Happiness in November

There's a little girl in our life that is very special. Her name is Lexi. And she made November happy for us. Dad called  her a turkey when she was in my belly. He'd say, "She's having a turkey." Due on Black Friday....of course, her parents have worked retail for years. She's a compliant second child in many ways. But can beat to her own drum in many other ways. She's precious. She's our Lexi and she's now three.
Happy 3rd Birthday Lexi! (She was so funny...I don't know if you can see her expression before we started to sing. She had said "Are you going to sing Happy Birthday to me?" Partially thinking she might not get sung to, but also HEY YOU NEED TO SING TO ME!

Kailey's Birthday

Wow! I'm really behind! I'll try to catch you all up. I know my extended family enjoys reading and seeing the girls. I'm trying to keep up! Kailey is 6! I can hardly believe it. Oh, I haven't done first day of school yet, either! ok, one at a time. So much has happened since the day Kailey was born. She is very kind and compassionate (we believe she acquired the compassion trait from helping take care of Mom.) While she does have a few really good friends, she is a good friend to many. She is starting to show some leadership characteristics at school. She knows the answer to most questions her teacher asks. Her teacher will call on her when no one else knows the answer because she will not boast about answering.

We had two birthday parties for Kailey. One was a family party, and one with her friends. One of the things she wanted was her "WHOLE" family together. Well, she got it mostly...we didn't get Uncle Darrel. She was pretty excited to have Aunt AJ around for a couple of days, as well as Grandma Connie, and Jason, Katie, and Papa.

Kailey's birthday party

Kailey's birthday party with her friends was Saturday night. We had 9 girls and Kailey (=10 girls!). Yikes! We had friends from the 'hood (neighborhood), from new preschool, old preschool, and soccer. I came up with this idea to make pillowcases for the girls to decorate. It was easy and it was hard. The easy part was sewing three basic seams. The hard part was figuring out the fabric, the markers that we could use, and the blanket silky that I thought would look great on the end! I'll start the party pics with some of the pillowcases being decorated. I think I have heard that most of the girls went home (oh yeah, they came in their PJ's) put their pillowcases on and crashed!

We also did a chocolate fountain, which Jason was in charge of, and pedicures...Thanks to the help of Katie and Renee! After presents and cake, we ended the night with some Phineas and Ferb, one of Kailey's favorite cartoons.

BirthdayFun

I had a great birthday! I started with a 4 mile run with my running buddies....we've been running together twice now. We had lunch at Olive Garden, one of my faves, and Mark and Kailey surprised me there! Kailey had been talking all week about my birthday party being a Hello Kitty party. Can you tell what we've talked about in planning her upcoming birthday party? So she and Mark went to Build-a-Bear and stuffed and dressed a Hello Kitty for me.

Margaret wanted to have birthday dinner for me at her house. Dinner is ALWAYS wonderful at Margaret's. She will always think of everything from the table being fully decorated to dessert. Kailey was taking pictures. Pastor Dan and Miss Judy joined us as well.

Kailey's Birthday

Wow! Our little princess is 4. I'm not sure if I should be relieved that we have survived her first four years of life, or our parenting only has four years of experience and worried about what is to come!

I'm a Mom, not all of us superheros wear capes

I know that I am not a supermom, nor will I ever be. One night on a trip to Michael's with Margaret, Kailey finds a Strawberry Shortcake cake mold and announces this is what kind of cake she wants for her birthday. Margaret said she can do that. I was thinking that was a great idea! UNTIL, Margaret starts bringing me things for this cake. I got the specific food coloring, icing bags, tips, etc. So Thursday, I started. I started with cupcakes and practiced my icing abilities. Kailey and I make buttercream icing. Friday, I made a Duncan Hines cake. And I decorated until 11 pm Friday night. Here's the process.