Fancy Nancy Birthday Extravaganza (that's fancy for party)

Yesterday we had a very fancy party... A Fancy Nancy birthday soiree to be exact (soiree is french for party....and everything is fancier in french ;)

Fancy Nancy is an adorable character in a series of children's picture books.  She loves to dress up, use fancy words and even speak a little french (see the reason above for why). 

This was just the first table set up.  I meant to take a picture every time I re-set the table...but I forgot :(

Nicole and Hannah love Fancy Nancy books (and to be honest...I love reading them...I can be silly and animated and not look or sound silly....because I'm trying to be fancy!

Take me Away!

 We decided to host a double birthday party this year since last year they got separate parties and because we have a whole new set of friends up here.  Fancy Nancy was our theme.

We bought a helium tank from Wal-Mart.  Great idea!  We had so much fun with all those balloons!

When our guests arrived, they could Bedazzle themselves with boas and jewels.

Bought a cheap frame from the dollar store and spray painted it pink.

Our Bedazzling table

We started off by making our own crowns with plenty of crayons, markers and sticker foam.

 After our crown making, the girls were off to the Beauty Boutique.

Our Beauty Boutique

Another dollar store frame.  I made the little sign.

I think this was every one's favorite party.  The little girls and big girls alike loved putting on nail polish and picking out their very own mini (Avon sampler) lipstick.  For one little girl...this was her first time ever putting on nail polish.  And another did a beautiful job of painting a faux nail over her band aid covered big toe ;)  Fancy Indeed!

The little cuties getting their nails done!

We then moved on to our tea party (with pink party juice of course) that included rolled deli meat, cheese and crackers.  The little girls loved drinking their "tea" with real tea cups. 

Hannah and Hannah ;)  Had their own private table and mini tea cups.

We had a meat and cheese tray and fruit skewers (that's fancy for kabob)

I don't have a picture of the next part :(  But...it was very important to Nicole that we also celebrate Jesus at her birthday party.  So...she picked out a craft that helped her share the gospel.  She sat down with all of her little friends and taught them how to make a beaded necklace with a cross on it. Each bead represented a different part of Jesus life, death on the cross and Resurrection.  When I asked her later what her favorite part was...she said it was this part.  I love it!



After the cross necklace project, we moved back to the tables and had tiny cupcakes and make-your-own parfaits (that's fancy for ice cream sundae!)  I think this was a big hit.  I found cute parfait glasses at the dollar store a few weeks ago...so...if anyone wants to have an ice cream sundae party, you know who to call :)

Cup Cake Time!  I had a cupcake display that I spray painted pink.  I just keep spray painting it for each new occasion

The two little Hannah's enjoying their parfait!

Nicole was having a fabulous time!

We ended our time with fun pictures at our "photo booth" (created by a  curtain from the girl's room tacked up in the middle of the stair way) and some fancy gifts and fancy homemade cards. (scroll to the end to see our photo booth pictures)

Their VERY first Barbie dolls!!!

Beautiful hand made cards

It was a delightfully wonderful morning.  The girls had a wonderful time at the party, and I think their friends did too.

On a little side note...I think this party was really good for me too.  It gave me a reminder glimpse of God's goodness to us over the past 5 months.  To see that the girls had already made such sweet friends and the Lord has placed so many wonderful people in our lives already really warmed by hearts.  We had children (and their mothers) from our neighborhood, from church and from CC.  A nice mix of ages and walks of life.  I am so grateful for the friends he has given. 

********PHOTO BOOTH PICTURES********

Even I got fancied up!  Funny...My dress matches the curtain!

Hannah...the Fancy Rock Star Princess

Gabby and the girls...our neighbor

Oh...here's Hannah again...she really hung in there for a 3 year old cutie!

Sydney - a friend from CC

Alyssa - their friend from church

Abigail - Another CC friend

Kathryn - a neighbor friend from down the street.

Analeis - Their friend from church....they think of Analeis as a super star! hahaha.  I think because she is older than them .  Sweet, sweet girl!

Oh...Nicole's BFF...Alex - came all the way up from Naples!  What a surprise...Nicole had no idea!

A sweet neighborhood friend, Trinity.

Megan...another neighbor that the girls love.

