The Princess Party

Sam turned four! And I was the best mom in the world making her little princess dreams come true with a completely store bought Princess birthday party. I fought all my urges to try and do something outside, something that involved hiking or a picnic. And instead we played princess games, dress up like princesses and ran around the house playing with balloons.
Sam loved every minute of it!!

First, the decorations. I didn't buy all the decorations that the store had to offer, instead I decided to decorate the main party rooms with all of the princess stuff that we already had. (Thanks to my sister for this idea. She did something similar, but in a much cuter way with horses for my niece!)

This is where the ice cream sundae bar was located.

 The Big Four Year Old Birthday Girl!

 Her good friend Madison.

Av

 Taylor, who is really Avery's friend. 

 All the princesses and one prince!

 I couldn't believe it actually worked out that Sam got the ribbon that opened up the pinata. And even better that before that every kid had a chance to pull one ribbon off!!

 The ice cream was a big hit!

I was not the best mom with the camera at her party. I failed to get that many pictures of her and her friends and have no pictures of her opening gifts. But she had a great time, all the kids seemed to have fun and the house was not completely destroyed. So, I say it was a success.

But next year I might convince her to try and do something a little less "store bought"!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Just a few photos from Sam's birthday evening. 

Happy girls with tummies full of birthday cake! 

My little girl is growing up way too fast!!

our Lenten prayers

So for part of my observation of Lent I am trying to pray more regularly with the girls. And to take those prayers beyond just meal time prayers.
I have this book "A Prayer A Day" and have been using it a lot! I am just in love with some of the prayers that we have been saying and wanted to share them with you all.

"Thank you for flowers,

Thank you for trees, 

Thank you for grasses, 

That toss in the breeze.

Thanks you for vegetables, 

Thank you for spice,

Thank you for everything 

That makes food taste nice. 

Thank you, dear Father, 

For all things that grow

In sunshine and rain, 

And the glowing rainbow".

"Oh God, 

I feel so bad, 

I said some things

I shouldn't have. 

I want to start

Again and say

With all my heart

I'm sorry".

"Dear God, 

Help me to be good

When I have to share my toys.

Help me to be good

When I'm making too much noise. 

Help me to be good

And eat up all my greens. 

Help me to be good

When I'm tempted to be mean. 

Help me to be good

Each and every day. 

Help me to be good 

In every single way".

"Dear Father, thank you for today. 

There were good parts I'd like to remember, 

and bad parts I'd rather forget. Forgive me 

for the things I did wrong and help me to 

be better tomorrow. Thank you for all

the good things and thank you for being

with me in it all". 

 - We sometimes say this one and then recap our day. I say the prayer and then ask Sam and Avery to tell me their good parts of the day and their bad parts of the day. We have had some pretty good talks about those bad parts and how we can make them better. Once we have talked then we say the prayer again.

This one is Sam's favorite -

"Jesus, please be near me

As I lie in bed tonight, 

There's a dark place in the corner

And it's giving me a fright!

Mom says it's just a shadow, 

And shadows are thin air, 

But I can see it grinning, 

And it's sitting in my chair!

Please shine your light, dear Jesus, 

So that I can see

The shadow's really nothing

Now that you are close to me".  

- I am not sure if she really likes the prayer or if she just likes to continue to extend her bedtime routine by asking for me to read this one right before she goes to bed!

How are you observing Lent? Are you involving your kids?

while Sam sleeps...

Avery eats M&Ms!

Some days it is good to be the first one to wake up from nap!

a family weekend

When there are five kids to entertain, cook for, clean up after and just generally take care of the camera doesn't come out a lot but I did manage to get some while we were bowling!

 We were all really proud and impressed that Bailey wanted to bowl like the adults were doing it but as you can see from her face she was not too excited about her score...poor kid.

Okay, so not the best photos ever. But I do love some of the facial expressions on these kids!

Bailey and Avery really bonded on this trip!   Avery has a new best buddy!!

We had a great weekend! To see the hike that we did and the fun snow play in the backyard head to Greening Sam and Avery    

peepee in the potty

We were getting jammies on. I had just taken the diaper off and like she frequently does she squirmed out of my grasp to go run around naked for a bit! Then she looked at me and said "I go potty". She took off running toward the bathroom. Chris and I were too lazy to follow her. We both assumed that just like other attempts she would sit there, want to sing a song or read a story and then accomplish nothing. She came back into the room a few minutes later and we put her jammies on. Then Sam came running in and yelled "Avery went peepee in the potty!". I jumped up to go check.
Sure enough, she went peepee in the potty! All by herself! And we were too lazy to get up and praise her!! HA!

So we then proceeded to throw a mini dance party in the bathroom. We danced around singing "peepee in the potty".  Then Avery got to flush her peepee.

It was a very exciting evening at our house! And I am hoping this means that potty training is right around the corner!!


Yes, I just wrote a whole post on going to the bathroom. In a house with two little ones this is a big deal! Moms out there, you get it, right?

biggest tower ever!

Our accomplishment from yesterday!