Happy Birthday Megan

Dear Megan,
Happy Birthday my sweet girl! I hope this is the best year yet for you! Each day you wake up slowly, yet sweetly, ready to explore the world around you. This past year you have found a love for all things pink, flowery and anything princess or Barbie. You are all girl but you are still willing to rough and tumble with your brother and are the first one to give him a good whack if he needs it or not. You are getting to be a big girl more and more each day; now you are using the big girl potty, and soon you will start preschool. I look forward to watching you grow this year and spending lots of time shopping, playing Barbies, dress up, reading books, doing art and playing in the garden.

Happy Birthday!

Lots of love always,
Mommy

Before and after...the cast

Mitch before getting his cast off
...and after!

He was so thrilled(and so was I)! He got a new transformer and was very brave!

My princess and her potty

I did it. I broke down and bought Megan a Fisher Price Princess Potty. You know, one of those ones that makes the princess sounds when they "go" on the potty. (Jill, if you are reading this before I see you tomorrow I am sure you are ready to slap me!!) I know, I swore I wouldn't give in but there are just some things that it is easier to give in to and this was one of them and potty training is one of my least favorite things to do AND Megan is more stubborn than a mule or Mitch so I had to try something. I just bought it for her at 12:30pm today and we only had one wet pull-up. If I can grab my camera fast enough tomorrow I will try to get a "decent" picture of her next to it because it is very beautiful, and very pink, but really you have to hear the music it plays to get the full effect. It so amazing that I had to give Mitch an ultimatum because I thought he might just sit on it and give it a try. We'll see how it goes. We have a really busy week this week with Vacation Bible School and then the BIG 3 on Sat. so I will set my expectations low but still stick to my guns. Oh, and did I mention I am in the bathroom ALL THE TIME! So if anyone calls or needs me this week and I don't answer the phone or email just come over and look on the floor of my bathroom and I'll be sitting there waiting for the beautiful princess music!

Zoo night

We went to the Zoo Member ice cream social tonight and I tried out my new camera for the first time. I was pretty impressed with the pictures it took and I reloaded all my software and I can't believe how fast I zipped all these(2) pictures onto my blog. We had a great night and around 8pm all of the animals got very active so we got a good show and the kids and had fun telling them all "good night" as we left. We even rode the carousel and train for free, always a big hit.

Mitch and I riding the trainMegan enjoying pink ice cream with sprinkles

So Fancy!

I am getting so fancy and so technically savvy!! I just connected my Facebook page to my blog (check it out!) AND today I got a new Kodak Easy Share M380!!(doing a little happy dance) As soon as the battery is charged I will post some pics! Now off to a MOPS Steering Meeting...

Chai Tea

I have this terrible craving for coffee and tea lately! Two really good friends make homemade chai and I have finally found a good chai recipe of my own so I thought I would share in case anyone else gets a craving too. It came from www.allrecipes.com It's excellent over ice too! Enjoy : )

INGREDIENTS
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom


DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.

July 4th hike

The morning of July 4th we headed out for a family hike(basically to wear the kids out so they would nap and stay up late!). We had a great time and it was a cool morning just right for hiking. There are getting so great at it and we are looking forward to some longer hikes in the future, but for now we sure do love our day hikes!