Pre-School

Today was Molly's first day of Pre-School (neighborhood play group). She was so excited to wear her backpack and play with her friends. Today they learned about the color red and the number 1. When she got home I said "so you learned about the color red and what number did you learn about?" She replied, "the number S". I would say things are going good so far!

Molly's "Genus Alice" Birthday Party

We just celebrated Molly's 3rd birthday, hard to believe she's growing up so fast! When I asked her what kind of party she wanted it was usually princess. A few weeks before her birthday it changed to "a Genus Alice" party. It took me awhile to figure out what she was talking about, but I finally got it. She had been watching the cartoon Alice in Wonderland movie quite a bit and I remembered the scenes with all the flowers, they want to know what kind of flower she is. Here is a quote from the movie:

The Rose: Just what species or, shall we say, genus are you, my dear?
Alice: Well, I guess you would call me... genus, humanus... Alice.
Daisy: Ever see an alice with a blossom like that?
Orchid: Come to think of it, did you ever see an alice?
Daisy: Yes, and did you notice her petals? What a peculiar color.
Orchid: [sniffing Alice's hair] And no fragrance.
Daisy: [chuckling, as she lifts up one side of Alice's dress] And just look at those stems.
The Rose: [as Alice slaps the Daisy's leaves away] Rather scrawny, I'd say.
Bud: I think she's pretty.
The Rose: Quiet, bud.

So there you have it, she wanted a Genus Alice party! What the heck?!? I decided to get some teapots and tea cups from the D.I., spray paint them, and put ice cream toppings in them. We hadkool-aid bursts with a "drink me" tag and "eat me" sugar cookies. I made a 3 of Hearts cake, Queen of Hearts and Cheshire Cat cupcakes.

The greatest part is that there is NOTHING Alice in Wonderland available at any party supply store. She asked for Tinkerbell dress-ups, which she got and has worn almost constantly since, and luckily the Disney Store had a set of plastic Alice figurines. If only she had asked for a Tinkerbell party as well, how easy it would have been! It was fun and she loved it, so that makes it worth it, right??

The many (somewhat cranky) faces of Molly

This girl. Oh, this girl. She is lucky she is so cute, because we may have thrown her out. For as much as she makes us laugh and smile, there is just as much screaming and crying. Don't let the cuteness fool you!

Darn we make cute kids!

This year I choose not to participate in school pictures (AKA "the Chicken Man"). Josh did not agree, but who says he's in charge. He gave me a deadline to get the kids pictures taken, and I succeeded with the help of my little friend I call Torie. I call her Torie because, well that's her name. She took our family pictures last year and I knew she would do a great job. All I provided was these darn cute kids, and I succeeded in that regard as well!

Halloween '09

Carving Pumpkins

Trick~or~Treating

Owen

Gavin

Molly the Cat

Have I mentioned that Molly the Cat, was the crankiest cat in the history of cranky cats?

I decided she would be a cat when she started meowing. Yes, meowing. She would answer questions with a "meow". Pretty cute, right? Well after the thousandth meow, it's not so cute. But Grandma Billie bought her some cute cat ears, so how could we not dress her up for Halloween as a cat. The first party we went to she screamed when it was time to get dressed, never got her hand made tail pinned on, didn't wear her ears, and never even came close to getting her whiskers painted on. She had also decided she wanted to be a butterfly after she saw Josh's angel wings. (Still waiting for our family picture to get emailed to me. Becky if your reading this, email it to me, THANKS!!!) I did not have high hopes for Halloween night. But Molly the Cat surprised me. She willing got dressed, let me paint her face (which she was super proud of and kept saying "look at the three colors on my face!") and wore her ears and tail with out any fuss. Miracle beyond miracles! The pictures with her mouth skewampus is when she is meowing. It is really hard to get a cranky cat to look AT the camera.

The next morning she did tell me, "thanks for my cat costume, mom" so I guess that totally makes up for all the bad "cat"titude! Ha, I crack myself up!!!

Favoritism

I had the kids pictures taken and then stole them off Torie's blog. This is now Josh's desktop background. Owen and Gavin cried.

Quotes of the Day

Molly: "What the crack?"
Pretty sure she meant what the crap, we say that a lot around here.

After picking up all three of my kids from a sleepover at their grandparents last night, we had this conversation.
Gavin: "Molly had a bath."
Me: Why, was she dirty?"
Owen: "We all had a bath."
Gavin: "Grandpa said our feet were as black as Tony's butt."

Owen: "Ahhhhhh, this is the worst day EVER!"
Said as he found out a certain girl was in his school class AGAIN this year.

Gavin: "Owen, I declare myself the Spice Master. I've eaten the most drops of Chalula in my soup."

The family that reads together.......

knows the words to the same stories. (Put that in vinyl on your wall!) I am very glad that my children inherited my love of books, even if one of them sometimes complains about actually reading them. The other night, just before bed, Molly brought me a book to read. Since I was "working" on the computer, I asked Gavin to read it to her. They climbed into his bed and eventually Owen joined them. I love these moments when my kids can be this close to each other and no yelling or fighting goes on! It totally makes up for all the other times when I want to beat them soundly and send them to bed.

This & That

FYI: My mourning of Michael Jackson's death has come to an end. Today while Gavin and I were watching part of the 30th Anniversary Special Motown Dance Dance Revolution Tribute of when Michael became a solo artist, Gavin said "This is still on! (thinking it was the funeral/memorial service, it was similar, except Michael was alive at this one!) How long has it been since he died?" When I answered that it had been a over a month, I realized HELLO, IT'S BEEN A MONTH! CHANGE YOUR BLOG MUSIC FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD! While I do love most of Michael Jackson's music and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my recently acquired "Making of THRILLER" movie on VHS (recently acquired from my appropriately named grandma BILLIE JEAN (is not my lover, she's just a girl who claims that I am the one.)) and I do truly believe that We Are The World, We Are The Future, and on a serious note I believe that one of the greatest entertainers IN THE WORLD is gone, it's time to move on. So, now my blog music is changed. But if you ever want to know my favorite Micheal Jackson songs, don't hesitate to ask!

In other news, you may have heard that my brother and his wife were on a little show we like to call WIPEOUT!

Even crazier than just appearing on that great show, is that they WON!!! Woot Woot for Mr. & Mrs. Moose!

It was so much fun to watch and cheer them on. We had a super fun party at my Aunt Mike's house.

To read more about it and see some behind the scenes pictures check out Mr. & Mrs. Moose's blog post HERE!

We really haven't been up to much. Josh is still leading the bike rides like a good ride leader should. The kids and I have found our new favorite place to be: The Highland Splash Park. Not only is it FREE (one of my favorite things!) but it's really fun too. I have no pictures because I'm too worried about what we are going to eat while we're there, not if I've packed the camera. If you ever want to go, give us a call!

On to one of my other favorite things (TV, if you didn't know). If you need something to watch this summer I would highly recommend HGTV'S DESIGN STAR. My sister in law told me about it when the last season was on and I am hooked. It is so great! Sunday nights, set your DVR.

I'll leave you with a cute little video of Molly singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She is quite the singer and dancer lately. She is always singing a little song, it's adorable. She has started to make up her own songs, she'll say "here's how we sing the la la song" and then sing "la la la la la la la la la la".

Only 19 days until school starts. I'm just sayin'.

Happy Birthday Molly!!!

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is 2 years old! Where does the time go? We are excited to have a Dora the Explorer party for her tonight. As for today, she has spent most of the day topless while eating cheetos and asking for chocolate, who says she doesn't take after her mother! Here's a little look at the past two years.