Louisa's birthday cupcakes

Yesterday was Louisa's friend birthday party. We had 5 teenage girls spending the night. Whew! The giggling and high pitched screaming was.... interesting ;) But really, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing how blessed your children are with nice, happy friends who enjoy each other's company. (I know, I know, "enjoy each other's company"?! Lame! ;)

I had a hard time coming up with cupcakes for her. I needed something that really wowed her and her friends. We didn't have a theme, since, well, 14-year-old's parties don't generally have themes as far as I know. I could be wrong. Her favorite color is green, but I chose a variety of colors for her decorations. She likes the combination of green, black, pink, and purple.

In the end, I decided on the banana cupcakes she asked for, decorated with large roses in multiple colors. She loved them, I'm pleased to report!

Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today, at 9:44 am, my sweet little Hunter Steven made his entrance. A day late. But that says nothing about his future personality because he's far from a "day late" kinda kid. He's spunky, and silly, and full of enough energy to power a small motorboat.

Hunter is going to show us big things some day. In his three short years he's earned the title of "all around boy" in our family. He's smart, picks up on things quickly, is athletic, artistic, his motor skills are awesome, he gets along with any kind of person you put in his path. He's stubborn and throws fits and likes to have fun and laugh and tell jokes (especially the knock-knock variety). He's such an all around kid. There's nothing he won't try or do. He's not scared of anything, he's very laid back.

Life with Hunter has been an amazing adventure. Just when I think I've "been there, done that" with parenting, along comes this little boy so full of life and energy, he challenges me on a daily basis. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Today we make the big transition from baby-hood to boy-hood. My little, big three year old.

Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Birthday Party Southern Style

Yesterday we went to the cutest birthday party for one of our favorite little girls. She's in our playgroup and all the kids just love playing with her. She's a little shy and can be quiet, but get her going and she can almost keep up with the Chaos Kids.

The theme was alligator, the colors were pink and green, and the food.....

Crawfish!

Living in Louisiana for a year and a half now, I've seen plenty of people at festivals and restaurants eating off plates piled high with these little mudbugs, but I had not yet tried them. Until yesterday.

Louisa and Drew put a handful on their plates, along with a few alligator shaped peanut butter sandwiches. They have tried crawfish before, and didn't mind them. Hunter was excited about putting crawfish on his plate, but lost interest when he saw how much work it was to get just a little meat out of the tail. And frankly, so did I! But I ate my fair share. I ate all that was on my plate, Drew's plate, and some extras that a friend piled on me. They tasted like shrimp. Spicy shrimp.

You snap the tail off to get just a little meat out, so it's a lot of work and I knew I was never going to get full on them. But, it was a fun experience. It was neat to sit with southern families and share in their tradition. (Although I was NOT about to suck the claws or the head like true Cajuns do!) The family of the birthday girl admits this was the first crawfish boil they've hosted, but being from the south they are not new to eating it!

After getting our fill of crawfish, and playing on the playground, it was cake time. And what's a southern style, alligator themed birthday without the alligator king cake? A king cake is a mardi gras tradition. It's usually filled with cream and/or fruit. And this has to be one of the cutest alligators I've ever seen. His name was Gaston. I say "was" because of course Gaston is no more!

We had a birthday party last weekend, a birthay party this weekend, and a huge family fun day with our playgroup next weekend. All at the same lake, appropriately named Alligator Lake, all with the same friends, and all at the same picnic spot. An interesting coincidence.

30 Years of Me!

Yesterday I began a new era in my life. The era of the 30-somethings! I remember when I was little and that was a TV show. I used to think, wow those people are old! Now that's me, and I'm far from "old". I can't be old because I hate housecleaning and I mess up my bills too often!

Many years ago, in my younger wilder 20-something days, somone told me to wait till I was 30. Just wait, everything becomes so clear once you turn 30. I'm not too sure about that, I know plenty of 30-somethings who definitely don't have life worked out yet. And as I enter my 30-hood, I'm far from having anything become "clear". I know what's important in life, if that makes things any clearer, that's up to each of us individually. Kids, family, having good friends who do anything for you because they love you, and being a supportive wife. That's what's important...... to me. Oh, and don't forget about the whole putting God first thing!

