Isabelle's Birthday: Presents and Cake

On the evening of Isabelle's birthday, Curt skipped his classes (He had permission, but the teacher still threw a pop-quiz and wouldn't let him make it up. I was not happy with that teacher!) and we headed over to my parent's house. I made one of Isabelle's favorite dinners...that she didn't touch. We opened presents and had cake. It was really simple birthday since our biggest stress at the time was packing up our apartment and trying to figure out where we were going to live. Good times....NOT! Ugh!

Isabelle loves cards. LOVES! As in, she will hand on to them for months...and months...or until her sisters destroy them. It doesn't even matter what kind of card. Recently she's attached herself to a thank you card from my dresser. She's easy to please. Just get her a card. 

 She was definitely more excited about the card than the big Princess Aurora doll we got her. There was almost no reaction. She didn't even want to open her. I was depressed. Serves me right for not getting her the Ariel one (I didn't want the bikini one and the dressed Ariel was out of stock for weeks). She also got a necklace with her name on it. A month or two before, she loved her cousin's, so we decided to get her one. Yeah, she just like to hold it and pretty soon after she broke the chain.

Heather got her some Cheetos, amongst other things. It was a big hit. Bigger than the doll or the necklace. The final thing we got her was some mermaid dolls. She did get really excited about those.

 We had been practicing holding up three fingers. Apparently, she couldn't do it without holding her mouth open... Heather also got her some paper dolls. They have been very loved!

 Hey look! Lit candles!!! Notice the purple icing my mom made her. :) She's a little bit spoiled.

Who wants to eat the cake when you have Cheetos in the house? Strange kids!

Isabelle's Birthday: First Friends Party

Back at the end of March, Isabelle turned 3! We started the day off by having an early birthday party. It was Isabelle's first friends birthday party. We invited three friends and their siblings over, and my mom came and brought Levi with her. It was a full house in our apartment! It was really pretty much just like a glorified play date. The kids all played together. Some of the boys were disappointed we didn't have any motorcycles to play with. :)

Yes, we were even lucky enough to have Strawberry Shortcake come. ;)

Before the party started, I called in a favor to a friend who was coming to bring some candles, since I didn't have one. Unfortunately, even though she brought candles over, I had no way of actually lighting them on fire. (Mom fail: #4,274...)

Isabelle still pretended to blow them out though. Such a good sport... Notice she does not eat the cake at all...just the frosting. I seem to remembering her sneaking another cupcake to lick the top off too.

My mom brought Isabelle's present over. The outfit was one of them, but this baby doll was the other. While she liked it, it has really become more of Ella's baby doll...actually almost immediately. Ella's rather obsessed with them. 

She also received an Ariel barbie...and really who can compete with that?? She loved her, and still loves her!  Here we are, exactly five months later, and I still have to remind myself that she is three, going on four. I can't believe my girls are actually growing out of the toddler and baby phases!

Chalk

This was one of those very rare days where Ella and Emery took naps separately. It happened a few times when we were transitioning to one nap a day instead of two. Ella was a lot better at the transition than Emery. Anyways, we took advantage of the situation and the nice weather we had in March and Emery and Isabelle went out on the patio to play with the chalk. 

They had a blast and Isabelle discovered she can draw on herself. Sigh...

Oh, and the reason I say took advantage of Ella being asleep? Well...she eats chalk like it's candy.

Happy (belated) Birthday, Curt!

Back in March we celebrated Curt's 27th birthday. We went over to my parent's house and celebrated it two days early for the sake of scheduling. We had yummy dinner and cake and ice cream. Curt was spoiled by my parents who got him some shirts and a wallet.

He was also spoiled by me who got him two books that he had been wanting. Some Constitution book and some Collective Works of C.S. Lewis book. I don't remember the exact titles. They were classic Curt presents. :) Yep, he was spoiled.

The girls weren't too thrilled with his presents and were more concerned about eating Papa's cake and putting stickers all over the carpet.

Happy Birthday, Curt!

P.S. This totally reminded me that I have yet to blog about Isabelle's 3rd birthday or, even worse, the babies' 1st birthday. Yikes. I need to get on that.

Bugs!

On a Sunday in March, Heather and Andrew brought a little project to family dinner for the kids to do. They bought tiny sponge bugs that when you put them in the water, they soak it up and eventually get larger. It took a couple of minutes, which the kids had a hard time showing patience for... 

