Thankful Day 13

Today I am thankful for the beauty of God's creation.

Fit FOUR a Princess

This past weekend, we celebrated Lexy's birthday in style with a Princess Tea Party.

She invited five of her little 4-yr-old friends to come over to her house Saturday morning for a Royal Tea.
For the files: 2 out of the 5 girls were named "Nora". And that's not even a common name! Unfortunately, one of the Noras woke up with a fever that morning as was unable to come. :(
But we had fun regardless!

All of the girls came in princess attire and it was so cute to see them all dressed up.

Lexy requested that Bill be Prince Charming, so he got dressed up (in a shirt and tie), too. :)
She told me that I could be The King, but I just opted for Mom. :)

We made princess crowns....

And jeweled necklaces....

And put Cinderella in her Castle Window (the princess version of "Pin The Tail On The Donkey")....

And of course, we enjoyed a spot of tea, er... juice, scones, fruit, and PB&J sandwiches.

And what party would be complete without cupcakes?

Tori got in on all the action, too, although she didn't quite have the princess costume down.

A good time was had by all of the princesses.

Pology Note

My friend Heather from our Sunday School class (that actually meets on Saturday nights, but it feels too delinquent to call it "Saturday School class") has begun inviting the women from class (and any small children) over to her house on Wednesday mornings in an effort to all get to know one another. I'm THRILLED with the opportunity.

Heather's own elementary-aged kids who are not there to protect their possessions have GRACIOUSLY allowed our small children to play in their rooms. SERIOUS grace, here.
You should see the mess that becomes of their rooms while many small children play.

So two weeks ago, Lexy found a pair of scissors in Lauren's room. She has been taught 100 gagillion times that scissors ONLY CUT PAPER. But for some reason, she decided to give them a try on Lauren's doll. Her AMERICAN GIRL DOLL. Thankfully, I think the permanence of her initial cut kind of scared her, so she didn't continue cutting. But poor little American Girl Doll now has one little chunk of bangs.

At the point when this haircut was discovered, it wasn't clear who had done the cutting. There were multiple kids in and out of the room, and no one was really acting guilty. But I just had that feeling. The one that a mother has when she KNOWS it was her kid.

On the way home, we talked about it and Lexy admitted that she had done it. She seemed genuinely repentant, so I didn't really push the matter. Except to tell her that she would need to write an apology letter to Lauren.

Fast forward to this morning,... which was our first time back since the Hair Cut Incident. I had almost forgotten about it, actually,... I guess I have too many other issues floating around in my brain.

We were getting ready to walk out the door and Lexy screams, "Wait Mom! I need to write a Pology Note!"

She ran off into the office to the drawer where I kept my stationary and began digging through various cards and envelopes.

All of a sudden it "clicked" in my brain what she was talking about.

I found a generic, blank-inside card for her to use.

"Is this a Pology Note, Mom?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Ok."

I told her what letters to write, but she did it all on her own.

Dear Lauren,

I'm sorry I cut your Baby's hair.

She signed her name on back since we were,..ahem... out of room.
(We're still working on SIZE of the letters.)

Cannon Fun

Our dear friends, The Cannons, moved back east about a year ago, and the girls and I have so missed seeing Liam and Baby Joshua and Baby Sarah-- who are now no longer babies :)-- on a regular basis. They were out in CA for a visit earlier this week, so we met them one afternoon at Disneyland.

Liam and Lexy are about 15 days apart in age. He is a CU-TIE that I had my eye on in the nursery even before I knew his wonderful mother Tena. I always thought that "Liam and Lexy" had such a cute ring to it. :) And then I actually got to know him (and his parents), and now I REALLY like the sound of it!

I love this progression of photos because they already look like a married couple. HA!
Check out how Lexy is pulling his chin around to face the camera, all the while never breaking her focus of smiling at the camera.





Josh, Tori, and Sarah, born in that order, are all within about 8 weeks of each other.
Lexy found a new best friend in "Baby Sarah" and held her hand pretty much ALL DAY. I kept saying, "I wish she was this nice to her OWN sister." Granted, her own sister wouldn't let her hand be held for anything.


And then there's Josh.... who I'm thinking maybe we could do a little "2 brides for 2 brothers" action with.

He already looks like he's making eyes at Tori. :)

We miss you Cannons!

Winter Fun

As I alluded to in my previous post, we spent time up in the mountains playing in the snow! We had the pleasure of spending an extended weekend with WONDERFUL friends up at my dad's cabin, which he graciously allowed us to take over.

We spent our days out in the snow. Most of the kids loved it...
Tori was a little unsure about this whole "snow" thing.... She definitely didn't like the cold. Either that, or she didn't like the coat we insisted she wear when she was outside. She also seemed a little uncertain of her footing on the ice and pretty much stood TOTALLY STILL whenever we put her down. Our usually smiley, happy girl was definitely out of her element.

happily walking on solid, non-icy ground
She refused to wear her gloves, so she just kept her hands tucked up inside the sleeves.

eating snow!

Bill and the other guys built little fortified bunkers to have a snowball fight. (My hands were too full holding Tori to get many pictures of their creation!)


And then they built their own personal toboggan run, complete with a HUGE snow pile at the end to ensure a safe stop. The kids LOVED it. And a couple of the adults did, too. :)



And what trip to the snow would be complete without a snowman!

A Little snowman. The snow was so powdery, we had a hard time getting it to stick together!

Beautiful Sunset from the cabin balcony.