Yo Gabba Gabba birthay bash

Last weekend was Brynn and Cale's big three celebration. I think it turned out great considering I kind of threw it all together at the last minute (I'm usually a three months out kind of gal). I had known what they wanted to do, but kept getting distracted. I didn't have a date or location until three weeks before the party (thank you, Jen)- luckily found a place online that does personlized invites that you can print at Walmart/Walgreens in an hour, which I glued inside cardstock cards {didn't turn out too shabby, I thought... considering}. Got distracted again, forgot about all the other ideas I had until it was the week of the party and we had nothing!

The kids had a blast. They were a WILD bunch, but we kept them pretty entertained, once we got going. Brynn & Cale were thrilled to pieces with their party... When they FINALLY got to bed that night, they declared it the "best pahty everrrr!". And then they passed out. I consider that success.






Pin the Eye on Muno






Pinata






Singing 'Happy Birthday' to Brynn!


Singing 'Happy Birthday' to Cale!

ONE WEEEEEK!!!!

Ahhhh!!! It doesn't even seem real! I don't think I will believe it until THAT day when it's here and he is actually on his way. But it is coming and we are preparing on our side of the world; he is preparing on his side of the world and every day brings us closer :) :) :)

Just a matter of DAYSSSSS and we will be together againnnnn. I can barely focus throughout the day, I'm not even kidding. We are trying to make plans for things that are going to happen post-homecoming, but I just can't think past that.

Sooooooooooon.



Don't expect to see us much further apart than this for... a while. ;)

100-ish?

It's the 100th day of kindergarten today. LP's task was to make a shirt with 100 something's on it. She settled on making her shirt into a chocolate chip cookie. Cute idea, I thought. We could paint it light brown and glue 100 chocolate chips on it, easy enough.


Ha. We had barely gotten started when we realized this wasn't going to work. 1) The chocolate chips were melting. 2) We didn't have the right kind of glue. Well, we did, but it was dried up so we had to use our other glue, which wasn't cutting it.

She looked cute when she got ready and she smelled delicious =)


But by the time she got to school, she was already down to 96 chocolate chips. Lol.
Then at 9:45a, I got this email from her teacher:
"Ok. So I just went to pick the class up from the library. Layla came up to me with a hand full of chocolate chips. They had fallen off and she felt the need to save them. Needless to say when I got to her, she had a hand full of melted chocolate! I about died! However, she didn't think it was that funny. I took a picture and will send it to you later!!! "

It's a good thing Layla has already mastered counting to 100. I supposed now she can work on counting backwards? She also told her teacher if they all fall off, she'll just be a sugar cookie =)

raw talent.

This is Layla's new hobby....

break dancing in my kitchen. She is sure that she was born to do this. She just "figured it out without even a teacher!". It is pretty entertaining, I must say. And each day, she gets a little more daring with her tricks. I see an E.R. visit in our future... If not for her, then for whichever sibling gets in her way (so far, there have been two minor injuries) OR whichever sibling attempts to copy her - and they do- and they themselves end up with a broken neck.

I'll keep you updated.

three times two.

Our babies are THREEEE!!!

I know I sounded really excited about that just then, but it's actually been a really rough week with them and the exclamation points are only being used in hopes that THREE is better than TWO, despite that fact that everyone - and the last four days- say otherwise. If you have been following this blog for the last year, you know two was pretty dang tough for us! If three really is worse, I just don't know that I will survive. But what I'm hearing is that three is more about the attitude and the mouth, THAT is fine.by.me. I need it to be less about the painting my couch with toothpaste, mopping my floor with apple juice, and LITERALLY covering their rooms in wall-to-wall poop. And now you now how Cale spent his Tuesday.

So... back to the GOOD news. Our babies are THREEEE!!!
They celebrated their birthday on Monday, the same day the rest of the nation celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Do you know how overwhelming and powerful that is? While singing 'Happy Birthday' and celebrating the birth of my children, I was also trying to teach them about a man who stood up for what he believed, fought for what is right and realizing that without people like him, I probably wouldn't even have my children to celebrate with. This is the first year that Layla really understood what he's all about and she kept hugging the twins over and over saying how glad she was to be their sister.

For their day-
After sweet rolls for breakfast and morning naps, we went out for lunch to O'Charleys (their choice).


Then we had to run a few shopping errands for their party. They love picking out party stuff! This was really just to give our lunch a few minutes to settle before we went to get ice cream =)


Brynn chose strawberry ice cream with reese's pieces (ew.), Cale picked strawberry ice cream with oreos, and Layla had chocolate ice cream with gummy bears (ick).





One more stop at the party store, then we ended the night with a phone call from Daddy =) His Capt. let him off early so he could make sure he got to talk to Brynn & Cale on their birthday. They were sooo cute talking on the phone to him. And SO happy!
Now on to Saturday's big bash!!

Ben & GG's homemade cookies!

Cutest idea ever-
For Xmas, Uncle Ben and GG gave our kids a basket with 2 jars full of the pre-measured ingredients for oatmeal raisin cookies and GG MADE each of them a little apron! All three of my kids LOVE to help in the kitchen and Lord knows we love to bake treats, so it just didn't get any better than this.

During one of our "snow nights", I just happened to be out of food. Eh, it happens. I didn't feel much like loading all the kids up and attempting to drive on what could be icy roads, so I told them we were going to be wild and crazy and have popcorn and milk for dinner... a 'la Meme. (I hope you're reading this Meme! Just know that we thought of you and I absolutely told them we were having a "Meme dinner" lol). They thought I was the coolest mom ever. No reason to tell them I just didn't plan well, why ruin my image?

Of course, a couple of hours after the popcorn, everyone was hungry again. Hunger and a could night seemed like the perfect combination for warm oatmeal cookies! It was too much fun :) Everybody got to help, one at a time with their little aprons on.



Each one took a turn attempting to roll the dough into cookies..... and everyone ended the night with full bellies. AAAAND we still have another jar to make when Daddy gets home!










A big thanks to Sara Ann for providing our dinner that night as well :) It will also be our snack for tonight's family movie night featuring Alice in Wonderland. AND the movie gift cards and skittles that came with it will be providing tomorrow's birthday entertainment for Brynn and Cale! Perfect :)

Snow, er... flurry days.

I realize I am really behind in all my blogging blurbs. But... well, I just don't feel like it. I just want to sit and stare at the calendar for the next 19 days! Or make sure my house is reaallly clean so I can pretend it was that way the WHOLE time he was gone or maybe pick out my "Nathan is coming home" outfit! I mean, I should look cute the first time he sees me, right? Plus, I still have tons to do for the twins' birthday party next weekend. Just, you know, busy and distracted. On the other hand, I do have cute stuff to share and Paige complains when I don't update regularly ;) xoxo

Sooo... that being said, here are some mediocre late night pics from our lock-in last week with allll that snow we got. All 1/2 inch of it that kept us out of school for three days and gave us a near fatal case of cabin fever.*








*I know it was worse in some places, we just happened to not have that much at our house. But our road was pretty icy and everything I read on our city website said the connecting roads around our neighborhood leading out to town were some of the worst in our city.