I am grateful for a kind and loving mother-in-law.  Thanks Valerie for helping me out!

L.O.V.E. My family!!!!!

Oooooooooo

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Me and my little buddies!

Daddy's girl!

hahaha...peek-a-boo!

I need Jesus my dear one...just as much as you need him

The great thing about homeschooling is that God is always using me to teach my children (OK, I know you don't have to homeschool for that to happen...but this examples ties directly into our curriculum) Case in point:

A few nights ago I "lost it" with my children. As in...I exhibited no self control in my attitude, my words and my actions. It was terrible..and yet another time of teaching forg...iveness and repentance.

Fast Forward to today....our new memory verse for the week comes up in our My Father's World study. It is....Proverbs 29:11 "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Yep...we brought up the other night and how mommy acted like a fool because I gave "full vent to my anger" and not like a wise man who keeps himself under control. Then...Nicole confesses, "Mommy, the other night when you were mad, I wanted to remind you about our Bible verse "Pleasent words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Because your words weren't very sweet or healing.

*sigh* Yes my dear one. I need Jesus just as much as anyone else. Such great conversations can come from our sinfulness along with great rejoicing over God's grace to cover those sins with the blood of Jesus.

I share this...not to get everyone to remind me I'm a great mom or to make me feel better about my attitudes. No...I was wrong and acting in full fleshly sin at the time (and I knew it!) But to remind you to take those moments, seek forgiveness and reconciliation and draw your children back to their need (and Your need) for Jesus.

Funny Things Hannah says

Hannah has been so funny lately.  Well, she is fun most of the time. She just has a wonderful, sweet personality.

A few nights ago, Nicole was out with Jeremy and Nate was already in bed.  I kept Hannah up intentionally so we could eat ice cream together and chat for a few minutes.  She loved every moment of it.  I asked her all sorts of random questions.  My favorite part of the conversation was this.

Me: Hannah, do you like being 4 years old?
Hannah: (quietly shook her head up and down while giving me a sweet "Hannah face".
Me: Is it harder to be 4 than it was to be 3?
Hannah : Oh yeah mommy...a lot harder.
Me: Really?  What is so hard about it?
Hannah: Mommy, it 's hard because it feel like I'm 18!

hehehe...such a cutie!

This was something I overheard the girls talking about while playing the other day.

Nicole: Hannah, I have an idea. Let's play pretend. I'll be a dog in a pet store, and you come and buy me.
Hannah: OK
Nicole: Just remember...I'm a coloring dog and I like to stay in my cage and color.

...a few minutes later...
Hannah: awe, what a cute doggie.
Nicole (in her best doggie voice): I'm a coloring dog.
Hannah: well, you are really cute. My husband doesn't want a dog, but I really do, so I'm gonna get a doggie.


Hannah has been really good for my self esteem lately.  She is constantly telling me that I am "the best mommy in the whole world".  I'm also the best at several other things.  Here's what she says...

Mommy, you are the best whistler in the whole world.
Mommy, you are the best cooker in the whole world.
Mommy, you are the best nail polish painter in the whole world.


Love that girl!

It's Potty Time!

Nathan is potty training...I mean, potty trained.  I mean...potty training. Well, I'm not sure what I mean.  I guess it depends on the day.  Nate has been potty training for about 2 months.  That is 1 month, 3 weeks and 2 days longer than the girls potty trained.  It has been hard.  It has been frustrating.  Yes, I have cried and prayed through it...and I still don't think we are done.  Well, since he just wet his undies again, I know we are not done.  BUT...he is in undies 24/7, 100% of the time.  He has been for a while now...which is why I guess I can declare that he is potty trained...but really, he is still training ;)

Whew, boys are harder than girls.  At least my little guy is.  He did horrible at first, then ok, the really good...then worse than horrible, then ok, then bad...and for the past few weeks it's been great.  (I define horrible as "several dirty (i.e. poopy) underwear changes per day".  I define bad as "never once going pee in the potty through the day" and I define great as "Only pees a little in their undies when they realize they have to go...or one accident when we aren't at home".

So, as you can see...I have very loose definitions of success here.  Apparently, this is somewhat normal for potty training boys (maybe girls too...I don't know...my girls were a dream! - and it felt like it at times).

