Gwen Turns 2

My baby is no longer a baby!  Gwen can say the word "beautiful", has opinions about her clothes (she prefers dresses), needs a napkin at every meal, and says "thank you" quite often.  

For her birthday, we had a birthday breakfast and presents.  She enjoyed the attention a lot, but had no idea what was going on:) After that we went over to ride the hot air balloon at our insurance picnic.   While I waited in line . . . the girls played games, colored and won prizes.  

After I had waited in line for over an hour . . . and finally became the second to next person in line . . . the rides were stopped because it became too windy.   Luckily there was a park nearby and a catered lunch . . . so the kids weren't too upset.

Gwen seemed to enjoy her birthday . . . she liked the singing a lot! Happy Birthday Gwen!

Happy Birthday Ben

Ben turned 31 today!  We are finally the same age . . . for a couple months at least.  I hope Ben enjoyed his birthday . . . considering the mishaps we had.  We have a birthday breakfast/present opening tradition at our house.  That part seemed to go well.  The girls are always so excited for someone to open their presents!  Ben went to work during the day, and then we were going to have a birthday dinner at night.  Halle and I made his cake . . . and then I got the great idea to try making a homemade carmel sauce.  I found a recipe and it said I could leave a sugar/water mixture to boil for about 10 minutes (unless I read it wrong which is completely possible).  I got the mixture to boil, set the timer for 10 minutes, and went downstairs.  10 minutes later I heard the timer  go off.  I went upstairs to find that I could barely see anything!  There was SO MUCH SMOKE!  The sugar/water mixture had turned into something that looked like black lava.  After taking it off the stove and opening every window and door possible, the smoke left after a while.   I have a terrible cold right now and can't even breathe through my nose most of the time . . . which means I really can't smell anything.  But apparently . . . our house still smells like a campfire that went wrong and I'm not quite sure how to get the smell out.   Happy Birthday Ben! And sorry about the rolls that went wrong too . . . it really does help to add all of the ingredients.

Girl Time

This weekend my sister Lisa and I flew out to Boston to visit our sister Kristi.  What a fun trip! We went shopping . . . a lot.  We ate great food . . . some from restaurants . . . and lots of Kristi's exceptional cooking.  We also saw a few sights along the way.  Kristi and her husband Steve were such good hosts . . . and 7 month old Carter is VERY cute.

Ben stayed home with the girls . . . I am so lucky to have a husband that is willing to do that! And I can't thank Rebekah enough for coming over to do their hair on Sunday.    I missed my family but it was really fun to just hang out with my sisters and be a person and not necessarily a mom for a couple days.

Feeding the Ducks

I'm pretty sure Gwen ate more bread than she gave to the ducks:).   Having Gwen and Halle home during the day is fun . . . but a little different than last year.  I'm worried that Halle is getting sooo bored!  She turns five in October, so she can't go to Kindergarten until next year. All summer long I have not even thought twice about putting her in a preschool or anything because I really like having her home with me . . . and she has always been so good at entertaining herself.   Now that school has started . . . She seems to be a little more restless.    A friend and I are doing a playgroup/school type thing at our houses twice a week . . . hopefully that will be enough!