Sleepover!

Tuesday night we had Hannah and Haydn over for a sleepover. I think all 4 kiddos were excited! They play so well together and just have a lot of fun with each other. We made chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for dinner. That was a big hit. Then ice cream sandwiches for dessert!
Enjoying dinner. Porter requested he sit by Hannah! Porter went to bed no problem.....the 3 little girls............... well let's just say they were having too much fun giggling, playing and eating Goldfish crackers to sleep!
They wanted me to take a pic of them sleeping! They were so funny, you can see them all smiling while they are "sleeping"!

Cheese!

The next morning, playing Pretty Pretty Princess.

Again, Porter had to move to Hannah's lap!

Stella Turns FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! Where has the time gone? My baby girl is 5 years old.....does not seem possible. Mike and I are so blessed to have this little girl as our daughter. She is kind, funny, loves to laugh, be funny, loves to run, jump, always asking endless questions ("if the world is round, how do we not fall off?"), she is awesome. She also loves to pick on her brother, pick her nose, be a drama queen....but hey---this is Stella!!! :) She was SO excited to turn 5! We made a paper chain leading up to her b-day, each day she tore a link off and crossed off a day off her calendar. The morning she turned 5, she asked me over and over again if she was *REALLY* 5 b/c she did feel taller. But later in the day she decided that she did feel taller and her feel did feel bigger!!!! :) So funny!
She opened gifts first thing in the morning.

We started a new birthday tradition this year ( I read this in a parents magazine a year or so ago) and I put 5 balloons in her room while she was sleeping, so when she woke up on her birthday they were there. Of course, what child does not LOVES balloons?!?! So the tradition will be whatever age she or Porter is turning there will be that amount of balloons in their room on their birthday morning. Here she is later in the day with her 5 balloons....she has been playing with them non-stop. And I also got P a balloon so he wouldn't feel left out! :)

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

Of course Porter wanted to be included, so after we sang Happy Birthday to Stella, we had to put candles in Porter's cupcake and sing to him! :) Showing off the ring from her cupcake.

Porter no longer takes naps, but he's been fighting a cold this week. I found him sound asleep while he was watching his Planet Earth Shark DVD. He was mad when he woke up b/c he missed the Great White Sharks!

Sara and Haydn stopped by to take Stella on a special outing for her birthday. They took her to the mall to get her face painted, saw the Easter Bunny, rode the Easter Train, and stopped by Wendy's on the way home for a Frosty!!!! Here are S & H with their face paints. Stella had a balloon bouquet on her cheek and Haydn got a unicorn on hers.

Sara and Haydn stayed for a bit to hang out. Haydn and Stella had fun playing with Stella's make-up. They also had Taylor Swift CD blaring in the background. I was smiling to myself thinking this is what they will be doing in 10 years, playing with makeup and blaring their music together!!! They are so sweet!!!

Sugar Sugar

Last year for Valentine's Day (yes, that would be Valentines Day 2009) I bought the kids HUGE lollipops. Once I got them home from the store, I wondered why in the would did I buy the kids HUGE lollipops!?!?! So I put them way up on a shelf in a cupboard and forgot all about them.....until Stella was digging through said cupboard a few weeks ago and found them! She's been asking for them almost daily so today was the day to open up the sweet treats and eat enjoy some of the lollipop. I think we'll probably still have them come the 4th of July!!!!!!! They are big!!

Igloo

After we got home from the Y this afternoon Stella and I headed outside to play in the snow. Porter didn't want to come out with us, so he stayed inside with Mike. A couple of weeks ago Mike dug out a tunnel for the kids to play in in the snow. It looks more like an igloo from the front! We ran into our neighbors yesterday at Costco and they told the kids that they liked their igloo and Stella said had to let them know it wasn't an igloo, but a tunnel! :)
Here she is playing.

Showing how deep the snow is by our mailbox!! With a huge icicle I plucked off the house.

Enjoying said icicle, it ended up breaking into a bunch of pieces!

And the HUGE icicle hanging from the side of house!

