Progressive Birthday

This is an activity that we did last Tuesday when we learned about the letter -B. We read "Are you my mother?". As you may know, it's about a baby bird (double -B's- bonus!) who is looking for it's mother. So, we made these cute little birds with Styrofoam balls and toothpicks for legs. They really loved making them. I have to admit though, I felt a little defeated when they kept on calling the birds snowmen....the markers did not color the Styrofoam well.






On the day of Ella's birthday I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, but knew her party wasn't until Saturday and I would make it then. She asked for a purple butterfly cake. She was really confused why we didn't eat her cake on her birthday. At the end of the day on Wednesday she said, "Mommy, it didn't look like a birthday". I ask her what a birthday looked like. To that she said, "A purple butterfly cake". I knew once we made the cake her dreams would be fulfilled. And oh, were they. She just couldn't stop gushing about how beautiful it was!
So we have celebrated Ella's birthday for about 5 days now and she's already wondering when her next birthday is. We had a get together planned at a local free petting zoo for Saturday, but it rained so we canceled it and instead went o Grandma and Grandpa Allred's- one of Ella's favorite places. She got to see "her" horse Scarlet and even grandpa's new turkeys. The event of the night for me was seeing Grandpa in what he "thought" was a swimsuit but were in actuality sponge bob square pants pajama bottoms. So, he and the kids and Jason jumped in the hot tub in much more modest attire than usual.
Then on Sunday, we continued to eat Ella's butterfly birthday cake with my side of the family. Ella even got a gift certificate to go horse back riding from Grandma Jewkes. So between the 3 days we celebrated her birthday, I am thinking she better feel pretty loved.






Today we were at church and right before the third block started we were told to go home because it was snowing. Let me first say that I know to many of you living out the great wilderness of snow that some of you do live in, I know that this sounds ridiculous and juvenile. It only snows once a year here and when it does....WATCH OUT!! People stay in their houses, stock up on bread and milk and panic. It's kind of pandemonium along with the excitement of having snow. Of course, our kids could hardly contain themselves and were running recklessly through the halls. I have no idea how they escaped their classrooms. So went home excitedly and went right to the task at hand- building a snowman before it melts! You'll have to excise our snow get-up...this is about as snowy as our clothes get. Call me unprepared.

A Day for Ella

Today was Ella's birthday. I know five is a big number because of kindergarten and all, but four seemed awfully big to me today. At four they are definitely not a toddler any more and in August Ella can attend Georgia's free Pre-K program. So today we celebrated our little lady with a party fit for the economic times! Here are the events of the day:

1) Chocolate chip pancakes (that I woke up early to make...grrr)complete iwth a candle to blow out. I thought for some reason these were every kid's dream breakfast. Not my kids. They both asked for cereal shortly after trying their gourmet flapjacks. They are cereal connoisseurs.

2) We then made "funfetti" (everyone know those are the BEST) cupcakes and brought them to our little playgroup hosted at Ronald McDonald's place. The icing with the funfetti on top was really popular...there were a lot of bare, topless cupcakes around.


3)Earlier, we made a very special trip to Big Lots where I would intentionally point and "ooh" at something to see Ella's reaction. We walked away with a couple gifts totaling $6. The best part about it was that Ella was so ADD-like in the store (just like me in a store) that she didn't even realize I was throwing her presents in the cart. We also walked away with a bag of Rotini noodles that Ella saw and requested for her special dinner. Much to the chagrin if Jason, we had spaghetti with Rotini noodles. When he was really little he ran away one night because his mom made spaghetti. It's a long-running joke in the family...but he hates it. All in the name of Ella, he sacrificed and managed to shove some down. *GULP*
4) After dinner we took Ella to feed "Scarlett", HER horsey. Oddly enough, there's a horsey named Scarlett every where we go.Hmmmmm.


5)She opened her wonderful presents to which she exclaimed, while unwrapping, "Oh dear...oh, dear" (???). She was completely thrilled with her presents. We continued to play chutes and ladders and then we climbed into the "tent" (which Ella always calls a temple) and watched a special movie with candy and ice cream.

Ella and Link's pose. TADA!!!!!

There's no place like....