So, my birthday.....

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to talk to Husband first, at 3:00 am. He was happy to be the first one to wish me a Happy Birthday. Although, of course that's the only time the webcam didn't work, so he hasn't seen what his wife at 30 looks like yet!

In the morning, after my short three hours of sleep, my parents came over to do a little busywork around the house for me. I went to take a shower and when I got out I was surprised with my ....um..... Tribute Wall! My parents had made posters of pictures of me throughout the years. There are six posters total. The kids had a blast looking at all the kid pictures of me, and Hunter thought all the little girls pics were "Sheesha" (Louisa).

This one is part of a much bigger collage. I like this little section cause it has a picture of my first steps, and me as a newborn with a Bugs Bunny my dad gave me.

As for presents, the kids made me their usual sweet cards that they always put a lot of thought in. Drew laid out all his Pokemon cards and picked one for me that he thought I'd like. He asked me for wrapping paper and wrapped it up to give to me. Louisa made me a birthday tiara and necklace. My parents gave me a beautiful Jim Shore mother/daughter statue, and a really pretty string of lights that are red flowers made from real leaves. You have to see it to understand what I mean, but it's very lovely.
After gifts we hit the road and headed to Shreveport to an outdoor shopping center called The Boardwalk. Among other things, we rode the carousel and the trolley, ate at Joe's Crab Shack, and had bad customer service at Bass Pro Shop.
My parents are headed back home and I now feel spoiled rotten, or at least, more than I was before. My big problem now is to decide whether I'm going to be a part of the "30 and proud of it" group, or the "29 for the second time" group. I'm kinda leaning toward the first of the two. After all, I don't feel old, I don't look old, and in today's day and age of living till you're 90, I've got a lot of years left in me.

Hooray, I Have Visitors!

Well, in a few days I'll celebrate my 30th year... ahem, I mean, my second 29th year. And instead of sitting around by myself, crying that my husband isn't here to see me into that milestone, I'll have my parents here.... next best thing.
A few weeks ago I got a call from my mom:

Mom: So, you don't want us to come down?

Me: Huh???

Mom: Your dad sent you an email last night with our itinerary and you haven't responded yet!

Me: Um.... mmmm.... well.... um......

Mom: Did you even look at it yet?

Me: Uhh... no. I don't think so. My inbox fills up kinda fast sometimes.

Mom: Well, we're coming for your birthday. We already booked the flight and we'll stay in that same hotel we did last time.

Me: Um... okay.

Now they are here. A little worse for wear, but here. The small commuter plane they took from Memphis to Alexandria, Louisiana was tossed around the thunder storm stricken sky like a styrofoam plane on a windy day. I can only imagine them jumping off the plane and kissing the sweet ground! (figureatively speaking of course!)
That was the first of their troubles. They try to call me once they land, only to get a "We're sorry, this number is unavailable" message. Trying numerous times to no avail, and even asking my sister to try with no luck, they got a bit worried. I don't have a landline, so my cell phone is the only way to get ahold of me.
Trucking their luggage to the car rental place to pick up the mini-van they reserved, they find there is no mini-van. The third major issue. As they hop in the Dodge sedan alternative, still not able to get ahold of me, they felt a bit worried and frustrated. Not to mention the green face my dad still had from the turbulent flight.
As for my cell phone, the storm my parents flew through also hit us, knocking out all cable and cell service.
When we finally hooked up at my parent's hotel and the kids talked their ears off for awhile, we decided to go eat at one of my favorite restaurants. It's one of those steak houses where you throw the peanut shells on the floor. However, a big sign on the door said, "Closed until further notice". Hmpf! Now what? Not much to choose from here.
My dad suggested the catfish place we've talked about before. So, off to Catfish Junction where Drew can get some more fried alligator.
Fried alligator, frog legs, oysters, they tried it all. Notice I say "they". Ya, I'm not the adventerous type when it comes to things that live most of their life in water. Now, I've tried ostrich and buffalo and some other various land-dwellers. And I do love seafood. But I'm not too sure about slimey, scaley things that live in the Louisiana swamp lands.
We all jet back to our respective "homes" for the season premier of Lost, and I'm sure much more fun is ahead.

