SURPRISE!!!

I'd been planning a weekend trip to St. Louis for several weeks.   I wanted it to be a surprise for the girls AND for my mom who'd we be going to visit.  I had to sneak and pack clothes after the kids went to bed (they wondered why they couldn't find clothes even though we'd just done laundry), but it was totally worth it.  I woke them up at 5am on Friday and said "Surprise!  We're going to St. Louis for the weekend!"  Jena was the only one who got it right away.  It took the other three several minutes to comprehend anything through their cloud of sleep.  It was like those commercials where the parents tell their kids that they are going to Disney Land (except that I actually WANTED to go to St. Louis and the thought of it didn't make me physically ill.  No offense Disney lovers).  We showed up on my mom's doorstep late Friday morning and she could not have been more surprised.  I've never surprised my mom with anything (except for maybe my preganancy with Zion, but who am I kidding, EVERYONE was surprised by that one).  We had a great weekend.  I always enjoy spending time with my family.

Jena was totally into this tower of Hanoi.  Unfortunately, she needs some stillness to figure things out and her sisters are NOT into stillness.  I guess I will have to make her a mini version to work out here at home.

Triceratops for Bijou.  It took a lot of coercing to get Zion up on that dinosaur.  That being said, there was a sign that said "for your own safety, do NOT climb the dinosaurs".  But I figure if it is out of concern for my safety, then I'll decide if they can climb.  Climb they did.  Shhh, don't tell the authorities.

Rocking out, Bijou style

I spent a few hours working on a drawing this evening.  Fortunately, the girls are really good at entertaining themselves.  A little Grooveshark and free reign over their closets and they are happy campers.  As usual, there was lots of singing, dancing and imaginary concerts.  During a short break from drawing, I caught Bijou just hanging out on the couch like this...

Notice the sweet tattoo (They all had them.  Gotta love birthday party goodie bags), vest and black tutu skirt.   There's nothing like being dressed up by your older sisters.

Just another night in the David household...

Sometimes I feel like my children live in a fantastic musical.  There's an abundance of song, dance and fantasy around here quite often.  Tonight, the girls decided that we needed to have a fancy dinner.  Jena wanted to cook dinner.  She made whole wheat penne pasta and tomato sauce with broccoli and mushrooms.  Ashni wanted to add some gourmet flair, so she was in charge of plating (chopped fresh spinach and smear of sauce).  A pot of peppermint tea and a few dressy outfits later, the girls were eating Italian food with chopsticks!  As if that was not enough, they also decided that they needed to speak in pretend accents for the entire dinner. 

Junior Bloggers

The big girls have started their own blogs.  Feel free to stop by and check them out!

Busy Dancer

Talented Eater

Zion is turning 3!!

It's that time again.  Another birthday has rolled around in the house.  This time three years ago, I was battling a nasty stomach bug and preparing for a 6am c-section.  Those are two events that one does NOT want overlapping.  Fortunately, I made it through.  Tomorrow, Zion Sage turns three years old.  It's been a fun three years.  She's as quirky as she's ever been. 
-she loves to dance with her hand on her hip (thanks Bijou)
-she can color like a pro
-she's pretty adept on a scooter and a two wheeler (with training wheels, of course)
-she loves animals but has a fear that all dogs will, indeed, lick her. 
-she puts all of her clothes on backwards and shoes on the wrong feet (not always, but often enough for me to mention it)
-she eats like a man, but prefers beans and rice to anything else
She's fun little monkey to live with.  I look forward to her little voice each morning.  I decided to celebrate her birthday a day early because I will be at work tomorrow during the day and Taariq will have to work tomorrow night.  I figured I would let her spend the day with me at school today, then take her for ice cream and to play at the book store.  Tomorrow she gets to spend the day with daddy and her older sisters and then we'll make a special dinner when I get home.  Happy Birthday, little monkey.  I'm looking forward to the next year.

Birthday cone!  This year she chose strawberry.  She ate a few bites and then it hit the floor.  Fortunately the owner of the shop is very sweet and replaced it for her.

I love the little elf ear under the crown.  You may (or may not) recognize the crown from Bijou's third birthday.

Replacement ice cream in a cup this time.  We used the cone as a topper.

This is the sweetest picture of Zion and Ashni.  They are so silly together.  This is what they look all the time.

All my girls.

Last but not least, a comparison between last year's birthday ice cream trip and this years birthday ice cream trip.

2012

2011

And I swear I did not have them sit in the same positions.  I think that automatically sit in order of age.

Yeah, I'll admit it...

We LOVE Angry Birds around here.  I mean, we really love it.  I haven't bought any merchandise or anything, but I will play.  A LOT!  And the girls love it too.  I don't mind them playing, but they will veg out in front of the computer forever if I'd let them.  Now I'm not a huge fan of them having tremendous amounts of screen time, so they don't get to play very much.  So, to satisfy their need for destroying questionably stable structures inhabited by pigs, I decided to make them a table top (or floor) version.  Actually, they started building their own Angry Birds games using blocks and dinosaurs and dollhouse people.  So, technically this was their idea.  I just spruced it up for them a little bit.  The pigs are just some little wooden balls that I had in our craft bin and the birds are rubber balls from the dollar store (they came three in a bag).  Total cost for this project?  $1 (plus tax) and about an hour total of painting.   I will post pictures of them playing when the sun comes up.  It's too dark in our house right now for my little point and shoot to get a good picture.  But they are playing happily, I assure you.

And completely off topic, I have been having trouble posting comments to my own blog (probably me doing something wrong), but I always want to respond when you all comment.  Know that I do read and appreciate whenever I get comments!

Little Reminders

I am a big fan of little reminders for the kids to help them remember the things that need to get done each day - particularly the younger kids.  So I thought I would share a couple of the little reminders I have for the girls.  These two just happen to be in their bathroom.  I used to have two that couldn't read (now I just have one), so the reminders have to have pictures.  Here's our potty reminder for Zion.  They are just little drawings that I made in some frames I had in the garage (spray painted red).

This is our reminder for the all of the girls.  Since I've started working, I'm not here to make sure that everyone is taking care of those basic needs in the morning.  This way, they can still see what needs to be done each morning and evening.  Sharpie works really well on mirrors and comes off easily with alcohol.

Some day I will get a really good camera and learn how to take really good pictures and then these pictures won't be blurry, but you get the idea.