Karaoke

As part of the pool party the other night, they had a Karaoke DJ.  Sami sang "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan and then she and her friend, Bri, sang "Party in the USA."  Pretty cute stuff!

Getting By anyway

Yesterday was an...interesting day.  I spent the morning trying to get the house cleaned while allowing Ally to have a couple of friends over.  I didn't get a whole lot of cleaning done, but Ally had fun.  My piggy-pooh (Kassi) got fed to her heart's content.  And I finally figured out my carpools for the school year.  Then we did lunch and I put Emmy and Kassi down for a nap.  (Kassi still cat-naps throughout the mornings and evenings but she's started taking a long nap (1.5-3 hours) in the afternoon and sleeping 7 hours at night.  I am loving that!  Anyway, once Emmy and Kassi were out, I started a potato salad for a pool party and folded laundry.  Kassi took one of her shorter long naps and turned making potato salad into a three hour project.  I finally got my salad done--all it needed was some crumbled bacon on top.  5:15 came too fast and the pool party we were heading to started at 6.  I started cooking some bacon but I also had to get the girls ready to go and feed the piggy-pooh again.  I forgot about the bacon... Let's just say I'm lucky I didn't start the kitchen on fire.  The bacon was practically ashes by the time I got to it.  I took the smoking pan out to the deck and then I called Jeremy and told him to hurry home because he was in charge of cooking bacon before we left for the party.  Then I went back to getting everyone ready.  At 6 Jeremy still wasn't home so I attempted the bacon again.  Luckily Jeremy got home just in time to save that batch.  How did I get through 30 years of life and never learn the art of cooking bacon???  Okay, my four distractions didn't help either.  Anyway, we made it to the party about 20 minutes late with slightly overdone bacon on top of potato salad.  Our neighbors just finished their landscaping and pool area so they threw a neighborhood party.  The girls had so much fun!  There was a big water slide and pool with a hot tub and trampoline.  They have two cabanas (one with a bathroom, the other with an outdoor kitchen) and a big grill and bar area in between.  It is quite the set-up.  Jeremy decided he was not going swimming and didn't bother to put on his swimsuit.  I wore my swimsuit under my clothes but it is still pretty tight from having a baby two months ago, so I was hopeful not to have to use it.  One end of the pool was only a couple feet deep so I told Ally and Emmy to stay put there.  Of course, they didn't listen.  They are both too fearless with their floaties on.  Emmy even decided she wanted to take on the water slide.  The first time she went down, I was mentally preparing myself to jump in after her.  She did fine.  She bobbed out of the water with a huge grin on her face and slowly kicked her way to the side of the pool where I pulled her out.  The second time was uneventful as well.  Then Jeremy decided to get involved.  He was holding a sleeping Kassi in one arm but he grabbed Emmy at the bottom of the slide before she went in to the pool.  Emmy didn't like that--it took away half the fun.  So Jeremy tossed her into the pool toward the shallow end.  One of Emmy's arm floaties came off and she started flailing, lopsided in the deep water just a foot from the shallow part but not close enough to touch.  I started to prepare to jump in after her but I was on the other side of the slide from her.  Jeremy did some quick thinking and handed the baby to a wet ten-year-old boy standing by him, then leaned over the side of the pool and pulled Emmy to him by her pigtail.  In the moment, I was horrified.  But looking back, it was kind of funny.  After we were back home with kids safely tucked in bed, Jeremy and I had a chance to laugh at ourselves.  Me for a singed pan of bacon still sitting on the deck, and Jeremy for his crazy act of parenting at the pool.  Yes, the house isn't staying as clean as I like and sometimes I feel like the baby is just getting juggled around.  But we are doing what we have to do to get by around here.  The girls are happy, healthy, and safe.  That's all that matters.

Super Dad!

 We decided we needed a swing set in a spot in the yard where I could see the girls well from the house.  So we got them a new swing set as an early Christmas present.  Jeremy spent almost 20 HOURS putting it together for them!!  And the girls just LOVE it!  Jeremy gets the Best Dad of the Summer Award at our house!!