Happy 10th Birthday, Baby Girl!

She's a ray of sunshine when I'm having a cloudy, "Eeyore" sort of day. That's the best way to describe her. Just pure, unfiltered sunshine. She glows when she's happy. Her smile is so bright that often times everyone else around her smiles, too.

Some days she's sad. Some days it's rainy and the sunshine can't get through. On rainy days she puts up her umbrella, splashes in the puddles, and the smile comes out again.

Nothing can stop her. Her drive, her ambition. But yet, at times she can be quite lazy. She gets tired of things quickly, but she always needs to be busy. Her hands need to be doing something, or her mind needs to be learning something.

She has her Great-Grandma's patience and faith in God, her Grandma's artistic ability and love of books, her Mom's eyes and dramatic tendencies. She adores her brothers and will do anything for them. She thinks the world of her daddy and loves the fact that he *chose* to be her daddy.

On her own she has learned how to be a leader. She is outgoing and puts 100% into all her friendships. She has learned how to forgive and forget. She is a joiner, joining every activity that is placed in front of her.

At school she's friendly, supportive, attentive, a leader, a librarian, a journalist, a gifted student, a teacher's pet, and a member of the student council.

At home she's loud, joyful, sweet, loving, compassionate, argumentative, not afraid to stand up for herself, independent, dependent, loves her pets, loves her TV, loves her books, and often times she can be very frustrating.

She gets disappointed easily, and she cries when she's hurt. She gets over things quickly and will easily make a compromise.

She still loves to curl up and read a book with me, and she absolutely loves to read to her brothers.

She enjoys every season of the year. In summer she can easily play at the beach all day long. In the fall she loves raking and playing in the leaves. In the winter she likes to sled and build snowmen until her fingers and toes are numb. In spring she loves to fly kites and take long walks on the nature trails.

I could go on describing her all day long. All the wonderful, and not so wonderful, qualities about her. Who better to know than her mother?

This morning when Louisa walked out of her room, she seemed taller than I had ever seen her before. Did she really grow last night? Or is there that big of a difference between being 9 and 10? I knew she was getting tall, but not *that* tall!After she left for school I wrapped her presents, made meatballs and put them in the crock pot for her meatball sub dinner that she chose tonight, and now I'm about to go make the red velvet cake she picked out.

It's a strange feeling knowing that my baby girl is so big. A little sad, too. I don't want her to grow so fast. Soon she'll grow into a young woman. But, I *am* excited to see what she will be like. Louisa is such a beautiful presence in our house. Being the only girl, she knows how special she is. She may have moved on from Princesses and Ponies to High School Musical and Hannah Montana, but that doesn't stop her from being my sweet little girl. I'm very proud of all that she's accomplished so far.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Cool Art Stuff

Louisa's big birthday party with friends is on Sunday. We're going to a local place called Paint N Party. The kids and I went there for a playgroup meet-up during the summer, and since we love making art so much this is the perfect place to celebrate Louisa's birthday.

I told her that she can invite up to 10 kids, including her and Drew, because it will be about $10 per child. So far she's invited 4, but has a few more in mind.

We were trying to figure out a "theme" for the party, like Hannah Montana or High School Musical. But nothing really fit with an art party. We always make our own invitations, so we sat down and got creative.

This past Sunday the kids went into the yard and splatter painted a bunch of paper. Drew, in a very Jackson Pollock-esque way, splattered a nice piece for himself.

Before Louisa started splatter painting, I stamped some birthday cakes onto the paper. At the end, we added a 3-D effect with a pop-up birthday cake in the middle. She gave them to her friends yesterday and they were amazed that Louisa actually made them.

Drew's finished product went perfectly in these new frames I bought. I needed something big enough to hold a regular size piece of paper to show off the kids' artwork in a better way than just sticking them on the fridge, so I was excited when I found these "floating picture" frames. A beautiful piece that Louisa did this summer is hanging in a frame next to Drew's.

The picture frames look so nice, I want to go out and buy some more to display other projects the kids have done.

Our elementary schools don't have an art class (*gasp*) and with two very artistic kids, we're always creating something, or are at least coloring and drawing.