...but they loved them! Of course they loved them. My kids are totally intrigued by bugs! Of course, Ella ripped her's apart. She's destruct-o baby.

Super Dad

Okay...so these pictures aren't good. I know that. It kind of kills me a little cause they had potential for being great, but apparently I didn't do my kids' hair this day. It also looks like Isabelle had been crying.

Daddy coming home has always been the most exciting part of the day, and continues to be so. Earlier this year my girls went through a little phase where it wasn't enough for Daddy to come home from work and play with them, or hold only one or even two of them...he had to hold all three of them.

It was not an easy job...but when it comes to these girls, nothing is.

These girls sure do love their dad...and he loves them. We are all really lucky to have him and to have each other.

Tea for Three

During the process of buying our house, we did lots of planning. One of the things we planned on doing is moving and unpacking all of our stuff before we actually moved in. So, on the day we came to the house to stay, we would come home. Having three small kids, who don't listen, who are dare devils and who are into everything, complicates the moving process exponentially! Although we didn't get everything moved in and unpacked (we still don't...see they complicate things), we did get a good start and we did get their rooms unpacked-ish. When we brought them home, it was bed time, but they were so excited to see all their long lost toys! Isabelle loved playing with her princess tea set again. She pulled it out and had a tea party. It took a little coaxing, but she finally started sharing with her sisters. All three of them loved having a tea party together. It was like Christmas morning. It felt sooo good!

Flash

You would think that my kids would be used to the flash of the camera...

...but apparently they are not. :)

In Emery's defense, I really didn't take many pictures while we were staying with friends for 2.5 months. Very little. 

(Sorry about the fuzzy picture...)

Potty Training

Attention! Attention!!!

We are no longer a three-kids-in-diapers household!!!

For months and months now we have been telling Isabelle that she needs to start pooping in the toilet. Especially whenever she would get a diaper rash or during diaper changes. See...most of the time she would get a diaper change, she would complain that I would hurt her. The problem was that she was too big for me to lift up anymore, so I would just bend her in half to change her diaper. She didn't like that much, and well, I was all about using it as a way to motivate her to start potty training. (I doubt it actually hurt...it was probably more uncomfortable and hard to breathe...) And it worked! Within days of us moving to our new house, a couple hours after a diaper change she complained about, she came to me and asked for panties. I obliged, but didn't really think too much of it since she had done it before a few times, showed everyone, peed in them and then threw them in the garbage and asked for a diaper. However, this time she didn't! We got her little princess potty out and she loved going pee in it. It was a new home miracle! :)


She did so well! Yes, she did have some accidents...but mostly because of technical difficulty. Not pulling the panties down far enough, struggling to get them off fast enough, etc. In fact, I'd say a good 90% off all her accidents were in the bathroom. Some of those were just standing in front of the toilet and being too lazy to sit down accidents. I'm not really sure what those were about. It was very infuriating. 


There was two set backs though. She did get a little bit of a bum burn, some how, one day and because her bum hurt, she refused to sit on the toilet. So she had accidents every single time for the rest of the day until she woke up healed. That was pretty frustrating. Not as frustrating as her constipating herself though. She absolutely refused to poop on the toilet. At all. She literally constipated herself avoiding it. After five or more days, tantrums, medicine, bribery that didn't work and acting out and crying she was in so much pain, we would eventually give in and give her a diaper. We had to do that twice over the first two weeks (yep, she only went twice in two weeks....). However, Monday the 16th, she woke up and decided she was ready and went in the bathroom and pooped. She got chocolate and she discovered the joy in pooping on the toilet. She went ALL.DAY.LONG. Anything for chocolate, right? She would get so excited and she was SO proud of herself. It was at this time that we retired the disgusting princess potty (I HATE that thing!!!) and graduated to the big toilet. 


We are still working on night training and she still has some technical difficulty accidents here and there, but in the end, it went so much easier than it could have! Really...the hardest part about it definitely was the nosy 18 month olds that freak out every time Isabelle goes into the bathroom and shuts the door on them. Except now that we are down to one bathroom and that bathroom doesn't have a door on it, now they follow her in and I freak out cause of the disaster that is left. Sigh. I did always say the hardest part of having twins is Isabelle...

Sometimes...

...you just need a hug!

And I love when they are in a hugging (and not fighting) mood!