Allie turns 3

Let me know if you have any trouble identifying exactly what Allie wanted for her 3rd Birthday....

 Daddy and Allie share the same birthday and Tom was a good sport to go along with the theme.  Allie turned 3 and Tom Sr. turned 43.

Indy 500 is here!

Well at last for Kindergarten.  All the Kindergartner's at Tommy's school competed in a race last Friday that they called the Indy 500.  Tommy loved it, he is all about racing.  Tommy won his first heat and then lost the next race.  One of his best friends however came is second place of all the Kindergartners, wahoo, go Ethan!  The first graders and some fourth graders filled the stands as spectators and some helped coordinate the event.  It was fun for everyone.

Sammie got her first Gymnastics Medal

Sammie has been doing gymnastics since the fall of 2009.  Many of her peers have received trophies, medals or t-shirts for their accomplishments, Sammie however has not earned a reward until this past week.      Sammie was able to hold a V-sit position with her legs elevated, straight and toes pointed for 15 seconds.  It might sound easy but I encourage you to give it a try, nothing like confirming that we are not as young as we use to be.  (PS - Don't tell me if you were able to accomplish this goal, it would crush Sammie's spirit since she was the only one in her class to achieve it and it would crush my spirit since it would confirm that I apparently am the only one getting old.)

Sammie Turns 5!

We had been talking about the February 21, 2011, 5 year old birthday party since November 2010.  Sammie started with the desire for a Care Bear cake.  She was very disappointed to learn that I did not have the talent to make a care bear cake, Sammie did not understand why I could make a  Batman and Robin cake for Tommy but not CareBear cake.  I guess I know my limits.  We were saved by Elizabeth Stanley when she found a cake topping that was carebear, peanut free and something we could eat.  See below:

 This is the morning of her birthday where we all got to eat cake for breakfast.

 Now for the birthday parties. We had a party at the Stanleys house the weekend after her birthday but I have not loaded those photos yet so we will get back to that party.  Sammie had a birthday party with some of her girlfriends, including herself 9 of them.  Sammie had a flip flop theme for her party because she wanted to paint everyone's fingernails and toe nails.  Here is the flip flop cake she was helping me make. I actually made our own fondaunt!

Can you tell that I used a cut out of my own flip flop, size 11 shoe for the cake model? HUGE

 Sammie decided she wanted to add flowers to her flip flop cake.

 At the party each of the girls had their toes painted and finger nails painted.  We also had the girls make their own personal pair of decorated flip flops.

Can you see that Sammie had a flip flop t-shirt on too?

The decorated Flip Flops

 Sammie's new birthday dress from Aunt Sue (you can over look the PJs still on under the dress)

I got my hair done

We have two budding beauty artists at the house. 

I will take any advice on fashion I can get, even from a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. 

A Birthday is coming...

Sammie turns 5 in a few days and we are planning a party.  This will be the first party for any of the kids so we are all getting very excited.  There will be a total of 8 girls, well 10 including Allie and I and we will be painting some fingers and toes.  (I have hired help from some great friends of ours and their teenage daughters.)  We will also be decorating flip flops, here is the prototype:  (Allie was the guppie who did the comfort test and she approved. The tears at bed time when they had to be taking off her feet proved that she was not kidding, she liked them.  They sat still next to the bed until morning.)

Walks along the Beach

A moms weekend away in Florida with my best friend Elizabeth;

some shots from a walk on the beach.  Great talks, great walks and great sea bass, Yum!