We're excited for Sunday to come. Louisa has had some awesome birthday parties in the past. We went bowling one year, to Michael's craft store for a craft party one year, and last year I took Louisa and her friends to a stuff your own stuffed animal

place. I'm expecting this year's party will be just as fun!

Happy Birthday, Hunter!

Yesterday was the big day for Hunter. Although Daddy wasn't here to help celebrate, we had a nice day. Of course, after all the excitement and junk food, our big Two-year-old is a bit crabby today.

We started off the day by picking up our friends Lucilla and Ethan and driving to the Big City for some Chuck E Cheese fun. Ethan's daddy works with our daddy and they live a block away from us. Lucilla is about 8 months pregnant with baby boy number two.

Each of the kids got 40 tokens (thanks to some awesome coupons I had) and Hunter insisted on using most of his to punch the duckies in the ducky punch game.

Drew found out just how strong he is... several times. And amazingly it went all the way to 10 every time. Although when I punched it the lights only went to 8, so he is way stronger than me!

Louisa helped Hunter ride the jetski. Notice how Hunter isn't paying attention? He's looking at the ducky punch game! (and yes, my kids actually do wear camouflage clothes a lot!)

After we got back home, the birthday boy needed a little nap. Unfortunatly so did mommy, and we both slept till 7:00! I wrapped the presents quick and Hunter unwrapped them quick.

He totally dug the little puppy vacuum that Louisa picked out for him. He's been vacuuming my house all day. Now only if it really worked, we'd be in business!

We sing Happy Birthday, we eat a little cake, watch a little Nemo, and head to bed after a wonderful birthday celebration.

Hunter pauses for a second as he heads to bed, looks around, looks at me, says "Da?". No baby, no Da tonight. He'll be home in a few weeks.

Happy Un-Birthday, Hunter!

Hunter's birthday isn't for a week yet, but daddy has to go train in the field for a few weeks and won't be here to celebrate the actual day with us. Daddy was deployed to Afghanistan last year for Hunter's first birthday, and he will more than likely be in Iraq next year for Hunter's third birthday. We wanted to take advantage of having daddy here this year (even if he won't be here on the actual day) and make it special.
A few weeks ago Husband's company (4 platoons in a company, 4 companies in a battalion) had a big Family Fun day at a local lake. The lake had a great swimming area, a playground, volleyball court, boats to rent and was just fun in general. We decided to go back to the lake yesterday and celebrate Hunter's birthday.
In the morning I was moving very slow. I have some new medication that makes me sleepy and it's difficult to get up and moving in the morning. By the time I got up and took a shower, Husband had fed the kids, made the sandwiches and fruit salad for our picnic, made cupcakes for Hunter, wrapped the presents, and packed the diaper bag. Whew!! I was glad I had him around!
We got to the lake around noon. It's about a 40 minute drive out there. This section of the lake is just for us that live and work here on Fort Polk. There are cabins to rent and you can camp there. We ate our delicious lunch, grabbed our swim gear and hit the water. No, we didn't wait an hour before going swimming! We bought a floatie thing for Hunter where he can sit in it like a little boat. He had so much fun floating around in it. The water was so warm, it felt like a big bathtub. Hunter liked watching all the little fishies. He'd get excited and call, "Fish, fish!"
After awhile we hopped out, cleaned up, changed clothes and gave Hunter his presents. Of course the kids had to help him unwrap them. Daddy picked out the presents and he did a good job. Hunter loved them all.
We got the cupcakes and put two candles in Hunter's and one in Drew's and Louisa's. Hunter blew his candles out right away, and then blew out Drew's and Louisa's! Then he dug in to his cupcake, totally oblivious to the chocolate goatee that he was sporting. The kids played on the playground for quite awhile. Daddy went to find out how to get a boat license so that the next time we come out we can rent a pontoon boat.
It was a very fun day. I wish Hunter would remember it, but I know it will be one of those things that some day he'll look at pictures and have no memory that he was there.

