Pizza Party

A bunch of guys from church, including Jason, headed to Peoria for a Promise Keepers Conference Friday and Saturday. So, I invited Stef and her girls over to our house Friday evening so the girls could make pizza. Now, my intentions were to snap some cute photos of them making pizza. That did NOT happen. Things went way too quickly, and I was busy satisfying the chanting, "My turn!, Me next!, Hey! I wanted to do that!" not to mention the fact that I must've forgotten that 18 month olds still put everything in their mouth because I handed Mya a piece of dough to flatten, and she promptly tried to take a bite. Don't worry, I grabbed it back in the nick of time. Needless to say, I have zero pizza making pictures. Better luck next time. We did have a lot of fun, and it's super easy to do. Since I don't actually make the dough, we like to buy Pillsbury's Grands Biscuits and flatten them out into mini pizzas, then we just top them with some pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese and bake! They're pretty yummy too. Afterwards, the girls had plenty of time to run up and down the stairs making all the noise they possibly could.

Blackberry Farm

Yesterday morning, I woke up to Elsie's plea, "Let's get up, Mommy." I shuffled myself out of bed and down the hallway while the pleas continued..."I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I want waffles." I made my way to the kitchen, opened the freezer, and turned to find the stove clock staring me in the face. 10:34 it said. I can't even believe we slept in that late. What I can't believe even more is that Claira slept until 11:54! Yeah, I checked her breathing a few times.

When we were all finally up and ready for the day, we met Stefanie with her girls, Lydia and Mya at Blackberry Farm. There are trails to walk on, and the girls always enjoy endless rides on the carousel, ponies, train, and wagon. It was a great afternoon for it...the sun was warm and the breeze was cool.

Family Funnies

Last week, Elsie kept calling me "Miss Martin" and I couldn't figure out why. After a couple of days, I finally asked her why she was calling me that...she said, you're my teacher like Miss Martin on Caillou!

Earlier this morning, Elsie had asked for a drink so I went to the kitchen, and she followed. Claira army crawled after us, grunting her thoughts about the whole thing all the way. When she reached the doorway, I turned to her and said, "Hi, Claira." She stopped, smiled and waved, and then resumed her crawling and grunting pattern.

"You know you're growing when elastic doesn't fit." -Jason

"Don't play with my shirt, it's not a toy!" -Elsie to Claira


Bathtime:

School of Mine

I recently started another blog, which is devoted to our adventures in homeschooling. If you'd like, check out School of Mine.

Monday, Monday

It was a gloomy day here in Chicagoland. We woke up to thunderstorms...the kind of thunderstorms that provide you with nearly continuous thunder. In my case, they also provide me with a continuously jumpy, clingy, frightened 3 year old. We also ended our evening with thunderstorms and a tornado warning. Don't worry. We sought shelter in our basement. It's lovely to have a home with a basement. On the other hand, our house is a split level so there are windows in every room. So, we huddled together in the bathroom around the corner from the window in there.

My Wii Fit finally arrived on Friday, and I do mean FINALLY! I had to stalk numerous online stores before I could even order one, and I had orders placed and cancelled twice before I actually got one. Now that it's here, we love it. All of us. Except for maybe Claira. It has inspired some fun talk already. Elsie calls the Hula Hoop the "Hooly Loop."

We had a wedding to go to on Saturday and as we were getting ready, Elsie told Jason, "I don't want to go to the recession (reception). I just want to go to the weddin'. Later, at the wedding, she asked me, "Where are all the Grandmas?" I had to explain to her that "all the Grandmas" are still in Missouri to which she replied, "Well, let's go back to Eric and Randi's weddin'. It's their turn again. Then we can see Grandma!" Of course, half way through the wedding, I hear, "I have to go to the bathroom." What's really grand is that I asked Elsie to wait, and she waited a good 15 minutes to go.

Yesterday, we went to the mall after church. I had to hit the Gap sale and got some CUTE stuff for Miss Claira. I've bought a few things for fall for Elsie already, but I'm hoping she'll be able to wear a lot of stuff from last winter. What was great is that it gave Elsie another opportunity to go potty outside our house. I'm really happy that she's telling us when she has to go and we're out and about. I was worried about that before, but she seems to be a pro already.

Elsie the Big Girl

Elsie is doing soooooo well with potty training. She hasn't had any accidents since Tuesday. She even made it all the way through church on Wednesday and went potty when we got home. Yesterday, she went poop in the potty for the first time. She's already repeated that today. AND, she woke up dry yesterday morning and this morning...something that rarely happens for her at all so two days in a row is pretty impressive.

Sorry about all the poop talk on the blog lately, but I'm proud of my girl and super thrilled at how well she's doing considering how long it's taken us to get here.

Princess Party

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party for Princess Breanna. Her mom, Janette, did a great job organizing it, and the girls had a ton of fun. First, they had a Princess Tea Party. There was a game for them to play. Then, they did some dancing to a dvd of Princess Songs, and Janette read them princess stories. After that, there was cake and ice cream, and Breanna opened her presents.