Owen is ONE!!!

April 28th, 2009 at 7:16 am...Owen James came into this world to complete our family! Wow...what a year! It has flown by and yet it is hard to imagine what life was like without "Baby Owen" as we have affectionatley referred to him as for the past 12 months. A few days ago, Harper said..."Mom, it is Big Boy Owen now!" But...he will always be my baby!!!

In honor of being 12 months old...here are 12 things about Owen:

1. He has the blondest hair and the bluest eyes! Yet, looks just like his sister!

2. He SMILES all of the time!

3. He LOVES his sister. When he wakes up in the morning...the first thing he says is "Thsissss (Sis) and points at her room, wanting to go and see her!

4. He is all BOY. Tonight we were outside planting flowers and I looked over...his mouth was covered in dirt and he was holding a flower by the "neck" with the roots dangling below.

5. He has to have a hollow leg. The boy loves to eat anything in sight...especially anything his sister is eating!

6. One of his favorite things now is to push cars around and say "vroom." Is this just built into boys?

7. He doesn't know a stranger. He smiles and waves at everyone he meets.

8. He gets so excited when we go to the door to go outside. He starts flapping his arms around and can hardly wait for me to get the door open.

9. He is soooo laidback. He is still crawling and shows no real interest in walking. He gives me the look like..."Mom, it is so much easier to crawl. I'll walk when I want to."

10. He loves his Daddy and Boppy. In fact, when you ask him how a cow goes...he says, "Boppy!" Although he does "raaaarrr" when you ask him how a lion goes.

11. He secretly loves when I rock him to sleep. He goes to sleep twice as fast and fall asleep much harder! :)

12. He completes our family! Today in the car, Harper said, "Mom, thanks for giving me a baby boy. I was so bored before we got him."

Happy 1st Birthday to the Sweetest Boy I know!!! We LOVE you!!!

Harper is Five and Fancy!

Harper and 6 of her school friends had an excellent time getting all "fancied" up at her Fancy Nancy Birthday Soiree on Saturday. As the guests arrived, Harper was great about inviting them in and showing them where they could make a picture frame while they waited for the other guests to arrive.

Once the cadre of super excited girls all arrived, I had Harper invite them into the "Boutique" to pick out their Fancy Attire {a pink tutu with hearts, a purple feather boa (which one girl said was itchy like a sweater!), a pair of fairy wings, clip-on earrings (I guess I didn't realize how many of Harper's friends had their ears pierced...no wonder she talks about it all of the time!), and two strings of beads. They were all glowing from ear to ear.

Aunt Melanie was the designated photgrapher for the event and she did a great job of gathering the girls for a picture. Once they were all fancy, they gathered at the hat table to pick out ribbon, two flowers and a butterfly for their hats. I then frantically glued (with a glue gun) all of the stuff on the hats. Aunt Mel entertained by having the girls make funny faces for the camera.

Once the hats were complete, we all headed into the dining room for the Fanciest of Tea Parties. The menu consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches shaped like tiaras, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches shaped like flowers, cheese cubes with frilly toothpicks, grapes, and perfectly appropriate pink lemonade with real lemons floating in it. Believe it or not...after all of the hardwork crafting the food...the overwhelming favorite...the grapes! Go figure! But the lemonade was a hit too! I think they really just enjoyed drinking out of the fancy cups. Which Aunt Mel let us use. At one point, Harper said, "Aunt Mel...we didn't even break your plates!" Ha!

After the girls ate their tea party food, they were itching to get back into the playroom to play. So, we took a quick break and boy did they play. What took a whole evening to organize and clean up...took only a few seconds to destroy. The playroom cabinets and baskets were completely emptied onto the floor. But I have never heard such laughter and fun before! They had a blast.

When I called them back to the table, I had them guess what the "fancy" word for sundae was and with a little help...they guessed...PARFAIT!!! Each girl then got a fancy ice cream dish and got to serve up their own toppings...complete with cherries and whipped cream. This was by far the hit of the party. I have never seen girls so excited about vanilla ice cream. And Harper ate hers with a fork! Go figure!

After this we sang Happy Birthday and Harper made a wish and blew out her candle. Then it was off to open gifts! Once that was done, it was right back to the playroom to continue what they had started. As each girl's parents came, Harper gave them their goody "purse" and I could tell was sad to see her friends go.

What an excellent party! I don't think Harper stopped smiling the entire afternoon...and that is why I love Birthday Parties!!!