How to Have a Successful Pirate Party

Yesterday was Drew's birthday. He's the big S-I-X. You know what that means... you get to do more stuff by yourself, girls dig you more cause you're older now, you can stay up a little later and eat popcorn like your dad... ya know, big kid stuff. Six years old is that passage from baby-hood to big kid-hood. A whole bunch of new options open up to big six year olds!
We kicked off this milestone by having a pirate birthday party on Saturday. This was not only Drew's first "friend" birthday party, but the first one we did at home. For Louisa's parties we have always gone somewhere like bowling or Build-A-Bear or something like that. We invited Drew's whole class and had a total of about 15 kids come. The turnout was just the right size for our house and all the activities we had planned.
To have a successful pirate party, you must crew your ship with rough and rowdy looking pirates.... Arrhhh!

Give them pirate names by having them choose a color and a type of fish. For example, Louisa Blue Angel Fish, or Andrew Blue Shark, or Hunter Green Marlin.

Don't forget about the ocean to sail your ship on. To make your ocean you need water bottles filled halfway with water. Put one or two drops of blue food coloring, depending on how "deep" your ocean is. Add the seashells, boats, fish and other sea creatures, as well as some "sand" (glitter). Then fill the rest of the bottle with baby oil, mateys. Why? Because that's the air above the water, of course! You should probably glue the bottle cap back on, lest ye be swabbing the deck when it all spills out.

When you feed your rowdy crew, there's a certain menu you must follow:
Every pirate has to have Rum! (fruit punch)
And then give them each a cup of sand with some fish that washed ashore. (applesauce with Goldfish crackers)
Pirates need their own ships to set sail on the sea. (hot dog in a bun, and you can add a paper sail to it if you wish to make it look more like a ship)
For desset, don't forget the Treasure Chest full of jewels and gold!
Husband actually made the cake and it looked a tad different than this, but his cake was awesome and he really impressed all the moms that stayed to hang out. And I got to be proud that my husband is not only handsome, but creative, too! We used Rolos for "gold" and M&M's for "jewels". I could not find any candy necklaces anywhere. I checked 4 different grocery stores and discount stores and not one had candy necklaces. Our cake still looked great, though.
For games we played "Pin the EyePatch on the Pirate". For this game, I would strongly suggest using a bandana blindfold because the cheap blindfold that came with the game was too easy to cheat with. The kids could still see through the bottom of it and they all "won"!
We also played "Musical Islands". Husband cut a whole bunch of "islands" out of brown paper and then drew palm trees and treasure maps on them. We laid them on the ground and the kids walked around them to the melodic sounds of pirate music. The rest of the game is played like musical chairs. I bought this "Pirates of the Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Songs" CD for the party, and it has become Drew's favorite. He listens to it every night at bed time.



Drew has always wanted a pinata at a birthday party, so we finally got one. This one was a treasure chest and we filled it with gold coins, tattoos, and candy. Just a note, if you put gold coins in a pinata, make sure they are chocolate ones. Kids aren't as excited about plastic ones as you might think! One kid actually started to eat it. I had to pull it away from him to get him to stop gnawing on it.

I gave the kids lots of time to run around the backyard and play with Drew's toys. Too much structure with kindergarteners, and you lose them.
The moms that stayed all chatted and had a good time. Although husband felt out of place and awkward being the only man.

A good time was had by all, and the kids went away with some really good "loot"! We were excited when we found this "treasure box" on OrientalTrading.com, where we ordered most of our party supplies from. Everything was included and it saved us a lot of money rather than buying it all separately.

So now my baby is six (sniff, sniff) and this mama has to live with the fact that he's growing up and there's not much I can do about it. He's already almost as tall as Louisa is and he's definitely just as smart. I love that he's becoming such a big kid, but I miss all the cute little things he used to do.

Happy Birthday, Drew Bear! (at least I'm the only one who still gets to call him that!)

My birthday present

Tomorrow I'm turning 29 for the first time. I say "the first time" because this is it. I don't get any older. I can be "29 with one year of experience" next year, but I won't be 30. 29 is where this silliness of getting older ends.
So in celebration of my first 29th birthday, husband surprised me with the everlasting gift of a tattoo. Ok, ok, uncrinkle your nose. I happen to love tattoos. I think they are beautiful and sexy. Husband has three that I adore. I have one, who I wrote about back in June. His name is Sam the dragon.
I've been wanting these cute little birds to represent the kids for a year now. Husband told me when he got back from his deployment I could get them. But then there was moving and Christmas and Disney and there was never extra money to do it.

