Yippee for three!!

I am on a blogging roll. I'm just sayin'.

I am not a party planner. I see women who plan the cutest, themeiest, my-mom-is-awesome-for-putting-on-this-party parties. I am not one of those people. Sure, I tried, once. For Austin's 2nd birthday I had a John Deere tractor party. It was super cute and themey, complete with tractor rides from a real John Deere tractor but I was not thinking at the end, "I cannot wait to plan the next one!" Instead I thought, "Maybe I will do something a little less involved next year." See, not super-mom. I have come to grips with this. In an effort to compensate, I focus on exactly what the child requests and try to come through (within reason, you will see why this is so important in a minute!).

When we asked Aliyah what she wanted for third birthday she had very simple requests.

1. A butterfly cake

2. A jumprope

3. Her cousin Joseph--wrapped up!! (See the whole within reason thing?)

1. Butterfly cake came in the form of a pretty yellow cake from the Wal-Mart bakery with a wooden butterfly cutout from the craft department. She loved it.

2. A jumprope was easy and cheap enough.

3. We spared Joe the humiliation and just had him over to play the next day.

We also threw in a couple of surprises which she loved!!!!! I found some cute fabric that morning and sewed her a reversible butterfly dress to wear. The dress up clothes did not leave her body for three days. I had to let her get it out of her system before church because I knew exactly where that was going!!

Happy birthday Liyah-Bear. I love you. You are getting so big and so much less baby. That breaks/warms my heart. I love being home with you and soaking up your cuteness. Keep being a happy girl.

Find the Hero in You

I did. So did Eric and my brother, Shane. (So did my other brother, Seth, his wife, Courtney, and Shane's wife, Tawnya, but they chose not to sport the pint-of-blood backpacks so they weren't in the pic.) Donate blood.

Eric, Amy, Shane

Gallon Challenge

So, Austin bet me that he could drink an entire juice bottle of water. I bet couldn't. He asked for $5 if he could do it.

To answer the "Can I at least get 2 bucks" question, nope. All or nothing (let's be honest, I didn't have any cash in my wallet).

One season down, I think lots to go!

Miss Brittany and Miss Hirshi (missing Miss Amber, her fav!)

Mya loved every minute of gym! She loved being barefoot and in her leotard. She loved standing with her back arched back like a gymnast (she said that looks SO cool!) She loved her coaches. She is forgoing being on the swim team to do gym again. She also said she might want to be a teacher when she is done with the olympics...Oh Boy...she is so funny!