Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest, Having Company is the Best

What a great week we've had! My mom and dad got to come visit from Missouri. The kids were so excited to see them and then so sad to see them go. We really didn't do much of anything except hang out but it was really nice. Here's a small run down of their time here:

Lots of resting. Don't they look exhausted?

A trip to McDonalds. Doesn't Annie look so happy?

A visit to Horsebarn Hill down by UConn. The wind was brutal!

Hanging out with Papa. He knew how to make this little gal smile.

Spending time with Nanny. Annie loved Nanny feeding her baby food. Whit loved playing hard to get.

We also spent some time with my cousin and even got to have Megan and Josh visit from NYC. Thanks for coming everyone!! Wish you could have stayed longer.

Happy Birthday To You, Andrew

Happy Birthday to my Andrew. My St. Patrick's Day boy. I can't believe he's 4!!!!!!

How old am I really getting??

We had birthday celebrations for two days. We celebrated on his birthday and then today he had a little party with his pre-school buddies and our 2 neighbors.

Matt took Andrew out for lunch--talk about a fun treat. And though Mary knows she'll get her turn in 2 months, she still cried. Life's hard. Andrew also got to choose what we'd eat for dinner that night. Andrew's choice? Corn Dogs, french fries and tater tots (or, as he put it, those round things with the stuff inside. It only took me 5 minutes to figure out what he meant). It's always nice to cook lunch for dinner. :)

Andrew was pretty excited about his chainsaw. He also got binoculars and funny glasses from his sisters. Grandma and Grandpa sent a snow plow truck which he really hasn't put down.

The birthday theme he finally decided on was PIRATES and he wanted a pirate ship cake. I found a lot of ideas to choose from and finally found the idea I wanted to go with. It would have been a great cake had it not FALLEN APART! I think I had to salvage it like 6 times. I did all the decorating this morning and then it seemed like everytime I went into the kitchen, another part had started to fall over. It was horrible. My worst cake decorating experience to date! In hindsight, I would have made this cake a different way (so if you ever want to make a ship, call me and I'll tell you what not to do)

Here's Andrew with the cake while things were still looking pretty alright. If you look closely you can see a straw poking out of the right ship, as I was trying to give it extra support.

Matt took his picture about halfway through the party. Hello! Gross! By the end of the party, this ship had only 1 piece cut out of it but it looked like I had cut the entire cake like 8 times. Seriously ridiculous!

Whit, Mary, and Andrew plus our neighbor, Andrew, ready to party!

Even Annie was up to being a pirate!

It was a great day, though I'm pooped! The birthday fun continues with a visit from Nanny and Papa on Friday and more presents from Missouri.

Coupons

I can't believe I'm actually posting this. I never thought I'd be one of 'those' people who blogged about their good deals. I've turned into a coupon nerd, or am at least trying to figure out how to be one. This was a more exciting day of purchases at Walgreens and Shaws.

I spent $19.36 and got 7 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of nutra grain bars, 2 cartons of ice cream, 3 Listerine, 1 Scrubbing Bubbles, Keebler cookies, veggies, bagels, frozen lemonade, lunch bags, tootsie rolls, Soft and Dry deodorant, a 3 pack of scotch tape, 4 packs of rolos, 12 packs of Easter stickers, and a big bag of Palmers chocolates. It was exciting!

My favorite couponing website is http://www.hip2save.blogspot.com/

I Feel Crafty, Oh So Crafty....

Now that Annie's almost 6 months old, I've finally gotten around to a few projects and have even busted out the sewing machine. It feels good!

These are some curtains I made to go above Annie's bed. I bought a single long curtain for $1.69 on mega clearance and turned it into two. I like inexpensive projects!

Andrew's room has been needing some decor and since he has a big pirate flag and I had pirate material, I made this memo board. It was really easy and turned out pretty cute. I threw it in with his birthday gifts, though it wasn't one of the favorites (not surprising). I'm still in shock that he liked his chainsaw more than this!!

Lessons Learned

This past week has taught me a few things. I thought I'd share in case you hadn't learned these lessons yet.

1. Did you know that when a 5 month old has a blowout while wearing tights, the tights actually fill up with all the grossness, leaving everything else much cleaner than a normal blowout?? (though the tights themselves are another story)

2. Did you know that it's best to bring a second dress to church for those close to two years old who also might have a blowout?? Otherwise, they get stuck wearing size 6 month pants and a belly-showing size 18 month shirt, church shoes, and no tights for the rest of church.

3. Did you know that even two minutes is too long for an almost 2 year old to be alone upstairs with markers?? (sidenote--I actually did know this. That's why I panicked when I realized that Mary and Andrew had come down without cleaning up and had left Whitney alone) Her entire face and hands were brown. My camera batteries had just gone dead, otherwise it would have been a classic picture. Part of me wants to let her recreate it, the other part of me worries that would be sending her the wrong message.

4. Did you know that a coupon for 'free bowling for your entire party' means it really costs $15 because you have to rent bowling shoes for everyone at $3 a pop?? (I've bought shoes on clearance before for less than $3 that I get to wear more than 1 hour!) All joking aside, it also means a really fun family outing. (again a battery-less camera) If only I still had my bowling shoes my mom bought me on clearance during the summer we went bowling everyday.

I'm sure there is much more for me to learn this next week!

Time Marches On

I can't believe how quickly these kiddos grow up. Just a few updates since time seems to be going so fast.

Mary just seems old anymore, kind of scary how that sneeks up on you (or maybe it's just because she has 3 younger siblings). What a school girl we've got. She absolutely loves everything about it. Mary has become a great reader and is very into the Magic Tree House chapter books. She can pretty well read them on her own. It's fun watching her read to her siblings. She still likes to share every detail of her life with us; I'm trying to savor it since I don't know how much longer she'll do that.

Then there is Andrew. He enjoys telling himself stories (that he won't share outloud) and definitely keeps a lot more to himself than his sisters do. He's still obsessed with all things boy...swords, pirates, guns. He likes to color and pretend out any story that we read or movie that he watches. I often find him running laps around the sofa carrying 3 swords and wearing some form of a helmet.


Our funny little Whitney. She loves to dress up, she loves to take off her pants, and she loves to try to make Mary and Andrew laugh. She's still obsessed with Annie. After a nasty sick weekend, she's finally feeling better and back to her normal, attitudy self. Who'd have ever thought we'd miss the attitude?

And sweet Annie. She hit 5 months this past weekend (weighing in around 15 pounds). She rolled from back to belly today (and doesn't she look proud?). She was diagnosed with RSV last week but seems all back to normal now, I don't even notice any wheezing. What a blessing! And yes, the hair is still standing straight up in the back. Maybe one day it will lay down. :) We love our happy girl!

Big Girls Don't Cry

Well...sometimes we do.
This past weekend we had a girl's night celebrating a great friend who is moving. Miss Elizabeth is leaving a lot of sad ladies up here in Connecticut.

ok, we don't look sad, we faked it for the camera

What an awesome buddy she is. She and her family have been such friends to us since we've moved to CT. We've done babysitting swaps, we've gone to museums, we've had music makers, book club, playgroup, and preschool. You name it and Elizabeth was probably a part of it. Matt worked with her husband at church; the kids love to play with each other. She even planned a baby shower for me with Annie and organized a group gift of a chest freezer. How awesome is that?!?!

I'm still in denial that she's leaving, probably because I did these goodbyes too many times in North Carolina. I think it's so great though that in 18 short months, you can make a friend for life.