Madeleine's Birthday Party!

This past week we celebrated Madeleine's birthday at the Wonder Place with a party for all her friends! She's really been looking forward to this party & it's been so much fun for me planning it!! The Wonder Place is this super fun playplace in Little Rock -- it's got a supermarket, restaurant, treehouse, water center, and so much more for the kids to do. It worked out great since we were almost the only ones there & pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Madeleine wanted a princess party this year. The Wonder Place provided cute little skirts/tutus and wands for the girls (which they got to keep) and did face painting. We had such a fun day! I loved watching Madeleine with all her little friends having fun and playing. We are so thankful that so many of our friends were able to come and celebrate with Madeleien -- it's going to be sad to leave them.

Madeleine was such a good little hostess -- telling everyone "hello" and "goodbye" and handing out her goodie bags. One a side note -- I'm glad I made an extra bag because, of course, Madeleine wanted one to see what was inside.

Here are some pictures from the big day!

Getting ready to go in.

Her princess cake.
Playing at the grocery store -- her favorite!
Me and my girl.
Harrison loved the water table -- he was SOAKED by the time we left.
Sliding with Hannah.
Playing water with Hannah & Lincoln.
Emma, Ella & Hannah playing house.
Harrison & his favorite person.

Getting ready for cake.
Madeleine, Hannah & Kenzie checking out the presents.
Madeleine LOVES her Belle from Emma!
Playing with Madeline M. in the treehouse.

I still can't believe the party is over -- we've been looking forward to it for such a long time! Now, we're getting ready for her family party next week on her actual birthday. :) She's been having lots of fun playing with all the great new toys -- I've hardly heard a peep out of her.

Mischief

Here's Harrison enjoying some yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast yesterday morning. Yum-yum! Check out that icing mouth!

His new "cheese" face.
I love this smile!
After breakfast, I started another pot of coffee (yes, I'm a MAJOR coffee drinker -- it runs through my veins). Madeleine comes in and says "where's Harrison?" Uh-oh. I thought he was right here.....oh, no! I run madly through the house to my room (his new favorite spot to play). Not there. Ohhhhhh, the bathroom door is open. I walk in to see this......
Being the great mom/disciplinarian that I am, of course, I first ran and grabbed my camera. He'd shoved the ENTIRE ROLL of TP down the potty and was standing there, just waiting for me to discover his little adventure. Needless to say there was some pretty sharp "NO-NOing" going on after this....

Here's Mr. Nosy this morning, just checking out things in Mommy's room.

And, where is Madeleine while most of this mischief is occuring you might ask? Wellllll, she's just playing, sweet as pie, in her room. I'm not sure what's she doing, it's something involving her princesses, her gold coins (aka "monnies") and her pots and pans. Whatever it was, she was deeply involved and couldn't be bothered for a picture.

Harrison finds us and is thinking about getting into something else......
but decides he'll just play Legos instead.

Madeleine decides to join him with the legos. I absolute LOVE to listen to them playing together. It's one of the sweetest things I'll ever hear -- the two of them just laughing and talking in their own little world. LOVE IT!

Harrison is 18 Months!

I am finding it hard to believe that we're already 1/2 way to Harrison being 2! The weeks are just flying by (although the days are long sometimes -- how is that?) and he seems to be changing almost daily. I have to admit that this little boy is wearing me out!!! He is one busy fella -- and I have a hard time keeping up with him (forget about ever getting ahead of him......never gonna happen!).

Here what's happened this month:
*He can now climb on my bed. I often find him just sitting up there, propped between the pillows & lookin' proud!
*His new favorite bit of mischief: pulling all the ties off Matt's tie rack. The problem is that I've yet to SEE him do this, so I'm waiting to catch him in the act.
*He loves to make animal sounds. He can do elephant (while raising his arm in the air like a trunk), lion/tiger, owl, cow, sheep, rooster, duck, horse, puppy & a few others. He calls a rooster a "do-do" as in "cock-a-doodle-DO" which is so cute!
*His favorite song is God Made the Big Round Sun and he'll raise his arms and say "God" when he wants to sing it.
*He's still my little carb king -- his favorite foods are pretzels, crackers, toast, etc. He does like pretty much every fruit I've given him as well -- current favorites are mandarin oranges and strawberries!
*He climbs on everything & is never still except when he's sleeping. He just dashes from one thing to the next all day long! And, he SO NOSY! He has to see what's going on and be right in the middle of it!
*His favorite toys are cars -- he will run them along the floors or walls all over the house.
*He's a great napper -- at least 3 hours each afternoon.
*He still loves his sister -- they play together so well! He gives her hugs/kisses all the time.

Harrison is turning into such a little boy -- he's lost so much of that baby feel and he's definitely Mr. Independent!

Princess Tea Party

One of the summer events at PV is a Princess Tea Party for the little girls. What an adorable idea! All the girls came dressed in their princess finery and played games, made crafts and, of course, had tea (or in this case, pink lemonade -- much more popular). Madeleine woke up this morning and the first words out of her mouth were -- it's Princess Tea Party Day!

