1-5-12

lily and i had a girl-date to the salon to get our hair done. she asked to have "just the little endies cut" and for "curly girly curls"


shes so pretty.

1-4-12

hope your holidays were joyful and loving. we had a snuggly christmas and a very silly new year!

11-11-11

Princess brunch!

far fewer princesses, FAR better experience.

lily takes handing out balloons very seriously.

with fewer princesses lily had time to get her hair and makeup done, play in the cardboard castle, even got to eat food! (this has not all been the case in the past, unfortunately)

our little charlie enjoyed princess brunch and got a nice break while rah rah took him for a nap mid-day (THANK YOU rah rah!)

sweet prince charlie!

Thanks for thinking of our little guy and sending him a costume so he didn't feel left out, Grammie Betty!

in celebration of our Nainie, who passed away at the end of October (and who LOVED princess brunch, and was so looking forward to seeing all the dear princesses) we let our balloons float up, up, up after one of the readings. fun!

can i just tell you how happy i am that my little girl loves being fancy? because i love it, a lot.

11-1-11

You may not know this, but a little PRINCESS turned five! today.

(Birthday Princess! Click this pic and make it bigger. Could she get any prettier? Look at that sweet face!)

Liliana is FIVE!!!

I cant believe my darling baby is a kid! A big kid!

We woke her singing happy birthday and carrying a candle laden tray of cupcakes. Then we hung out and opened gifts and waited for my phone to ring with a call from Princess Ariel to wish lily a happy birthday. This kind of blew lilys mind a little. The rest of the day was up to Lily, her birthday wish was an afternoon out with mom and dad (read: no brother please) so we had our nanny come hang out with charlie and we took lily to lunch. She requested we "try something new" so we took her to a sushi place to try some types of sushi. Then we took her to the movies. She decided to wear her Rapunzel dress all day. Now she's at the restaurant because "its Liliana's birthday and Liliana's' birthday, so I should be there. For just a little while. Customers will want to see me." Totally the cutest kid ever.

10-31-11

Happy Halloween from Rapunzel and Bucky Badger. We had a blast! We trick or treated from 5:30-8:30 and Charlie walked nearly the whole time! I love that my kids excitement about halloween is visiting neighbors, admiring the beautiful fall leaves and enjoying fun/scary decorations. Fun!

10-19-11

My sweet boy is two!

(he is making a super silly face to say ChooChooooo! on the Vilas Zoo mini train.. he kinda thought it was the best thing EVER)

he is taking such quick strides toward becoming a strong, smart, independent and curious boy.

(these big red swings at our "castle park" are the best! its like a giant swinging recliner. so fun!)

he tackles "the big slide" all on his own!

this little guy is super silly. i so wish i had gotten this pic to be totally in focus and adorable, but i had one second of him holding still and an iphone camera. at least i got it!

he is so funny!

so he's growing and changing and getting so big, but i sure do treasure the glimpses of sweet little baby we still get. sigh. chubby cheeks and cuddling into my arms even though 90% of him is hanging off my lap. calling for mama anytime he's nervous. the look of total betrayal when something hurts him (like, you know, furniture he's jumped off of/on to or the ground jumping up and slamming into him while he's minding his own business running around like a tornado)

i look forward to what TWO has to offer. before his next birthday I foresee:

-starting potty training

-full sentences

-big boy bed

-favorites (favorite color, favorite food, favorite toy, favorite place, etc)

-many, many more boo boos. i have a daredevil!

mostly i just look forward to him being able to communicate all the funny little things he'd like to tell us!

10-1-11

Happy October!

We've had an insanely stressful several weeks that I really don't even want to get in to, but Ta-Da! We survived. Live and learn.

So I've gotten us mostly back on track around home but hadn't had much time to sit around and use the computer, not even to share pictures from our super fun trip to the museum of science and industry, in Chicago! Oh my. That'll be coming soon.

But today, oh.. it was one of THOSE days.

Do not read the following. It is just way too whiny

[I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Two huge cups of coffee and I still felt totally drained and run down. I had too many customers and two dogs peed in their kennels (what is it about having more than three dogs at a time that guarantees someone is going to need a second bath? i dont get it! And today I had 6, so, that's what I get). Then the kids... Dave has been working a lot which is totally fine, needed and great, but the kids miss him. And they are getting a little cranky about it. He left today and I was working so the kids had to be in the basement. This sent Charlie into it's-one-hour-before-my-nap-and-you-all-better-do-whatever-i-want-or-i'll-make-you-pay-dearly mode. Lily for some reason took of all her clothes and started putting random objects into the dog kennels (safe objects, but i had to keep checking all the time and scolding her), Charlie fell off like 4 pieces of furniture in a row. Lily drew me a picture and Charlie put it in the litterbox, which made lily way more upset than it really should have. I dropped a huge pile of dog hair on him while clipping a dog. It was a comedy of errors.]

The day continued pretty much exactly like this. Charlie took an unusually short nap so I couldn't get anything done after my customer checked out and we were all cranky and sick of being cranky by mid-afternoon. So I was nagging the kids to help me get all their toys from all over the place back into the playroom and I noticed I was alone.. So I go looking for Charlie And here is what I found...

oh yes. Drinking apple cider out of the jug and half a dozen smashed eggs on the floor.

there are not words for the frustration! we declared it bedtime and we'll hope for a better day tomorrow.