This has been a cold winter here in TX!

Billy likes to be warm. He was in a robe and slipper kick for about a year. Now he really is into this heated throw blanket his sister bought him for Christmas. I suspect he will even use it this summer when the a/c is on!

Incidentally, Oscar likes to be warm too. Whenever he sees this blanket even if...HOLD IT!! Stop the presses...literally as I was typing this, Billy came into the bedroom and I could hear him shuffling through the blanket basket. I heard a cord bang against the wall and i said "what are you getting?" he said "the heated blanket" and I died laughing! I made him come over here and see what I was blogging about. We had a good laugh. He said he was going to take a picture of me blogging and blog about that later. Goodness. Anyway...back to what I was saying!

Whenever Oscar sees this blanket out he jumps on it, plugged in or not.

Next winter we will be asking for a second one, for sure!

Nostalgia

My heart physically aches when I look at my kids baby pictures.

3 years this Sunday I will have spent as the mother of this little girl.

As someone told me, the days drag on and the years fly by.

So true.

One of her most precious phrases is "i want my mommy" when she wants me to hold her.

This baby has lit up my life.


She is my joy.

She was my hope.

Vivi likes me to sing to her "A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes"...

She has no idea.

There once was a time when I thought i had lost the ability to dream...to hope in something that would come to fruition. She restored my hope and continues to inspire me to dream.
Vivianna Hope

"Full of Life"

That she is!

B-day party dilemma

HELP!!! I need advice!! It is 2:30 in the a.m. on monday and I am up worrying...as I do more often than i like to admit! This particular worry fest is about Vivi's party next weekend. Big, weighty world issues...I know. :) The good news is that everyone we invited is coming, the worry part comes in on what to do about the cake situation. We are having a small intimate party at a tea room. It is setting us back a pretty penny including tax and tip, but with the help of Nana, we are able to make it work. However, our budget for b-days is still maxed with this one(and a bit over...shh...don't tell Billy :)

Anyway...the problem is the price of the party only includes those activities and food reserved for the 10 children attending. This means all of their respective parents will not be fed or watered during the 90 minute party. It takes place at 4 p.m. which is not traditional meal time, but this wars against all of my hostessing ways. They do not allow outside food or drinks and their adult party fare starts at $40 a tray. No thanks. They do however allow outside cake or cupcakes. The problem is the children are having petit fours in lieu of the traditional party cake (it's a tea, remember) so they don't recommend an extra cake because it is all way too much sugar for tiny tots in the long run. They will be served tea sandwiches, tea cookies, fruit kabobs, and chocolate soup *see what I mean about the sugar) . My dilemma is what to do about the adults?!! Do I bring cupcakes and if so what if their children start to drool over them and wonder why mommy gets the fancy cupcake and they are stuck with tiny tea cakes. However, if I also serve cupcakes to the kids i would have to bring about 3 dozen to cover everyone and that could be a problem with the afore mentioned budget constraints, not to mention that would create thirsty adults...and I already brought up the "no outside food or drinks" policy. No party punch this time around.

Oh dear me. What do I do? Keep in mind her birth family is traveling 2 hours to attend this shin dig and her maternal grandmother has a raging sweet tooth.

One solution involves the fact that I was planning for family to eat dinner at a local Cici's after the party (it will be dinnertime, the adults will be starved, and I don't want the family who came 2 hours to have to turn right back around and leave). So I could serve up just a dozen cupcakes after we eat. But this does not solve my what-to-feed-the-adults-if-anything dilemma at the party. And I can't go to ole reliable for advice (my doting husband) because I think we can all guess what he will say!! So...blogging friends it goes to you....HELP!!!

P.S. The last time I asked for advice was about her b-day outfit I was ordering off Etsy...remember? Ya'll really came through for me there because we had her portrait taken yesterday and she was Adorable!! So thank you!! *You will get to see her portrait after her b-day party...sorry!* :)

Early B-day Celebration!

My baby girl turns 3 years old next Sunday. We took her out to celebrate at Gattitown with Paige and Jarrett and Jen ad Jay.

P & J always go skiing during spring break so they have never made it to one of Vivi's b-day parties before.
This year her party is at a tea room, we thought Jen and Jay would have more fun with us at Gattitown.
They loved it!

Biker Chick.

Jarrett helped her out a little!

Jen was sweet to take her on the pirate ship and the carousel.

Brother and sister riding a roller coaster.

Yes, her cake is a purse. :)

and princess plates of course.

Blowing out her candles!
These shots are blurry because I took the flash off...but too cute!

Okay...one more shot of her and the cake. Couldn't resist!

She opened Mommy's present to her (the tiara and earrings) and Daddy's present was this clock for her room that he actually picked out himself one day while shopping! The bears were won for her on games. Jen and Jay were sweet to give her a Gymboree giftcard. Mommy's favorite clothes!

And of course if you are going to have a purse cake you have to finish it off with a huge ring!

Jarrett and Paige spent the night. The boys enjoyed playing army.

While the girls relaxed and looked over Paige's photos on her laptop!

Thank you for the fun night and memories!!

Introducing... Isaac and the Chipettes!!

Watch out American Idol...he can sing and dance.

Please excuse the messy playroom in the background. It cracks me up the moves isaac can throw down. The beginning has him singing "we're living in a man's world, they tell us..." Oh dear. If you watch carefully you will see that vivi sings at the record player, and knows the words too! Chloe even throws in a few "rock and rolls!"

School Stuff

Well, as you can see we are back online! We had to buy a new laptop. Thankfully Staples had a great sale on a Dell. So we are back in business. :)
While offline, Vivi began going to preschool. Here she is with her napmat. She loves carrying her things in and her teachers are so sweet. I will very likely get on their April enrollment for next year. The house is so quiet without Vivi and Chloe squawking at each other. I am enjoying my Tuesdays and Thursdays, I can tell you that...even only being down one child!

She turns 3 years old in two weeks. Can't believe it...

Going right along with School news....

Isaac had an entire 6 weeks of positive reports. Green days means he did well, blue days means he did really well (usually helped another child out with something), yellow means he disobeyed a rule and red is usually several incidents. Thankfully he has never been on red. But his track record has been 2-3 yellows in a 6 week period. Not this time, baby!! We were so proud as each week went by. We celebrated with letting him order anything he wanted at Sonic, a rare treat (except the only soda he is allowed is Sprite Zero). He was very happy to order fries too...a food that we do not ever order for our kids.

But this was his special day.

Way to go, Isaac!!

Next week is Open House and also the last week before Spring Break.

We put together these baskets for his teachers to send them off on their mini vacation time.

The theme is Movie night.

I did these for only around $12 a teacher. It is a popcorn bucket that you microwave filled with yellow paper crinkles, two cokes, a box of Milk Duds, a pkg. of licorice, a giftcard to Blockbuster, and cute little movie night napkins I found, along with a note that tells them to have a wonderful Spring Break.

I think they will love them!

I am glad to be back to blogging. Now i need to go catch up with everyone else.