Party Eve

Today was busy busy busy. Leyna had school (and her job was to be the Kaboose in the line!), I took the girls out to lunch at a fancy Asian restaurant all by myself and it was really enjoyable, I baked and iced an absolute nightmare of a cake and somehow made it turn out okay (I think there are guardian angels of baking), and we decorated the heck out of our house. Phew! I'm tired but there are a few more things to do. Here's a sneak peak into the fun tomorrow and a few other pictures from the day :)

Let the birthday fun begin!

Leyna received her first birthday card in the mail today! Thanks Great Aunt Nancy!!! This card is going to be hard to top - the girls played with it on and off ALL day. It stretches from a regular-sized card into a tall castle and says (with horns and cheering in the background) "I now pronounce you Birthday Princess! Let the celebration begin!"

And that's all I have for today. I'm working on making 24 of these tissue paper flowers for a certain Birthday Princess's party:

Yes, I am crazy ;)

Wordless Wednesday (Happy Birthday to Pee Paw!)

Party prepping

The rest of this week might not be too exciting on this blog folks. Leyna is turning FOUR in FOUR days! FOUR! Her party is in THREE days, along with a few other exciting events and there is just a ton to do. I'm making tissue paper flowers, cutting out stars, stuffing goody bags, and otherwise driving myself crazy ;) So anyway, if I'm a little short on pictures and content up until Saturday I hope you'll understand why!
Nana and Pee Paw came for a visit and Cora's desire to hear "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" was insatiable. She listened to it multiple times on Pee Paw's iPod, and then switched to watching it on YouTube through the TV. Here she is singing it to Pee Paw from her front row seat...

And the only picture I really got of Leyna was actually taken by Daddy. She likes to tackle her sister :)

True identities

Leyna went back to school for the first time in a week today. It was obvious that it had been awhile because it was like the first day again. She really didn't want me to go and it was hard to do it. She doesn't make a scene at all, just quietly pleads with her eyes and outstretched hand :( When I picked her up her teachers said she was extremely quiet and mellow today. And the louder the class got the more quiet she got. It's so the opposite of how she is at home which is is EXACTLY how I am. My little mini-me. Quiet as a mouse until you get to know her and she gets comfortable with you. So, hopefully she will settle in soon and start showing her true self - which is totally awesome :)

The other day Leyna started counting and got up to 28, then she got stuck and I prompted her with 29 and she continued up to 38, at which time I prompted her with 39 and 40. And so on and so forth until she got all the way to 108, at which point she stopped abruptly and said: "108. I bet that's how old God is." And then she moved on to the next subject like it was nothing. I guess she just had to get that figured out!
Oh, and I can't forget this lovely tidbit. Animal activists and vegetarians please skip this segment and move on to the next. I was cutting up chicken for the Wing Off on Saturday and Leyna asked me where I got the chicken. I told her at the store and she said, "Oh, I know how they make chicken. Someone just brought them to the store, plucked off their noses, poked out their eyes, cooked them up and they were all chickeny and they put them in a box." Ok, that was enough to make me not want to eat chicken again for awhile! LOL

Cora's thing these days is pretending she is someone else. It's usually either Little Bear (from the show with the same name), Blue (from Blue's Clues), Vidia (from Tinkerbell), or Baby Brielle (our 4-month-old neighbor). And if she is someone else, we are ALL someone else. I have to be Mother Bear, or Steve from Blue's Clues, or she calls me Allie (Brielle's mom) all day. Leyna is Sister Bear and Andy is Father Bear. Leyna is Magenta from Blue's Clues or Rosetta from Tinkerbell. And Andy is even called Shaun (Brielle's dad). Yesterday morning she literally woke up, sat up in her bed, and I said "Good morning Cora," and she said "I'm Little Bear." First words out of her mouth for the day. She cracks me up! The girl knows how to stay in character!

The Wing Off

What a day! We we had our annual "Football Kickoff Cook-off," which we have every year in celebration of Andy's birthday and football season. Unfortunately the Eagles lost today, but we managed to have tons of fun anyway. 18 adults, 11 kids, tons of food, gorgeous weather... we couldn't have asked for more. Well, except for the Eagles to win :) I'll be putting all the food pictures and cook-off details over on Happy Toddler Tummies. Here are the other pictures!

Ready for the game!

Havin fun

Cora and Emma having some serious lunchtime chat. It was so cute.

Love this picture. These are the two people Cora was most excited to see today - "Deesa" and Uncle Andy

Cora loves that baby Brielle

All the kiddos eating their football-shaped rice krispie treats. A rare moment of stillness and silence.  From left to right: Reed, Aubrey, Cora, Emma, Reagan, Leyna, Aria, Conner, Scott, and Owen. Brielle was MIA :)

Cora missed her nap today and the girls were WORN OUT. Daddy sang her to sleep while she was waiting in Leyna's bed for a story. Leyna LOVED having her little sissy sleeping next to her and said she loves her "all the way up to space."

Sleeping beauties.

So...very...tired...

Brace yourselves, this may be the worst blog post ever. I am SO tired. We were prepping all day for something we're doing tomorrow, and then tonight we went to a friends' Oktoberfest party. It was fun but exhausting keeping track of the kids. There were 36 kids there. THIRTY-SIX! So anyway, I took one picture on my cell phone today before we left and it was of the girls running across the room and flopping themselves on the couch. They did it approximately 57 times before we had to leave.

Now that's entertainment. Good night!

Now and Then: Contrasts

I took this picture of Leyna after dinner tonight:

and it immediately reminded me of this picture:

August 13, 2009

I guess they're not exactly the same but something about her face now still reminds me of that face back then. But notice how her eyes have changed from blue to green? She was two in that picture and for the longest time we just assumed she still had blue eyes until one day we were like, Hey - here eyes are green! And aren't they GORGEOUS?!

So, next I took this picture of Cora (and it's SO Cora!):

And then I searched and searched through our picture archives looking for a similar face. But then I found this:

How's that for contrast? Mischief vs Quiet Innocence. I miss that little baby girl but I sure do love our curly-headed little rascal :)

Jumping beans

The girls had the time of their life this morning. We went to a place that had nothing but moon bounces and they had an absolute ball. I don't know how they made it through the day after expending that much energy but they did! We were there with our buddies Conner, Scott, Reagan, and Reed and finished off our play date with a yummy lunch out. Love the last picture :) The rest of them are kinda blurry from all the bouncing!

Wordless Wednesday

A day at the fair

Today we spent the day at the fair with Pee Paw, Nana, Aunt Jeannie, Uncle Gene, Aunt Marty, and Clinton. Phew! It was a little rainy at first but the weather straightened out and we had a really nice time. Cora had such a nice time that she decided not to take a nap today. AT ALL. I am still in shock. But I love how easy bed time was!!!

 I also just have to share this cute craft we made today...little pizzas!