Weekend in Idaho

 Okay, it's been a couple weeks ago now...(I have been in such a funk lately and having a hard time figuring out how to do everything that needs to be done and still be a good mom.) but we took little Kassi to Idaho to meet Jeremy's family there!  She loved GG and GP!  She was full of smiles for them!  She also met Uncle Brent, Aunt Jill, and (below) Aunt Betty. 

Something funny about this visit: we always go to church with GG and GP before heading back home on the Sundays we are there.  This time, though, I forgot the girls' Sunday dresses.  I had them laid out but they didn't make it into the car.  So we had to borrow dresses from Jeremy's youngest cousin, Tanisha, who lives next door to his grandparents.  She had one for Sami (who is the same size as her) and some old ones for Ally and Emmy.  But she no longer had a size to fit Kassi.  For some reason, when I was packing, I had just thrown in the little outfit that Kassi is wearing in these pictures.  It's actually one that I wore when I was a baby.  It's not a dress but I figured it worked for an infant.  I didn't know why I was packing it at the time but it came in useful and I got so many compliments on how cute it was on her!

 While we were there, we went to their final day of the county fair.  The 4H was having their livestock auction.  I had never seen anything like it before in real life.  I may have grown up in an agricultural area, but I was a "small town city girl" and never even ventured into the that portion of our county fairs except to look at the rabbits once.  It was always the shopping booths and carnival rides for me.  Anyway, it was fun to watch a bit of the auction.  I love visiting the place where Jeremy spent his childhood and taking walks down his memory lane.  And I love that the girls get so into it, too.

The highlight of the weekend for Ally was hanging with the cats.  She spent every moment she could outside with a cat and a bunch of kittens.  Her favorite was one named Twilight who looks astonishing like my cat from my childhood, Mittens.  He kept disappearing, though, when we would try to get a picture.  So the above is Ally with Tanisha and Crystals, the kitten.

Happy Birthday Ally-Bally!!!

 Happy Birthday Ally!!!!!

Ally turned FIVE last week!! 

She's getting so grown up!  I can't believe she will be starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks...  Ally started off her day with presents and surprises.  She got her very own "American Girl Doll" (knock-off--to hold her over until she's old enough for the real thing) along with clothes, a night gown, and bunny slippers for the doll. She also got a new nightgown to wear to her party! 

This is a big birthday year for Ally (yes, I've decided if I make a huge deal out of every birthday every year, I'll go broke... so 1, 5, 8, & 10 are the big party years).  She wanted a slumber party but since we don't do sleepovers, we did a pajama party!  All the friends came in their jammies and brought along their sleeping buddies.  We did a pillow case race, danced and played musical pillows to Sandra Boynton's "Pajama Time," and played "sleep, sleep, snore" (duck-duck-goose) and sleep tag.  We also made night caps for our sleeping buddies and--as a small tribute to my childhood parties--we made individual pizzas and did a balloon toss with a bed sheet.  When I was little, I remember at almost every birthday party we would sit in the middle of a sheet and everyone would toss the balloons around us (like a parachute game).  First we put the sleeping buddies in and watched them bounce around with the balloons.  Then we let every kid have a turn in the middle. 

Birthday Girl in the middle!

Pillow Case Race!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Ally and Scarlet

All the friends

with their sleeping buddies, complete with new night caps!!

The invitation

The goody-bags

a little treat for the goody-bags

THE CAKE

Ally's and Sami's night caps up close

Taking a day off...

We've had a breakthrough!  My work-aholic husband has decided that he doesn't need to work on Saturdays anymore!!  Jeremy has always made a point of not working on Sundays but he has now decided that whatever work he has hanging over his head can be crammed in during the week and he will try really hard not to think too much about it on the weekends!!  Hurray!  We get Daddy all day on Saturdays!!

  He realized all this a week ago Saturday, while sitting on a park bench, watching our girls run through water... and it was all I could do not to cry with joy over his epiphany.  This was a good Saturday, too.  We started out the day getting things done around the house.  Then we went to the park for a picnic lunch, followed by playing at the splash pad, and then Slurpees.  We went home and got some more little chores done while the girls rode their bikes and played in the backyard.  Then we went out to dinner--and our girls were PERFECTLY BEHAVED!  The day was fabulous!!  I look forward to many more like it!

 

 GOT IT!  I finally got proof of the tippy-toes walk!!