More Craigslist Fun...

I am a little behind in posting these pictures, but wanted to share the results of our recent furniture and bedding finds for Ashley!

We said GOODBYE to her toddler bed and have now officially transitioned her to a Big Girl Bed—a trundle...just like Big Sister's!!! Of course, this meant upgrading from toddler bedding to twin quilt! Is that not the most precious little quilt you ever saw?!?! And check out how the splashes of green gingham fabric coordinate with the curtains! :-)

It's a tight sqeeze in her room, but left just enough space at the foot of her bed for her adorable canopy reading nook! She is a huge fan!!!

We also sold the changing table (don't ask how the potty training is going b/c we are not *quite* there yet...but oh-so-close!!!) to make room for the dresser that came along with the bed. I was happy to get to keep my delicate pink custom-order knobs, and Pop-Pop installed them on the drawers a few weeks ago! I think it looks fab!
And finally, I am pleased to announce that, as of about 12 minutes ago, I have secured a coordinating PBK floor lamp (naturally another craigslist gem!) complete with a green gingham shade to perfectly match Ashley's curtains...and this will be added to her room TOMORROW! Hooray!!! :-)

When the Cat's Away...

the mice will get a playhouse!!! :-)

And I don't feel ONE BIT guilty about it! In fact, I feel completely triumphant knowing that even PETER would approve of this deal! (Naturally, it's another Craigslist find...but this one might just be my crowning glory!)

Take a good look and tell me what you *think* I paid! Go ahead...I'll even wait while you Google it in case you don't have any idea what the going retail price is on new ones!
And now, I will just tell you to sit right down b/c you are NEVER going to believe that I paid only $15 for this baby!

I only wish I had taken some "before" pictures...because when I went to pick it up, I was almost convinced that the lady should be paying ME to haul it away! But with about 45 minutes of hosing and scrubbing with mildew remover and clorox wipes...and more hosing and scrubbing...it's pretty enough for a princess!

In fact, two princesses! :-)

Blossoms in Bloom!

The cherry blossoms bloomed EARLY this year...so the girls and I headed into DC on Thursday to take a look! Gorgeous weather...fun day!

Is this learning?...wait, you tricked me! I just thought it was FUN!

Introducing...Nerd Games starring Ashley!

Big Sister knows some big words, and she likes to share her knowledge with Little Sister.

So, with her newfound vocabulary, Ashley playfully invented this "Onomatopoeia Song"!

At first, she would just follow up "onomatopoeia" with any random word. But then Elizabeth and I tried to help her along by saying "YES!" or "Nooooo" to indicate whether she had correctly given an example of an onomatopoeia. And Elizabeth would patiently repeat to her, "Ashley...it has to be a word that's like a SOUND!"

I don't know about you, but I think she really does get the idea!...

Craigslist is Mommy's BFF

And it should be yours, too! B/c look at the cool new trundle bed I got for Elizabeth's room! HELLO, future sleepovers!
I frequently find great deals on some very high-quality items...and once in a while, as in this case, I get to meet a very nice family in the process! We even got a potential babysitter out of the deal since the family who sold it to us has a 14-year-old soon-to-be babysitting daughter. (She even entertained the girls while we were loading the bed into the car and they had instant rapport!)

The princess canopy is not up in these pictures...but never fear...it was back in place over E's bed about 45 seconds after they were taken! ;-)

Sticky Scene

It was a little chaotic in our house the other night. The girls were running around wearing "superhero capes"...and then suddenly, we were aware that we only heard the pitter-patter of ONE set of footprints. (And actually, it was just one set of TIPPY-TOES, since Elizabeth never really walks on her whole foot!)

Peter and I looked up from the sofa, where we had been viewing a video clip on the computer, and saw THIS:
Ashley, still in her "cape," peeling off the backs of some of Elizabeth's foam monkey-stickers and sticking them directly onto the hardwood floor to make a "sticky scene!"

Eek!!! Those things are little boogers to peel OFF the floor! But, instead of scolding her, for some reason we all found it hilarious and we had a good laugh about it--and even let Elizabeth encourage her in her naughtiness. As Peter likes to say, "That's good parentin' there, Lou!"

Ballet Boots!

"I wish I had rain boots!" has been Ashley's near-daily mantra since Elizabeth opened her pair on her 5th birthday.

Grammy and Pop-Pop heard our littlest ballerina's plea...and Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Mike, Matt, and Erin came through with a matching raincoat!

Ta-da!!!!!

And she didn't take them off for nearly 3 hours!
Now that's what I call Rain-Ready! ;-)

Canopies for All!

What's better than ONE princess canopy?

Why, TWO, of course!

Elizabeth and Ashley were THRILLED to receive one for each of their rooms from Grandma and Grandpa! Initially, only Elizabeth's was over her bed, while Ashley's was positioned over a fluffy round floor pillow. They both loved the floor pillow...but in true "monkey see, monkey do" fashion, once Ashley saw that big sister got to SLEEP in her "princess castle," she requested that we move her bed under her castle too! (See photo above!)

Here is video of the "big reveal"! :-) They were two happily surprised little girls!

Much of the audio may be unclear...but some highlights include:
E: "I'm gonna sleep in that! I'm gonna sleep in that EVERY DAY!"
A: "It is! It does!" (In response to Mommy's urging, "Do you think your room has one too?") "I'm going to go IN there!"
E: "It looks like the Enchanted Forest, too!"