Yesterday he told me he had a surprise for me and he was taking me somewhere today. I was very excited. Of course. We were already scheduled to go out to eat tonight, (that part of the story later) so I couldn't imagine what else was in store. He took the kids shopping for my birthday gift last night. I couldn't imagine getting more gifts.

Today he asked me if I had any particular tattoos that I wanted to get. I said, ya, you know I want those birds. So he kind of pussyfooted around it until he just came out and told me that he had an appointment set up before dinner to get me my tattoo.

I went and got the picture of the birdies I wanted. And luckily he told me in advance so that I had time to shave! I wanted them on my leg and it would have been very embarassing to arrive with a hairy leg if he hadn't told me in advance.

Here are my birdies (on my pathetically white leg):

Three birdies for three beautiful children. The red one is Louisa because she is my bright sunshine. Always optimistic. The green one is Hunter because that has always been "his" color as in "hunter green". The blue one is for Drew because of his bright beautiful blue eyes that his daddy gave him. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

When I got there a walk-in had just sat down, so they told us to come back in 45 minutes. We went to the Harley shop and then came back. Husband and the kids dropped me off and in I went. And sat. And sat. A girl was picking out a butterfly tattoo that she wanted made impossibly small. A bald guy was trying to explain to her that there was no way he could get it that small and keep all the detail in it. He gave her an appointment and told her to come back because his "lunch" (at 4:00) was coming in and he wanted to eat. Then he looked at me and I could immediately see the pain in his eyes as he realized he probably wouldn't be eating when he his food finally came. He asked if I'd been helped and I pointed at the picture of my bird that was on his desk and told him that was my bird and I was waiting. He took me over to his desk and asked how I wanted it and drew it up for me. As soon as he started cleaning his station his food came in. I could practically hear his stomach growling and see his mouth salivating. I felt bad for him so I said I could wait 10-15 minutes while he ate. He insisted he was fine. I laid down and off we went!

I remember Sam the dragon hurting pretty bad, but I could handle it. I was very nervous as he started. The pain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Heck, after a year of those agonizing stomach pains, this was nothing! He was outlining and pretty soon he stopped and cleaned me off. I asked if he got one bird outlined yet and he said he had all three done! Wow, that was fast! And not too bad. He did the color and I was good to go. Only took about 50 minutes.

Now I'm dreaming about all the stuff I want to add to it. It needs some flowers in the background, I think. Husband loves it, the kids are excited and I am thrilled!

Time to go to dinner. I had a gift card for Red Lobster and Olive Garden. We were certain there were both restaurants in Alexandria. We swore we saw both of them on a main strip where there's lots of restuarants. While husband and the kids were driving around he couldn't find either one. He called 411 asking for a phone number and was informed that neither restaurant was in Alexandria. Oh great! Well, now I have this $50 gift card I earned and what good is it going to do me!

We decided to go to Logan's Steakhouse for prime rib. A good alternative.

All in all it's a great start to my birthday! And I have a new beautiful piece of art that I get to show off.

Woman Speak

You know how women often say one thing, but mean the opposite? Ya, I do that regularly.
"No honey **sigh** you don't have to rub my back, I'm fine" ~ means get over here and rub my back NOW!
"I guess you can have the last little bit of ice cream" ~ means you had better save that last little bit for me cause you know I'll have a chocolate craving tomorrow!
"Ok, you can go play cards with the guys even though we had family plans tonight" ~ well, if a guy can't read that one, then he really needs to not be married!
Many times throughout the week I'll use "woman speak". Does it irritate the heck out of husband? Of course it does! Do I like playing these little games? Of course I do! I enjoy watching him try to decipher me and crack the code. It's funny. Sick, but funny.
My birthday is coming up soon. yea. And of course it just happens to be on Super Bowl Sunday. double yea. I'm sure there are plenty of women who would enjoy that. Having a big super bowl party on their birthday would be great fun to them. Not really to me, though.
At Club Mom, where I moderate message boards, we can earn points for free stuff. I have saved up many many points and haven't done much with them. So finally I ordered myself a gift card. We're going out to eat at Red Lobster, one of my favorite restaurants. With my gift card it will probably be free, or pretty close to it. Yea Me! However, we're going on Saturday, not Sunday. **sigh**
I told husband that on Sunday, I didn't mind staying home and watching the Super Bowl IF he took me out for ice cream before the game started. He was fine with that. Then I told him that I don't want a cake. {{{screeeech.... stop the bus}}} There has never been a time where I didn't want cake. But this year, with all of my stomach problems, I just don't want a big cake sitting around that I feel obligated to eat all of, which I will. So then husband says to me, "Is this code for, yes make me a cake?" I told him no, no code, no cake. He said **wink wink** "Ok hunny, no cake." I said, no really... no cake. There's no **wink wink** here. No code, no woman speak, no cake. Just take me out for ice cream and I'll be happy. There's a Cold Stone Creamery knock off down here and I just want to go there. No cake.
So we'll see if I actually get a cake or not. I still think he thought I was speaking woman speak. It's funny that he knows me so well that he asks me, though. He knows I play games with him just to see what he'll do for me. Evil, yes. Fun, double yes.

