I have a confession

I love many of the Backyardigans songs. They just CRACK me up. The lyrics are catchy and smart - and above kids heads, but not in a rude way. And I've been known to listen to them even after dropping the girls off....

*drops head in shame*

I'm such a loser.

But here are some of the lyrics that kill me:

RACING DAY
[...]

Racing day, it's racing day,
Racing day, it's racing day!
It's not sausage casing day,
Today's the day we race.
[...]
Racing day, it's racing day!
It's not picture-tracing day,
Today's the day we race!
[...]
Racing day, it's racing day!
It's not doily lacing day,
Today's the day we race!
[...]
Racing day, it's racing day!
It's not self-effacing day,
Today's the day we race.

_____________________________

Another of my favorites:

I LOVE BEING A PRINCESS
[...]
If you want to dress like this, and wear a shiny crown,
If you like how people look when they are bowing down,
If princess life is what you want, your choice is crystal clear,
Go find some other country, pal,
'Cause I'm the princess here!

There are so many more, I'm embarrassed to say, that I like.....

My stinky girl

How is it that someone so ADORABLE and sweet can smell SO bad? LOL! She just has the stinkiest poops and toots. But the kicker is how proud she is! She will just GRIN at me when I ask who tooted. "I did, momma!"

So proud.

P U!!!

Ellie's party went well...

It was a bit hectic - Chris got stuck in NY and couldn't get there until it was just getting done! - but several of the moms and Jayme (she works at the Last Steep and is a doll ) helped me get the whole thing together at the last minute. The kids had fun and overall it was an easy party.... Thank goodness!

(I'll try to get some birthday pics up later... I actually forgot my camera - that's how crazy it was!)

Happy 5th Birthday, Ellie!

My sweet girl is FIVE! I can't believe it.... I asked her how it felt - she said a lot different! LOL!

I wanted to post a few shots that really are HER. These are my favorite recent ones....

She loves "Butterfly Music" (aka Beethoven's 5th) and will sit and "whistle" it and conduct....




She just has that look that makes you realize that somehow she knows much more than you can even imagine....


And her pure joy of life shines through in so many ways....


Happy Birthday, my special girl! I love you dearly....

The funny things my girls say...

Sammie is a thoughtful child. She comes up with some really funny, yet insightful things that make me smile.... Here are a few (with dates at the end)

"You are such a goofy kid, Sammie!"
"I not a kid, I'n [sic] a girl!" 2/10

"Sammie, why did you hit Ellie?"

 "Because I wanted my way!" 3/1

"Sammie, stop crying!"
"I'm not crying, I'm whining!" 3/1

"Sammie, what are you singing?" (She is constantly singing something different. It's so adorable!)
"My berry song"

... a little later...
"My windy song" 3/27

I have a pair of feet! 5/5 (This was just a revelation for her! It was so sweet how her face just lit up!)

Ellie's funny little things are different. Some, I think, are different because of age. But I think many are different because of who she is....

"Walmart is like a big fat guy" 1/24

"bone arrow" = bow & arrow  2/8 (We argued about this - apparently I'm wrong!)

Girl stuff: mermaids, volcanoes, rockets
Boy stuff: dinosaurs, rocks. 3/11 (I love how her mind works - I just don't know what to do with girly stuff, but rockets and volcanoes I can deal with!)

These are real live stinky buses! 3/27 (She was SO excited to "smell" them!)

Why is the sky blue?

Where do frogs sleep? (The snow was still up to the edge of the water and she was quite concerned that they would get cold.)

How does the world spin?

Where did the earth come from? 5/'08 (These are just a few of the fun questions she asks - and she'll listen to the answer and then come back to it later! Amazing....)

Long Summer Nights

Thinking back to my childhood, I remember those long summer nights. Those days that felt like they went on forever. Being outside, the long twilight, playing and eating late. Staying up past my bedtime and falling into bed exhausted.

It's funny how my girls getting to that age - that age of being able to remember it as an adult - has spurred my memories to the foreground. I remember being 6 or 7 (Ellie's going to be 5 on Friday) and running around in a flowy nightgown pretending I was... flying... a princess... beautiful... a bird... who knows.

Jumping off the picnic bench while mom and dad worked in the garden, dad listening to the baseball games. Playing with my little brothers, doing my own thing, sneaking the juicy, ripe tomatoes out of the garden to eat whole - and getting "yelled" at for not washing them first. Going to bed while it's still just barely light with the breeze blowing the curtains - snuggled in my parents bed for some unknown reason.  Hearing them in the above ground pool in our back yard giggling. (Turns out they were skinny dipping! LMAO!) 

