Bathroom Business

I think I can officially say it - Harper is potty trained! She is on her fourth day of wearing panties with no accidents. She has even woken up from both nap and nighttime completely dry! Yay, Harper ! We are so proud of you!

Harper with her potty sticker chart from Honey and her Ariel bath toy potty present from Mommy and Daddy.

We Got Outside!

It's 60 degress today! The girls loved getting to run around and play in the last little bit of snow and I loved that they burned off some extra energy and are both taking naps right now!

Oh no! Harper couldn't resist the big mud puddle!

Skating Party Take 2

We tried another go at roller skating today at Claire's 5th birthday party. Today went much smoother since Daddy was able to go, it wasn't as crowded, and there were plenty of white roller walkers to go around. Harper even got to try it!

Delaney feeling brave and ready to try again.
Delaney and Peyton

Harper was a pro right from the beginning!

Tyler started off leaning on the walker, but ended up skating without it by the end of the party.

Daddy and Mr. Brian help Delaney and Lucas.

Luke wanted to skate with the big kids so badly, but they were able to keep him content for awhile by letting him run around with a walker.

The birthday girl!

I like this picture of Delaney, Landon, and Harper slowly making their way around the rink.

Harper looks on as Claire blows out the candles on her giant Hello Kitty cake.

I'm 5!!

Happy Birthday, Claire! We love you!

Pretend Party

I came downstairs from changing into my workout clothes (yes! I did run during dance class thankyouverymuch!) to see that the girls had thrown a pretend party for their friends, Koen and Brayden. They had out every paper plate from a brand new package and were in the process of putting pieces of "cake" (markers, scissors, stamps) onto them. Delaney was saying, "Everyone sit down in your seats. It's someone's birthday but you don't know who!" They must have had a lot of guests at the party!

Later, I walked in from the computer room to see that everyone had to move down under the table because "there was a thunderstorm".

Finally, the party was over and the girls stacked up all of the paper plates in the "sink". Hmmm? Who are they expecting to wash all of them?

Once again, the time it took me to clean up the mess was well worth the 45 minutes of peace while they were actually getting along with each other and using their imaginations!

Delaney's Swim Party

Delaney and Tyler celebrated their birthdays together with a joint party again. This year we had a swim party at the Y Esic Center. Krista and I thought we were going to get off easy since the party wasn't during a meal time and we could just serve some snacks. Not so - ordering a bunch of pizzas is much easier than shopping for, prepping, and serving several chips, dips and fruit.

We did have some help from our friend, Jen B., who makes incredible cupcakes. Seriously, they look like they come from a pricey bakery and taste terrific, too! I told her it was s swim theme, so was expecting just some blue or aqua icing and look what she gave us - sandy cupcakes with gummy lifesavers and little umbrellas, nutter butter flip flops, cookie and gumdrop sea turtles, and gummy worm octopus cupcakes. Plus, every cupcake was filled with a flavored cream!

Delaney's favorite was the octopus.

We were in the party room for the first hour, before heading to the pool to swim. During that time the kids had fun jumping off of the mats piled in the corner. Cheap entertainment! Harper and Lucas kept hugging each other.

I had to snap a picture of Tyler staring at the cupcakes trying to choose just the right one.

I'm not sure what game Delaney and Peyton are playing here.

The grandparents and Allan

Happy Birthday, Delaney! (again)

Tyler was embarassed by all of the attention.

Dig in!

Brayden

Claire

Zach

Lucas

Landon - he was smart enough to choose a cupcake with icing that didn't stain his face :)

Harper and Mama

The water was pretty chilly, so we all took our time getting in.

Mommy and Daddy swimming with Peyton, Delaney, Harper, and Alayna.

Harper squirting me with the dolphin squirter she got as a party favor.

Delaney's smile makes any stress related to throwing a party worth it! She had such a fun time!

This is Harper's first time ever jumping off of a diving board!

Yay!

Alayna didn't have her normal puddle jumper floatie and didn't feel confident to swim on her own, so she was my buddy in the water. We kept each other warm :)

Go Delaney! The back pool is typically warmer, but I thought that the front pool would be more fun to rent since it had the diving board. I'm glad we chose it, because my girls spent most of the time jumping.

Of course, that meant Daddy spent most of the time time treading water in the deep end catching them :)

Sweet baby Bella snuggled in with Lori to keep warm.

Love that super big smile!

Peyton's Party

Today we went to Peyton's 5th birthday party at the Y skating rink. It was Delaney's first time on skates! She had a rough start and almost wanted to give up, but she kept the skates on and puttered around with the "walker on wheels". I was proud of her :) Harper didn't skate, although she wanted too. I didn't think I could manage both girls on skates by myself!

Delaney and Peyton are both 5!

Happy Birthday, Peyton!

Delaney took a break from skates and we all went out to do the Hokey Pokey in our shoes.

Landon skated like a pro!

Peyton was sweet and let the girls help her open a couple of little gifts.