She Turned 4

My spunky girl turned 4 years old over the weekend. It was a busy day, but I am sure she had a good time.

The day before her birthday I took her outside for a photo shoot.

Gosh, she is getting big. Slow down.

While I was taking her picture, her brother came outside to play, and while I did know he was outside I didn't know that he was not wearing a shirt. I was surprised when I turned around and saw him like this:

Have you met my male model?

His eyes get me every time. Smoldering. Cute. He's just adorable. And so skinny. Cracks me up. He's definitely got his parents' build, when we were younger of course, but according to my mother-in-law the hubs wasn't quite that skinny at that age. He gets that from me.

Back away girls! He's got to study!

Back to the girl...

So I made her cake in her favorite colors, and decorated outside...in the dark.

The balloons didn't stay attached like I had hoped so I was glad to have this photo to show how it would have looked if the wind was calmer. Pretty neat.

The next morning my girl awoke as a new four year old.

When the candles were lit on her cake, she said her stars were glowing.

We had a big day filled with friends and family to celebrate the day she came into our lives as our baby girl.

Happy Birthday Punky!

And not to be forgotten, but today is my hubs' birthday. Poor guy, he kinda gets lost in the kids' celebrations since they are all within one month of each other. Happy Birthday Sweets! Love you.

The Things My Kids Say

Kids are funny creatures. As soon as you think you have them figured out they throw you a curve ball. And then start growing up and you start the think to yourself, "Did he/she get taller overnight?" "When did he/she learn this?" "What happened to my little child and where did this big kid come from?" 

Seriously kids, stop growing! 
Part of this may be brought on by their spring birthdays and knowing that they are turning another year older. Where did the time go? 

I've always said that the more you add to life the faster the time goes by. 

It's true. 

College went by fast with the help of 2-3 jobs, one thing ends and another begins, and then you get engaged, plan a wedding, get married, and life changes again. You find your "forever" job and time goes by all too fast. A couple years later you add one kid, then after a couple more years you add another one. Then, they really start changing and growing quickly, and before you know it you have one in Kindergarten and another who is a preschooler and no longer a toddler. And when did he/she get so tall?

Anyway, back to the things my kids say. I came home from work earlier this week and this is how my children greeted me:
Boy: Hi, Mommy!  :) (aww, hi sweetie.)
Girl: Did you shoot any bad guys at work today? :/ (uh, we need to have another conversation about what it is I do all day.)

The answer to her question is no, I didn't shoot any bad guys, or anyone for that matter, at work, in case you were curious.

Kids.

Well, this ended up being a way longer post than I had intended. Have a great rest of the week and weekend. And Happy Easter!

Not Much to Talk About

I've been working on projects and cleaning my house. Oh, and working, doing laundry, helping with homework and going to baseball games. 

My girl has a birthday at the end of the month and her invites finally arrived in the mail. I was able to send some to daycare so her friends would have a heads up. This has led me to attempt a massive cleaning of the house and I have a long way to go. The living room is looking good though, dining room is ok. The kitchen needs some organization and scouring, as well as the bathrooms. We'll get there. 

I've got some grant work coming up that needs attention. We discovered that we had some leftover money and are desperately trying to spend it. My department selected the new officer of the year this week. It's nice to be able to pass that on to someone else.

I finished a project for a friend. I am hoping she will come and get it soon. A pillowcase top, applique shirt, and ruffle pants.

My girl had been asking for a long dress, like a princess. I found this cute, summery seersucker fabric at Walmart and made her a long dress. I used a free bodice pattern from here that I had to make a little smaller across the chest for a better fit. 

I measured my girl while she was sleeping to get how long to make the skirt piece. She wanted it to go down to her feet. It's the perfect length for a maxi style dress, but I can add a ruffle on the bottom to make it longer, if only she would make up her mind if she wants one or not.

I added ties at the shoulder and a lining to the dress. Seersucker tends to be a little sheer, especially if the background fabric is white. I think she is ready for a luau. 

That's what I have been doing. Oh, and tracking down my dogs who dug under the fence and escaped. One came back as soon as I noticed they were missing so I figured they had just gotten out recently. The beagle, well, he was gone for over an hour before I spotted him coming back home when we went searching in the other direction. At least he was heading back home, he looked hot and thirsty.

My Week and This March

There have been some little things that have happened this month that I thought were interesting...to me, anyway.

Here's what our little family has been up to.

Spring consignment sales have come and gone. Love it when these sales happen! Here's what I got this year. The girl didn't really need any summer clothes but I did pick up some stuff for next year. I got some great deals for the boy. $3 for cleats for baseball! Brand new shirt for $3. A bike that was in great shape for $25! I also got a few other things for their upcoming birthdays (bike, games, assorted toys).

Spring baseball finally got underway. So far of the the six games we should have played, we have only played three of them due to weather. One of which was supposed to be on the boys' birthday, but it rained, and it was our turn to bring snacks, and I made cupcakes for everyone. The cupcakes ended up going to the kids' Sunday school class.

This year his team got their names on the backs of their shirts. Cute! So official.

I made a montage of the past four seasons he has played t-ball.

Aww. Look how little he was! He certainly is growing. Stop it.

One of my girls' daycare friends' brother is on the boys' team for the second season in a row. They like to hang out together during the games. It looks like my girl, and Marie, decided to find another family to join. She just made herself at home next to them. Her friend was somewhere else.

The boy. He turned six. Six! He is so much fun. Smarter than I don't know what. He got his report card the other day and he is just blowing kindergarten out of the water. Out of the 39 areas he gets graded in, he has only gotten four 2's for the third quarter. The rest were 3's, which is the highest number he could get. He's above his level for kindergarten reading, too. He's pretty awesome.

My girl, helping me with the boy's birthday cake. My goal is to make her birthday cake next month for her party. I thought I would practice with his birthday to make sure everything turned out the way I wanted.

Pretty dang good for my first ever try with making/using fondant. The fondant I made doesn't really have much flavor, or any flavor at all. But I like the recipe and it did what I needed it to do, so it's a win. Also, marshmallow fondant is kind of chewy.

A coworker gave me a coupon to Monkey Joe's. You buy one admission and the second one is free. So, half price for both kids! They had a good time, which was a nice change of pace from when I took them a couple of years ago. The boy was very unsure of playing near kids that he didn't know. As soon as a strange kid would get in the bounce house he would immediately get out. I think playing baseball has helped immensely with this. It was so fun to see them enjoy being kids.

One thing that made my heart happy was seeing my kids play together. Don't get me wrong, they play well together at home and outside, usually. One of them ends up in tears (girl), or they argue about something, or over something. I was watching them together. The boy was looking out for his sister. He made sure he knew where she was, stayed near her, interacted with her, and helped her get on some of the inflatables if she couldn't do it herself. He looked out for her and I noticed it. So did another mom because she commented to me about how he was looking out for her. ♥ happy.

Since there was no baseball we waited for dad to get home for the rest of the birthday fun...cake and presents.

I think he likes his new bike. He's been asking to take the training wheels off his old (toddler) bike. So I took one off for him to practice balancing before he knew he was getting a big kid bike. We've practiced a little with riding a two-wheeler with me hanging on. He will be so excited to be able to ride it by himself one day.

So that is what I have been doing this past month of March, and a little sewing.