Science Center

I took the kids to the Science Center a couple of weeks ago and we all had a great time. We have season passes so we are able to as much as we like. It is a great way to spend a cold, snowy morning! We choose a great day to go, last time we went there were a few schools there on field trips and the place was so busy. This time there were no schools there, so the kids pretty much had the place to themselves.
Porter is always drawn to the hammers! My future scientists!

Checking out some stuff in the Toddler Town area.

Making bubbles.

Giving brother a lift to see the turtles.

I'm pretty sure Stella wasn't supposed to be climbing this, but she just can't help herself from climbing anything she can!!! One of their favorite things to do is launch rockets. There is a place to build your own rockets using paper and masking tape. Then you put them on these little metal cylinders and press a button to blow out air into your rocket and they fly across the room. Here's Stella after launching hers, she was running to go retrieve the rocket to launch it again!

Porter pressing the button, his rocket already launched.

A shot of a very determined Porter, getting his rocket on the launcher all by himself. He wants no help from mommy!! :)

The "Ball Wall", Porter is down in the left hand corner.

Watching their marbles go round and round and round.

A New Look

Last week mom ventured to our house for a sewing marathon! Our sunroom has been lacking "real" curtains since it was finished last winter (unless you count sheets.....YES, sheets hanging from our windows as curtains!). We'd had the fabric purchased for a while, but just never had our schedules workout for this project to be completed. Mom was here for 4 days and worked long hours. Her second night we were up until midnight working! It's amazing how long and hard it is to make 6 curtains, but these are BIG windows. And if you know mom, you know how picky she is about EVERYTHING! I really enjoyed helping her out and it was fun to have her around!
Here she is pinning fabric.......lots of time was spent pinning, and repinning fabric! At her ole trusty sewing machine! I think we figured out her machine is over 37 years old!

Wah-la! The finished curtains! They turned out awesome! Thanks, Mom! :)

A photo of our tie-backs.

Another photo of the curtains.

Yesterday afternoon I painted the wall above the fireplace in the playroom. I love the color! You can kind of see the old color in one of the photos above of Mom sewing, it was a green color (which I was never all that fond of!).

Waiting for Spring...........

As y'all know we've been pounded hard this winter with snow, ice, etc. We are patiently waiting for spring. Yesterday as I was driving Stella to school, the snow was falling (once again!) and I said something like "When is this going to end!?!?" Stella piped up from the back, "But mom, snow is so much fun, we get to build snowmans, make snow angels, throw snowballs, eat snow". This is true, it was a nice reminder from a 4 year old that snow is fun......I just wish there wasn't quite *SO* much of it this year!! :) But to be honest, I've enjoyed this winter more than any others I previously have, not sure why since it has been one of the worst. I'm just trying to find the positives in things!! (Guess it doesn't really sound like it from this post, tho!!!!!!) :)
Here is a shot of icicles hanging from the front of our house. There are 100's more where this came from. Stella is dying to get that big one and bring it inside the house!!! :) Yesterday Porter was practicing his Kung Fu, I guess?!?!? He was using this broom to do all sorts of martial arts looking like moves!

Maybe he was needing to burn off some sugar b/c we made brownies yesterday, he loved them. Stella didn't like them! We need to have a blood test, no daughter of mine could ever turn up her nose at a brownie!!!!!!!!!

Playing with his diggers.

Yesterday was Stella's turn to bring something for Show & Share at school. She choose this monkey that I brought up from the basement last week. I think it was a gift given to her as a big sister gift when P was born. She had him dressed in a little yellow coat and diaper! As included in the pic is Curious George. Stella occasionally brings home books from school with a small assignment to do. Yesterday she had to draw a picture and write a story about something silly George did at our house. She wrote that Curious George got into her make-up, ate all of her food and didn't leave any food for her!

Trying to keep the kids entertained while inside can sometimes be a challenge. Today we dug out the finger paint!

Finger paint....not one of my most favorite activities (it's right up there with glitter in my book)!

But they had a lot of fun......

and that is all that matters, right!! :)