Queen for a Day -- Princess for a Lifetime

There's been quite a celebration at our house today. Princess Sophia is now 4 years old.

Her day began with presents and breakfast (Gammy C never made US wait for presents!). We took pink sparkly iced cupcakes to Preschool where her teacher, Miss Cathy, was waiting with a pink and purple crown. The birthday girl chooses the dinner menu and Sophia asked for Macaroni and Cheese (I made the Blue Willow Inn version rather than the Blue Box), hot dogs (Oscar Meyer, again, just like Gammy C) and she was adamant we should eat in the dining room because this was a special occasion. Sophia and Francesca added peanut butter, mixed fruit cups and ketchup to the table (in case anyone wanted those). After supper we celebrated with a crown cake and opened more presents (thanks Gammy and Gampy -- we'll call in the morning and serenade you with the harp!).

The night ended with a slumber party on the floor of their room. Two exhausted Princesses snuggled together under their comforters with a full complement of stuffed toys and dolls.

I guess I am just a quivering mass of Jell-o. When Sophia burst into the bathroom this morning to announce 'Hey Mommy, I'm 4".. I started tearing up. It takes me back to four years ago today racing down Germantown Avenue so she would be born in a hospital and not in the front seat of my Lexus! It takes me back to those first 48 hours of her life when she did nothing but scream. I will never forget the smell of her breath and the force of air out of her lungs as she complained LOUDLY about everything from the service to the milk bar. Here's what I know four years later. I STILL can't really make her happy. She rolls her eyes at me so often they are likely to get stuck there! I don't move fast enough, provide the right items, complete the laundry in a timely manner -- heck, I don't even regulate the temperature in the car to her satisfaction. But at the end of the day it is me -- and only me - she wants. For hugs, kisses, tuck-ins and the reassurances that tomorrow really will be a fun day.

In an unguarded moment today Sophia did share in the midst of all the birthday excitement that she is the "luckiest girl". No sweetie, you are the SECOND luckiest girl -- right behind Mommy.

My Definition of Family

I just completed this project for a little online contest that had to be an altered item that displayed your definition of family.

I let my 1979 Merriam-Webster display its definition of family and i used the letters in the word to spell out all of us.

It was kind of fun -- and I just might display it like this on a bookshelf.

Now that I am all Merriam-Webster online I don't need the old-fashioned paper edition anymore -- and you know what happens around here. If you sit still long enough you end up in (or as a ) scrapbook!

Christmas....

Tonight I pulled together this LO from Christmas -- it uses that fancy BG Blitzen Paper I HAD to have!

It's for a Scrapbook Site Challenge.

Doesn't Frank make a great Santa????

And just in case you thought you had heard the last about Donna -- never fear - we are signed up for another class at the end of March. (Hooray!)

Could You Just FAINT???

This is Donna and me-- yep, that Donna. Donna Downey. Scrapping and chatting.

The subtitle for today's class really should have been "Donna finally meets her stalkers " !!!

Here We All Are...

The Scrapford Wives -- Hillary, Kelly and me just hanging out with DD. And the "Imagine the Possibilities" Journals we made.

A Tag for the Teacher...

Have I mentioned in the last ten minutes that DONNA will be here this weekend??? That would be Donna Downey of Simple Scrapbooks fame -- my online teacher at "Big Picture Scrapbooking" and a woman who ROCKS!

Hillary and I are fearful that DONNA is going to have us arrested for stalking her -her classes, her blog, her books, etc.

Anyway -- we are going to a class she is teaching IN PERSON this Saturday at our LSS (That's Local Scrapbook Store in scrapper lingo.) We were asked to bring a tag to send home with her and here is mine -- a thank you for the teacher.

(I'm not sucking up too much, right??? And she did finally send me an e-mail about one fo my projects in the gallery, right??? )

Anyway -- check out her blog -- it's a link to the right of this text. And pray we don't faint when we meet her!

Sticky Fingers...

Actual conversation in our kitchen this morning:


ME: Who swiped a piece of the Valentine Cake?

SOPHIA: (without missing a beat) You must have baked it that way.

Here's hoping no one pinches the sweet right off your treat this Valentine's Day.

Hugs and Kisses from us all.

Sweets for the Sweet...

Valentine's Day has already arrived here! Cards and gigantic bee cookies came in the mail today -- we'll give you two guesses who sent them!

So I tell the troops we should take a picture to send to Gammy and Gampy C so they know the treats have arrived and my chief helper exclaims, "Okay, everyone line up in front of the baby and hold the cookies where Mommy can see them."

I'm not sure what's worse. Preschoolers who like to stage pictures -- or 3 year olds who think they are in charge!

And to borrow a quote from Gampy, "Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs." They THOUGHT they could finish the cookies but the reality is three halves are in plastic bags in the cookie jar waiting for tomorrow.