I would like to label this next section as

"Things my daughters need to know when they become mothers and have to potty train their son."

(Nathan, I apologize now for any embarrassment I cause you as a grown man when you read this.  I promise not to break this article out at your wedding...but I may at the birth of your firstborn son ;)

1.  Your son MUST run around absolutely naked for the first few days.  I made the mistake of keeping undies on him for a while thinking "When he has an accident, at least it won't spray around everywhere and will form a little puddle at his feet."  A mother of a boy told me this was wrong thinking.  Let me explain.  There is a good chance your little guy has NO IDEA what his little "pee pee" is for, except perhaps for grabbing (which mine rarely does because he always has clothes on...I like clothes, I force my children to like to wear clothes too...unless we are potty training ;)  A little boy MUST SEE HIMSELF pee.  As in...he must see it come out so he knows what is going on...and why it is happening.  This was our first step of success.  My poor little guy had no idea what I meant when I sat him on a toilet and told him to pee.  After a day or two...he had a better understanding ;)  Now, it's up to you when to clothe your child again I guess.  Once I could tell that Nate had this concept down, we put undies back on (again..I am "For" clothes).

2.  You son MUST sit BACKWARDS on the toilet.  Ah, yes...This...This is the key to successfully potty training a boy.  At least in my experience it is. 
   
Let me stop here and say this first....for the first two years of Nathan's life...I was constantly asking about what to do when I started potty training him.  Does he sit? Does he stand?  No one gave me a solid answer.  So...I sat him on one of those dorky little Cars potty seats with a lame excuse for a pee pee splash guard.  Since the splash guard wasn't tall enough, I would force his little, you know...down into the toilet, because as it was, it would just allow pee to be sprayed in my face, which would induce more crying (by me of course, he would probably laugh).  I also bought a really expensive Baby Bjorn potty seat, with a more respectable size of a splash guard.  However, it was a super hard seat and hurt poor little guy's tush (haha...man up, right?  I'm sure Nathan will be utterly embarrassed when he reads this as a teenager...then, completely grateful again as a father.)
   
Anyway...back to the issue at hand.  A very wise mother of 5 boys all under age 8 gave me extremely wonderful advice that No One every suggested.  Put him on the seat backwards.  Backwards?!?!?  I don't understand...why?  Put him on and you will see. 

The pee will *almost* always go down in the potty (once he's figured out how to make it fly high over the seat...deal with that immediately ;)  So....accurate aim is important and backwards potty sitting sure helps with that.

Remember rule 1 and the importance of a boy seeing himself go potty.  Well...think of all the entertainment, just a little bend at the waste and he gets to see himself in full action.  It's a boy thing I think...and it works ;)

Finally, the seat is narrower towards the front, so his little tush is supported.  He's not holding himself up...dangling over a pool of nasty water that he most certainly will fall in if his arms give out.  Nope...not gonna happen with a backwards sitting boy.

I would also assume this aids in transition to going pee while standing.  I, for one, am not brave enough to explore this option quite yet.  At such a time, I do plan on incorporating Cheerio target shooting into our potty moments.   

I did finally get him to pee outside last week...here's hoping there will more of that in the future...you know, when we're camping or probably just about any time he gets a chance ;)

And that...is my potty training for boys advice.  Don't breathe a word of this to my sweet little guy until he's a strong young man I can claim "forgetfulness" that I ever wrote this post :)

Camping

Our poor, sweet little Nicole has been asking us to take her camping for about 2 years now.  Last year was a wreck...and during camping season here, we just couldn't.  So...this year rolls around and we are in transition from moving our lives.  We kept trying to find a weekend to go, but it just wasn't working.  So...finally, a few weeks ago in early April, we put the tent up in our own backyard.

Nicole was appeased...all she wanted was a campfire and a tent.  Mommy was happy because I really didn't want to be in the woods with three children and a puppy dog.  Daddy..well...there was a fire, so that made him happy too:)

The kids "helped" set up the tent and loved every minute of it.  Nate and Hannah enjoyed playing inside the tent together and yelling at Lucy the dog to stay away. 