When we got there, the girls were given boas and crowns, which Madeleine took off after 5 minutes. :)

They made door hangers to take home, doesn't Madeleine's look cute?
Then it was time for make-up! They HAD to get all gussied up for the party!
Learning how to curtsie like a princess.
Then it was time for tea! They had little cups and plates for the girls to use. Just their size.

At first Madeleine was all lady-like......
then it was time to dig in!
Finally, they learned how to wave the "princess wave," then paraded through the church office waving at the staff. :)

What a fun day! Madeleine actually wore herself out & even took a nap--- a fun day for mom too! :)

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day this year! I am so thankful to have such a wonderful husband and sweet daddy to our children. He works SO HARD for our family (if you don't know what all he does, ask me sometime) and still finds time to play with us. Some of the things I love the most about Matt as a Dad:
*Listening to him read bedtime Bible stories & how he stops at the ends and discusses it with Madeleine and lets her ask questions.
*Laughing with him at the silly things the kids do!
*When he gets in the door at night, he drops on the floor and tickles, hugs, laughs with them before he does anything else. Often we all end up sitting by the backdoor for awhile after he gets home, just playing. :)
*He ALWAYS has time to play......he will stop what he's working on and take a "playbreak" if the kids ask him to.
*He will take Madeleine up to the school with him when he's working -- she loves this & he lets her do special things there -- like use markers, or make copies with him.
*He has so much patience when teaching them sports -- basketball, golf, etc, and he'll stop the second they are tired of the game and want to do something else.

There's so much else I could say......we are so blessed!!

Madeleine got Matt a rose to wear -- she was so exited about giving it to him!

We also celebrated my Dad's birthday on Sunday, along with Father's Day, with lunch at my parents house. I have to say, Father's Day always makes me think about the way I was raised. I think that Dad's set the tone for the entire home and I am so grateful to have been raised in the home I had! My dad was SUCH fun! He always had time to play with us, he let us paint his nails, put makeup on him, do his hair. What fun!!! Many a Saturday afternoon was spent with Sharon and I testing our "concoctions" of makeup/perfume on Dad while he sat in the recliner. :)

I also know this to be true: I have never, ever in my life known anyone that holds to his beliefs and lives out his faith more than my dad. I know now as an adult that it is extraordinary to feel that way about a parent, and at the same time I feel incredible humbled knowing that God placed me in this family.

I have found such joy watching Harrison and my Dad together -- they share the same name, but I hope that some day they will share so much more. For now, my dad is definitely on the top of Harrison's favorite people list!

What's Been Going On.......

So much has been happening around our house lately......

First, Harrison's been sick with double ear infections/fever virus, but he's back to his ol' busy self now! He's just pitiful when he's sick -- all he wants to do is lay around.

Poor baby.

I decided this year to take advantage of the yummy Cabot strawberries that are abundant around here right now. So, I tried my hand at making some freezer jam -- it turned out GREAT and I made about 6 Liters. We'll be munching on jam all winter!
Madeleine was my little helper during the jam-making process. She loves to be in the kitchen.
We've also been packing! I've packed pretty much my entire kitchen....yep, it's paper plates for us from now on. It's amazing to see how much STUFF we've accumulated since we moved in -- & that's just in ONE room! :) We decided to just take it slow since our house still had not sold. But, that changed this week since WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!! Hurray! It all happened so fast -- we got an offer on Wednesday & the inspector is coming out tomorrow. So, unless something major is wrong, it's a done deal. Now we're definitely in packing mode but we've got time since we don't close until mid-July. We're planning a trip up to Fayetteville soon to look at houses or apartments. We want to take our time and find a good house so we might have to sit it out in an apartment for a couple of months in the meantime.

Madeleine & Harrison have been busy playing in the boxes!
Other than that we've just been hanging around at home, trying to stay cool and looking forward to the somewhat cooler weather in NWA. It's going to be a crazy few weeks......we've got Madeleine's birthday & party coming up, moving, matt finishing up summer school, finding somewhere to live and the list goes on and on and on.......

For Grandad

Happy Birthday!! Since you're SO FAR away, we thought we'd send you some love........

Water Fun

With the weather being SO MUCH warmer, we've been spending a big chunk of our time outside lately. Since this is Harrison's first year to really play in the water, I was curious to see how he'd like it.......He LOVES it!! He will grab his shoes and stand at the door and cry for me to let him out & he's never ready to come in. The only part he doesn't like is putting on the sunscreen. I have to chase him down & hold him down to lather him......many tears follow......then comes the smile as I let him go to the water. We started out with one little pool then added another for some variety. Here are some pictures I've taken over the past couple of weeks.

Checking out the pool for the first time.

Harrison's discovered popsicles -- they usually melt faster than he can eat them! He'll also put them down anywhere so they're usually covered with grass before he's finished. ;)
My cute little girl in her "rainbow" swimsuit.