Sand Art

Last weekend I took Gracie to the store for a treat. I intended to get Tangled, thinking it came out last week. It didn't. It comes out tomorrow. Because I promised Gracie something special, I ended up buying a Sand Art Kit. She had so much fun with it, sand art was all I heard about for three days. That's how long it took her to fill all of the bottles, and she was only allowed to play with it when her sister was napping!

If the bottles balanced better, she would have been able to do it all by herself. As is, I pretty much just held the bottles upright while she poured. Her pouring skills greatly improved from the first bottle to the last.

Definitely a success!

Pregnancy

I remember being pregnant with Gracie and shopping at Babies R Us with my husband. I saw maternity supports and thought "who would be so whimpy they'd need one of those?" Turns out, I am that whimpy. During spring break last week I pushed myself too far. I've been trying to get through all the girls' clothes and price them for a consignment sale next month, plus regular chores, and reorganizing here and there to make our home more efficient. There were several days that I ended up almost in tears, my hips and pelvis hurt so much by the evening. It's way too early to be in this much pain! I was nervous about going back to work, and after a couple days this week I broke down and bought a support. I feel silly wearing it, but so far it has helped. I really hope I can make it all the way to the end of this pregnancy. I can't afford to miss even a day of work!

On a completely unrelated side note, doesn't that model look like Ashley Tisdale?

Gracie's Birthday Party

A friend of mine couldn't make it to our party, so she came over the day before to give Gracie her birthday present.

It's a tent! Gracie loves it, and keeps asking to sleep in it.

I admit it, I go a little overboard with my kids' birthdays. I can't help it, I want them to feel special on their day. My mom had the cute idea of flipping cupcakes over to make them look like Cinderella's dress. We had some leftover cupcakes, which we frosted with chocolate icing and put plastic rings on. During the party, Gracie hoarded the rings! Silly girl. Good thing most people wanted a blue cupcake anyway!

The kids played Elefun,

and pin the glass slipper on the Cinderella.

Gracie and her friends had fun breaking into her new toys.

And, of course, Gracie loved her cupcakes. See the previous post for her reaction to being sung to!

Happy Birthday, Gracie

Celebration & Well Child Exam

Gracie had her Well Child Exam this morning. She did great! She was a little bit scared of both the nurse and the doctor, but warmed up quickly to both of them. She weighed in at 29.2 lbs (5th percentile) and is 34 1/4" tall. I know you will be surprised to learn she is in the 30th percentile for height, with how tall Daddy and I are and all. Her head is 50 cm but they didn't have a percentile, since they usually only measure that through two years old. I was so happy that she didn't need any shots-and won't until she's getting ready for Kindergarten!

Yesterday we had a family trip to Lookout Ridge Indoor Playground. They have spots that trigger animal noises throughout the playground, and the noises really scared Gracie. She refused to go through the noises to get to the bouncy house, and stayed in the entryway for a large part of our time there. Eventually, I got her to understand that the noises are pretend and there are no animals in there that would get her. I'm hoping she'll have an easier time next time we go, as her friend's birthday party will be there next month and Daddy has to take her without me.

I got Gracie a yellow cake that was clearly labeled chocolate (her fave color and flavor) and we were all disappointed to cut into it and find it was a white cake. Gracie didn't even eat any of it. Oh well.

Bee sure liked it anyway.

Bee & Evan

The girls' cousin, Evan recently moved to town, and Bee is in love. She learned how to say his name within hours, and gets very excited whenever he is around. Last night we had a little birthday celebration for Gracie, with cake and ice cream and Bee took it upon herself to feed her cousin-who was more than happy with the arrangement.

Three!

My big girl turns three today!
This morning Daddy and I were reminding her how to put up three fingers, and told her "you aren't this many (two fingers) anymore, now you're this many (three fingers)."
She started crying and said "But I want to be this many (two fingers)!"
So silly.
Her party is on Saturday. I'll be sure to post after the party.

My Loves

Shake N Bake

Gracie is my "helper. " I use the term loosely, as she's usually more of a hindrance than a helper, but SHE thinks she's a great helper. Tonight she helped me make Shake N Bake pork chops for dinner. Then she refused to eat them.

Recital

Watercolors