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!

The Tooth Fairy Visits . . .

Halle for the first time!  I cannot even describe how excited she was about this.  A few days before her tooth actually fell out, we were at the park eating lunch.  She bit into an apple and started complaining that her tooth hurt.  I asked her if it was loose . . . and all the sudden . . . you could see in her eyes that she made the connection.  Halle said her tooth had been hurting for several days, and apparently she had had no idea why . . . until I asked her if it was loose! Anyway . . . when it finally fell out . . . there was too much excitement to describe!  It's a big deal to loose your first tooth!  

Kids at our house get a quarter from the tooth fairy for their teeth . . . and this has been a prized possession of hers ever since.

Halle is in the Spotlight!

Halle wanted to play soccer this year . . . and finally she is old enough to.   She had her first game last night and  had SO MUCH fun.   She loved being told that she is a fast runner . . . and I think she likes that her team has purple shirts.

Anyway . . . it is fun to see Halle start to do her own things.  We are all so used to going to games and such for Abby . . .     which is also fun . . . but it was fun to see Halle's eyes light  up when she saw it was her turn to shine.

The Search is Over

Ben and I have put this off for a VERY long time.  Up until now, we have  been fitting our family of 5  into a Toyota Camry . . . our one and only car.  This has been fine . . . but a little tight.  We finally broke down and bought a Honda Pilot.  We LOVE it!  It seats 8, has leather and a DVD player.  What more could we want?