Ariel keeping me busy

Ariel is really truly in the Terrible Twos. I am reminded of this hourly. She is always into something. Silence is a very bad sound.

She finds my mascara no matter where it is hidden. She tried the mascara again a few hours after this photo. The next day she found it again and attempted her other eye. She was about as successful asthe previous day. Surprisingly, mascara does not look good on your temples or as lipstick.

She dumped the remaining chips from the bag in the dishwasher then tried to close the door. She got into my 50 lb container and dumped a few pounds of wheat berries on the flour as I was grinding wheat. That was not fun to clean up. The next day pulled a chair over and was able to reach my bag of pinto beans from the pantry and tore it open and spread it all over the flour. Those were not amusing to me and I did not take photos.

Lucas turns 5

Lucas is more thrilled for birthdays than anyone I know. His birthday, his cousin's birthday, a neighbor's birthday are all exciting in his mind, although the idea of his own birthday is particularly magical. For months he talked about his birthday EVERY day--actually, several times a day. (As a side note, not that it isn't obvious, I am painfully aware that our little family here in Wisconsin is becoming more white trash by the day. Now that I have that off my chest and your expectations have been lowered, enjoy these photos from Lucas' birthday.) Are you wondering why Lucas' bowl of ice cream appears to be glowing?

We had a dress rehearsal for Lucas' birthday a few days before the actual event. I made a double layer chocolate cake on the new cake pedestal I got for Christmas. We sang to him and he blew out candles. Then all the kids took turns blowing out the candles and it was a lot of fun. Lucas then decided he did not need to have another cake on his real birthday. Instead, he wanted bananas, ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce. Mike and Isaac did the shopping and out did themselves by buying New York vanilla ice cream. Lucas could not believe they sell New York ice cream and had to take it out of the freezer several times just to look at it. By noon on his birthday, he had to have just a little sample to see what New York vanilla tastes like. Lucas was born in New York City 5 years ago so NYC holds a special place in his heart. He often talks about the day when just he and I will go there together on a vacation so he can remember what it was like to live there. He is hoping that will happen sooner rather than later. Notice Lucas' shirt. I bought a tee shirt with what looks like New York skyscrapers on it then I appliqued the number 5 on it. He was thrilled beyond words and has worn the shirt several times since his big day on Dec. 30th.

Like I said, Mike and Isaac did the shopping so I totally forgot about needing to buy new candles until it was too late. We did have one of those long, trick candles that is almost impossible to blow out, so I thought I could cut it up and make several candles. Four candles were the most I could get out of the one. I laugh now seeing the ghetto-ness of it all. "Happy Birthday, Lucas. I hope you enjoy this bowl of vanilla ice cream with 4 tiny chopped up candles in it when there should really be 5 on a cake." Like I said, we get trashier here by the day, but I am taking the responsibility for it.

Last year I was little sad to think it was the last time I was going to give a slam dunk, greatest of all birthday gifts by giving Lucas something Dora. I was wrong. For the fourth year in a row he showed sheer delight to see Dora's face smiling up at him from under the wrapping paper. Lucas said, "Mom, this is our first Dora with this hairdo!" (I guess the bob looked a little different than normal.) I must add that this year, Mike stole my title as Giver of the #1 Best Present by giving Lucas an elephant Webkinz belated gift a few days later. Lucas is still reminding me that his dad gave him the best gift.

We love this kid! Happy Birthday, Lucas!

Christmas celebrated in several increments

Christmas Eve reading Isaac's Night before Christmas art book. It is darling. Knowing we would have limited time with Mike Christmas day we opened a few presents the night before.

We started the day early Christmas morning opening stockings before Mike headed out the door to work.

Santa did well with the stockings. He managed to throw in a few toys that would occupy the kids for 9 hours until Mike was able to come home for a short time and open gifts.

Isaac played with his webkinz monkey for hours throughout the day. Lucas and I joined in and really enjoyed it.

Lucas got a pretty lame DS game- Diego Safari that even Ariel was able to play. His Star Wars galactic heroes and millennium falcon were really cool and provided hours of imaginative play.

Ariel inspecting her new dolly Chloe from G& G Hawkes

The BIG surprise was the Wii setup in the basement with Lovesac for lots of good playing and snuggling.

Mike made these super cool silhouettes of our kids for me. Christmas was a success. The kids, the gifts, their reactions to it all was more than we wished for. A very merry day indeed!