Five Girls and a Kitten

Wow, I'm so bad at blogging! It's really been that long since I posted last? That shows you what I think of all of you, huh?!
Last night was the big birthday party for Louisa. We had 5 girls, including her, here spending the night. I live in a small apartment..... I live upstairs.... There is an elderly couple who lives downstairs. Thank goodness for me they are very tolerant. However, 5 girls running, running, constantly running... not to mention jumping... probably drove those old people nuts!
Drew went to his auntie's house. We have a big problem with him being here while Louisa has sleepovers. He likes to chase the girls, and attack them, and do super hyper jump kick karate chops on them. Somehow, I figured the night would go smoother without him.
We started out at a Build a Bear knock off called, none other than, Build a Buddy! (How creative!) There were different birthday packages and the one we chose the girls could pick any animal, and decorate a t-shit, and they would also get a cute little sleeping bag.
Now, if I could find my digital camera, I would be overwhelming you all with pictures right now, but, as my luck goes, I didn't have my digital with me last night. We had a Bratz camera I gave Louisa as a birthday present that had a roll of film with 12 exposures. So that's what we used last night. And with Louisa taking pictures, 12 goes fast! You will just have to bear with me and imagine (no pun intended).
There were so many animals to choose from, some of the girls, including Louisa, had a hard time. We eventually ended up with a duck, two pandas, a cute little brown furry dog, and a cute brown-ish orange-ish floppy dog, and also a unicorn because we had a friend who is only 4 just for the animal stuffing, not the sleepover part. The girls got to sew a trick or treat bag, as well for their new friends. Which was a cute idea, but took way too long. I would have just prefered to stuff, decorate a shirt and be out of there.
Once we got back to the apartment, I took their pizza order and, well, ordered! They played Twister while we were waiting for the food to arrive and holy cow are they crabby when they can't cheat! This would have been an awesome time to have my camera, but alas.
One large pepperoni and one large sausage, cheese sticks, orange soda and Sprite finally arrives. And boy did those girls eat! One girl had 4 pieces of pizza and everyone else had 3. Not to mention the cheese bread and endless refills on soda. THEN they still had room for cake!
Reynolds has these cute new Fun Shapes baking cups out now, so I bought stars and hearts and baked chocolate cake and then let the girls pick what shape. We had 3 stars and 2 hearts. Then they got to decorate their own with frosting, sprinkles, gel writers, etc... Another time where my camera would have come in handy! They got pretty creative.
So, in my title I mentioned the kitten, and I have yet to say why. I'll take a minute now to tell you why. Scooter was by far the center of attention. As I knew he would be. However, it got to be a little much for him. Since his newness has worn off for Louisa and Drew, Scooter is just one of the cats now. He gets a lot of attention, like they all do, but the kids don't have the need to hold him every second. He just runs around and plays and comes to us when he wants some lovin'. That's what he's used to now. But the sleep over guests had something else in mind for this little guy. And it's called, torture!
Especially two twins who want a kitten more than anything (and their mom is seriously looking into it, just has to find one with low dander). The twins chased Scooter all over this little place, and once he'd find some place to settle and catch his breath (and hide) they would find him again. He doesn't like being locked up. I did put him in my room and closed the door so they couldn't get him, but he stuck his little feet out under the door and they still managed to get ahold of the poor little guy.
So Scooter was carried and rocked and petted and brushed and smooshed and smothered and squeezed and fought over (you could just see him saying "Please ladies... there's enough of me to go around!" in his best French accent).
Nighttime came and the girls got out all their sleeping stuff and put on pj's. I thought we'd play a game to help everyone wind down. We played Disney Scene It. Two teams and I split up the two smart girls thinking that way both teams would stand a chance. Louisa and her friend Kenady are both in the gifted & talented classes at school, so I knew I had to split them up. And you always have to split up the twins or they will just fight the whole time. Unfortunately we had a team of 2 and a team of 3, but we didn't really have a choice. Louisa's team won both times.
Then I told them it was time to lay down. It was about 11 and Hunter still needed to go to sleep and I was totally wiped. They brushed teeth and got all situated with who was laying next to who. And then the giggling began. That inevitable giggling that always comes when you get several girls laying down at bedtime together. Then someone farted and there was thunderous laughter. Then someone burped (on purpose) and even more laughter.
One of the twins got a little crabby and decided to go lay down on Louisa's bed so she could sleep. One fell asleep and then there were four!
Four little girlies, laying on the floor, one of them farted and they all laughed some more!
Hey, that sounds like a song!
So they giggled and they giggled and they talked about boys. The pretended their new stuffed friends were boys that eveyrone likes in the class and they asked them out and fought over them. Eventhough Louisa claims she doesn't like boys, she was right there with them, talking about Jakey! ((sigh)) Oh Jakey!
Funny Louisa never mentioned the boy I know she really likes. Or would like if she liked boys. She just went along with who everyone else likes.
Finally at 2:00 am I told them all to lay down. I had to go to bed. Within 5 minutes of everyone laying down, they were all asleep.
Then, 7:00 am, they were all up bright and early! And I dragged my butt out of bed as slowly as possible.
Thus ends our sleepover adventure.
Oh, did I mention that the decorations were pink Super Girl? Ya, Very cool!

