*My Princess Is Four

Daisy chose a princess party for her 4th birthday.  She invited a friend from my Mom's group from church, a friend from the gym, and a friend we play date with who has a brother Zeke's age.  And of course her grandmothers and grandpa.

First Daisy and I dressed as princesses.

When the guests arrived we wrote letters to Disney princesses/characters to request an autographed picture.

Next we decorated graham cracker castles.

The Princess and the Pea was next on the agenda.  First I told them the story.  Then they had to sit on each pillow and find which one had the pea underneath.

Mommy's turn.  "Ouch!"  I found it.

After that the Pretty Princesses got even prettier with make up, mani's, rings and tiaras.

We passed the pearls,

and kissed a frog.  See those cute little lips on the froggy?

While we were posing for pictures

the scary dragon came and chased us.

A knight in shining armour to the rescue!

Time for a tea party and fudge cake for the princesses.

After 5 months of waiting, Daisy finally got to open her American Girl doll McKenna.  She is one happy birthday girl.

My Daisy is smart as a whip, sweet as fudge cake, cuddly as a cat on your lap, feisty as a bear poked with a stick, pretty as a princess, as hard-headed as her momma, and one of my best friends for life.  

*Jesus is King of all kings; as his children we are ALL a princess!

Almost a Family Vacation

When you are single or married without kids, a family vacation sounds blissful.  Once we had children, we quickly realized whoever coined the term "family vacation" was full of crap.  You can go on vacation, or you can take your family with you, but when you consider the whole choice of activities, the constant vigil to prevent death and/or dismemberment, the feeding, the entertaining, etc, etc, the whole "family vacation" is not happenin'.  It's strictly a business trip with the family.

That being said, we took a family business trip to Corpus.  What a fantastic time!  We brought Vivia with us and met up with Gaea, Majid, Solomon and Adam.

Zekers loves everything about the beach. 

Elijah enjoyed the freedom of few boundaries. 

Daisy is modeling her birthday swimsuit from Aunt Gaea {not to be confused with her actual birthday suit}.

Vivia and her 5 grandkids with their Great Uncle Lacy (Clay's brother who lives in Corpus). 

triple-threat 

 The whole family, all 10 of us at one point, were working together on a water project engineered by Zeke.  He was a good project manager; he instructed us on what needed to be done and he told me once I had worked hard and I could take a break.

 

 

None of the kids could get enough pool time, including this little guy.

snack time 

Abe, Elijah, Majid & Gaea, Vivia, Zeke, Adam & Solomon, and Daisy 

Wove.  Twue wove. 

The weather was great, the beach was magnificent, the pool was fun, the company was phenomenal.  And it wasn't much work.  I dare say we almost had a family vacation.

I'm King of the Wooorld!

Elijah's newest hobby is climbing.  Everything.  All the time.

 The desk,

 the kitchen table,

on chairs, 

in the buggy (which he's pretty pleased with as you can thell by his grin), 

 the kids' table.

Lately he's into climbing up the playground equipment 

 and sliding by himself, over and over and over.  He's pretty proud of that accomplishment.

Today he was outside by  himself for a few minutes.  I found him on the top rung of the ladder on the clubhouse.  I ran to catch him in case he fell.  When he saw me coming he scrambled up the last step and proceeded to do the happy dance once he got in.

See his little bitty head peeking over the wall? 

Ready to go!

Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer

My Daisy had her first dance recital today and she did wonderful!

my pretty girl

ballet

tap

after the show

The boys were a little bored.

Daddy gave Daisy some daisies.

Mommy and her little girl.

Daisy and her Grannie.

Well done, Daise!  

I'm proud of you.