Party Time

We had a great time celebrating Elee's birthday today! It was very busy but we had a wonderful time with family, food and fun birthday stuff!

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(Please don't look too closely at the cake, I did something terrible.... In my mad rush this morning trying to decorate it I managed to misspell my daughter's name, yes, my own daughter, on her first birthday cake, and the kicker is I didn't even realize it until now when I was sorting through photos and noticed something didn't look right. I'm sorry 'Elee', I'll get it right next year, I hope!)

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Not quite sure what to do with it but thinking it must be something special.

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Lets try a spoon, that would seem like an appropriate tool under the circumstances.

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Consentrating...

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Brother couldn't stand it any longer, he had to stick his finger in and show her how it was done.

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Now we're getting somewhere!

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Yes! This is the life!

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Then it was on to gifts, she received lots of new and exciting things!

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This is the aftermath from today's events-

Leftover cake. (With no leftover misspellings!)

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Elee's treasures.

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And one worn out little girl!

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Thanks to everyone who was able to come and celebrate Elee and her first year with us today!

Today

Today I:

1. Peeled and chopped 15 lbs of potatoes.

2. Bandaged the bloody finger of a little boy who tried to help me peel the potatoes.

3. Used the potatoes to make enough chowder to feed a small army.

4. Made 3 recipes worth of cake, from scratch.

5. Scrubbed floors, bathrooms and my kitchen for the second time this week.

6. Helped my husband move gravel and re-designate temporary parking.

7. Spent too much time at our city building debating zoning/building permits/code issues. (Long story, has to do with number 6)

8. Re-organized and re-arranged my house for the second time this week.

9. Bagged up 28+ loaves of bread my husband brought home from work.

10. Washed and put away 2 sinks full and 2 dishwasher loads full of dishes. (This was a result of #1-4.)

11. Drew pictures for my son who was begging me to draw him the characters from the latest movie he watched.

12. Opened up my windows early to let in the cool morning air.

13. Made a quick run to the store for peanut butter, got home and guess what I bought, butter.

14. Tucked my children and husband in bed.

It is now after midnight and I'm sitting here with my heating pad on my back thinking- I still need to vacuum my rugs, frost and decorate cake, SHOWER, and finishing setting up and decorating for Elee's party tomorrow, which is at noon by the way. I guess I'll be getting up early since I am only going to try to accomplish one of these things tonight, can you guess which one it will be? At this point I'm starting to doubt even that will happen.

What a day! It's late so please forgive me if my grammar is off or there are any misspellings/missing words. Even as I'm typing most of my words are coming out backwards. Just thought I'd share my 'goings on' today with you since my blogging has been behind this week. Hopefully next week will be better, Bronze has vacation time so we're excited about our week off!

Did You Know

That blow up pool canopies make great tents?!

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At least that's what these two think.

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They even make great hats!

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(Please note, my children are fully dressed at some point through the day, it's just not usually when I'm taking pictures. I have to strip Elee down a couple times a day to wash her drooled on/dripped on cloths and my son thinks he's Batman, who for some reason in his mind does not wear pants.)

One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days? You know, the kind where nothing seems to quite work out right. I've had a huge to-do list today and somehow I keep making it longer, unintentionally of coarse. I had several errands to run, with my kids in tow like usual; laundromat, grocery shopping, oil change. Before leaving I was trying to freshen up the house a bit. I quickly grabbed a bottle of fabric/air freshener (so I thought) and ran through mine and Bronze's room spraying it on everything in site. I coated my curtains, bedspread, the cloths in the hamper and whatever was hanging in the closet, enjoying the great smell that was covering everything. As I was walking out of the room I glanced down at the can in my hand,

this is what I saw-

I know, why hadn't I looked at the can closer before I started wildly spraying everything? Who knows, I was in a hurry and obviously absent minded.

I suddenly panicked, this stuff with the words 'kill' and 'destroy' on the front of it had just coated my 'imitation' suede bedspread, and so many other things like my husbands cloths, not to mention his favorite polo shirt! How was I going to explain that one?! I yanked the bedspread up, and gathered all the cloths that were still damp with spray. I quickly stuffed what would fit into the washer and made a mad dash to the laundry mat with the rest. (Hence the trip to the laundry mat) From what I can tell everything has survived my reckless attempt at 'freshening'.

All I can say now is read first, spray later, and avoid a lot of extra laundry!

War Wounds

I will spare you any pictures, they wouldn't be pretty.

As I was cleaning the kitchen this morning Elee was speeding back and forth through the different rooms in her walker. She loves the freedom to roam about wherever she pleases. Sometimes she will get her self going at a high rate of speed just to lift her feet off the ground and crash into whatever is in front of her squealing with delight. Because of this I always tell Ardon to wear his crocks when she is in the walker so he can avoid smashed toes and skinned up heals.

As I was working I turned around to throw something away and when I took a step forward Elee came darting towards me. With my bare toes exposed we ended up in a collision that popped off a quarter of my big toe nail. It was painful, Ardon could tell this by the wrenched expression on my face. After looking at me thoughtfully for a moment he states, "See mom, that's why you should wear your crocks, that way your feet don't get hurt." After saying this he goes up and rams his shoe into the walker, "See mom," he goes on to say, "it just hurt my shoe and not my foot!"

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Ah yes, how convenient to have a talking reminder about heading my own advice!

A Love Story

She is very young,

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most would say to young to even know the meaning of the word,
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but I believe she knows,

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deep inside she understands what it is all about.

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Meet her love, Mr. M&M.
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Looking to Mr. M&M so lovingly.

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Savoring the sweetness of the moment.

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And just like that he was gone!

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At least there is a sweet memory to keep her smiling until a Mr. M&M comes to call again!

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Beauty Treatment

I've been in the kitchen getting a meal ready for when Bronze gets home from work today, yes, he did get called in. (Labor Day and Memorial Day are the two holidays that always hold that possbility.) As I was working away I noticed the kids were very quiet so I peeked around the corner to see what they were up to, this is what I saw.

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He took a lot time getting every hair smoothed out just right. What a lucky girl to have such a doting big brother!

Fun Time

My poor children have been feeling somewhat neglected lately. With all the projects and home repair we have going on right now they end up entertaining themselves a lot. I had a list of things I wanted to get started on today but decided it could wait while we had some fun time for a while.

We got our big box of craft supplies out and made a huge mess.

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Ardon had asked for something to make pretend food with so he could play like he was making me dinner. I remembered this post from my sister-in-laws blog and tried to scrounge up what I needed. I don't have a working sewing machine or any felt so we used foam sheets and glue. This worked well because Ardon was able to help more with creating the food.

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I did the cutting and Ardon got busy gluing.

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Now we have quite and assortment, a pile of peas, bacon, chicken, fries, carrots, broccoli, eggs, tomato and spaghetti.

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Then we decided to stop for a real snack, pumpkin custard, yum! It is September after all!

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After our snack we broke out the face paint.

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She had to have something to be just like brother.

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He asked for a blue sword and wanted Elee to have a red Elmo but I thought a heart would be simpler and quicker.

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We colored some.

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He made spiders and spider webs.

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So much activity for such a little girl. My mom stopped by for a little visit and shared some M&M's with the kids but it had no effect on her ability to fall asleep.