Slumber Party!

On Friday Grace and Lyla wanted to see Reesi, of course. This is the norm now. They expect to see each other every day! So, Joni met me at a little park in our subdivision but it had gotten too cold to stay for long, so we ended up back at Joni's house. Joni and Reesi were supposed to go to a basketball game with Larry that night. Grace was convinced we were going to go too. At the last minute, Larry informed Joni that a friend from White House was going to the game with him so she didn't have to, and, oh, by the way, he'll be at the house in 5 minutes to see the new house and meet Larry. Meanwhile, the girls had been having a picnic in the family room floor with teddy grahms and they were EVERYWHERE! So Joni and I did a very fast clean up of the family room before the friend arrived. Anyway, because they weren't going to the game, the girls wanted to do something together. Eric, bless his heart, agreed to host a slumber party at our house while Joni and I ate dinner in peace at her house and even watched a movie!!!! He was ok with that because he was leaving on Sunday for 6 days on a business trip and wanted to see the girls a lot this weekend. So, Eric got the sleeping bags, popcorn and ice cream out for their party. They watched movies until about 10pm! Joni ended up taking Reesi home to sleep though. We were all hoping they would sleep late on Saturday morning due to the late night festivities, but, as all parents know, that doesn't necessarily happen that way. I think Reesi was up at 7am and my girls were up by 8am. Joni and I decided it is very nice living so close that we can "take advantage" of each other!!!

A Romantic Valentine's Day at ChuckECheese

I guess this is where you end up on Valentine's night when you have small children and no budget for babysitting....Chuck E Cheese, or as Lyla says "Chuck E Cheeses". We had been telling the girls all week that we were going to go bowling. They were so excited to go bowling. When we got there it was packed with league bowlers though. They were mad until we said the magic word "Chuck E Cheese". It was very crowded at Chuck E Cheese too but we were still able to play. They had a great time!

Lyla's Vday Party

This is Lyla's Vday party. At this age they basically get a special snack and a treat bag to take home.

Grace's Vday Party

I was one of the moms for Grace's Vday party. We had lots of items for the kids to decorate sugar cookies with. Before they made their cookies, they passed out their valentine cards to all of the friends' mailboxes. The first picture is Grace and her friend, Addie. The next friend shown is also named Grace. The cookie I included was actually Addie's cookie. It was so pretty I just had to take a pic. They had a great time and there were sprinkles everywhere! (I had many moms tell me that "Grace looks so pretty in her hat and gloves." Of course, everyone else had on their Vday shirts. I'm just glad Grace isn't concerned with what everyone else is wearing yet!

Valentine's Day-the morning

Valentine's Day started the night before for Grace and I. Due to her good behavior on Wednesday, she got to go to Target with me that night to find a gift for Eric for Vday. Instead of finding Eric's gift, she fell in love with an Easter hat, Easter gloves, and a little spring dress that matched. When I say "fell in love", I mean she was convinced this was the perfect outfit for Vday and that she was going to be the "prettiest" at her preschool the next day! I did get the outfit for her but we had a long talk about how clothes don't make you pretty, they just make you fancy, and how you act and treat others is what matters and what God pays attention to. So, after that talk, she kept saying she would be the fanciest at preschool and the nicest friend there! She also kept making us call her "Madeline" b/c the cartoon character, Madeline, wears a hat and gloves. She wanted to sleep in her entire outfit that night but I convinced her the dress would get wrinkled and the hat wouldn't stay on. She did sleep in the gloves all night long. You can see in the pictures that she even had them on while opening her gifts! I did get Lyla the hat and gloves too just b/c Lyla always gets mad when she doesn't have the same as Grace. I knew she wouldn't be as excited as Grace. She wore them a little but not all day like Grace. They also got a little gift bag from Mimi and Papoo. Of course, they wanted to eat the candy for breakfast! That afternoon they had a card in the mail from Grandma and Papaw Gardner with $5 each inside!

Snow Day, but where's the snow?

Wednesday night it snowed, Nashville style. The schools were closed but there was little snow and my road was dry as a bone. Oh well, the girls were excited anyway. They thought it was really cool that the sandbox table was iced over! The sand was completely under ice! Grace just couldn't stand not to break the ice. She finally got through and their gloves were soaked! Our snow outing last about 15 minutes. Getting dressed, getting undressed, putting it all away, wiping up the water from the kitchen floor and making hot chocolate took about 45 minutes!

Cooking is Fun!

Grace starting "cooking" when she was about 2 years old. She loved to stand up at the counter and start throwing things into a bowl and mixing. It didn't matter what it was or how it was going to taste, it was simply her own creation. It was fun for her and, I assume, good for her imagination. Well, she got the urge to do this the other night so we gave in. Although it is probably a really great hands-on activity for fun at home, it is not a terribly fun clean-up! We gave in anyway and they started mixing. I think the ingredient list ended up being flour, sugar, water, 1 egg, a random mixture of spices, a gravy mix, food coloring, green onions, and chocolate chips. I think that was about it. Lyla kept tasting it and spitting it back in her bowl. I tried to get a good pic of that but couldn't really get her face. It was going okay until Lyla started mixing with her hands! That is when it started dripping on the countertops and floor. I was okay with that, until she dumped the whole bottle of green food coloring into her bowl! I had no idea food coloring smelled sooooo bad! Then I started to freak out a little when that started dripping all over my tiled (with grout) countertops. That's when cooking time ended. Thanks to a lot of cleaner with bleach the green came out of the grout! At least their imagination grew a little that night, right?