Helloooooo Kitty!

For Chloe's birthday party, she wanted a Hello Kitty Tea Party. She invited all of the girls from her class plus a few other special friends. We ended up with 14 little girls and 3 big boys (Hayden had 2 friends over, too) for afternoon tea. Due to our freaky rain-of-the-century storm the few days prior, it was cold and wet and soggy outside, so the entire party was held in my living room. It was quite, um, croweded. Chloe had so much fun, and was a wonderful hostess. She showed the girls where the activities were, led them the playroom to play and was so sweet to all of her friends.

We did manage to have the pinata outside, because I had to draw the line at 17 kids swinging a bat inside of the living room. Thank goodness my wonderful father-in-law and my husband covered the patio last year!

The girls were such ladies- they even knew how to do "pinkies out". We used real china tea cups, and no cups were hurt in the making of this party.

Chloe has the sweetest little friends. They all get along really well and play well together and are nice to each other. Not to mention very, very cute.

The girls made their very own goody bags and necklaces. Ellie worked very hard on her necklace, then accidently dropped it before I closed it. She had to rebead it and work very hard on it again. Ellie likes being one of the big girls, too.

finally, Chloe's birthday is officially over, and I can't believe she is 6! Now I need a nap.

Birthday Girl!

I can't believe my sweet girl is 6 years old!!! It seems like yesterday she was making a very gentle entry into this world ( I actually asked the doctor "are you sure that's it?"). She has continued to be sweet and kind and gentle and cuddly, and brings an amazing amount of joy into our lives. As per our usual, we celebrated three times. She got to open presents from Nana and Papa, mom and dad, and hayden and ellie before school on her big day. We then had family birthday dinner with her cousins, grandma, grandpa, Auntie N and Uncle T, and Auntie T and almost-uncle K that night. The kids played and played and played.

And Billy warmed his backside. Aaahhhhhhhh.

Chloe gets an amazingly huge and crooked grin on her face when she opens presents. Its very cute.

Have you ever seen a cuter 6 year old? Ever? No? Me neither.
AFter her big day celebrations, she invited 16 little girls over for a Hello Kitty tea party. more on that later. I must have been drinking heavily the day I agreed to inviting 16 little girls over for a hello Kitty tea party.

But I can't say no to this face.


She loves this pink horse from Nana and papa. Isn't it adorable?

I wish the poor girl could ever show a little bit of excitement. She's always so serious all the time. Never a smile from that one.

Just kidding.

Happy Birthday sweetums!

Stylin'

Here is my oh-so-handsome son with his hair actually styled. For those of you who have seen him lately, you know that he is usually sporting the Mon-chi-chi hair (remember Monchichis? "Mon-chi-chi, Monchichi, so soft and cuddly!") because he has really thick hair and lots of it, with zero curl. He's always wanted long hair, so we've agreed to let him grow it out even though it looks, um, awful. There are rare times, however, that we catch his hair wet, load it up with gel and spike the heck out of it that it actually looks kinda cool. This is Hayden this morning heading to school. He was very excited that his hair looked spiky. I think the black and white brings out the spikiness- plus I was playing around in photoshop tonight. The three of them, all looking stylin' in their own unique way. Chloe is proud of her long hair and holey smile. Ellie is proud of everything about herself. From her fabulous accessories to innate grace. The lady at the YMCA makes a point of complimenting Ellie every morning when we walk in about her appearance. I'm afraid my sweet princess is getting a little vain. See her posing so demurely. Scary that she is only 3 and a half.

And here is the cool hair once again. It was completely flat, except for one cowlick in the back, by the time he got home from school. But at least he got to leave the house all spiked out.

A good start to the New Year

Chloe lost her first tooth on the first day of the year. Very exciting stuff. The very generous tooth fairy left her $5.00! That tooth fairy rocks!

I didn't think she could get any cuter, but then came that cute little hole in her mouth!

Christmas Morning!!

These pictures aren't in the correct order, because I'm just too lazy to switch them around. So we'll go backwards on Christmas morning!After a delicious lunch, while the rest of the grown-ups either sat around patting their full bellies or were cleaning the kitchen, AC was outside with the kids giving them helicopter rides. Remember what I said about keeping up with him? He has way too much energy. The kids had a blast though, and Ellie was pretty high up there. Emi's legs were so long it was hard for him to get her off the ground. (I have that problem, too, of course. My really, really long legs.)

Abi was squealing like a stuck pig, and having fun.

After looking at this picture, I just realized that Ellie is horizontal, 6 feet off of the ground. I should be nervous.

Opening presents earlier was the usual craziness- all sorts of squealing and "thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!" and "How did you know that I've always wanted a mini-brand of the letter 'D'?" (That was Travis. I don't know how I knew that was what he always wanted, but I'm just that cool sister, I guess.) Hayden is very excited about this Lego set- the ONLY one that comes with Ewoks, apparently.

Abi liked her new rocking chair, but not quite as much as she liked her rug. Crazy girl. I personally like her tattoo . . .

Billy was happy with every darn thing. I don't think he stopped smiling once the whole morning. It was killing me that I was across the room and couldn't get 1000 pictures of him.

A couple of tough guys on the couch. Handsome little devils.

And two sweet girls, patiently waiting for the madness to begin!

Ellie loves her new "ploodle" dress that Nana sent her.

Continuing our Christmas morning in reverse, here's Hayden by his bike that Santa brought. Too bad Santa isn't too smart, and the bike is too big for the poor kid.

Chloe's and Ellie's are perfect for them, however. I guess Santa isn't a total goober.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve

As 2010 begins to roll along, I've already blown my New Year's resolution. I resolved to KEEP UP in 2010- with my housework, my pictures, my kids and my husband. Seven days into the New Year, and my house is a mess, I'm only up to Christmas eve in my blog, and I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the kids and AC (although, in my defense, it is hard work keeping up with AC). New Year's Resolutions are stupid, anyway. So there. I was having so much fun on Christmas eve eating, drinking and visiting my family that I slacked off on the picture taking. These are the best of the evening, and as you can see, that's not saying much.

I had a LOT of pictures of Billy. Was it because he was sitting next to me, or was it really because I can't help myself when he's around? I want to take a million pictures of that sweet face. I'll tell my kids when they wonder why there are more pictures of Billy than all the others combined that its just because he was sitting next to me. Shhhh- don't burst their bubbles.

These two girls aren't too hard on the lens, either. And as sweet as can be!

Chauncey's girlfriend, Madi, is pretty sweet and cute. Too bad her boyfriend is such a goof. He refused to be nice to me, so he deserves this picture. That's right, boy, you may be bigger, stronger and faster, but I have the camera and I'm not afraid to use it.

Five out of seven, here. I actually didn't have any pictures of Hayden from the whole night. Oops. I'm wondering what Billy is so concerned about.

There's not much to say, here.

Oops. How did that get in there? See what I mean about that face, though, don't you?