Cutest Little Cow and Sweetest Little Shepherd. Ever!

Elizabeth and Ashley participated in their first Christmas Pageant at our church on Christmas Eve. Initially, only Elizabeth was signed up to participate...but, evidently, we neglected to explain that to Ashley. So at the first rehearsal, she made herself right at home on the steps of the altar with the rest of the participants. By the end of the practice, she had managed to score herself a supporting role as a cow! Again, we failed to inform her that stable animals typically do NOT play a starring role. So on Christmas Eve, you can probably guess who the ONLY animal INSIDE the stable was! (And don't even get me started on the PINK BOOTS!) Yep...that's our Ashley!
She even managed to gain the adoration/attention/caretaking of the older girls in the pageant. Mary and one of the wise "men" in particular. Don't think she didn't just eat that up, too! And I should add that, on the night of the pageant, she was a very convincing little cow! (Though, I'm not sure it warrants the reaction Peter gave while watching her 4-year-old counterpart take off his cow head and swing it around up over his head before wandering off to find his mommy in the congregation! That is, he poked me in the ribs and whispered--hopefully more softly than I remember, "That's right! My cow can out-moo your cow ANY day!" Easy there, Proud Papa!)

For her part, Elizabeth was very intensely concentrated on performing her shepherdly duties. For several weeks leading up to Christmas, she was elated when we would run across the shepherd passage in picture books and animated movies (even Charlie Brown Christmas). By the end of the season, she was retelling the complete Christmas Story in her own words (and some slightly paraphrased Bible verses) using her Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set. It was quite impressive!

Here are some highlights from the night of the pageant! (The angel is E's little friend Annabelle, whose family is visiting for the year from Michigan State!)
For the full story, please see Luke 2:1-20. :-)

Smash! Smash! Smash!

Ashley and I made Peter's Favorite Cookies this morning.

Well...that is, before I put the crumb base of the cookies into the oven and inadvertently turned the oven to "self clean" mode, only to realize a few minutes later that that burning smell was due to the blackening of the flour/sugar/butter mixture in the baking dish! YIKES! Tried to open the oven, but it was LOCKED, so I quickly turned it off and--after about a minute--the lock released and I was able to take the baking dish out. The cookie base is ruined...so we'll just have to do this part all over again...but at least I had not yet reached the stage of adding the black raspberry jam, chocolate chips, and pecan/sugar/butter/flour topping! ;-)

At any rate, here is Ashley helping me mix the crumb base that would have turned out perfectly had I not ruined it!

Candyland Party (Behind the Scenes)

I threw my last post about Elizabeth's Candyland Party up in a bit of a rush...so I thought I'd take a minute and post a few details about the set up and the party itself.

We were EXTREMELY lucky that the weather was GORGEOUS for the event! With a mid-November birthday, it could have gone either way! But it was truly beautiful!

Since the weather cooperated, we were happy to hold much of the party OUTDOORS! (Thank goodness we did, too...b/c 13 kids and their moms and a couple of dads would have been a LOT to cram into our lovely, but modest home for TWO HOURS!)

After leaf-blowing the yard (thanks, Pop-Pop!)...
...Daddy put up (and repaired some small holes in) the inflatable bounce house/slide. (No, we did not hook up the water feature! It was nice FALL weather, but still only 60-degrees!) This gave the kids a place to play and bounce and burn off energy! They LOVED it!
Then Grammy and I went to work putting colored foam squares down to make a Candyland game path up the walkway to the door.
I stuck my homemade lollipops (circular styrofoam disks from Michael's...wrapped in colored cellophane and skewered with wooden dowels) in the front flowerbed to create our "Lollipop Woods", and arranged the upside-down sand pails (spray-painted with silver glitter to give them a shimmering sugar look) into a "Gumdrop Pass" next to the walkway.

We also duct taped colored foam squares in a circle to create the "Candyland Carousel" game. (See below for a demonstration!)
I also staked out (literally) a spot for the Sack Race and put out some sacks that I purchased on clearance at the end of the summer from World Market! Woohoo!
The kids seemed to love it all...and the bounce house was definitely an obvious WIN with everyone! But I was surprised by how popular my simple little game of "Candyland Carousel" was with the kids! I just put on some music ("Lollipop, Lollipop") and had the kids walk around in a circle. When the music stopped, they froze on a square while I pulled a Candyland game card. Whoever was standing on the color (or special icon square) that I called out won a present to unwrap! Even after winning their one allotted prize, the kids still wanted to play the game! (I came up with this as an "indoor" alternative game, but ended up moving it outside since the weather was so nice! Worked beautifully!...see for yourself!) :-)

Candyland Crazy!

Our big girl is 5! FIVE!!!!

How did that happen?!?! I'm pretty sure it was literally yesterday that I was in the hospital excitedly and oh-so-anxiously awaiting her arrival! But it wasn't yesterday...it was FIVE YEARS ago! WOW!

To celebrate...we had a little CANDYLAND PARTY! Okay...so it wasn't all that "little"...but it was her first "friends party"...so Mommy went a tad overboard on the theme! (In fact, I'm not sure whether I had more fun planning and preparing or Elizabeth had more fun at the party!) At any rate, it was a success and we all had a great time!



Here are some pictures of the actual party!