Ellie is Two!!

Yesterday was Ellie's second birthday. Yes, we celebrate the dog's birthday. The kids really get into it.

So we got Ellie some frosty paws, and a a present! After dinner, the girls put a candle in Ellie's frosty paws, and we got to sing to her.

The girls blew out her candle for her.

Then Ellie dug right in.

Briana wrapped up Ellie's present, so the girls helped her with that too.

Finally, we got to have a treat of our own for Ellie's birthday!

Don't worry, that isn't frosty paws that they are eating!

Happy Birthay to my Ellie Belly!

Briana's scarf

My New Year's resolution is complete! I learned how to crochet, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. So far I made a scarf for Sydney and a scarf for myself. Today, I finished up my favorite scarf of all, which is for Briana.

I used a sparkly pink yarn and attached a black rosette on the bottom. Unfortunately, Briana was only willing to model the scarf for a picture if I promised not to put her face on my blog.

So there you have it. I can crochet.

My next project is going to be a headband/earwarmer to match her scarf with another black rosette on it. Yay!

Ice Skating

Today Briana and I got to go ice skating for her third grade field trip. I have been a tad nervous about this field trip for some time. Mostly because I'm not really that great on the ice. I don't drive well on it, and generally I don't walk well on it. So tossing my first born onto a big, slippery chuck of ice with only tiny metal blades to hold her up didn't sound like that great of an idea to me. However, Briana sure showed me up! She loved ice skating and did great!!

I was a very proud mom. They let the parents go out onto the ice with our regular shoes on if we wanted to. So I did that. It was still slippery. But, I didn't fall down. Briana kept practicing and was getting better and better at her skating. She'd go around the rink with me a little, and then go off with her friends for a bit.

After a while, the teachers all got their skates on too.

Briana was begging me to get my skates on already by this point. I knew I had to do it. I just really didn't want to fall down. So I laced up my skates and took my chances on the ice. Guess what? Not so bad! I held on to the wall for a bit and then followed Briana out into the middle part of the ice and I didn't fall down once! It was a miracle.

Briana told me that this was her favorite field trip ever. I have to agree with her.

She is dying to go back and go ice skating again!

Fleece scarf

Look what Sydney made herself yesterday! She got her inspiration from a scarf Savannah made me for Christmas.

She did all her own sewing and all her own fringe-ing.

She says it's very warm. But, she won't wear it outside for fear that it will get wet in our 56 inches of snow.

Sigh...

Valentines Day Wreaths

Remember this wreath that I made last year? The girls have been dying to make wreaths of their own, so yesterday we got started on them.

Sydney got hers all finished up yesterday afternoon, and it looks great!

Last night, the girls both invited a friend over to spend the night. This is how they entertained themselves. It takes me right back to our old house in Harvey Oaks with me and Shannon both in our feet-y pjs.

New Years Resolutions

We started off 2011 with new blinds in the kitchen! Woohoo! I have wanted them since we moved into this house four years ago, and I finally have them.

(look past the clutter on the floor and the dirty dishes on the table. We were all going on two hours of sleep and cleaning wasn't our top priority.) Don't the blinds look great? I love them!

Anyway, on to the New Years Resolutions. So, my first and most important resolution is to learn how to crochet. I'm going to need a full day with yarn, a crochet hook, and You Tube. Lots of cussing will probably happen. Maybe I should get some chocolate for that day too. Just in case. I want to make the girls cute blankets and I want to make some cute scarves.

My other resolution is to do more art and projects with the girls. Like all the time. We started today with a super fun project that is sort of similar to hot rocks. I found the idea for this here. I took my skillet, set it on low heat so it was warm but wouldn't burn us if we touched it. Then, we put a peice of paper on the skillet and let it heat up for a few seconds. Then we colored with crayons. The crayons melt as you color, which gives a really cool effect and is super fun to do.

The crayons just melt onto the paper.

The girls have been creating new masterpeices all morning. So have I!

This is a small sampling of the pictures we made. We have seriously made a huge stack of pictures!

Happy New Year!!

I think it's safe to say we threw a pretty hoppin party last night. The kids enjoyed themselves.

Mike certainly enjoyed himself.

I used my new frosting decorating set and made some super cute cookies.

And Briana was transformed into a scary rabbit with buck teeth.

Then the kids all Just Danced their hearts out.

Until 2:30 a.m.

First order of business for 2011? A nap.

Happy New Year!!