Spy vs Spy

Another birthday party is upon me. The youngest three girls are born the end of December, beginning of February and end of March so I feel like I am constantly thinking about birthday for about four months. Ashni's eight birthday is March 26th. (I know I've said it before, but I really can't believe how fast they are all growing up). She asked me a few months back if she could have a spy birthday. Actually, she says she doesn't remember asking me that, but "it sounds like a good idea anyway." So, the pre-party planning is underway. I try to start thinking about things early (although I typically procrastinate on the actual work) and this is what I have on my to do list so far:

1. find some cool Spy vs. Spy imagery on the net

2. print out invitation in a secret code (with decoder) and enclose in mini manila folder and sealed in "top secret" envelopes.

3. create id tags with space for fingerprints for spy kid party guests

4. come up with a secret code scavenger hunt

5. think of some other spy-like games (suggestions welcome)

6. fingerprint cupcake toppers

That's it so far. I will post as things start coming together.

Jena's newest obsession

I know that a few years ago (and still today) there was a HUGE American Girl craze sweeping the country. Fortunately, we lived on an island then and our girls were still pretty little so they A) had never even heard of American Girl and B) were too young to care. Besides, I am not a fan of most dolls because I think they are creepy (that's my secret phobia). On top of the dolls being insanely expensive (to me), they did not resemble any part of my daughters, so we skipped the whole thing. Until recently. A couple of months ago, we came across a doll at Tuesday Morning that Jena fell in love with. She'd saved up some money so we let her get it. It's from a brand called Karito Kids. It's along the same lines as American Girl (they come with a book, and some other things), but each doll is from a different country and actually LOOKS like she would be from that country!! Jena's first doll is named Ling and she is from China. She loves her, but really wanted to get Lulu, the doll from Kenya (which really resembles her). So on our last trip to Tuesday Morning, guess what we found. So, my mom shelled out $30 to bring Lulu home. Now, I still think that these dolls are CRAZY expensive (they retail for $99), but Tuesday Morning is an awesome place to get stuff for a bargain. Of course, now Jena is busy everyday sewing clothes and making furniture for her dolls. Soon, she's going to have to build them a house in the backyard because I don't know where to plans to put all of this stuff.

Happy Birthday Zion

While others elsewhere were waiting on pins and needles to find out whether we will have six more weeks of winter, the David clan was celebrating the second birthday of its youngest member. Yes, today is Zion's second birthday. I really can't believe it. It seems like just a couple of months ago I was posting about her first birthday and how bittersweet it was. This one is equally bittersweet as we have seemingly left behind all things baby. Instead of her chunky, cloth diapered rear end toddling around the house, we have her extremely slimmed down rear end running at top speed in underwear and jeans. Instead of sweet little baby babbling, she's been saying for days now "ater tomorrow and ater tomorrow, my birtday". Well, it is after tomorrow and after tomorrow kiddo. Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet Zion Sage!

The girlies at Holly's Sweet Tooth (the local candy shop and ice cream parlor) enjoying mini ice cream cones.

A VERY happy ice cream face.

Notice the fresh birthday haircut. I thought cutting it the first time would make it all grow back evenly. I was wrong. It just grows weird, I guess.

We took a trip to Square Books Jr. (the local children's book store and all around fun place to hang out) to play and read books, but was quickly reminded that Zion had not had a nap. So she slept through her play time.

I'm back....temporarily

Thanks to a VERY generous friend, i am back online and able to blog regularly (temporarily). I really have missed being able to regularly record the things that we have going on around here. Anyway, I will enjoy blogging for however long I have access.

Just needed to share this...

70 degrees today! That is all. (I figured it would be fitting to share this immediately after my snow day post.)

Snow Day

Snow in Mississippi is like some sort of urban legend. Everyone knows someone, who knows someone, whose sister's neice's half brother has seen real snow in Mississippi. This past week dispelled the myth of Mississippi snow! We got snow. Almost eight inches of snow at my house and it stuck around for a couple of days. The girls finally got to build their first snowman. And we found a really good use for loaf pans (well, other than making warm delicious bread).

We were a snow fort making MACHINE! Three loaf pans and a couple of hours in the snow and we had a fairly unstable, but totally fun snow fort.

There was quite a bit of snow consumed by all (except Jena is WAY too cool to eat snow).

Free Range Kids

One of my favorite blogs of late is Free Range Kids. It's basically a site dedicated to the freeing of our children and allowing them to be kids rather than being guarded 24/7. I love reading the positive storied of parents whose children are independent and responsible. I am a big fan of my kids being "free range". I think it's very important that they learn how to navigate the world without constant adult direction. We live in a town that could be seen as half and half. Half free range parent, half hover parents. You can see it on the average trip to the playground. There are the parents that sit and talk to one another while their kids play with other kids and there are the parents who are two feet behind their 4 year old on the way to the slide. Some people may be thinking "I'd rather look silly on the slide than have anything happen to my kid." And I can respect that, but that's not my philosophy in life. Kids (just like adults) learn from mistakes. They have to be allowed to do some things wrong, go the wrong way and sometimes, god forbid, hurt themselves (gasp)! Kids fall, my kids fall, your kids fall, all kids fall, but from that fall they learn that if you run too fast before you make the leap you'll be moving too fast when you hit the ground! Slow down next time. A valuable lesson. For example, when it's warm, I go walk in a park near our house. The kids ride their bikes. Bijou (who was three at the time) loves riding her bike down the hills. Yes, I could jog along next to her in case she tips, or find a new route with less hills, but she LOVES the hills. This particular day she was riding down one of the longer hills, squealing in excitement the entire time, and something in her mind said "hey if I wobble the handle bars as I go it'll be EXTRA fun!" I saw the fall coming from the top of the hill. Needless to say, she fell and scraped her elbow pretty good. I don't even think she cried. We washed the blood off at the water fountain and she rode her bike the rest of the way around the park and we went home. The next time we went to the park she rode down the same hills and squealed with the same delight, but she hasn't wobbled the handle bars since! Lesson learned.