Birthday Party

With the way our schedules work around here, it is difficult to coordinate a good weekend to celebrate the girls' birthdays. So, although their birthdays are in January and February, we finally found a Saturday in March to have a party. It was a blast!!

My mom and dad came in on Friday night and stayed with us and Sarah and Jonathan drove over from Nashville and came over for breakfast on Saturday morning. Ali was quite taken with Jonathan and of course, both girls were SUPER happy to see Sarah.

The party was at a little place called Jumpin with Joy. It's an inflatable jump place like Pump it Up. It was PERFECT!! We would, without a doubt, have another party there again.

We had a lot of friends there and they had a lot of fun. There were bounce houses, air hockey tables, hula hoops, bean bags, bouncy balls, and more. It was great for every age. My mom and dad even got into the action with some air hockey.


Once the kids had completely worn themselves out, we had some cupcakes and ice cream. Pink and purple iced cupcakes per Ali and Sarah Kate's request. We served them on Hannah Montana plates because we could not locate any Taylor Swift plates.



After everyone was sufficiently sugared up, the girls of JWJ blew up the inflatable throne and the girls hopped on to receive their MANY presents. MANY barbies! I think we own the entire barbie aisle now. The girls were in heaven.



It was a fabulous party and there was hardly work involved on my part. Who can ask for more?

An Afternoon

So. It's Monday afternoon and I'm not at work. That, in itself, is fabulous. I've cleaned. I've worked out. I undid the working out by indulging in too many girl scout cookies. Sarah Kate took a lovely, long nap and now I'm listening to them play in Sarah Kate's room. They have the ipod hooked up and they are dancing away to various different songs, mostly sung by Barbie and Taylor Swift and the Chipmunks.

It's kind of odd not to be constantly needed. They come out occasionally to perform a dance or a song for me. And I'm needed to prepare snack and sometimes get down a dress-up dress. And kiss the inevitable boo-boo that comes from playing too rough.

I LOVE that the girls play so well together. So far today they've played daycare, and for some odd reason felt the need to put blue painters tape over the mouths of their babies (this I find a big concerning), and they've hidden from Bigfoot, they've had a party with special napkins and fruit snacks, and they've shown off how fast they can run across the living room. Ali is the little mama and she takes care of getting everything that SK needs (even took care of putting SK's half-eaten sucker in a bag to save it for later).

It's so fun to be a mom to girls who are not babies anymore, but not so grown up that they can't indulge in imagination play.

Their (very belated) birthday party is coming up this weekend. I am so excited!

My little rock star

Ali keeps telling me she's going to be a rock star. She's got the moves down. She's got the look down. She even writes her own songs.

I just hope she's more of a Taylor Swift than a Miley Cyrus.

I think if the rock star plan fails, she's just going to be a cheerleader.

Sigh. I'm not quite ready for this. Next thing I know she'll have Bieber fever.

A Day in the Life

I was off work today. That will not be a rare occurrence much longer. I am changing jobs. I am leaving the hospital and going to work retail pharmacy three days a week. No weekends, no holidays. I am so excited.

Today was a perfect example of why I am so excited to be off on weekends from now on. Ali woke up a little before seven, came to my room and asked me if it was a "stay home" day. I told her it was and she went back to bed with the computer. She chilled out in her room for a while just watching a movie. She was relishing the rare day that she didn't have to get up and be anywhere. Sarah Kate got up a little after seven and had pancakes for breakfast. After that, the day passed in relaxed, relatively quiet, calm. As relaxed and calm as life with a three year old can ever be. There was some dress-up, a little bit of tv watching, and a period of indoors gymnastics using our pottery barn soft chair and a giant bean bag.

We didn't do anything until late this afternoon when we got groceries and picked up pizza. Even grocery shopping was easy today (thanks to each girl being caught up in her ipod). Now the girls are on the computer playing barbie.com. And, for now, not bickering.

I love being a mommy!

Picture Day

I took the girls' pictures today because my stuff was set up and because it was just time. I fool myself into thinking it's going to get easier to get shots of them together. HA! Not going to happen. Not without a fight anyway. I do get shots. Most of them not what I want, but funny anyway. I always get more than a handful of one or the other sticking her tongue out or rolling her eyes, or "cheesing", SK's favorite way to take a picture. I have to admit, thought, that I love the silly pictures. I really love the one on the right. The expression on Sarah Kate's face is so her, but is an expression that you really only get to see when she's at her most relaxed, as she is with her sister.





This might be my favorite picture. It's probably the last one I got before the candy bag came out. But bribery didn't work. She was finished with me.




Up next, Ali's choice of pictures. Her "rock star" shots. I'm worried that I'm dealing with 5 going on 16.