Valentines for the kids

I have plenty of other things to post but there never seems to be time! I guess that's why the old website slowly faded away. :)

We just finished making our valentines for the year, and sent them off to the lab to get printed. The kids like to make these personalized valentines - in fact I was treated to a lecture about how "weird" the valentines are that you buy in the store.  So we tape a piece of candy on these and hopefully their friends are happy to get them.

This one gets a heart taped in the middle.  We added a pink heart there too, so that when the tape is gone, it will still be cute.  The Mattie-heart was Matt's idea - good one, huh!



And for this one we're hoping to get candy with a message printed on front, to put in the thought bubble.


Pierce knew he wanted a bow & arrow picture, because he's going to put a lollipop across it where the arrow should be.  There was a smilier picture that I liked better, but Pierce picked the "serious" one.


I have a few other cute ones that we could have done for Zoe, but this was our favorite.  So fun! 



Now we have to hurry up and get these assembled, so we can get them to the kids' teachers ahead of time. Pierce was a little sad that we'll be gone for Valentines day, until I told him we'll be at Disneyworld instead. That perked him right up. :) Happy Valentines day everybody!

Zoe and the blue dots

"Mom! Take a picture of me, REALLY quick, so I can have a marshmallow!" A commonly heard phrase at our house.





Why are all the pictures so far of Zoe? I guess because she's the one home during the day. :)

Zoe's 4th birthday

None of us can believe that our little Zoe has just turned 4 years old.  This  year she gets TWO birthdays, one on her real birthday, and one on Saturday when she has her party at Red Light Green Light (which is a kids' playplace here in town).  Sunday morning she woke up and promptly put on her princess dressup and birthday crown from last year (which Mattie made her).  She was ready for her party!  I reminded her that it was Sunday, church day, and that she got her second birthday on the next Saturday.  She was mollified because she REALLY wanted to wear this pretty white dress to church, and I won't let her wear it to play in.  So she had been waiting for that. 

Here she is opening some little animals that go in a dog hotel.  She loves them. :)




She got some really cute shoes & leggings from my parents.  Mom knows that Zoe is a shoe lover!  And Zoe actually has been wearing tights out, which has never happened in our family before.  She loves to wear pretty skirts and dress-ups.




Since we're having a birthday party on Saturday, we are saving her exciting fairy village cake for then.  I told her I would make her whatever she wanted for her real birthday, another cake or cookies or anything.  She chose Krispy Kreme donuts.  Yum!  (And so easy!)




Later she got to open more presents.  Here she is getting a carriage and horses and furniture for her castle that she got at Christmas time.  She was totally enchanted by all the sparkles, glitter, and she thinks one of the horses is a unicorn, so that is especially fun. 




Wow, that is a lot of sparkly toys all together!


The big kids were so nice, they played castle with her for a long time.  Then Mattie very thoughtfully gave her a bunch of her old toys (the camera was put away by this time).  And we ate her requested dinner of "eggs - the regular kind" (which means hard boiled), "a-getti" and avocados.  What a fun combination!  Everyone was so kind to Zoe - she had a wonderful birthday!  Thank you!

New year, new blog

I miss my old family website so much!  I don't have the time to keep it up, and since I blog anyway, I thought I might keep a blog up a little better than the old site.  I feel like I've missed recording a few years of my kids' lives, and it just makes me sad.  So I'm hoping that being only a little ambitious and posting a few things less often than I used to will be easier to maintain.

My little Zoe just turned 4 years old! She is a dress-up princess almost all the time. She found this dress that Mom saved from when I was a little girl - it's 2 sizes too small (look at the sleeve length) but she is skinny and it zips right up - that's good enough for her! She calls it her "pioneer princess" dress and it is her current favorite. Except - BIG exception - there are some hooks & eyes on the back of the neck, and when she was wearing ponytails, the hooks kept coming apart and pulling her hair!  Now she points out, each time she puts this dress on, that she will NOT wear pony tails with it, because of those PULLY HOOKS!  After she wears it basically 2 days in a row I take it away and make her put it in the wash. Then she is on to the next princess. :)  She helped me with pictures one morning when I was set up for someone else who was coming.  What a sweetie.