have them here the three of them together. It was ironic what they decided to construct today. Maddie decided that since they've been busy playing with their Princess dolls that they needed a big dollhouse that would fit them. She made one herself out of a box and decorated it with Christmas bows. She and Faith got out their markers and drew a picture of a Christmas tree too to hang beside their make-shift dollhouse.

They played with that all day. The funny part is that I myself spent all of last night putting together their big present this year... a dollhouse that is big enough for their Barbie-sized princess dolls. It's funny how you see the excitement on their faces as the anticipation builds all month long for Christmas, and at the same time, how our anticipation builds just thinking about how their faces will light up when they see their Christmas gifts. We are really excited!

Spent the day outside and then the afternoon making cookies for Santa. It was a fun day!

And, this was graham cracker Christmas house fun this past weekend:

Peaceful days

Enjoyed such a relaxing weekend this past weekend. We didn't do much of anything besides making graham cracker houses, and the doing nothing aspect was literally the best part. I am so thoroughly looking forward to my time off at home with my 3 best girlfriends over the holidays. If only our favorite Daddy-o were off for Christmas with us..

December and an art sale already

Projects out to wazoo these days. Between that and TRYING to do Christmas shopping online (or, rather, practicing the art of putting items in your online shopping cart, and then 1+ hours later removing them all and heading to bed frustrated!) this online journal of mine has really fallen by the wayside.

Sufficed to say, I don't NEED my online jotting down of notes on my three girlfriends, but I do so love this way of being able to fill in the fuzzy outlines of the memories later on down the road in life.

Anyway, girlies have been busy with their set-ups as per usual. Nene got Faith their 1st ever Calico Critters for her 5th birthday, and these girls just adore them. They've had the Playmobil dollhouse in the living room for 2 weeks now, and the squirrel and cow families go back and forth between that dollhouse (their supposed "home") and the smaller dollhouse (which is their vacation home in Disney!). Faith and Abrie were busy playing all sorts of things the other day last week too, and they were having so much fun. They colored some more outfits for Faith's life-size paper dolls and pretended to go to a ball with Rapunzel and Ariel, and then were parading around with blankies on their heads that were supposed to be their astronaut helmets. They literally pulled every food item out of our cupboard then for their "astronaut food" and Dan had to vacuum up a big pile of cocoa powder that fell out while they sat with their cocoa astronaut food:

Maddie has been talking about wanting to do some sort of sale for the longest time. They had so much fun at their bake sale 2 summers ago, and had been wanting to do another one. Maddie is my dreamer of my 3 girlfriends. She thinks up ideas, and wants to make them happen right away. She is always getting notepads and notebooks out and jotting things down when she gets ideas. Well, she decided on Wednesday that she wanted to do an art sale this weekend. She and Faith went through all of their folders that I keep of their artwork, and they made piles of pictures that they didn't mind selling. Maddie hung out in the hallway outside their bedroom in the nighttime and worked on signs to post on our way to school that following morning. I just couldn't tell her no. She was up at 6:30am on Saturday morning wanting to get dressed and ready for her big sale. She brought their little table and chair upstairs to the front door (we told her it was way too cold to sit outside), and put out all the drawings. Dan and I were cracking up at her set-up.. she put a Barbie phone on a little table as her "secretary phone" and a little radio jukebox ornament for "musical entertainment." Her prices were a little outrageous, but she did have 2 customers and made $26! She and Faith were SO excited. They have been saving all their pennies for their Disney fund, and ran right away to put their money in their envelope.

And, Abrielle is just talking like crazy. Her new adorable thing that she says all the time is, "Oh, hunkey dorey!" from "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street." It is so funny when she says it! She sings all the time too, and learns songs just as quickly as her big sisters. She amazes me at how well she can sing the lyrics of songs.

Chapter books

Finished "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a couple weeks ago with my girlfriends. They loved it, and so I got the movie (the old version with Gene Wilder) from the library and they liked that too.

Tonight before bed we finished "Indian in the Cupboard." I think this one was Maddie's favorite. She and Faith just loved it, and Maddie particularly enjoyed it. It's fun to see what they think of some of my old favorite books!

Ocean party for a 5-year-old Flop

I'd say Faith-y's birthday party this year was quite a success.

