Green, green and more green!

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! Hope you used a little green. After 3 hours of setting up late the night before this little Leprechaun was worn out. But the joy on the girls faces makes it all worth it. When they woke up they followed the Leprechauns footprints to....

the kitchen table that he decorated, then...

he left behind a rainbow on his way past the kitchen...

to make a pit stop in the bathroom....

Yep, even their pee is green :)

The girls discovered that he had hidden a pot of gold in the bathtub with a clue for their hunt for treasure.

The clues led them all over, to the green milk....

to Chloe's cowgirl boots...

and eventually to their treasure in the laundry closet.

Emma made an attempt this year to catch a Leprechaun but he was too sneaky.

But he did leave her a note and a token for her cleverness.

For breakfast we had Lucky Charms and green chocolate chip pancakes, this is the only time of year I let them eat Lucky Charms.

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

All you need is love

This is kind of a random post and I just threw it all in here but this is my way of keeping a journal so here it goes....Here I am 7 months along with my cute cute cousin Amanda who is due any day now with her first and it's a girl. So excited for her. I got to go to her shower and I had to snap a picture of our prego tummies. Love you Amanda!

Okay so something about this pregnancy has made me put more on my plate then I should carry on, it's like Im freaking out a little bit that this 3rd baby is going to make things so busy and Im going to be so exhausted that Im trying to make up for it now. Emma has had dance mondays and then I thought I'd throw art class in there on tuesdays, and then put Chloe in tumbling on wednesdays (she's always been a monkey it's perfect for her) and then I have my prenatal water aerobics class on thursdays. All of these activities are in the evening after school and it sure makes life a lot more crazy trying to get homework done and making dinner on top of it. I really have brought it on myself but like I said I just feel the need, it's like Im afraid there will never be time or I won't be up to it for a long time....lol we'll see :)
So here she is at her tumbling class which is held at my old middle school, brings back fond memories, I actually loved middle school, it's high school that was the pits hehe Anyways, she absolutely loves it! She is the smallest in her class and just puts her whole heart into it.

Last year my family started a tradition where all us siblings have a date night with no kids. It's fantastic and such a hoot, I wish we did it more then once a year but it's amazing with how hard it is to find a time we can all get together and even then there has always been one person missing each time.
This year we all brought our own dinner and ate at my parents and just hung out playing charades, mafia and signs. It was nice to have my little brother on leave and able to have him there. I love my family.

Ok now onto Valentines. I've always kind of hated Valentines but ya know it doesn't have to be all commercialized to be special or spend a lot of money to let those you care about know how much you love them. Plus it forces me to take some time out to make a little effort to do the little things that make a difference that I would otherwise put off. So thanks to pinterest I found so many fun, cute, cheap ideas to make the holiday fun and meaningful for my family. And here is another example of me probably adding more to my plate then necessary but I just dont know what the future brings :)

So I got up early to start the day off with chocolate chip pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream, yummy! Emma hates cereal and wants homemade breakfast every morning before school, but lets face it, it's just not realistic for me so she gets so excited for holidays and the weekends because she knows I'll make breakfast. Anywho, I heart attacked the girls door with cute things about the girls.
Emma made me this notebook last year and I found a cute use for it, it's our Mommy and Me book and the girls and I will take turns writing notes to eachother.
After school the girls and I headed over to the library for a cute free craft that I get to benefit from. This heart is filled with fun coupons that I look forward to using.
I know there's Valentine haters out there but Im not ashamed to admit that I always like receiving flowers and chocolates, what girl wouldn't?
For Aaron, I put some treats in his lunch with cute sayings also found from pinterest. There was also a can of nuts that said "Im nuts about you" but it didn't make it in the picture.
I cut out a bunch of hearts with one that told Aaron to remember how much we love him every time he finds one. The girls wrote sayings on each one and I hid them everywhere. He still hasn't found them all.
Our nightstand lamp,
his pillow,
his work shirt,
his diabetic needle box and many many more.
And then to finish off the day this little note was on our front door waiting for Aaron when he got home from work.
Here is Emma on the lookout patiently waiting 20 minutes after Daddy said he was on his way home.
Chloe bug hiding behind the counter ready to pounce the minute he walked through the door.
Look at that face, pure joy!
Definitely need to do this more often, 30 minutes of family time well spent.



My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Pajama Party

January is a Birthday month for us. Im on the 6th and Chloe the 19th. For my 28th Birthday this year I woke up to Emma all ready for school, breakfast in bed with flowers and a chocolate fudge cake. What a great way to start the day! Plus my sister in law put together a girls lunch at Olive Garden, it's nice to feel so special. Aaron took me out to dinner and a movie and gave me a bike trailer which I have been asking for the last 7 years, can't wait to use it! We went on bike rides every Sunday as a family growing up and I loved it, I want to do that with my kids.

I reached the 6th month mark on my Birthday. I have been working out everyday, except weekends. I do the treadmill, elliptical, yoga, and a prenatal water aerobics class which I love! It's so nice to get in the water and have the weight off my back, every time I get out of the pool it surprises me how much weight I've been carrying around. Gravity kicks in and it feels like a ton of bricks. Even with my efforts I still get so huge and bloated.....sigh. I can't complain though, I am so happy! I feel so blessed and the love I have for this little boy overwhelms me and I am enjoying every moment of this pregnancy and can't wait for April to welcome him into our little family.
Anyways, enough about me, this blog is about my baby girl's 5th Birthday. She'll always be my baby girl even though she hates it when I call her that. As I've said before, growing up I never had anything special on my birthdays so I try to make it nice for my family because it's important to feel special no matter how old you are. I made chocolate chip pink heart pancakes to send Chloe off to preschool.


Grandma Ruthie took her to McDonalds for lunch and then to Barnes and Noble to pick out a gift and get her free Birthday cupcake.
We had a pajama party, which despite my best efforts to keep it simple, which I think I did, hardly spent anything, it was still a lot of work but totally worth it.
The girls decorated their sleep masks when they arrived. Then we played charades, musical pillows, freeze dance and I read them a Charlie and Lola book 'I am not sleepy, I will not go to bed.'
Thanks to pinterest, I found these super cute pajama cupcakes using the zebra rainbow gum and chewy spree candy with frosting for the faces and hair. Aaron did all the faces and hair for me, amazing isn't he? He made each one different.
I think we have a cake boss in the family.



We had a treasure hunt that led the kids all over the house and to their final treasure hidden in the bathroom. Jelly bean cupcakes and chocolate cake pops.

Such cutie patooties!

It was such a fun party, the girls were pretty mellow and shy but I guess that will all change when I start having boy parties. Now Emma says she wants a Scooby Doo Party for her 8th Birthday this June, better get going on that especially since baby boy will only be about a month and half and I won't have the time or energy to put together a party.


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com