The best (ok, scariest...looking back now, we can laugh but this could have been really bad) part of the night was when the kids wanted to roast marshmallows.  Jeremy said to them "First you have to find a stick".  Nathan reaches into the fire pit and grabs a stick that is on fire!!!!  Jeremy was right there and controlled the situation immediately.  Nate was perfectly fine.  Mom and dad...well...we were a bit on edge after that ;)

Nathan got stung by a random wasp at night while exiting the tent.  That was weird.

Surprising the  kids all slept in the tent all night long! (yes...I stayed in the tent too...even though I kept thinking about how close my couch (or even my bed) was.  Lucy stayed in her kennel...maybe sometime she can stay out with us though.

I very much enjoyed camping the backyard.  Clean up was fairly easy.  I wasn't afraid of wild animals since we have a fence, and bathrooms were close by.  All in all...it was a great family weekend.

Hannah turns 4!

Every time someone looks at me and says, "Cherish these years, they may be hard but they go by quickly."  I always look at them and say "I do".  Because although I am young, and my children are very young, I am already very aware that these years are going by faster than I anticipated.

My sweet little girl, Hannah, turned four yesterday.  I can remember the moment she was born better than almost anything.  She has brought more laughter and joy and sweetness into our family that I could have ever imagined.  I love watching Hannah grow up.  I love her comedic timing...it's nearly perfect.  I love that her favorite place to be is still in mommy's arms (or daddy's...or really, anyone who will hold her.  But, since I'm the one writing this...then, it gets to be MY arms ;)  I am sad that she is getting to heavy and to big for me to carry around. 

I tried to bribe her with $10 if she wouldn't turn four...it almost worked, until smartypants Nicole reminded Hannah that no matter how much money I gave her, she would still have a birthday. 

I love that she tells me she needs "lonely time" with just mommy when she wants to go to the store  with me and no one else.  Or, when she needs "lonely time" with daddy so she can get a jeep ride ;)

Hannah is a story teller...and I can not wait to see how this develops in her.  She is constantly playing pretend and making up stories.  I caught her laying next to Nathan the other during at the beginning of his nap time.  I asked what she was doing and she said, "I'm telling him a story".  It went on for 10 minutes, until I told her she needed to end the story.  I hope this is a trait I can allow her develop as she learns to read and write.

I love that Hannah still can't say her "S" sound and that when she is sick she says, "Mommy, I can't fwallow my fit".  I think she only says "sebygebby" now because she wants to make us laugh laugh.

Hannah loves to wear dresses and skirts.  It is rare to see her in shorts or pants.  So much so that I had to force her to wear shorts for a while because she cried over not wearing a dress.  She told me that "she can't look pretty in shorts".  This made me so sad.  I don't want her to think that her clothes or hair or shoes define her beauty.  This is something I'm glad I discovered about her when she was three..and not thirteen, or seventeen.  I am praying that the Lord would help me to teach her to find her beauty within..from Him.  Not from her clothes.  She also loves to wear "high heel shoes"

Hannah is strong and can be adventurous.  She learned to ride her bike at only 3 1/2 years old.  She loves her puppy dog "Princess Lucy".  And, she simply adores her brother and sister.

Hannah is always ready to give a smile or a hug or a laugh.  I am so thankful that God allowed Jeremy and I to be her parents.  It is a precious gift that I don't ever want to take for granted.

We love you Hannah Girl!  Happy Birthday!

Playing Hookie

We played hookie today....well, sort of.

Jeremy has not felt well this week, and it's been questionable if the kids were battling what he has, or if we all just have allergy issues (pollen levels are high).  I would prefer to chalk it up to allergies, but this morning when we woke up to go to CC....the kids all said their throats hurt (this may have been their excuse for a cough drop), and all still had the sniffles and sneezes pretty bad.

So....for the sake of the other kids in the nursery, we skipped CC this morning.

However, my poor husband would have come home to a crazy lady tonight if I had to stay in this house one more day with the kids.  It's been a rough week (lots of boo boos...lots of potty training, and some bad attitudes and fighting).  We needed out....NOW!

We packed the van up with our bicycles, lunch and snacks and took off to Lettuce Lake Park.  I had no idea what to expect because I had never been to this park, nor do I know anyone who has been the park.