Checking out the stars. Seeing the moon rise so big over the yard that I thought it was a planet.

Riding bikes on the back track. Building a tree fort. Playing in the "woods". (A small strip of trees between our back yard and the dirt bike track behind our house.)

Wow. The amazing memories!

I love how my girls growing up doesn't make me feel older, doesn't make me feel every bit my 42 years. Rather, it makes me feel younger, brings me back to those carefree, innocent times of singing my heart out with no care of what anyone thinks....

Maybe I need to sing even louder and without a care in the world.

I love my girls! Thank you for this precious gift....

Update on the acupuncture...

Just a quick update, actually.... I will just leave it that I wasn't as happy with it as I was hoping. Yes, I did see some changes and it seemed to give Ellie some relief, but there were other aspects of the person doing it that I wasn't as happy with. She was sweet to Ellie after giving the acupuncture, but didn't do very much to ready Ellie for it - nor calm her much afterwards. That was all my job. And while I appreciate that I'm much more capable of it, I wanted her to get Ellie more prepared for it....

Ah, well! Back to homeopathy only!

Ellie's Hot on Thursday

"Mommy, I'm hot."

"Well, Ellie, let's get a short sleeved shirt for you."

"No, mommy. That only works on Mondays."

Laughing.... "Ellie, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard!"

"Mommy! I'm serious! It won't work today! Is it Monday? It only works on Monday!"

Acupuncture? On a KID?!!

Well, with Ellie's eczema raging out of control and homeopathy not seeming to help her yet and her itchiness just driving me insane (let alone what it's doing to HER!), I decided to see what acupuncture could do for her. After two treatments, I'm FLOORED at the difference. (I did take before shots I'll have to post some before/after shots later.) Her itchiness is almost completely gone and her eczema, which had been flaring for WEEKS is subsiding. We'd tried everything and nothing seemed to work at all.

She was amazing. Sure, she sobbed during her second treatment, but she held out her arm for the pokes on there and was SO incredibly brave. And literally less than 5 minutes later, she was joking around and being silly! As a matter of fact, she didn't even remember that she got poked on the back!

While I hate putting her through the trauma of getting poked with needles, if this is going to be as successful as it's appearing, it will be totally worth it. She won't be as uncomfortable and itchy and my heart won't break for her when I see the awful scratches on her skin.

I'll update later on how successful it is in the long run!

Doin' Some Landscaping

Well, it started out innocent enough. Chris did the lawn so I decided to churn the dirt under the spruce trees, dig out the pine needles and generally get it cleaned out. And plant just a few columbines. Then we started thinking about the area to the left of the front door - should we do this? Should we do that?

And Chris was off to the Alpen Gardener to buy a few things.

While he was gone, Ellie and Sammie were invited to go to watch a movie with Journey, our neighbor, and Journey's mom, Lisa and I sat and chatted about gardening. (She is the gardener for the Wedding Garden in Mt CB and knows a TON about landscaping.) I weeded, raked and cleaned up in anticipation of Chris returning.

When Chris returned, she mentioned a rock stash to him and they went off - and came back with the Beastmaster so loaded down with rock that it was almost a low rider! They went for a second load after realizing we didn't have quite enough and then we set to work tearing everything apart. (I think they did more of the work - Chris dug and Lisa used the pick ax on the ground! LOL!)

So we're all getting reading right now to head back out to do more.... (I think I'm about to get yelled at. LOL!) I must run and get dressed!

Ellie's Graduation

Yup, as odd as it may sound, Ellie graduated from preschool! LOL! I thought it was silly at first, but watching the kids in their homemade caps singing sweet songs, receiving their diplomas and bringing flowers to the parents was incredibly sweet. I admit that I even teared up.

Congratulations, Ellie! Off to Kindergarten in a few short months.

My little girl is growing up....

(Note: No pictures today - I'll have to update this post later since I haven't edited them and uploaded them yet.)

Shooting Rockets - on Mother's Day!

A few months ago when we was in Colorado Springs visiting Nana, Papa, Grandma Judy and Grampa Tom, I stopped at Hobby Lobby for a few things. I noticed some small model rockets and thought, "The girls would love putting those together with daddy!" So I bought them....

I later gave them to Chris to give to the girls. And the first thing out of Ellie's mouth? "Daddy! Can we shoot these off?!?!"

*doh*

So he headed to Gunni and bought the necessary items and we had a BLAST (pun intended) shooting them off! It was an awesome Mother's Day!