This was the BEST birthday EVER!

Katie has been wanting to have a slumber party since last year.   She was so excited.  She must have made her guest list a 100 times, hand wrote personal invitations (several times) and finally the big day came.  I have to actually work that morning.  And as luck would have it I worked with Santa that morning.  As it turns out Santa knows magic but disguises himself as a man named Jingles.  Well Jingles graced us with his presence at Katie’s birthday party.  I have never seen girls laugh so hard my whole life!  In the middle of his show Katie shouted out “This is the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!”.  Who knew?!

Hannah’s 3rd Birthday

Oh my big girl.  They are just growing up too fast.  Little Hannah from the time she was 5 months old has LOVED horses.  I remember bringing a stuffed horse animal home for Katie and she cried that I hadn’t gotten the horse for her.  From then on she has picked out horse after horse after horse when given the option on toys.  Well for her 3rd birthday she got the real deal.  Unlike Katie she showed absolutely NO FEAR.  She was the first to get on and ride. And she didn’t want a pony either.  It had to be a REAL horse.  Here is my big girl on her special day…

Boys already?

Katie is of course her most talkative while laying in bed avoiding sleep.  Tonight was one of those nights.  Katie starting asking me questions about how I met Daddy.  I told her how we met at a conference and how I immediately thought Daddy was the nicest man I had ever met.  She got so tickled.  Then I told her I knew Daddy was the one when Daddy noticed I was cold just by seeing I had goosebumps in the car and how thoughtful and kind Daddy was… Of course using this opportunity to tell her to marry someone who is nice to her like Daddy.  Then she asked if I had ever broken up with anyone.  SO funny.  I said it had been so long I hardly remembered but that anyone I dated that was ever mean to me I broke up with them.  Then she starts throwing out names “Did you ever date a Tyler? Did you ever date an Aiden?” and so on through the list of boys in her class.  Then she ponders who she will marry.  She comes to the conclusion she hopes it is Tyler in her class. She LIKES Tyler.  Then she says she tries to KISS him in school!!  OH NO!  I think John fainted when I told him.

Elves!

I bought the book elf on the shelf last year to share with the girls. Neither of them had any interest what so ever in reading it so I put it away till this year.  Finally some interest.  I read the book to Hannah one night before bed. Afterwards I said that I didn’t know when the elf would be coming to visit our house but I thought it would be soon.  Poor little thing.  She looked at me with big tears in her eyes and said, “I on the naughty list?”  It just about broke my heart.  I responded NO HANNAH.  You are definitely NOT on the naughty list.  If you were on the naughty list Mommy would know it.  Then I promised to talk to Santa and tell him that the elf didn’t need to come to our house.  Poor little thing.  You just never know do you?

Finally! It’s Halloween!!!

This year Hannah being almost 3 could totally get into Halloween.  Hannah picked out Little Red Riding Hood and Katie wanted to be a flapper.  Before trick or treating they started off with a ghoulish dinner then they trick or treated with their pre-school friends.  I think they had as much fun handing out candy this year as collecting it!

Poo Poo Need I say more?

I couldn’t resist posting this email John sent to me after arriving at the beach with the girls…

“On the drive down, the girls kept talking about poo poo. They were laughing and making up all kinds of rhymes and songs with poo poo.

Finally after a while I spoke up and said please let’s talk about something more pleasant than poo poo. After some silence, hannah said how about pee pee.

We all busted out laughing.

Love you. “

icky man

Katie, Hannah and I have always had a tradition to stop by the local convenient store on our way home from pre-school to get a ‘smoothie’.  The last two times there have been pan handlers there so I have rushed Hannah to the car.  Today Hannah asked, “Is he an icky man?” I explain that there is no way to know if he is an icky man or not.  He might be an icky man or he might be a nice man but since we don’t know we shouldn’t talk to the man.  Hannah’s response, “Yep, he’s an icky man.  You see his icky mustache? That means he’s an icky man.  He’s an icky man mamma.”  Watch out Daddy, the icky man’s mustache was what you look like after a long weekend without a shave!

Hannah Mommy Day

It was a Hannah Mommy day.  The day where we do whatever Hannah wants to do just the two of us.   This day she picked the Airport to watch the airplanes take off and land. They have a little playground with a sand box and lots of wild flowers as you can see.  My sweet sweet girl…

Lost another tooth!

