Ella's 4th Birthday Bash

In January our niece Ella turned 4, and had a little "Princess Tea Party". There was going to be a very special guest, so of course we couldn't miss it! We packed up the kids and the car and headed to Idaho. Brittany's parents, Ed and Kathy were kind enough to let us stay in their house. It ended up being a great, big sleep over. The five of us, Mike, Brittany, Ella, Hunter, McKinnley, and Gian all stayed at Ed and Kathy's and had a great time. We had such a great time our little over night trip turned into a 3 night trip :) It was hard to go home!

Mike set up this huge tent in the playroom. Ella, Kallie, and Ben slept in there and watched movies. They had so much fun! I am actually very impressed they actually slept in there. Granted they were probably exhausted since they didn't go to bed any night before midnight.

Andrew even got into the action and watched a movie or two with the "big" kids.

Andrew playing with his favorite "toy". Wherever we go I always pack this medicine case on the off chance someone gets sick. Andrew loves to play with it. I hide it every time, and without a doubt he finds it. He can open pretty much any top, even the child proof ones, so I have to watch this child like a hawk!!! Look at this smile. This kid is in heaven! I only wish I would have taken a picture of him after I took it away. let's just say his little face was not this happy.

Brittany, McKinnley and I headed over to their house to set up the Tea Party. While we were gone the boys had some fun too....

I love this view! Really there is not a bad view out of any window! Ben was in HEAVEN! Uncle Mike has always been a little crazy, and therefore every child's favorite uncle. He strapped the kids in the FJ and took them off-roading in the back yard. They loved it! Check out this smile on Andrew's face!

Hunter all strapped in and ready to go. Ben thought it was so cool to get to sit in the front seat!

Mike and Hunter taking a turn on the ATV. Let's just talk about Hunter for a second. This kid is one tough cookie! He can fall down a few stairs and just hop back up and keep on running....but if he thinks you are upset with him, he just crumbles. Such a tough little man...with a tender heart!

While the boys played, the girls worked! How amazing does this tea party look! Brittany went all out, and the little girls walked in and really thought they were in Wonderland. Well, all except Kallie. She hasn't seen Alice in Wonderland yet :)

Check out this set up!

Alice even came to Ella's party! Every little girl wanted to sit right by her. Ella felt so special. Alice was so cute and even did all the little girls hair, and took the time to talk to all of them. She brought them a little present too.

Love this picture of Kallie and Ella. I told them to smile..and this is what I got.

Brittany had little stations for the girls to go to, nails, hair, and cookie decorating. Kallie was so sweet and decorated a cookie for every member of her family. And put extra special toppings on, like apples, bananas, other cookies, and even grapes! Don't laugh...they actually were really good!

Brittany has the good pictures of Alice and the girls so go to their site to see those. I love this one of Kallie and Alice dancing. Look at the adoration in Kallie's eyes!

(This tent picture is supposed to be at the top...but blogger won't let me move it)

Now for Hunter and Andrew. They kind of have a love/terror relationship. Andrew tends to be a little bit of a bully. He likes to push, pull hair, tease, and pretty much do anything to make other little (or big) kids cry. We are working on this. Most of the kids he bullies just cry and don't really know what to do...not Hunter. Hunter pushes back! Andrew was shocked the first time that happened. He didn't know what to do! He had never been on the receiving end of bullying! It was a good thing though...the rest of the weekend they got along perfectly! Very equally matched!

These were taken on a camera phone, so they are a little foggy. Don't you love Hunter's smile!

There is a little room under a set of stairs that Kathy has made into a kid hideout. it is so cute! It has a little half door that they can open and close and everything. They would just go in there and hang out and go in and out of the door...just because they could ;)

Andrew has a "thing" with microwaves. He calls them "beep-beeps" and LOVES them. He was in heaven when he discovered a microwave in the theater room that was HIS height. It even played music! He would put anything and everything in there, close the door, wait a second, and then yell "beep beep!!!" open it up, take it out, and start all over again. Best babysitter EVER! Good thing he hasn't figured out how to start it yet :)

We had such a great time in Idaho! I didn't get any pictures of playing cards, but we played games every night, watched movies, laughed, talked, and just had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Thank you Mike and Brittany!!!!

Babysitting....off to a disappointing start

Yesterday I asked Kallie to watch Andrew while I mopped the floors. Everything was going along great (too good to be true? YES!) until I heard the "I'm terrified, scared, mom get here NOW" cry from Andrew. I run to the top of the stairs where I found Andrew with white stuff all over his legs, feet, belly (he was just in a diaper), and hands. Tears were streaming down his little face and he was scared! I was scared too...to turn the corner! I ran and put Andrew in the tub and started to rinse him off. I needed to find out what the white stuff was and what else it was all over. When I walked out of the bathroom I could tell exactly where the scene of the crime had happened by the little feet prints in white stuff...slowly turning clear. As I walked into Kallie's room there was my brand new big bottle of white Elmer's glue with the top off and glue all over. In the middle of it all was Kallie on the floor playing with her babies, completely oblivious to the mess surrounding her. I think babysitting for Kallie is still MANY years away!

On a positive note, glue actually cleans up pretty easily...on skin. Carpet? A whole different story :)

Another fun finding yesterday - Andrew can climb up and over baby gates! He can also open doors, use my kitchen drawers as steps to the counter, and take ANY lid off of ANYTHING. How do you check if a baby is half monkey?

The Pickle Plant

So Katie is still continuing her education day by day even though she is currently not in classes. She had an interesting conversation with our neighbor some time ago that went like this:

Neighbor: " blah blah blah.... and canning pickles is so easy."
Katie: "Pickles! WHERE did you get pickle seeds!"
***Imagine dumbfounded and surprised look on neighbor's face***

Katie then received some further tutoring on this subject from our next door neighbor Sis. PottyMouth. We thought we had this subject down until the topic came up again tonight.

Sis. PottyMouth had made reference to where pickles come from in a blog comment and I did not know the story. So as a prelude to the story Katie says, "Did you know pickles come from zucchinis!" ALMOST THERE...

For all you California people that know Katie, she wanted me to make sure I put in the punch line JUST IN CASE: pickles, in fact, are made from, wait for it, cucumbers. Oh yeah. Your world will never be the same valley people.

Good Morning

Katie will probably embellish this story later, but one morning I learned that Andrew is still not old enough to leave at the breakfast table alone....

Prayers

I know these last few posts have been all about Kallie, but she comes up with crazy things! This morning at breakfast:

Kal: We need to say prayer.
Me: We already said the prayer.
Kal: Who said it? You or Ben?
Me: I did.
Kal: I'm glad I missed it. You say the LLLLOOOONNNNGGGEEESSSTTT prayers!

Bleeding

At dinner the other night.

Kallie: I've been bleeding for a very long time, and I'm still alive. Isn't that amazing!

Me: You've been bleeding? When?

Kallie: Almost everyday since I can remember.

Katie: Where have you been bleeding?

Kallie: On band-aids and little pieces of tissue. Here and there. But, I'm STILL ALIVE!

She wasn't so amazed about that when I explained to her how our bodies make blood. I actually felt guilty about spoiling it for her afterwards.