We had a "WIzard of Oz" day on Wednesday. I took the kids to see "Bolt". There is something that makes me giggle when I watch my kids at the movie theater. Their eyes are big, mouths open, and attention spans captured. I wish I could have that effect. Anyway...we were just on our way out to our car when the manager of the theater ran over and told us to be careful because it was hailing and a tornado had touched down. I was just about to go out casually in that mess. As I looked closer out into the parking lot, I saw huge chunks of hail falling violently down. Shooting down rather. Here's a pic of what was coming down. It's baseball sized hail. Who cares about golfball sized hail! It was CRAZY! I even saw peices bigger than this on my way home. That night it was touch and go with our electricity. That night on the news, there was converage of the tornados. A reported ten tornadoes touched down in our area. One of which destroyed a church a few miles away. We were untouched. There's no place like home, for sure!

Georgia on my mind: Part Deux

Last night Jason was refinishing a bench in the garage. Tonight he went to go work on his car, changing the brakes. I was out there for morale, and he noticed this big piece of poo that had not been there the night before. We had quite the conversation about where that poo had come from. Ella? A cat? A ginormous mouse?? Who knew. Then he teased me that whatever produced that excrement could still be in there. I shuddered at the thought. About an hour later, he's still out there, tinkering away and he calls for me to come out. Above is what I see. Look very closely.




Yes, a possum. It had been "renting space" in our garage for a day. It left us two little piles of waste and chewed a huge hole in ou8r garbage. Jason wanted me to participate in cornering the rodent so it would run out. No way. So, he ended up chasing it out of the garage with the tool that every man needs for these type of situations- a broom. Thanks honey!!!!!

***Sometimes on Rachel Ray they have an animal segment. A possum was the star just a few days ago. I actually started empathizing with the possum. These poor partially blind animals that get run over due to their blindness. AW. Apparently they are quite smart. I have no sympathy now. Sorry! Crouch somewhere else possum!

Who wore it better?

Today Emily and I got out and enjoyed the 70 degree weather. It was gorgeous. They had so much fun. This see-saw proved to be quite the challenge to mount. Cooper and Link would run to at the same time (only one seat was left because Ella was on the other side) and the first one there would slide off the other side in their overzealous efforts to jump on. The other would exclaim that his opponent fell off and then they would so the same thing- slide off. Emily and I, being the great moms that we are, sat by and died laughing at the competition.

Blurry, but oh so cute. And so telling of his fiery personality. This (and below) are pictures of him throwing a fit because he didn't want me to take a picture. Can you guess what he's saying below? No, it's not a four letter word. It's a two.
I love taking pictures if Link when he's mad. It's possibly when I laugh most- when he's mad. it's so dang cute.
Who wore the pony ears best? 98% say Ella did. She got these from a my little pony birthday party. Ella even got to ride a real pony several times. Hot dog was the name. And pineapple. Someone was hungry when they named those horses.

This is a fun tea party we had when Ella's friend Riley came to play. The girls were trying to have a sophisticated time and Link kept on trying to bang the table so things would spill. He was trying to destroy and loving it while the girls cried.

Georgia on my mind

Georgia..........sometimes....I just wanna leave. But then again, every state has it's downside, right? I have been dealing with Georgia red clay all week because Jason has been planting and it's been raining....yada, yada, yada. I ended up spending way too much time (thanks to my OCD nature) scrubbing my kitchen floors. As I was mopping, Jason put this container on the counter and asked me clean it out and then run it out to him. When I asked him what was in it he told me dirt. Right. Another reason to love Georgia.....grubs. Seriously, these things will make your stomach churn. Yes, they were/are alive. This is the type of thing fear factor tries to get people to eat. I put a pen in the corner so you could get an idea of how big these things really were. I LOVE Georgia. Oh...they were in the bottom of the pots that the trees came in.
We had playgroup this past week at my house. There were about 20 people attending including adults and children. Sufficient to say...my house was destroyed...but, all in the name of fun. These were the three newborns having the most fun. What a life. From left to right is Kyle Ethington, Ethan Hutchings and then Eric Johnson.






I thought this was so cute. I was organizing, cleaning out this dresser in Link's room and he took advantage of the empty space. And Ella....well, she took advantage of having the power to keep him in there.



We had a really fun family date night at the bowling alley. Link's face was priceless as the ball went down the lane. We got bumpers, thank goodness. Turns out, I needed that as much as the kids.

Misguided

I feel sooooo dumb and soooo bad and I have learned a huge lesson: don't post about a deal until you are sure it's for real! Okay, the deal is for real....however....just for that person the email was sent to. I had it forwarded to me from a cousin. Her and I just assumed it would work for anyone. I am soooo sorry. This is why my dad calls me, "ready, fire, aim".