My big girl.  She is spending the night at a friends house who is having a slumber party for her birthday.  I get a phone call from her and of course my first question is “Do I need to come get you?” not knowing what it could be… My response.  “Mommy.  You know how my tooth was loose?”  “Yes.”  “Well it came out!! Can you believe that Mommy?”  Ms. H being oh so smart said the tooth fairy would be much too scared to come get the tooth at a slumber party with 7 girls. So we will wait till tomorrow for the tooth fairy’s arrival! 

Bedtime

Katie already in bed who SHOULD be fast asleep calls for John to come upstairs.  Upon entering the room, “Daddy. So I have to be 7 or 8 to watch the Powerpuff Girls?”  Daddy, “8”.  Katie, “Ok. So I two more years.”  Daddy, “Yes.”  Katie, “Ok.”  

Clearly this was CRITICAL she clarify this before going to sleep.

The Tooth Fairy’s Visit

Boy Katie milked this one for a while!  I think that tooth was loose for over 2 weeks. But she refused to pull it out.  She wanted it to come out on it’s own. So finally TODAY WAS THE DAY!  She was SO excited. Actually we all were.  I guess all that anticipation had really built up.  She promptly put it in her tooth pillow.  Very handy for the tooth fairly to find it with such little teeth.   John took the girls to the club for dinner to celebrate and upon coming home Katie promptly put her tooth pillow under her regular pillow.  I was busy putting Hannah down when Katie came dashing in with a dollar to show us.  Evidently the tooth fairly was VERY anxious to get that tooth as she showed up when Katie was downstairs, Daddy was in our bedroom and I was putting Hannah down.  Hmmm…..

Bad Day…

I have been meaning to post this so Katie can look back and laugh at herself.   On one of her school days she came home and straight off the bus she said she had a bad day and she didn’t want to talk about it.  Since she didn’t look TRULY disturbed I gave her a couple hours before pressing her on it.  When we talked about it she told me that one of the boys in her class called her a boy.  Clearly she looks nothing like a boy and the kid was hispanic so possibly he just got the noun wrong?  I explained this to her and her response was, “But then he was tapping his foot at nap time and wouldn’t sleep.  It was bothering me. And he kept looking at me!”


I am tellin’ ya.  Kindergarten is ROUGH!   ;  )

Swim Team Party: Spirit Award!


Swim team is over and it seems to just fly by… We always end the year with an end of year swim team party.  They are always so good to the kids in handing out awards.  Every kid gets one and Katie gets so excited.   This year was a great year for Katie.  She got the Girls Most Spirit Award.  A big honor when there are probably 100 kids on the team.  We were so excited for her.  And I must say she probably deserved it. When we went to Dallas for vacation and were going to miss 1 swim meet her response was, “But Mommy am I going to let my team down?!”  So cute.  Also there was a video that they put together that was so cute and part of it was an interview of some of the coaches and team.  One of the interview questions was “How old was the youngest member to ever be on Swim Team?”  And then they showed a picture of Katie in her swim diaper on the diving block and the caption read “Katie McKinney 3 years old”.  What a wonderful experience for her.  

Lemonade for Sale!

Katie was a little bored today while Hannah napped so like her mother she went into business for herself.  My little entrepreneur!  She stayed out there for about 2 1/2 hours.  After about an hour her friend Lainie joined her.  They enjoyed drinking as much as selling the lemonade.  Can you believe she made over $15.  How crazy is that?!

Sick Day Photo shoot: Boredom

After spending 4 days sequestered in the house due to illness boredom got the better of us.  It started with me wanting to take a picture of Katie with her hair straitened.  After a couple of shots Katie decided we would have a photo shoot complete with MANY wardrobe changes and background changes. Even Hannah got into the fun a little.

My Tooth is Loose!

I guess kindergarten and loose teeth go hand in hand.  Katie’s lower middle tooth has been wiggling for a week now.  She was so excited she started writing letters to the tooth fairy about it.  We haven’t lost it yet but you will get an update as soon as she does! For now here is correspondence between her and the tooth fairy.

1st Day of School

My baby is starting kindergarten this year.  Every Mom’s worst nightmare.  Ok not worst nightmare but the bitter sweetness of your baby turning into a big girl.  She was so excited. She set her alarm clock, woke herself up and got herself dressed.  She was very excited about having a wallet and backpack so she could buy her lunch.  Hannah and I walked her to class.  She was pretty timid not wanting to participate until she saw a familiar face. But after picking her up after the first day she announced she wanted to ride the bus home!  AND walk in by herself.  My big big girl.  So day 2 she rode the bus home.  Here you see her when Penny and I went to meet her at the bus.