How sweet it is.

Dashing Through The Snow...

Literally -- I am on my way out the door in the next moment or two to spend the next 11 hours or so at work.

"Larry the Lawnmower Man" has finished plowing the driveway of the foot or so of snow that has fallen since late yesterday afternoon.

The older girls had a second or two outside -- and are anxious to get back out there when Gabriella finishes napping.

You really have to be little to like the snow!

The Thinks You Can Think

Here is this week's Donna homework. It's a book of "thinks" -- Dr. Seuss style.

It is made from 5 x 7 file box dividers and file cards and book rings. (Thankfully, Hillary is keeping me hooked up with the supplies for this class!)

Now I have to start thinking.....

Guess Who?

They are dressing up like their favorite character du jour. Clues to follow. No peeking at the answer at the end!

This character wears hats and scarves.

She prompts violent fights over "you be the kid" --"No, YOU be the kid".

Every day is a holiday with her.

This character is a company girl.

She carries a bag full of tricks.

A rhythm stick substitutes for her umbrella in a pinch.

She is known around here affectionately as "Cherry Cherry Pop-ons".

Did ya guess?

They both want to be Mary Poppins!


How SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS is that????

We Love Our Cousins

Remember the old Patty Duke Theme Song-- when cousins are two of a kind? With our cousins it's more like four, five, six or more of a kind!

This is one of my favorite photos from Christmas this year. Three 2 year olds and one 3 year old having a ball just being together.

I pulled this LO together for a Scrapbook Site Sketch Challenge. The PP is Doodlebug.

I am typing quietly and in the dark tonight. Some nasty stomach virus invaded our home this week. Gabriella has recovered to the point of eating crackers and saltines just in time for Sophia and Francesca to be knocked down for the count.

They are tossing in and out of fitful sleep on the couch nearby. I hope to carry them to the comforts of their own beds soon. We'll see how much sleeping we will all do in the hours ahead....

Creating in a Hurry

I scrapped this Layout during a Play-doh session at my house. Because I'm on the Stacy Julian Bandwagon, I now have this file of photos in no particular order that I want to scrap. For no particular reason, this one was first. Regular readers of this forum may remember the picture and the story.

Since I assemble photos and supplies in a 12 x 12 binder from Target now, I can grab stuff and be ready to go when a crafting opportunity happens. As it turned out, they asked for the Play-doh -- and I had nearly 15 minutes of time to work while breaking up only minimal squabbles and keeping Gabriella firmly planted in a chair.

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Photo Decor

This was my "homework" this week in my Donna Downey Online Class. This is "photo decor". And it's part of what I love so much about the class-- I experiment outside my comfort zone.

-This is an artist's canvas. I had never even purchased one before.

-I am definitely NOT collage --but this is a collage of some Rusty Pickle Nursery Rhyme Patterned Paper. Donna used a transfer medium to take the images of off dictionary pages for the class example -- I used decopauge to adhere paper. My interpretation of her look.

-I painted an MM defined sticker with a wash of MM paint and water -- and painted the edge of a favorite phtoto. Tied some ribbon -- and ta-da-- it's done!

Off now to find a special spot for it...

Stop Me...

If you're getting tired of the bedtime escapades at our house. But tonight's episode featured the age old decision, "Which bed will we sleep in?"

Highly unusual, since they had never ventured into each other's beds before.

Tonight the sound from upstairs was "scamper, scamper, giggle, giggle".. pause .... and repeat. I stopped in and they were relocating from Sophia's bed into Francesca's. They promised to be quiet and make a decision soon.

I stopped back by a few minutes later and found this -- the two of them all wrapped up together -- with Bear and Pink Bear in the mix. They look like peaceful angels now crushed together in the toddler bed. I'm afraid it won't be too many hours before they get uncomfortable since they are both thrashers at night. But I'll leave them be for now.

In other news -- today was my first ever parent-teacher conference. This just in -- Sophia is a TALKER. Apparently this is why her progress report says she's not perfect in "organizing her belongings" and "getting dressed". Miss Cathy says our little butterfly is just too darn busy talking to the other little girls (NOT the boys) to get things done. Sophia apparently can already multi-task - carrying on gossipy conversations DURING lessons. Miss Cathy says she's getting the work done, but talking as well.

This is no surprise to Joe and me who have been praying for her to stop and take a breath since she was 14 months old and pushed a book at me demanding "Is that Barney?" The articles said she would be using a few identifier words then but she skipped straight to sentences.

This will also come as no surprise to any of you who remember the end of my rather short-lived ballerina career had a lot to do with talking in class....

So I come full circle tonight to say that "Chatty Cathy" is fast asleep and blissfully quiet -- with her arms protectively around her tinier, yet not the least bit quieter, little sister.

Earplugs, anyone????