Dinner Conversation and Entertainment

Hubby is gone for another week long business trip. He left Sunday night and he'll be back Saturday night (ugh!).  It's been over 2 years since he's been gone for so long on one business trip.  He actually has another one sometime next month and then in February he'll be gone 2-3 weeks. Yikes!

When he's away I try to find my own routines. I get dinner on the table earlier and get the kids to bed much earlier.  Last night my parents came over to give me a hand. They spent time with the big kids playing games before giving them their bath. While my mom bathed the big kids, my dad spent some one-on-one time with Mr. Bananas. I cleaned the house.

By 8 o'clock last night all 3 kids were in bed and my parents had left.  I finally sat down for my dinner. When it's just me, I find it easier to feed the 3 kids and then eat dinner by myself after they are in bed. While the big kids eat, I feed the baby.  So at 8:30pm I had reheated a bowl of soup and decided to watch the Sing-Off while eating my dinner. Wouldn't you know that not 2 minutes into my solo dinner, my daughter came downstairs?

DM:  Buggy what are you doing down here?
B:  You know what I'm doing.
DM: I do?
B: Yes. I'm watching tv with you.
DM: You are?
Buggy sees that I'm watching the Sing-Off: Oh, and I'm dancing.

While the contestants are singing, she gets off the couch and starts dancing.  When they finish and the audience is applauding, my darling daughter starts bowing repeatedly and saying, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you" Humble, isn't she? (Ms. C, I think she is a natural performer! It's a good thing I have her taking dance classes at your studio!)

At the next commercial I start to carry her upstairs. I'm almost to the top of the stairs when I see that the gate is in place and locked. Um????
DM:  Bug, how did you get downstairs? The gate is locked?
B:  I'm little. I'm 3, but I'm still little. I'm still little and I fit! I'm 3, I'm little, and I fit! (The whole time she is giggling).

The little stinker crawled underneath the gate and walked downstairs.

I finally got her back in bed.  It's never a dull moment with my little performer...

A Veggie Tastic Birthday

My Pinkalicious Girl 

My daughter turned 3 a few weeks ago, but we finally celebrated with the extended family this past weekend. We hosted the birthday celebration for Bug and her cousin B. who is 3 weeks older.  Between scheduling conflicts and Bug coming down with the stomach flu last weekend, this was the soonest we could celebrate.

We decided to go with a Veggie Tales theme this year and it was a lot of fun.  Bug enjoyed having her family around to celebrate though when I told her that the family was coming over she said they were there to celebrate her cousin's birthday. She didn't realize they were there to celebrate her as well.

I had a lot of fun creating her cake (super easy this time!). We made her a Bob the Tomato cake with strawberry cake mix. I tried looking for red velvet, but since that was available at our store we went with strawberry. What better for my girly girl who loves pink. We even had pink strawberry ice cream which was a big hit with the girl cousins.

My uncle watching the kids hit the pinata

As with every birthday I tend to go bigger than the average bear.  I like a good celebration and I love celebrating the births of each of my children.  Hubby made a super cool poster for the kids and I put together a slide show of the kids.  We had a ton of food and my oh-so-favorite empanadas from our local Filipino restaurant. YUM!  My mom also made lumpia and pancit to round out our honey mustard chicken and fried rice.

It was neat to see how much the 3 year olds have grown.  As with any family gathering it was very busy, but a lot of fun.  The kids play really well together as they have gotten older, the adults are able to relax a little more.

The party was a hit and we enjoyed celebrating another year.

Our Bob the Tomato Cake

The 3 year olds

Ooh, La, La, Beauty Day

On Saturday, my middle child, turned 3 years old.  She is my only girl and I have enjoyed doing some girly things with her.  On the eve of her birthday, I was reminiscing about her birth. The labor was easier than the boys, and she was my easiest delivery.  Three pushes in 15 minutes and she was out.  So far, in a lot of ways, she's still my easiest child. If she falls, she gets right up. She'll often say she is "tough." But she'll be tough while running around the house in a tutu, carrying a purse, and wearing a string of (fake) pearls.  Gotta love it.

I decided to have a girl pampering day with my sweet Bug.  As one of her presents I bought her a Fancy Nancy book and we read about how Fancy Nancy pampered her mother with an Ooh, la, la, beauty day.  But before our pampering began, we went to church for the monthly church cleaning and cleaned God's house. The other volunteers were awfully sweet with wishing her a happy birthday, setting up a candle in a ring of donuts, and praying over her. She loved the extra attention, but was a little shy.

After church cleaning, we went to get her a haircut. She often complains when her hair falls in her eyes that she needs a haircut. I took her and had 3 inches cut from her long tresses, and yet, it's still long. My beautiful Rapunzelian beauty still has long hair, but still short enough that it won't fall her into her food as easily.  Daddy and Boogie met us at the barber and everyone else got a haircut except for Mr. Bananas and myself. We stood on the sidelines checking everyone else out.

After haircuts, we took the kids to a quick lunch across the street and spent a little time together. Especially important since we were going in different most of the day and boys wouldn't get to see us as we were continuing with our "Ooh, la, la, beauty day." After lunch,  Bug and I took off to get our nails done. She chose a dark purple and asked for white polka dots.  Everyone in the nail salon commented on the little girl getting her nails done.  Every now and again, Bug would say, "oooh, la, la."  It brought a smile to my face.  We even turned on her chair so that she could get a massage while waiting for her nails to dry. So much fun. After getting our nails done (mine are a matching purple with white polka dots), we headed home. My little girl had so much fun that she fell asleep in her car seat on the way home.

The evening ended with dinner at the kids' favorite restaurant, pinkalicious cupcakes & ice cream at home, and the opening of gifts.  You can tell my Bug is a girly girl when she gave a high pitched squeal of delight when she opened one of her gifts and found Princess Tina glove, purse, and a pearl necklace for her play dress up clothes.  We rounded out the play clothes with a few books and a new piggy banks.  My mom gave her a very cute purple polka dot dress, complete with fancy purple boots. She actually flung the clothe out of the bag to get to the purple boots with another squeal of delight. What can I say? She's LOVES shoes, just like her mama.

It was a delightful day and I had so much fun spending time with my best girl.  Ooh, la, la!

Buggy's Birth Day

Buggy's 1st Birthday!

2nd birthday

Buggy's 3rd Pinkalicious birthday