For the love of Sweetie...

My mom has done and outstanding job of being super grandparent to our children. She seems to have endless energy and is always up for reading that story again (for the 277th time), watching yet another princess video, taking calls day and night from stuffed animal friends, and sharing her bed with squirmy children who have anything but sleep in mind! And she always makes green eggs and ham. And she always lets the kids squirt the green food dye (or pink, or purple...). She is just so good. When we were at Disney, she told me that she felt terrible that she didn't get to have a Sweetie moment with each child individually. After looking through the pictures when we returned, she couldn't have been more wrong. So Sweetie, this is proof that you are all things to all grands. We all got cheated when we lost Pop - no one more than you - but we all got something wonderful in return - the most amazing grandmother a child could ever wish for!

Disclaimer: Paul has some great pictures of Wylloh and Sweetie; they will be added to this post as soon as I get copies!

Curls!

There was nothing better than a head full of curly hair when I was little. I would beg Mom every night to roll my hair in foam curlers so that I could wake up the next morning transformed. Grace's baby curls - which were just adorable - have pretty much fallen out as she has gotten older. She was asking me where they went last week and I told her about my love of foam curlers - and within, oh, 5 minutes - we had removed the layer of dust from my old set and rolled her hair. She had a ball the next day bouncing around the front lawn and asking everyone (including our mailman) "what is different about me today?"

Me, at 5 (give or take).

Grace, striking the same pose.

This one was NOT posed - still holding onto the curlers so they wouldn't fall out!

Curly Grace (and hippo - who also had curly hair.) (Clearly.)

You love me....you really love me!

Scott and I looked back at our calendar: we have traveled 14 of the last 16 weekends. And a lot of those trips have been of the 5 hour + variety. That is a lot of travel and a lot of time together - which has actually been wonderful (maybe not the unpack/launder/repack portion). Grace now falls asleep most Thursdays requesting that we leave the following morning at "o-dark-hundred" (Sweetie's traveling plan). Through all of this, Grace and Andy have truly found each other. They are two peas in a pod - and most of the time, the smaller pea is sitting in the lap of the larger pea. Andy knows every princess and every pony and Grace, in turn, knows Lightnin' McQueen from Tow-mater and plays endless rounds of catch without complaint (it's a risky game with a two year old).

Doing Disney with 5.75 kids under 5...

We made the big family pilgrimage to the happiest place on earth a couple of weeks ago. I think our feet are still sore, and we all have "It's a Small World" stuck in our heads on repeat play, but we had an absolute blast together! The twins set out to disprove anyone who says that 19 months is too young to get anything out of a trip to Disney: they squealed on every ride and were just so flat out adorable. Grace and Bayley are convinced that they ARE princesses, "for really real Mom." And Andy...oh Andy...he finally got to drive a "set go" (a car...ready, set, go!) and pretty much tripled his vocabulary every day as he learned new things that he wanted to incorporate in his daily life: monowails, spaceshup urth, nemoride, figgyment, and its-small-wurld!

Grace woke up early and wanted to watch TV - but then asked for her sunglasses because the TV was too bright.

Andy was just happy to be awake - not to mention getting to have a juice box in bed!

Patty and I got a little carried away dressing all of the kids alike each day - but really, it was more about survival than fashion!

How hilarious is this picture of Bayley?! That kid could take her show on the road - all 97 acts!

Scarlett! Eating! We think she gained a full pound. She still isn't on the growth charts, but she sure was happy trying!

At last, Andy got to drive a real "set go!"

Happy Day Aunt Ashley!

You know we love an excuse to celebrate! Can't wait to see you this weekend and party like the Wiggles. WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday, Cap'n Ach-ooo!

After much deliberation over pirate vs. my little pony party themes, we celebrated Scott's birthday in scallywag style, arrrrgh! We all dressed in full pirate regalia...Grace got REALLY into it. Shocker. That kid lives for a themed party. Grace, Andy, and Daddy went on a treasure hunt to find his birthday booty (why does that sound R rated?), we played pin the eye patch on Cap'n Ach-ooo, and played a few rounds of shoot the cannon ball in the basket. We did all of this with the song from the Pirates of the Carribean ride on repeat play. Hearing Andy sing "drink up me hearties yo ho" is worth the price of admission. We finished the party with a giant hunk of red velvet cake per Scott's mom's orders - an order that I will happily fulfill every year!

So happy birthday Daddy, we love you so much!

Which end is up?

In the past three weeks, we embarked on a major family pilgrimage to Disney World, sat in the audience to proudly cheer on our Grace in her very first end-of-school "program," had a long overdue visit with Grandpa Ern and Mrs. Betty, and celebrated Scott's 34th year. Many things to post - most of which will be out of order - but stay tuned!