A Trade Off?

I told Molly that I would keep her little one if she would use her AMAZING talents to make an Elmo cake for Elli's birthday party.  I do not think it was a fair trade at all.  Keeping Lyra was easy and pain free as her and Elli kept each other busy all morning (as evidenced below).  Molly has created a masterpiece of a cake and the effort she had to put in was phenomenal!  Can't wait for you all to see pictures of the Elmo cake but in the meantime you can see pictures from Lyra and Elli's play date.

This was in the first five minutes!!  Look at that mess!!!!

There is always time for a snack!

They look so innocent...

Time to cook up a little snack of their iown

Elli's favorite game of hide and seek under the bed

And on to enjoy the beautiful weather outside

Buddies!!!!

Sweet Sweet Song

Elli loves to sing.  I realized the other day that she knows a lot of nursery rhyme songs and not too many hymns or church songs.  I decided we needed to remedy that and started with "Jesus Loves Me."  This is what I heard coming through the monitor this morning.  Let me set the scene...I am spring cleaning.  I HATE spring cleaning but am determined to get it done this week.  I got up early today to start on the kitchen and I wasn't happy about it. I was taking all of the dishes out and wiping down the shelf paper etc when I hear this coming through my monitor....nothing makes for a better day.

Getting Ready for Spring

So glad we are getting closer and closer to spring.  That means it is time for Jacob to work in the garden and for all of us to do a little spring cleaning!

Helping Daddy with the first plant of the season

Don't be fooled - she was easily distracted!

Now on to helping Mom spring clean the toys.

I enlisted a little help from Daddy too!

So Much To Do

Elli has been enjoying all of her morning fun lately.  We have dance class on Wednesdays and we try to have some play dates throughout the week!  Here is a glimpse into some of Elli's fun times!!

Dance Class!!!

Looking for turtles...

Snack time!

Elli found some other kids' sand toys and was very excited about it.   This gives me ideas for her birthday!

Lyra spots the snack...

And she goes for it!!

So Ready for Spring

I love that it is still February and we can visit the parks here in Eastern NC.  I am not a winter person so short winters are just fine with me.  Yesterday's warmer temperatures called for a play date downtown.

Elli's new favorite snack - Captain Crunch

Discussing the important matters of life!

Seriously....she is getting so big!!!  Where is my  little baby girl?!?!

I Know We are Corny

There comes a point in a parents' life when you stop caring how cool you are...cool just goes out the window.  I'm not saying I was ever the coolest person on the block, but this is an all time low!  Needless to say - it really doesn't matter to me.

*  Just a clarification, Elli does not get two candies unless she does some serious business in the potty!  Otherwise it is just one m&m or at night, a piece of special cereal!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day here at our house.  Elli got a new Elmo ABC book, Daddy got a soccer ball, and Mommy got beautiful tulips and of course - chocolate!  Here are some pictures of our "love" celebration.