Celebrating Melting Pot Style

So, since Skylar opted out of a birthday party, I thought I wouldn't treat her to a night out at the Melting Pot. I knew she would love it considering she loves dipping things, and loves chocolate. I wanted to do something at least a little bit special that we wouldn't normally do. Lucky for us, my mom and sister happened to be in town the evening of our celebration as well. It was a fun girls night out, and a much more relaxing birthday celebration than most! I think it's safe to say we all had a great time! Maybe I'll encourage the non-birthday party idea every year!

She's Eight!

Eight! Can you believe that? The thought of my first born being eight years old is just crazy to me! I know every time I have a birthday or milestone post I say that, and it's so cliche, but you know it's true! Skylar is a true first born child in every way. For the most part, she makes this parenting gig seem like a piece of cake. I know that may change as she approaches the teen years, but for now, I'm grateful. She was a little upset about turning eight. She informed me she wishes she would at least be eleven, and really wishes she could be an adult. Little does she know, it's not all it's cracked up to be. She likes things to be calm and simple, so she opted out of a birthday party this year. I was a little bummed, because I had this whole great party idea going all summer, and then I was reminded that it wasn't about me. Oops! Anyway, we then decided she could pick a couple of friends and we would go out to the movies. After a few days, she decided against that as well, because she couldn't pick just two without hurting someone's feelings. She asked if just she, Londyn and I could go. Sweet little thing. (And I can't tell you how secretly happy I am that her and her sister are best friends. They may never admit it, but it's totally true.) Anyway, it worked out that my sister and mom were able to be here as well, so we were able to thoroughly enjoy a girls night out to celebrate! More on that later...

Happy Birthday Skylar! We love you!

Taylor Swift

We were super lucky this week to get to go to the Taylor Swift Concert. When I first heard she was coming, I wanted to get Skylar tickets for her birthday, but they sold out rather quickly. I sat on the fence for too long b/c it's not something we normally do. Some friends of ours have box seats and gave us a couple of their tickets. I originally wanted to surprise the girls, but had a bit of a dilemma. We were only offered two tickets. At first, I was only going to be able to take Skylar because I didn't want to be greedy and ask for another ticket. So, we sat down and talked about our options. I was so proud of both of them, because they both wanted the other to get to go. Skylar wanted me to send her and Londyn with another adult that was already going, and Londyn wanted Skylar to get to go since it was close to her birthday. Anyway, in the end Skylar and I decided to go, and I was going to take Londyn to the Nutcracker at Christmas. Anyway, long story short, the other people that were supposed to go got sick, so another ticket became available. I was so excited for Londyn to be able to join us, mostly because I was so proud of how she handled the situation originally. We had so much fun, and I don't have much to compare it to, but I thought she put on a great show!

Party Time!

We celebrated Lincoln's 2nd birthday last weekend with a small sock-monkey themed party at home. Unfortunately, a couple of the few friends he invited as well as Anastyn were all sick. I was just glad HE wasn't sick like he was last year. I guess that's the nice thing about being two, you have no expectations, so there's no disappointment. He thoroughly enjoyed all of the festivities. His favorite party item was the balloons, but the cupcakes and coke were a close second. We had a great time celebrating and spending the weekend with friends and family. Thanks to all of you that helped us celebrate!

He's Two!!

He's gone from this helpless little thing to .... this independent little boy in such a short time.

He has survived two years of being the baby in a family with two older sisters constantly doting on him, dragging him around and dressing him up. He's brought so much joy to our family, and it's hard to imagine how we occupied our time before his arrival. He has the sweetest personality. He is alway concerned about everyone in the family, and gets soooo excited when he sees his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. He's turned into such a big boy, and it's so much fun to watch him learn and grow so much everyday. Currently, he is speaking in short sentences, and likes to repeat a lot. We are able to understand most of what he says most of the time which makes life a little easier. He loves to be read to, and requests Clifford and Goodnight Moon every night before bed. He definitely prefers a bedtime routine more than the girls ever did. He takes a bath, reads, sings, and prays and then will go to bed with out a fight, generally. He still adores his older sisters, and always asks about them when they are at school. He is starting to test the waters a little bit to see what he can get away with. Fortunately for him, he's learning pretty quickly that he won't get away with much around here. I'm a little biased, but I think he's pretty precious, and I am so thankful that I am able to spend more time with him this year. Happy 2nd Birthday, Lincoln! We love you!

Sweet Treats

We traveled to OKC a couple of weekends ago to watch an Oregon game with one of Kevin's friends. We decided to make a day of it and make a few stops on the way. One of our stops included Pinkitzel, a cupcake bakery and gift shop. We visited the smaller one in Edmond, but still managed to thoroughly enjoy ourselves. I had heard about it through friends on facebook, and one of my friends had been there for a bridal shower, and had told us how great it was. It was super cute, and the cupcakes were delicious!