Riding down a bike path

It was the perfect day for us!  I love this park!!!

We rode our bikes around a 1.25 mile loop (twice), walked on their beautiful boardwalk through the woods and to Hillsborough River, played on the play ground and even saw a (homeschooling) teenager riding a unicycle!

It was just what I needed with the kids.  A new adventure, outside, with few rules and lots of fun. 

We saw alligators and turtles

Alligator (there were two here, but I just took a picture of 1)

click on this picture to make it full screen.  You can see two alligators and several turtles on the same log

I'm so happy this came out...this turtle was really far away, perched on a log sticking out of the water

And...a few more turtles

Some familiar birds....

A white ibis I think

A White Egret.  This one was hunting.  It was motionless...and then it would see it's fish and snatch it out of the water.  It was cool to see.  We saw him get a couple fish.

and some strange birds.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is.  I've never seen one.  It was huge and very fluffy

If you click on this and make it full screen...you can see it's beak open as it's catching a fish

We climbed an observation tower

Nate is saying "Shhh" as we climb the tower

And this was our view

A view of the river from the tower

This is the same picture above, except zoomed in as far as my camera would let me.  I saw a bird...and my camera got it!

We saw an Eagle's nest (if you click on the picture it will go full screen and you can see the bird getting ready to take off.)

I don't know if this was an Eagle or an Osprey.  We saw it fly into the nest...stay a moment, and then fly away.  I think we saw it later with a fish in it's talons.  Click to zoom this one in and you can see the bird's wing....he was getting ready to fly away again.

Nate ended up falling asleep on our last bike ride. 

We took one last bike ride...and it knocked Nate out :)

Nicole had a journal and would draw pictures of animals and insects she saw...and we talked a lot about ecosystems and math....that counts as a school day, right?  I love homeschooling ;)

The Family Bike Ride

Our sweet Hannah has been asking...several times a week...since she learned to ride a bike to go on a family bike ride.  Much of the time we had to say No because Jeremy's bike tired needed a new tube.  It finally got fixed a few weekends ago, but it took until last weekend to actually hit the sidewalk with our dear one and take her on a family bike ride.

Nate - enjoying his ride in the toddler seat

Nicole LOVES to ride her bike!

That little cutie's smile went from ear to ear.  She just LOVED riding with every member of the family.  And, Nathan enjoyed riding on the back of daddy's bike (usually he's in the trailer behind my bike).  And, I enjoyed NOT pulling the trailer:-)

Hannah likes to stand up and ride her back...especially when she knows someone is watching.  She's such a show off!

We got to explore our neighborhood a bit, which was fun...but Hannah's joy made the time perfect. 

Jeremy decided we should ride around the cul-de-sac before heading home....just in time for the tube to pop again, hahaha.  I think it was overfilled...needless to say, we had to walk home (good thing we were close)

Then, we had a little family silly-ness a few nights later.

U-Pick....We-Pick

Today....after almost 5 years of waiting, I finally took my children to a U-Pick farm (we went when Nicole was about 11 months...which, she obviously doesn't remember :)

We had fun.  There are lots of U-Pick places fairly close by, so this will hopefully be something I do with them more often (blueberries are in a couple of months...can't wait for that!)

We picked oranges and strawberries.

Hannah's first pick :)

Nathan enjoyed getting in there and picking out the best orange

Pull Nate!  Pull!!

We are VERY serious strawberry pickers!

This was a really small strawberry patch...and they were planter, not in the ground like we've seen before.

Hannah would say, "Strawberry" every time she saw one

Hannah was a very good picker ;)

Nicole carried our box for a while.  It looks like she yelling commands in this photo :)

Nate would say "Red" each time he picked a berry.  This tied in nicely with our "R" letter this week.  By the way...Nate knows most of his colors...it's amazing.

My little pickers with their loot.

Best Friends Forever...these two are.

Hancock Groves is really easy to get to.  I believe it's exit 257 (ish).  Take a right off the exit and it's about a mile down the road, just around the curve.  If you are ever driving in western Florida, you should stop by.  It's mostly an orange and grapefruit grove.  Their strawberries weren't terrible impressive...but the oranges were good:)