Madison's 4th birthday

For her 4th birthday today, Madison chose an Ariel theme.  I had so much fun creating one for her.  I attempted to create an underwater scene by hanging blue streamers in wave patterns with green seaweed, fish and Ariel and her friends hanging down.  On the table, each vase is filled with a goldfish with seastars next to them.

 For dinner, among other things, with had a pasta bake made with seashell pasta, blue jello aquarium with gummy fish in it, gold fish crackers and gummy sharks and fish.  I made an Ariel cake.  You cant see it, but of course it is pink inside, Madi's favorite color (had to get it in the party somewhere).  Its a white cake with blue "water" frosting.  I made Ariel, Flounder, Sebastian, the fish and the sea stars all out of chocolate.  Boy was that a job, but so fun!  Except the second time around it was a little frustrating.  Yes I had to make Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian all two times!  I broke Sebastian while drawing on his face.  Taylor dumped goldfish water all over Ariel and Flounder.  Ugh!!  The ocean rocks are Nerds.

 The chaos that is present opening!  She got some great gifts and loves them all and slept with most of them tonight!

 My sweet birthday girl!! (with a goofy smile!)

Trick or Treat

On Thursday we hit a few streets with Carolyn, my sister-in-law, and her 3 boys.

 Then on Saturday we hit another town with Dan, my brother, and his kids.

Gotta love Iowa and their multiple nights of Halloween!- the kids sure love it.

Kitties :)

We went to the harvest festival at the christian school last night.  They had carnival games, bounce houses, pony and tractor rides, face painting.  My camera died so I only got one picture, but its a cute one! 

Tutus

 I made the girls tutus this week.  I've been wanting to for about a year now but have been procrastinating (yeah, big surprise!).  Why did I wait?  They were beyond Easy and Fast!  From start to finish the two of them took 3 1/2 hrs with millions of interuptions including making and eating lunch and getting the girls down for naps.  I love how they turned out so poofy!  Way poofier than any I have found in the store and less than half the price!  And the girls love them!!

Dancing is so much more fun in a tutu!  :)

Now that I tackled these I'm really wanting to try a different version of a tutu.  I suppose I better finish all my other little projects that I have started for them like super hero capes and baby doll diapers (those are really easy too, but do require a sewing machine).  If anyone is interested in the links where I found all these instructions let me know. 

Preschool

My baby went to her first day of preschool today! ~tear :)  She was so excited!  But also a little nervous.  She repeatedly told us that she was scared because she didnt know all the kids, so I told her I would help her meet some of them before I left her.  And when she saw her cousin, Trenton, there and they gave each other a big hug, I knew she would be fine!  She came down the stairs in the morning holding her shirt that she picked out to wear for her first day.  She was ready to head out the door at 7am! 

Here she is in her classroom.  She had a blast!  She had snack time, they sang songs, colored a picture and they even had recess (which seemed to be her highlight of the morning)!

But there were almost tears!!  By this little munchkin!!  She insisted she was old enough (4, to be exact!)  And wanted to wear her lady bug backpack and have her picture taken too.  She was quite dissapointed when she realized she didnt get to stay and play too!

Haircuts

The before picture.  We had cut a decent chunk off Madisons hair several months ago, but this was the first cut for Taylor.  I was sad to see it go, especially Taylors, look how stinking long it is for a barely 2 year old!  But hair washing and combing time has become quite miserable for all of us, so it was time!

Madison, looking way too old!

And Taylor, she still has trouble keeping hair off her face, so hers usually gets pulled back somehow.

More Kitties!!!

Our kitty family has grown from 2 to 10 in less than a week!  These two cats showed up at our house last week.  They are very friendly, especially the one sitting by the water. (Madi named him Sparkles.  Very masculine name, huh?)  And the other one, Bike (yes, another great name choice by Madison) was pregnant. 

This past Thursday Bike had 7 kittens, but one died already.  If you look carefully you can actually see all six heads in this picture.  Madi found them hiding under a bush and is enthralled by them.  Im thinking we are going to have to find a home for some of them.  Any takers?  10 cats is a bit much!  But they sure are cute.