Happy Spring Birthday!

The first day of spring seems like a perfect time to celebrate 6 years of life!

Daddy brought Kadyn McDonalds and ate lunch with her today!  He also surprised her with cupcakes for her entire class.  Go Daddy!  She said she was having a great day so far.  Happy birthday big girl.  6 years seems like a long time.  We sure do love you!

St. Pattys Day Birthday 2

That afternoon we headed to K's choice of restaurants, Freddys.  After some yummy burgers we went back home and had cake and ice cream and let K open the rest of her gifts. 

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Later that night the girls and I watched Narnia III.  Grandma tried to watch it, but crashed in the recliner.  Poor Grandma!  We wore her out.  The boys watched basketball in another room, and we made a little green beer for everyone to finish out the celebrations.  The girls had green milk earlier.  What a fun day!

Tuesday is K's real birthday.  I thought about sending cupcakes to school, but we are throwing her a birthday party for her friends next Saturday and I think two parties is plenty.  The school will give her a pencil and a special hat the day of her birthday and she seems pretty excited about that and not too put out that Mommy isn't providing cupcakes for the entire class.  It's hard to arrange that since I can't leave the house.  I'm glad she's understanding. 

So more birthday stuff to come. 

St. Pattys Day Birthday

OK K's birthday doesn't actually fall on St. Pattys day.  However, it worked out that Jeff's mom and brother could make it up this last weekend so we thought, what the heck!  I've never celebrated St. Patty's Day, but it was sure fun to get all decked out in our greens.  It was funny seeing how people reacted.  You could see some had forgotten until they saw our greens, then suddenly they're looking at their family and pinching them.

Jeff and his fake tatoo.  It fooled a couple people!

  First, we let Kadyn open up her big gift so we could put it to use right away.  It was a scooter.  She had one before but one day put it behind the van and guess what?  Mama ran over it!  As a lesson to her, we didn't run right out and buy another.  She had to wait until her birthday.  So....she was soooo happy to have another.  So Bren, K, Grandma, and I went to a hiking trail that runs alongside Table Rock lake and let the girls get a little energy out, K on her new scooter and Bren on her tricycle.  It was a perfect day for a walk!  Forgot to take pics though.  Bummer.

Later we met up with Jeff and Jason, his brother, at Hannah's Maze of Mirrors.  It was part of K's festivities for her birthday. 

We all didn't enjoy this as much as we thought due to the sheer amount of teenagers who were going through this thing as the same time as us.  Some kid kept telling us where to go to get to the end.  It totally ruined it for me!  The whole point is for me to find the exit on my own, not to be told where to go.  I think we had more fun at the end where there was some of those crazy mirrors.

It was amazing how much those mirrors made Uncle Jas resemble his father!  He may kill me for posting this. LOL!

Later we headed to the Hollywood Wax Museum.  We really enjoyed this.  Some of the figures really resembled the actors and others....not so much.  It was fun posing with them.

Amazing how it's done.

I thought this one was the BEST one.  He looked so real!!!!

 

  I want to add, being local is awesome.  With our local discount, we get almost half off of this stuff.  Saved a bundle!  More to come!

Goodbye sweet piggy

When Kadyn turned two we redid her room to be a big girl room.  Part of her decor was the cutest little princess piggy.  She had a tutu and silver crown on her head.  She was so soft and full of those little squishy beads rather than fiberfill so she never got lumpy.  As much as I wanted this to turn into Kadyn's lovey,  she never really took to the piggy.  Then one evening piggy got left out and I cuddled up with her on the couch as a pillow.  I realized just how squishy and cozy she was and thought she'd make the perfect pillow to put between my legs when I slept for support.  Soon piggy was no longer Kadyn's piggy but Mama's piggy.

