Charlotte's First Haircut

Charlotte's hair was getting a little out of hand. She had a strange mullet so long as a baby and at this point we were just so happy for her to finally have some length. But, it was time to let go. So, here's BEFORE

.....and AFTER. I love the result. More full, less scraggly. Super cute.

The Lounging Princess

Speaking of BIRTHdays....

... our family will be celebrating another one in early August!!

Another Birthday Party

Yesterday Lily Kate went our friend, Sy'ana's birthday party at Sweet n Sassy. It started at her house and the big pink limo picked them up and took them there. It was quite a big deal, they got their nails painted, their hair done, and there was even a fashion show.

Kate and Maddie on the runway when we came to pick them up.


I had to get a close up of this hair, this may look better than my hair did at prom.

Happy Birthday PARTY

Sunday the girls had a joint birthday party at Gymnastics Unlimited. It was more than enough fun for everyone. I have heard at least 4 of the dads commenting about having their next birthday party there. We were warning them that they probably didn't allow beer in the foam pit. We had so much fun.

This is the foam pit, hours of fun

The purple castle cake. Lily Kate walked into the kitchen when we were about halfway through putting it together and legitimately started crying. "It doesn't look like a castle at all" She wasn't throwing a fit, she was just disappointed. Talk about a blow to my cake creating confidence. I tried to show her the pictures on line of the steps of making a castle cake and how it wasn't finished yet....then in the bottom corner of the computer screen she saw a princess cake and you know what was next, "I have a better idea, let's have a princess cake." Wow. We stuck with the castle and she was happy in the end. Meltdown avoided, gratefulness restored after a little encouragement.

Maddie & Lily Kate. There were 16 kids at the party and the is the only picture I got with any of them in it because of how active they were and how blurry my shots were. Oh well, it was fun!

One More Quote

At the park today...Lily Kate was playing on the crowded playground. She runs over to me with lots of excitement,

"Mom, that boy over there is handsome"
"WHAT?"
"Yea, his hair is really cool"
"okay, go slide"

I was shocked! I have never heard her say anything like that about a boy! Wow, I didn't see that coming at all. Apparently she likes shaggy surfer boy hair, by the way.

Quotes from today

Charlotte hands me her Ariel doll,
"Mom, can you get her bacon soup?"
"Umm, bacon soup, what's that, babe?"
"Bacon soup, bacon soup for swimmin"
Wow, she's talking about a bathing suit, never heard that one before....

We are still attempting to get the girls to sleep in the same room. Parks was standing outside the door listening to Charlotte singing loudly.
"Girls wanna have fun, girls wanna have FUN. Hey, sissy, you like that one, right, you like it?"
Kate is almost alseep
"Sure, Char, I like it. Go to sleep."
This is what almost every night sounds like. We put them to bed every night around 7/7:30. We have ridden it out until 10:30 one night before we gave up and moved Charlotte back out into her old crib. We need to stay strong, They need to get it sometime.

Tonight we rented a (very lame) kids movie about dolphins following their dreams(?) and we had a picnic in the living room with pizza by the fire, at Lily Kate's request. It was such a fun evening, minus the extremely strange movie. Parks and Charlotte were cuddling on the blanket...

until Parks fell asleep and Charlotte started crawling all over him...


She thought it was hilarious to "get Daddy while he sleepin", just walking on his legs and stomach. He woke up slightly a few times but mostly he was out...

I'm sad this one's blurry because it's my favorite. She loves him so much.

Girlfriends

Friday night Maddie & Ford came over while their parents, Sam & Trevor went on a date. Sam is due with their third very soon so we wanted to treat them to some face time that will be sparse soon. Their daughter, Maddie, is adorable, lively, super well mannered, and one of Lily Kate's personal heros. They had a blast

Snow Day

It started snowing this morning around 7:45 and it lasted about 3 1/2 hours. We only got a couple inches, but it was enough to make the scene look pretty and enough to play in by our standards.

Happy Birthday to Sweet Charlotte!

Saturday was Charlotte's Second birthday. She is trying out her independence in every form: hopping out of her bed, wanting to fasten her own carseat, get out of the car without help, walking alone in the grocery store, and the list goes on. This has been the season of, "No, no, I do it by-self!" She has started to try to negotiate before naps, "Can I just stay up, play a little bit?" She loves to play with Lily Kate, to dress up like a "pincess", to do puzzles, be read to, push her dolls in her stroller, & jump on her "shramp aline". She's a fiery one. She's not as much of a camera poser as Kate is, I can't get her to smile for the camera much, but here are some shots of the day.
I liked this one because one of Charlotte's signature expressions is the cupped hands over her mouth during laughs, when she's suprised, and here when she's saying, "wow". And Kate is showing her her very own Ariel doll that Kate got for her.

This is my attempt at a pink flower cake - at Charlotte's request

Pizza for dinner - another request. "Charlotte, for your birthday dinner, what kind of foo- "Pizza!" before I even finished my question.


This is how she spent most of the meal, one of the reasons why I am thankful for booth seating. Happy birthday Sweet Charlotte!