Update FYI

I just had a serious blond moment/day. Ok....so the code I thought I typed in correctly is totally incorrect. My friend had a hard time getting her book and she told me....oops, wrong code! So sorry Teryn! The code below is all correct except for the last segment. The correct last segment of that code is:
PXWFF
Everything else is ocrrect. Good luck and let me know if that works!

FYI

Hey all you friends looking for a steal for V-day. My mom told me that Shutterfly is giving away a free 8x8 portait book. You just upload your pics, write your text and viola! You have a gorgeous thoughtful gift. Go to http://ck.shutterfly.com/inspire/?cid=CKMDJANSVFB and then you enter in the code at check-out. It expires Feb.28tt so you have some time. They have some great ideas like "The ABC's of Jason" (my husband's name) or, "A Tribute". I handmade a book last year "The Reasons why I Love Jason" and it was much appreciated by him....but a lot of work for me. Here's the code:
CK47-EXTE-XNUT-PXVVFF

DRAMA!!!

These pictures are from Luke's sealing to my sister Emily's family. They adopted him last January and the paperwork was finally finished and he was able to be sealed to them. It was so sweet to be present for that. On a side note; Yes, I got bangs. I needed a change.
Link helping Daddy change the oil. Precious.
When I put on this shirt that morning Link told me it was a police car shirt. I didn't understand why he kept calling it that. Then I saw him pointing at the cut little patch. He thinks it's a badge. CUTE! I didn't even realize he knew what a police uniform looks like. Smart boy. This is him yelling, "NO!" when I asked him if I could take a picture. Another genuine moment from Dee Doo.
Did I mention we went on the amphibian at Jason's parents' house over the holidays? This machine is soooooooo fun. Thank you Mom and Dad Allred!!!!

Now, to the title of this post. I went to TX last week for the entire week- from Monday to Monday. It was sooo much fun and included lots of unwanted drama. I'll get to that in a while. These little helpers are helping Grandma Becky make lemon bars. She's so patient. I just don't have it in me to let kids do that stuff...definitely something I need to work on. I cannot even begin to explain the amount of fun and bossing around Ella had at the Crofts with Kate and Tayler. We went there to welcome my sister Rachel's little Lauren. Ella was in heaven.
This is a little elephant Ella wrapped in a warm "blanket". Such a little mommy.

Before I went to Rachel's mom dropped me off at one of my best friends' house- Alicia (top). It was just like old times. Laughing, eating, & shopping. At least that was the plan until one fateful night we went to eat at On the Border. We got there at 9:40. The place closes at 10. PHEW! Just in time! Alicia and I were thoroughly enjoying our bordurrito when my teeth clenched something unmistakeably metal. As I re-opened my mouth and examined my burrito I saw a metal something. I pulled it out and we soon realized that it is a blade. Yes a blade. Long story short I am fine. On the Border is sorry for almost killing me and thought they could ease my pain and suffering with $10 gift certificates. I was fine with that until the next day I got thoroughly sick. And I'd like to give a little shout out to Alicia who took care of my children happily for several days. You're the best! Anyway, I went to the doctor only to come to the conclusion that they lost my urine (sorry to be explicit) culture and couldn't verify whether or not I had any kind of serious infection (i.e. e coli). So basically, I was gonna get some sweet moola for my pain and suffering and now I am not because of some idiot doctor. So I spent the bulk of my less than glorious vacation with extreme back pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting. UGH. Thanks On the Border! Can I make reservations to use those gift certificates???? And I know what you're all thinking.....and no- there is nothing I can do about it.
So one of the nights when I was racked with nausea, I pulled my self out of bed and Alicia and I met with our old college roommate. Looking at this picture (above)...yeah, I look sick and nasty. But it was SOOOOOOOO fun to get together with Angela. She is optimistic and fun to be around. Her bluntness is refreshing and exciting. Thanks Ang!
The community bath/pee tub. You know how that goes. This is Logan, Alicia's little boy on the right. Cute little buy. He was so good at sharing all his toys with my possessive lovely children.

New Year's

New Year's Smooches from my one and only This is right after he won American Idol. We got together at my brother Josh's house and played American Idol and Rock Band all night....until 12. Earlier that afternoon we got tickets to Cirque de Soleil. That's what the below pic is from. Happy 2009 everyone!