Flash forward a year.  Brennan has to nap in my room because there is no room in my room for a pack-n-play for the daycare kids.  There is room in Brennan's room for a pack-n-play.  Therefore, the baby naps in Brennan's room and Bren naps on a sleeping bag on the floor in my room.  Some days she started fighting going down for a nap.  Then one day I gave piggy a voice and started making piggy act like she loved Bren very much and really enjoyed napping with her.  She snorted, she kissed her, she licked her, and she snuggled with her.  Suddenly, piggy was AWESOME in her eyes!  She started stealing piggy out of my room and playing with her and talking to her and even telling me that piggy kept her up snoring or, ahem, tooting if you will.

Throughout the course of the year piggy's constant use started showing up.  Her tutu eventually fell off, she got a hole in her neck, and her fur was looking kind of dingy.  I began to think about parting with her and replacing her, but man how can you replace.....piggy?  Fate decided to do it for me. We took her to Little Rock last weekend and she was left behind at the hotel because she was hiding under the covers when we left.  I had to break the news to the kids.  They were really disappointed, but I was able to divert tears from Bren when I assured her we'd go looking for another piggy or likewise. 

I never thought I'd be shopping for a stuffed animal for myself at age 34, but here I am.  I could get by with any squishy pillow really, but I owe it to Bren to get another character to help her get through naps in my room.  It's fun.  I'm going to milk it while it lasts.

Wish me luck on my next quest for a new piggy.  

Man behind the camera

Sometimes when I post pictures of a trip, it becomes difficult to show that Jeff was there because he is always the man behind the camera.  I made sure to get a few shots for ya to prove that he really was on this trip.  The man likes taking pictures.  What can I say?

Little Rock 2012 Day 2

OK I was going to do only day 2 on this post, but there was just so much more the science center I wanted to share, so here's a few more day one pics.

Move hand up, ball goes up

Look, the chicken laid eggs!

Can't remember what this was, but it was cool.  Craters maybe?

Gift shop fun.

Laying on a bed of nails.  Yikes!

A lever and pulley ride.

That night we went back to the hotel and swam (another post on that to come).  Then Jeff headed to Taco Bell so us girls could have a girl's night in at the hotel room and he could get his musical Jeff fix.  He also picked up my favorite cookies, pinwheels, and got us hooked up to watch Puss in Boots on the hotel TV.  After the movie we all crashed.  We were so tired.  Jeff enjoyed his show.

Day 2 we went to the Peabody hotel.  Everyday at 11:00 the hotel ushers out a group of ducks who have their own room at the hotel.  They load the elevator and then enter on a red carpet.  They march the ducks down the carpet and into the fountain where they stay until 5:00.  It was very cute and quite the sight to see.  Bren almost started crying when it was time to go.  She like the ducks.  I have video of them marching down the red carpet.  But I'm not sure where Jeff put it.  Maybe I'll post that later.

Waiting for the ducks grand entrance.

Mom look how the water rolls off their feathers!

The kids thought this was funny.  Quite frankly, so did I.

   Later we went out to eat, dropped in a container store, and then headed to the Children's theater where we saw a production of "If you take a Mouse to School."  It was really good.  The kids laughed a lot.  We weren't allowed to take pics once the show started.  Sorry.

After the play we hit Starbucks (because no trip is complete without a starbucks run) and then headed home.  It was a good trip. 

Little Rock 2012 Day 1

Too kick of Spring Break for K we went on a little mini vaca last weekend.  We left after daycare on Friday and arrived at our hotel that night around 9:00ish.  The girls were of course amped up. Who could blame them?  Our hotel room rocked.  The next morning we headed out to the Science Center.  Kadyn really got into trying all the different hands on science experiments.  Bren tried, but was too little for most.  She did enjoy the kitty area though.  This activity lasted all morning and into the early afternoon.

So excited to go in.  At the entrance.

Pretty bubble!

What happens when you make a pattern and put a mirror by it.

How long are your intestines?  Pull and find out.

A cow in the kitty area

Arts and crafts area.  They made a teepee for the ratties!

A climbing wall in the kitty room

A simulated tornado. This was SOOOO neat!

The the news is brought to you by Kadyn and some random kid who wouldn't stop hitting the buttons.  Grrrr!

Bren liked the boat in the kitty area.

Later that day we made a quick trip to The Arkansas Capitol.  Big, impressive building, during day and by night.