A Fancy Nancy Birthday Soiree...

that's French for P-A-R-T-Y! On Saturday afternoon, our house was transformed into the Fanciest of Nanciest tea party establishments! It was about two months in the works (now that I am not the Prom sponsor...this was my Prom!) and turned out to be better than I ever could have imagined. This post is just the decorations. I will post some adorable pics from the party soon!

{Our Fancy Dining Room!}

{As Harper said, "My Mom made a chandelier!}


{Each place setting was complete with a rose petal placemat that my mom and I crafted; fancy dishes that my sister let us borrow, and plastic silverware...complete with bling!}

{In grand tradition...Cherry Chip Cupcakes! This time decorated with a mini tiara comb, feather and flowers...and of course sparkling sugar sprinkles!}

{Fancy "Wedding" Chairs...as Harper called them!}

{The Diva herself...Miss Fancy Nancy with an Eiffel Tower I "fancied" up!}

{The Hat Table...each girl got to decorate a "fancy" hat!}

{This was the present spot!}

{When the guests arrived, Harper took them over to the coffee table to decorate a picture frame. Later we took a picture of each girl all "fancied" up to send home as a favor!}

{The favors...straw purses filled with stick-on earrings, sunglasses, candy, a tiara, nail polish, lip gloss and a "pretend" checkbook!}

{Even the outside of the house got a Fancy Nancy makeover. We put wire butterflies all througout the front flowerbed!}

{The Boutique...where the guests got fancy with a tutu, boa, fairy wings, clip-on earrings, and necklaces!}

A special thanks to my friend Sara, who loaned me a TON of decorations from her daughter Cambree's party in Februray!!!

Happy Earth Day!

In grand tradition (well...this is the second year...that has to make it tradition), Harper clothed herself in Earth Day attire! She was so excited today because they were having dirt cups for snack at school and when I picked her up, she said, "Mom, I even ate all of the dirt!" Yummy!

Shoelaces!

Last Saturday, it was gorgeous weather and Richard was helping my dad with a few things...so I decided to load up the kids and go to the Zoo! It was a little hectic getting both dressed, snacks ready and making myself presentable. But oh did Harper help...

She was back in her room for awhile and then out she came. She said, "Look, Mom...I tied my shoes!" My head shot around to see with my own eyes and sure enough...the girl had tied her shoes. She even double knotted them!

We have practiced a few times with a little book I bought her, but she always got so frustrated that we stopped practicing awhile ago. Anyways...she is one of the kids that has to perfect it before she does it.

Way to Go Harper!!!

Easter...finally!

Our Easter Weekend was a blast! So many activities and great Spring weather to go along with it. What a wonderful way to celebrate!

We started out the weekend, Saturday morning, with an Easter Egg Hunt at a park near our house. The wind was a little chilly, but it warmed up quickly.

Harper had a little more competition this year. She had to hustle to get the eggs. But her and Grandma had a strategy!

Owen was an Easter Egg pickin' machine. He got the hang of it really quick. I held him and he would bend over to pick up each egg and then drop it in his basket. He actually got twice as many eggs as Harper, but made sure he shared!

Saturday evening, we dyed 2 dozen Easter Eggs. Harper had a great time dipping them in all of the pretty colors!

The Bunny Cake Harper and I made on Saturday. Super cute and yummy too!

What's better than a bite of a Huge Chocolate Bunny on Easter???

Easter Mass with the Family on Sunday Morning!

Sunday Afternoon at Grandma & Boppy's House was so much fun. We played outside in the really warm weather. Harper got a new OSU bike and Owen got a really fun car (he is riding in it below). Even the "big" kids got to have an Easter Egg Hunt! It was acutally a game of strategy that my mom devised...really fun!

The Easter "Pageant"

Harper's Pre-K class performed last on Thursday for the entire school at their daily morning assembly. It was so cute!!! They each wore "handmade" (as Harper called them) cotton tails, Big bunny ears, and a "pretend" carrot. When they got on stage, they began by singing Little Bunny Foo-Foo! It was really adorable...but they all seemed a little timid. By the time the next song rolled around...they had the hang of it. Next, they sang an Easter Bunny song that I hadn't ever heard of...but was super cute. To end the performance, they all shouted "Hoppy Easter!" Then they were instructed to bow. But Harper, Miss Drama herself, took off her bunny ears and gave a HUGE curtsy to the audience! It was so fun to watch my baby girl on stage! She is a natural!!!

Happy Easter!!!

Priceless!

I guess this is what you get when you put one leg through the leg hole of your panties and other leg through the waist. I'd pick my seat too!

Thanks Sara for the great pic! It definitely is...priceless!