(there, since I don't have pics, I did a good job of adding links!)

It's Baby Girl's Birthday!!!!

Holy Cow, she's a tween! What am I supposed to do with a tween? Louisa is officially 9 years old. Well, ok, not officially, but pretty close. I told her we couldn't celebrate her birthday until 6:54 PM! She didn't like that.
So as I'm putting her to bed, giving my last hugs to my 8 year old she asks, "Can I have a present when I wake up?" Oh, gee... I don't know.... I didn't really get her many this year because she's having a huge party with her friends on Friday, and some of the gifts she did get were kind of expensive. So we talked about it and she understood that if we counted up Drew's presents from his 5th birthday in May, and her presents, he would hands down have more. However, hers were more costly. Ya, that made sense to her. She's good like that. She thinks of Drew first a lot.
Here we are, and I can't sleep eventhough ALL three kids were in bed by 9:15. Then I IMed with one friend and then another and then read some blogs and am just too excited to sleep. Oh, and I'm also blowing up balloons! I thought it would be funny to blow up a bunch of pink, purple and silver balloons (her fave colors) and put them in her room for when she wakes up. And boy am I out of breath! I think 20 is plenty. Maybe just a few more.
Well, here I sit, finally tired, out of breath, and ready to take on this new adventure with my little girl who's grown up to be a tween! And oh boy are we going to clash when she's a teenager. We are way too much alike and I fight her laziness and airheadedness tooth and nail. I don't want her to grow up and be lazy and airheaded like me. Life is too hard this way. Life is so much easier when you can remember doctors appointments (and not forget them all the time like I did again today), and life is easier when you keep a clean house (so then you don't have to spend an entire week working your butt off cause your daughter is having a sleepover in a few days and the house is a toxic wasteland).
Here we go, on to stage two of baby girl's life. Boys, talking on the phone with friends, hanging out at the mall, ok... I'm getting ahead of myself, but you get the picture. And some of you have been there, done that, donated the t-shirt to Goodwill! So any advice you have for me on this long journey... keep it to yourself! I can figure it out on my own!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!