It was a LOT of fun! Of course, half the fun is preparing for the party and having them help with the decorations. Girlies made the 'ocean in a bottle' craft a couple of nights beforehand, and they had so much fun with it:

Girlies helped hang the ocean decorations the night before:

Maddie and Faith "painted" some ocean pictures outside with wet sidewalk chalks. They just love doing that, even though I don't necessarily wet the chalks on purpose, but rather forget to bring them in during the torrential downpours;)

A new birthday tradition aside from the birthday videos that has started is a pillowcase dress that I order for the birthday girl. Abrielle had a Bambi pillowcase dress for her Thumper party this past spring, and I secretly ordered Faith an Ariel pillowcase dress for her ocean party. It was supposed to be kept secret until her birthday, but I couldn't help but show her the day before when it arrived in the mail. She absolutely loved it, and I thought she looked adorable:

Faith herself engineered the entire menu for her big day. She was so cute and said she wanted pizza again (a 2nd straight year for this pizza fiend), and "seaweed (spinach dip), clams (clam cookies), and ocean cups (blue jello with Swedish fish)." I somehow managed a small fish cake too:

Faith had so much fun at her party! Tia Rosa got her some adorable outfits and the sweet ocean book that she always checks out of the library. Cousins, aunt Lisi, and Uncle Nate got her some awesome life-size Rapunzel and Ariel paper dolls with outfits and accessories that you can color. Perfectly right up Faith's alley. AND, fairy underpants and a Rosetta doll! She was in heaven. Cousins all made a seashell 'fossil' with air-dry clay and the hit was an ocean trivia game that played like a game of Jeopardy. The weather fortunately was BEAUTIFUL on Friday, so we all walked down to the duck pond and spent a good while playing at the playground and walking around the pond.

It was a perfect day!

My 5-year old baby Faith

I just can't believe that Faith is 5 years old.

I just can't.

My girls are all quite easy to please, but Faith is definitely the most laid-back of her sisters. She had only one request for today, that we please visit the historical society. I thought that was cute that of all the things she could have asked to do, she wanted to go with Abrie AND Maddie (last time we went it was when Maddie was in school) to the historical society to play in the children's area.

So, we visited the historical society this morning and the three of them had a blast. They played so well. It's especially cool because we're the only ones ever there, so they have it all to themselves:

Faith was so excited to turn 5. She's been looking forward to it, and thought it was the coolest thing that she would already be 5 at 5:04am which meant she would wake up this morning as a 5-year old. She was so excited to watch her birthday video this morning when Dan got home, and open her birthday presents from us. We got her the toddler Snow White doll she'd been begging for (this Snow White joins the posse of Snow White dolls that we already own in this house!), and sissies got her a Silvermist fairy doll. Oh, she was in heaven. I am slightly worried though that having Silvermist has now touched off a "Silvermist needs some fairy friends" initiative for Christmas-- they were already asking today to edit their Santa lists to add fairy dolls.

Faith is very much looking forward to her ocean birthday party on Friday. She's essentially having the same birthday party as last year-- she requested another ocean/Ariel party! She's too funny. So, we've been busy for weeks making our decorations and jotting down ideas. The three of them worked on an ocean craft the other night, and it turned out great. Faith came up with ideas all her own for things to eat, etc so she is excited. One of my friends from work heard me saying that I didn't know how I would ever be able to make a beluga whale or narwhal cake that Faith had wanted, and she took it upon herself to make a whale cake for Faith! It turned out cute, and we just tweaked it a little:

I just adore this little Faith-y of mine. Her love for the ocean, her obsession with Snow White and a certain cowgirl named Jessie, her sweet little voice, and her huge heart. I don't know how in the world I've blinked and my turkey baby has turned FIVE, but I am definitely looking forward to this year of being 5 with my Flop.

Of books and imaginations

Imagination?? My girls aren't lacking in that department!

Faith and Abrielle were cracking me up yesterday morning. I had the laundry hamper downstairs while I was folding laundry, and Faith decided to use her blankie as a pizza. She and Abrie would help "stretch" their pizza dough across the hamper (which was their pizza pan), and then they'd pretend to call me and ask me if I wanted a pizza. What made me laugh the most was that Faith said her name was 'Papa John' and Abrie was 'Bruno' (we have an awesome pizza place around here called Bruno's). I would pretend to eat their pizza, and say 'Magnifique!' Faith said to me, "Momma, we are not French pizzas. We are Englishes!" Too funny.

This is Bruno and Papa John:

Maddie and Faith have playing a lot lately that Abrie is their baby. Abrie of course eats up this role and gets to be tucked in to bed with a pillow and a blanket. Her fake sleeping is quite adorable!

********

Girlies were so excited yesterday to check out the new "Bumblebee Boy" book, a great follow-up to the awesome "Ladybug Girl" series of books. They love the new book about Bumble Bee Boy and his baby brother!

And, we are one chapter short of finishing "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." They just LOVE it.