Only three months later...

Valentines Day!

Sisters... Best Friends

I had fun dressing up the kids and making festive food.  

(All of Wendell's shots were blurry- he was too excited to hold still.)

Other February Haps

My haircut

Had to post- just way too cute.

Painting in the kitchen.

 I'll try to post again sooner than later!!  Recipe for amazing ice cream cake (I made for Rich's birthday) to come.

To What Have We Been Up?

You Asked, We Answer:

Playing in the Backyard...

Wendell is holding two slugs.  He was cracking up, pretending to kiss them.  He and Isabelle both love bugs and exploring.

Cutting Hair...

Before

After

Isabelle and I had talked about her getting a haircut for a few months.  When the time finally came, she wasn't in the mood and wanted to keep playing.  I enticed her when I offered to let her wear some makeup! She was super excited after that.  Isabelle loves her new haircut!

Art...

Housework...

 Exercise...

Playing with Dad...

And Just Being Cute...

Isabelle's Fairy Birthday Party

The Invitation~

The actual invitations were peppered with tons of glittery fairy dust.

Adorable little friends!
I made a flower headband for each girl, and we had wings for them to pick out.  As an activity, we made wands.  Wendell loved his blue boy fairy wings and was definitely too busy racing around to have time for a wand.

The Food~

Fruit Wands, Gnome Mushrooms (cherry tomatoes on string cheese with green coconut for grass),
and Fairy Bread.

Barbie Fairy Cake~

This was my first time making a Barbie cake.  I'm proud of myself!
Throwing these parties probably does me more good than anyone else.  It feels really good to think about and work on something other than tending kids, cooking and cleaning.  I am not ashamed to admit I used cake box mixes (it took THREE!),  but I did make my own frosting for the first time.  

When I was in college, my would-be sister-in-law, Brittney, made me a Barbie cake!  (I think we had gone to a Halloween party, the reason for my black outfit.)  Richard had me reenact the pose of my frisky college days.  (Ha ha.)

Loads of Enjoyment~

We colored fairy pictures, played a musical chairs variation, they ran around and just had fun.

My Baby!

She is growing up so fast!  Happy Birthday, my little Belle.

Christmas Time

I was getting on to post pics from Belle's fairy birthday party she had yesterday, but realized I had yet to post about Christmas.  So... here are some pictures of our Christmas season last month...

Snow in our backyard.  Maybe they learned it from their mom, but the kids didn't stay out long to play.

Isabelle is singing to and caressing Mary in the rocking chair.  

Few things compare to the joy I feel as when I see my children loving each other.

Gingerbread Men

Isabelle was sick the last week of school, so didn't get to attend the day of their much-anticipated gingerbread man decorating.  Guess what?  Her teacher brought over stuff to our house for us to do it at home!! He even brought enough for her siblings to do it with her.  Her teacher is amazing and so is the school. (I think I failed to give an update reg. my trying to transfer her. We were successful in the change, and it goes without saying, I'm so glad!)

My Babies

Christmas Day!

Wendell lovingly gave his prized light saber (left) to Daddy for Christmas.  (Which is actually the broken handle of a toy golf club.)  He insisted on wrapping it himself and was so excited.  He drew a picture on the wrapping paper of him and Daddy playing light sabers.  Unbeknownst to Wendell, all the while, Richard was busy making a light saber to give Wendell for Christmas (right).
It was really sweet.

The girls got these new dresses for Christmas.  It's so cute when Mary puts on pretty clothes.  She'll come up to you to show you and stick out her tummy, rubbing her hands down her clothes like she's saying, "Don't I look so cute?"  Wendell was super excited to get this Star Wars shirt.

These are the awesome-est hats I've ever laid eyes upon and if I had any say in it, my kids would live in them.
Richard's sister Lori made them!!  I want to be a Lori when I grow up.

 Goodnight!

P.S. Thank you, Brittney for hooking me up with PicMonkey.com so I could make sweet collages:)