Birthday Girl

Our little Birthday Princess wanted to go to chuck e cheese for her birthday party this year, so Ma & I took her & Joshua for a fun morning. We were checking out at the prize counter and the lady next to us wasn't using all her kids' tickets, so she gave them to us. About 2000 of them!! Needless to say, Joshua & Zoe got to pick an extra toy. Also needless to say, neither of them has played with their toy since that day.

Birthday cards from her cousinsthe huge crowd at out party :)
princess magnets & stickers
they were on a very bouncy ride
lest you think Joshua had no fun at all...

4th of July pics

Zoe in her cutie 4th of July dress
Joshua making funny faces while waiting for the fireworks to start

get back in your box!

got some moving boxes from the new neighbors. of course the kids wanted to sleep in them. of course, they kept coming out after bedtime and I kept having to tell them "get back in your box!"... which just sounds too funny!

Zoe was pretty serious about her dessert at cheesecake factory

Ma cheered her on...and she didn't want to let any go to waste!

Joshua did pretty well with his too... he just wanted to whipped cream off our reeses cheesecake.

Zoe wrote her name all by herself... but did not want her picture taken!!

little shirt I made for a friend's daughter's birthday, and matching headband
and for our neighbor's son's 1st bday

Happy 4th of July!

I made Zoe a 4th of July shirt... which she refused to wear, then refused to have her picture taken in.
I finally bribed her with treats, and this was the best picture she was willing to give me. She wore a cute dress to church, white with blue and red stars, but had an accident on the way there, so we changed her into this shirt with red & white striped shorts. She threw up on it and we had to leave. Good thing I made it a 3T, hopefully it will still fit her next year!
This is what happens when I let Joshua play with my iPhone camera

Then I got to play with it
Zoe helping me fold laundry. She folded that whole perfect little stack of towels all by herself!

Cheap / easy entertainment. They LOVE to paint the driveway & fence with water. Got the idea from my childhood BFF's mom who is an elementary educator. She says it's great for motor skills. I say it's great for keeping kids occupied!
Zoe multitasking with her popsicle & 'paint'
Zoe holding the plastic fetus at our last OB appintment. I was very impressed with how carefully she held the baby. Right after she dropped it on its head.
She held the baby for a long time and finally said 'Daddy, I'm done holding the baby' so he could come and take it from her

woah baby!

Here's our baby girl at 26 weeks!
Zoe got to sleep with me because she went poo on the potty. In the morning, she came out to the living room and found Craig. When I got up, this is what I found. Awwww...the boys hijacked my iphone

Just hanging out trying to get Zoe to go poo on the potty again. Any suggestions are welcome. She had #1 down for months now, but asks for a diaper whenever it's #2 time :(

yet another ploy to keep her on the potty as long as possible. Yesterday was makeup, today was mani/pedi
Ready for their first swimming lesson! They are doing great so far. Thanks Ma & Pa!

"am I so fabulous mommy?" is what she said. That's my princess!

iPhone photos

I'm making the transition to my iPhone, including photos. Fortunately, my camera was not that good so the poor picture quality of the iPhone is not too much of an adjustment for me. The kids just have to hold really still or I don't get a good picture. If anyone has any hot iPhone picture taking tips, let me know!

Here's Zoe with her amoxicillin rash. I think it's an allergic rash since she has had amoxicillin before and both Mom and I are allergic to it, but there's also a non-allergic rash that this looks a lot like. I guess I would have to take her to an allergist. I'll make sure I do that before Craig gets out of the Army :)

Speaking of, look at him expertly fixing Zoe's hair. He is truly a man of many talents!
Checking out the lobsters at Red Lobster. Joshua wanted to go there to try new food. He ate calamari, shrimp, and pretty much everything we put in front of him that night. This was before Craig fixed Zoe's hair, by the way
playing with the new ice cream maker. We made strawberry ice cream from the strawberries we had picked. Yum!
Since then we've also made pineapple/mango/coconut sorbet.
Coffee ice cream is next on my list! In the meantime, I made a coffee granita that tasted much like a $5 frappucino from Starbucks!

3 oz strong coffee

2 oz skim milk

1 oz caramel macchiato creamer

1 scoop cocopure (sugar free cocoa powder, thanks Ma!)

2 c ice cubes

Blend in a blender

I think I will use 3 oz more coffee and 1 oz more creamer next time. It was a little too icy for me

(I made it again later and threw in a couple thin mints before blending. yes, the girl scout kind. Had I closed my eyes and pictured myself in Starbucks, I would have been drinking a mint no whip java chip frappucino for sure, and would have been $5 poorer for no good reason)