It's Birthday time!!!

Since the girls are 13 months apart, it means that we have more of a birthday MONTH than simply a birthDAY around here.  This year it all started the day before Samantha's birthday. Andy convinced her that she shouldn't have to wait until the evening of her birthday, when dad would be home, to open her gifts, but instead open them the night before so that she could ENJOY them on her birthday.

So she opened them a day early. Then on her birthday, it was all about her, of course.  

Samantha is a very girly girl, so she had a hard time getting all comfy laying in the grass.

 Especially, when this guy and his buddies are jumping beside her.

Of course a goofy pic is a must... 

My beautiful little lady 

We planned a shared birthday party between the girls' birthdays, which is unusual, since we don't normally do birthday parties.  Samantha agreed on a sea theme, since that is Ella's passion and she wouldn't dream of choosing anything else.  Samantha informed me that she loves mermaids too, not just Ella.  Although we don't normally have birthday parties, I do make the girls a themed cake of their choice, and this means Ella has now chosen a sea theme 4 years in a row: 3, 4, 5, and now 6.  Let's just say she was excited to have a sea party.  Sadly, after all the planning and effort, darkness fell and the few pictures I took didn't do justice to how nice it all turned out. 

We had a sandbox where they dug for sea shells, a dolphin toss, mini buckets with shovels and party treats in our treasure chest, fishing in the swimming pool that was filled with balloons for water, lots of candy, gum balls, cupcakes and sea snacks.  The weather decided to be quite chilly that night, but other than that, I think the party was a success!

A week after the party, we met with the girls' biological great grandmother to, once again, celebrate birthdays.

Then came the day before Ella's birthday and guess who had to open her presents?  "But Mom, Sissy opened hers a day early..."

When she got an awesome book about sea animals, she had to stop in the middle of opening presents and check out every page in the book.  Did I mention that Ella LOVES the sea?

And FINALLY....it was Ella's birthday...Even though it was raining, we had to do a mini photo shoot.

 Silly Sue     

I'm in love with this smile.    

Whew, that was a little too much fun.   Maybe now we can rest up for the holidays??

After Dale leaves in the morning, I normally  like to stay up and get some power cleaning done before the kiddos wake up.  This morning, I was exhausted and thought it would be better to face the day after a little more rest.

I went back to sleep and had one of those crazy, super stressful dreams that went on and on for hours, but when when I finally woke from it, only  30 minutes had passed.

I was just about to get up, when I accidentally fell back asleep and dreamed that my newly remodeled basement was falling down around me, in a big way, and I couldn't get Dale's attention.

Well, I got a little sleep this morning, but I don't really feel too rested.  lol

The morning schoolwork is done.  Kids playing out on this beautiful 70 degree day.  Laundry and dishes are going. I am planning for our camping trip this weekend to who knows where yet, but hopefuly it will be a blast.

We got a new love seat for our den in the basement. We had limited space, and we made sure to measure so it would fit. Unfortunately, we forgot to measure our stairs, so it absolutely would Not go down, and believe me we tried HARD.

Thankfully, I am married to a smart talented guy, which I already knew, but this takes the cake. He removed the fabric off of one end, 10,000,000 staples and all seriously! Then he pulled out a multi master tool and began to saw the arm off of my new couch... I will admit I was more than a bit nervous about this.

We were then able to fit it down the stairs. Dale reattached the arm and the fabric, 10,000,000 staples and all. Both arms look exactly the same. He is amazing!!

I think if we ever move, the couch is staying. lol

I was gone for 20 minutes the other night and left the girls with Dale. When I got back, Samantha had taught Ella how to ride her bike with no training wheels. Oh, the joys of having 2 this time around.  

Now, if she would just teach her how to tie her shoes. lol

It is a mazing how many times I have written a post mentally, here of late.  One of these days, they will probably have the technology that allows us to do that.  That seems a little scary really, but it would be convenient if I could give a mental command while I'm in the middle of washing dishes or driving down the road, for the computer to write my post.  Ha ha.

Anyhow, the downstairs is coming along and I hope to post photos one day soon.  The girls love their new room, and so do I.  Carpet is in, we just need to finish up a little painting, base, and punch list items and it will be all done.  :)))

Work on the house, finally!!

Whew!  We worked hard today.  My brother-in-law will be here in 3 days to finish our basement and we had a lot to do before he can get started.  We moved everything out of the girls' upstairs bedroom and moved them to the living room.  Then we moved the "boys" from the basement to the upstairs bedroom.  We also had 3 big closets to clean out and move to storage, along with bookshelves, beds and toys.  Dale got some electrical work started that he's been dreading.  Just listening to him drill through the concrete for an hour made me feel very sorry for him.  No fun.  I made sushi for dinner.  All in all a very productive day!

As I was laying on my bed resting, I heard Ella coming my way.  I closed my eyes and pretended to be sleeping, but she wasn't phased at all.  "Momma, Momma!"  I opened my eyes and somewhat sternly said, "Ella, you shouldn't wake me up when I'm sleeping."  She excitedly went on, "Momma, did you know that na and pa rhyme?!"

I couldn't hold it in, I just laughed.  Hard.  She thought that it was so awesome that na and pa rhyme that she should wake me and tell me.  She is so confident in my love for her that obviously I would want to know how smart she is that she knows her rhyming.  I did not disappoint her.  I think she is top notch and I'm sure she won't hesitate to wake me the next time she needs me to know how smart she is.   

I woke up this morning with a nice plan for my day.  First, sneak in a movie, alone while the kids are all sleeping.  Then get them "up and at em" for the day, with chores and schoolwork.  Maybe run into Walmart and Costco quickly before heading down to the pool (one of the warmest indoor pools I've ever been to:).  What a nice little plan, don't you think?

Well, I got on the computer, movie in hand, and of coarse I had to just take a peak on facebook to see what my friends are up to this morning.  As usual I was totally distracted from my original plan, but that's not always a bad thing.  One of my friends had posted some links to freezer crockpot meals which I have long wanted to get into.  I spent all of my "movie time" making two lists:  1 of things to make and 1 of things to buy.  I am super excited to make these tomorrow after I collect all of the ingredients today.  Amazingly, I really don't have to buy to much.  Most of the ingredients I already keep on hand.

Some of the recipes I am going to do are:
BBQ Cranberry Chicken
Honey bourbon Chicken
Carnitas
Chicken chili
Chicken and dumplins
Asian Honey Garlic Chicken
Tortilla soup

Super excited, just not sure if we will make it to the pool now, but this is way better. Don't ask the kids' opinion though :)

 http://whoneedsacape.com/2012/11/crockpot-freezer-cooking/
This is one of the sites I used.  Happy cooking!