Abbie and Elaina Day #2

My Teeth are Clean and Shiny! Mine too!!
Good Hygene!
Two Girls, One Hat...

Bubble Bath
One crazy Kitty and one Cooky Flower
Magdalen, Abbie and Elaina
The bithday girl, Momma and Aubrie
The "A" Hat Team

It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood and we have had another wonderful day with our friend Elaina. We started our day with chocolate milk and some Dora (is there a better morning for a four year old?) We decided early that it was much too beautiful today to stay in so right away we got up and got into our matching pink camo "A" hats and hit the swingset. The girls were very responsible and brushed their teeth and got all bright and shiny for the day. You can see what a great job they did in the pictures. PawPaw would be proud! After we played some more soccer and took a walk around to see all the flowers we headed back inside to dress Baby Aubrie and work toward some lunch. After that it was "rest" time. Elaina took a nice nap and of course my non-napper thought that I was torturing her so she skipped the nap. She ended up helping me put away laundry and play with the baby. Once Elaina was up we took off for McKenna's 7th birthday party. What a blast!! We met up with brother and Eric and Ms. Tracy and had a great time playing in the yard and running around like crazy. The cake was wonderful (I can say that honestly because I had a piece...okay a rather large piece... and I'll admit to some ice cream since I'm in confessional mode). Abbie ate her icing and left the cake...as always...and Elaina was so funny! She sat at that table and slowly ate every last drop of the ice cream on her plate. She was determined not to leave the table until her plate was clean of the ice cream. It was great! We stayed for a while and then headed back to the house where we played some more on the swingset. At this point we were very entertained by Elaina's questions that all began with..."You know what?" We ended the evening at Dixie Cafe with Phillip's parents and then dumped two very sticky little girls in the bath tub. The girls were so cute in all the bubbles. I have been introduced to a whole new way of bathing and shampooing. I have a whole new respect for Ms. Becky who does a marvelous job of doing her daughter's hair. By the time I was done with it, it was decided that the best option was to rebraid it and profusely apologize for the mess that I made. The girls were out like a light after a few books. By the way, Abbie also demanded that her hair be braided tonight and all I can say is that in the morning we are going to be majorly stylin'. And now a very tired Mommy is off to bed... ready for another day tomorrow!

Smiley

Aubrie is 9 1/2 months old now. She is the happiest little girl. Here are a few pictures of my sweet smiling baby...

Elaina and Abbie's Day #1

Here we are at Chic-fil-A
All three conked out in the car...

At American Pie with the boys
I like my pizza!
Night-Night Tiger and Lizard
Whooohooo!!!
Tandem Swinging!
Standing up tall
Let's Play!

This weekend we have the pleasure of having one of Abbie's friends over while her parents are enjoying a well deserved weekend away. Elaina is so super sweet. At drop off today she went right into the playroom and she and Abbie have spent the rest of the day playing together. What fun they have had! We starting off playing soccer and swinging in the backyard. (Incidentally it's hard to push two kids on side-by-side swings when you are holding a squirming baby, but it is totally doable if you put your mind to it!) Then we headed out to meet Elaina's brother, Kaden, and Ms. Tracy and her son Eric, at the zoo. On the way there, Tracy called to inform me that there were approximately a million people at the zoo. Traffic was backed up onto the interstate to get into the parking lot and people were actually parking at the War Memorial Playground and walking to the zoo from there. It was insane!!! I've never seen so many buses before...Greenbriar, Ft. Smith, LR, all over... So we hung out at the park and then had a few moments of stress when I realized I had lost my keys. (Okay so stress is putting it lightly, I was so ready to cry.) Once we had discovered where I had placed the keys, we moved on to lunch at Chic-fil-a. It was delicious, but totally crazy. The kids were actually done eating before Tracy and I even were able to eat one bite of our salads! It was so funny. Then we hung out in the play area for a while. Everyone had fun there, including Aubrie who loved watching the kids play. She was really wanting to play too. So cute! After we parted, we went back to the house and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (thank you Becky!!!) and then met up with Tracy again for dinner at American Pie where everyone got bouncy balls and pizza. Is there anything better?!?!?! Now I am listening to two little girls who are cleaned and bathed and have been in Abbie's room for about 40 minutes now "going to sleep." The first time they came out it was to go potty (after we had already done that a few minutes before...) second time was for a round of nose blowing... I am about to go in and sit until everyone is asleep. I am 99% positive I hear a pillow fight in process. Truely this has been one of the most fun days we've had in a while. Okay...off to crash the slumber party! More tomorrow...

