Happy Happy Birthday to You!

Hard to believe that 3 years ago a little girl was born with a bunch of dark hair, chubby cheeks and screaming her head off. Now she's losing those chubby cheeks, has dark blonde hair and is still screaming her head off. She took cupcakes to Lauri's today and she got a couple new Thomas trains and a hair thing with Emma on it from Lauri. She even came home with it in her hair, I was amazed! For a birthday treat we all went to BK tonight (plus we had nothing defrosted for supper). She was so proud of herself because she can finally climb to the top of the tubes. "I'm a big girl now, I did it myself!" P was equally wound up. He has really come out of his shell (Ninja Turtle Shell) this week and has been really chatty. He's belting out the songs he's learned and has learned all of the days of the week. This week he's in charge of the milk for snack time. He's even colored some more pics. We did get a comment on his journal this week though that said one day after lunch he didn't want to sit down and kept moving around....oops! Back to Emma, it is her big day after all. She has been doing pretty good with the potty training. She'll go 4-5 days and then have a wet incident. Still working on the lack of pooping in the potty. Tonight at Walmart Parker informed me he had pee in his wee and needed to go. After BK we headed to WM as he needed pullups and has been wearing pink Tweety ones all week. Hopefully I haven't scarred him for life! We checked out costumes since I know they get picked over fast and this year they probably didn't want mommy picking for them. P is going as of course, a Ninja Turtle. Emma is going as a princess. She couldn't decide, but a lot of them were skimpy and then if it's cold out they end up having to wear a coat. This one she could wear clothes under if she had to. They tried them on when we got home and they were both sooooo excited. I guess that makes me the favorite parent again! (Especially since I forgot Wed was his sharing day, but I don't think he even noticed)

Working backwards since I haven't been good about posting...

Wednesday - We had choir practice and the kids had fun with Dale and Julia from church. They played at the park and once again Emma stayed dry. We came home and when Steve got home later he went to put Bosco in since it was dark out. We've been tying him out so he isn't in his pen all the time. He went out to find his collar wrapped around a bush, ripped into pieces. He'd somehow managed to bite it off. (We bought a strong leather one tonight at WM). He'd already bit thru the neighbor's leash too and our retractable leash. We've lost count of how many balls have died. Steve went in to get the flashlight to begin the hunt for Bosco. He turned around and there he was was wagging his tail, wanting to go into the pen. Whew, glad we didn't have to spend hours looking for him.

Tuesday - I'm pretty sure we weren't home much that night, but for the life of me can't remember what we did. Will post more on that when I remember!

Monday - Had church meetings and so the kids played in the nursery again. Emma also managed to poop her undies while we were there....errrr..... We also generally just tried to recover from the party on Sunday

Sunday - After a crazy morning of Sunday School, Steve singing in choir and his band playing at church, Mom's Group Bake Sale we headed home to get ready for the party. Emma had great fun at her party. She had a cranky spell in the middle (I think she was getting tired), but overall she loved it! She has managed to play with every toy/book by Monday. She slept on her Care Bear sleeping bag and wore her new outfit on Monday. She is having fun painting, reading and playing dollhouse. Unfortunately we haven't had much time at home this week, so it'll be dollhouse 24/7 on Saturday I'm sure. She loved her Thomas cake and ripping into all her presents.

Saturday - Parker had soccer for the first time this fall and couldn't wait to go. He seemed to do pretty well. They didn't try any "games" yet, but he is doing great at the kicking the ball part. E and I left a couple minutes early and headed to Zoo Class. They were learning about bugs. I wish I'd thought to bring a camera. She got a butterfly painted on her arm, did some coloring and listened to some stories. About half way thru she lost interest and was getting crabby, but after the touching of the bugs (she didn't want to and I didn't push it) when the hand sanitizer came out, she was happy again. She made an ant farm picture with sand and was back to being excited. Since the poor thing hardly ever gets any mom time and usually she doesn't get to see much at the zoo because I am usually trying not to lose Parker because he walks so fast and doesn't want to look at anything, that I got us tickets to ride the train. She was soooo excited to ride little James. I had a dollar so we then went and fed the fish. She then wanted to look at every animal in the zoo. Poor thing though, I made her leave after awhile because I had to race home, drop her off and get back to Des Moines for Marnie's baby shower. She got crabby in the car, so I knew a nap would soon be needed. I had tricked her into getting her outside from the zoo and so I was not her favorite parent. I decided to take P with me to the shower, so Steve could have some time to himself. P was great. He sat still, ate his cupcake and peanuts and was thrilled when a word find came out. One of the ladies there just gushed about how well he did. Whew! When we left I said, "Parker you did an awesome job." He said, "Mom, you did an awesome job too!" Then I went home and baked like a mad woman for the bake sale.

Friday - I went to Marnie's to scrapbook with a couple others on our tribute album. We all had a great time. While this was going on Steve took the kids to The Machine Shed to see all of the Hansens. I was nervous since it would be so late, but I guess the kids did great, another whew! They even went shopping before they went to eat.

Since I didn't blog all week I can't remember all the cute stuff they've been saying, shame on me!

Tomorrow night I think we actually have nothing going on. I really need to get my stuff packed for my 12 hour "Crop for the Cure" crop that is happening in DM Saturday to raise money for breast cancer. I am going with Marnie, her sister Heather and there are some other Indianola area scrappers going as well. Parker is asking that Daddy make him pancakes on Saturday. P will also have soccer.

Then Sunday after church and Sunday School (I have a cute craft idea for SS, but of course have not started on it yet) we are heading to Boone to go to Thomas. Both kids will probably freak out. And such a photo op!!!

Good night!