The Zoo

I'm playing a bit of catch up here, but on Labor Day, we couldn't stand to stay inside considering we were gifted with such amazing weather, so we thought we would spend the day at the zoo. It was actually our first visit this year. We pretty much avoided it all summer because of the extremely hot temperatures. Anyway, we had a great time enjoying the outdoors and a relaxing day without an agenda. My three favorite kids.

Lincoln really got into the animals this time which made it a lot of fun!

Toothless

We currently have two girls around here with missing front teeth! I feel badly that I haven't posted much about Londyn's tooth losing experiences, but she handled them a little more maturely, so it wasn't too big of a deal. She just wanted to make sure we knew she lost them so the tooth fairy would come. It should be about time for Skylar's to have grown back in, but for now they are both missing their front teeth which makes for silly grins and funny faces.

Lincoln's First Day

Well Lincoln started the Mother's Day Out/Preschool program at our church yesterday. I knew it was coming for a while, but I was totally not prepared. Of course, maybe I didn't think too much about considering he went to full time daycare in the past. Nonetheless, it was a bit of a rushed day as I kept thinking of things I had forgotten to do. It was a classic case of the third child neglect. His backpack is what I have been using as a diaper bag, I forgot completely about him needing a lunch pail and lunch for that matter, and it was a wonder there was a single thing clean for me to throw on him. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a lunch pail AFTER Labor Day weekend? Thankfully, there was ONE in Wal-Mart, and thankfully it was Toy Story as opposed to Princesses. And, I managed to find some pre-packaged unhealthy food to throw in there as well. Anyway, he went in without hesitation. I am pretty sure since the girls started school he's been lost and a little bored with me at home. The sight of little kids and toys other than his own, I'm sure were extremely appealing. (note: he likes this hat, A LOT! you will see it in lots of pictures, but it beats the princess crown he's been wearing around all summer) As for myself, I had a trunk show, and an event last night, so it was a busy day. However, today after dropping him off I came home and got busy on my to do list. It is AMAZING what one can accomplish when there are no distractions and interruptions. Not that I accomplished anything amazing, but I felt like I could have had I tried very hard. (Don't worry, I did tackle a few things.)

After School

There are lots of things I love about my new life at home, but my absolute favorite time of day is when the girls get home from school and we all sit around the table having an after school snack and working on homework. It's kind of silly, and 1950ish, but it's just something I've always wanted to be able to do. I've felt for the last few years that we have been so busy that I never felt I was spending the time that I needed to with the kids. Previously, they would come to my classroom, I would insist they get their work done while I ran around at meetings or getting things ready for the next day. This is so much nicer, at least for now. It may get old, but for now, it's perfect. I feel like I can actually listen to what they have to tell me about their day and help them with their work. Most days we just have fruit or something, but I also get very excited about making them a special snack after school. They kind of liked it too! These are banana mini morsel bars, and of course since it includes bananas, it's healthy, right?

I also got Lincoln a notebook and crayons so he could participate in the after school table time. He wouldn't have it any other way. He absolutely thinks he is big enough to do whatever the girls do.

It Looked So Easy...

My girls are always wanting to make something crafty. If you've read this blog for long, or know me personally, you know it's not really my thing. However, in order to appease my children I occasionally oblige. Now, crafting is not my thing, but I LOVE baking! (and yes, I know this project didn't really involve baking, but was along the food line.) When I saw this little project in the Family Fun magazine, I thought that it looked easy enough, maybe we could pull it off. (Why ever would I think such a thing? I thought I had learned my lesson by now.) We picked up the few ingredients when we were at the grocery store, and got started right when we got home. We gathered our ingredients and started putting the oreos on the sticks. The girls were having a great time! And then came the dipping. That was a disaster. The oreos kept falling off the sticks and crumbling into the red dipping stuff turning what were supposed to look like cute smooth apples into a crumbly mess. After about 5 tries, I started trying to spoon on the red dipping stuff and spread it which was far more work than I had bargained for and was not super effective.

Anyway, we did the best we could with what we had, and ended up with these beauties! Not so cute, not so easy, and not recommended if you aren't naturally good at this kind of thing. I'm not trying to be discouraging, I'm just saying... Skylar and Londyn were not at all disappointed, they thought they were perfect! They begged to take some to their teachers for the first day of school. The slightly obsessive perfectionist in me just couldn't allow it. I had to make up some lame excuse about teachers not being able to eat homemade items or something like that. (I wanted to tell them that if you take your teacher that poisonous looking oreo dipped apple thing they will hate you for the rest of the year. ) I think they got the hint I thought they were ugly. I hope they weren't scarred for life. A little slap of reality now and then never hurt anyone, right?