ASFD Fish Fry

Abbie and AJ on Engine 3
Engineer Durham with his Assistants on ASFD Truck 1
Aunt Shana waving to her adoring Fans...
Daddy and Brie fighting on the front bumper!

Every year we attend the annual Arch Street Fire Department Fish Fry. Phillip's dad is the Chief there and we go to support the Volunteers and chow down on some killer catfish. It is seriously delicious. Usually Shana and AJ come down as well and the kids run like crazy all around the fire station and we can usually get about 3 bites down before one of them decides they have had enough of the food and are ready to climb on the trucks. They love going to their Pap's fire station. We love going out there and visiting with all the guys that Phillip used to run around with when he lived out in SW LR. It was great seeing everyone and having a chance to catch up. Life moves fast...I remember going out there before we had kids and wondering how those mothers could let their kids run wild over the trucks and stuff and now I find myself laughing at my kids doing yet another thing I said they would never do... Live and Learn, huh?

Dinner with the Pengelly's

Abbie Skewering her Fruit
Ella Grace making a delicious treat!
The assembly line...

Last night we had the Pengelly's over for dinner. We grilled burgers and had some yummy sides. The biggest hit was Jamie's Cabbage Salad. Super Yum! We had so much fun hanging out with them. Ella and Abbie Grace do great playing together. We had the girls make the dessert after dinner. Fruit kabobs! Yum. It kept them busy for a little while and who could complain about that!



Cabbage Salad:

One bag of Shredded Cabbage for Coleslaw
1 cup of Sesame Seeds
1 small package of sliced almonds
2 packages of Ramen Noodles (uncooked and crumbled)


Dressing: (Make this in advance)
1/3 cup of Vinegar
1/2 cup of Sugar
Dissolve the Vinegar in the sugar and then add:
1 cup of Oil
2 seasoning packages from Ramen Noodles


Pour dressing over cabbage/nut mix, toss and serve.

was

FUNTASTIC!!

Cycle Cutie

What cha' doing guys?
Air Hockey Challenge!!!
I won!
I love Funtastic!

Yesterday we went to play at Funtastic. It's a wonderful place in Cabot that is essentially the same thing as Chuck E Cheese only with more space and better pizza. Abbie had a great time playing the games and she and her Daddy ended up in a major air hockey tournament. It was intense!! And she won (basically...) Aubrie had fun too. She loves watching Abbie play and just being around her when she's busy doing fun things. I can tell she is just chomping at the bit to play too.

Princess Party

Aubrie's semi-self portrait at Kennedy Grace's Princess party. What a Party Animal!

So at one point in the party, the kids were instructed to pair up and they would dance together. Abbie was in the middle of the room and she looked over at me and said, Mama, I don't have any one to dance with. The girls around her had already paired up. I was sitting next to Jamie Garner and she looking a Rhett who is also looking for a partner. Well, you can see the kids paired up and Princess Abbie Grace and Prince Rhett danced to Someday My Prince Will Come. It was so sweet!!!

The Prince and Princess

Dancing the night away!

Princess Abbie at Kennedy's Party.
Prince Daniel entertaining Aubrie.
The birthday Princess and her Pal
Even Aubrie dressed for the party!

Azalea's in Bloom

My sweet girls under the azalea's. We were going to a party on Saturday and I've been wanting to get their picture with the azalea's but haven't had a minute to take them. That said, they looked so cute for the party, I thought it was worth being a little late to snap a couple of shots of them while the flowers were on the bushes. Abbie was so sweet taking care of her little sister. I love watching her interact with the baby and Abbie is absolutely the favorite for Aubrie. No one makes her happier than her big sister.

Pudding is GOOOOOOD!

Aubrie and I were up early and decided to eat a little chocolate cake trifle. Yes, I know, not exactly a breakfast of champions but dessert in the morning is a real weakness for me. Anyhoo-- she had some too and it was too funny not to share.

Note the cat is in the shot too...she also loves pudding...