Party Time

Just a few pictures from Graces birthday party. She had been planning her dream party for about three months, including the guest list, invitations, party games, etc. However, being the total slacker mom that I am, I dropped the ball and planned a family party at the last second. Thankfully she didn't seem to know the difference. I will make it up to her next year.

Isn't my sister amazing! Grace know that Melissa is the cake decorating master. Grace actually asked Melissa to make the cake for her party and made the Hello Kitty request herself. So funny.
Nail polish. What was I thinking. At least she liked this better than that stupid doll house!
Grace lines these things up just like Eric lines the toys up on his shelves. He loves it!

Grace turns 3!

Grace turned three years old on July 13. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone and what a big girl she has become. Currently her favorite things include: anything Disney Princess, Power Rangers, dancing and singing (mostly to the music she creates in that crazy little mind of hers), reading and books, and bubbles. She is so smart and the temper tantrums aside, is really funny and a joy to be around! I decorated the night before so she woke up and was very excited to see table.
In case you were wondering, she is three.

We tourterd ourselves over what gifts to get for her. We went back and forth about so many different things and finally settled on this folding princess castle thing. It was a total bust! She has played with it once. How annoying. Last week we bought her an automatic bubble blower for $1 on clearence and it is her favorite toy. I should have guessed.

Since Grace was about to turn three and still can't swim, we decided it was time for lessons. Grace was so excited and Ella had to get in the pool, too. Neither of the girls know how to swim yet, but we are going for round two in a few weeks.
Ella loved her lessons. She worked on blowing bubbles, floating, kicking, etc. The only problem we have now is that she THINKS she can swim. She will just walk right into the water off of the side of the pool and when I hold her in the water she tries to wiggle out of my arms and pushes me away. Trouble.
Grace did really well in her class also. She worked on most of the same things Ella did, but was in the water without mom or dad. She listened really well to her teacher which always makes mom happy. And even though she can't swim, she had a very proud moment. On the last day of class the teacher allowed the kids to jump off of the diving board in the deep end. Grace wanted nothing to do with it, but I walked her over so she could watch the other kids. After a short pep talk, she agreed to try. The first walk to the end of the board went slowly and ended with her walking back to me and not jumping. She said she wanted to try again, so when her turn came up she walked to the end of the board (a little more confidently this time) stood there for a while, counted to three, waited some more, and then jump in. It was awesome. She loved it and did it again.

Happy Fathers Day...better late than never!

On fathers days, I was really sick. I didn't get out of bed most of the day and I even missed church. Well, Eric was a VERY good sport and didn't complain once about the fact that he not only got ignored on Fathers Day, but also got stuck watching the girls the whole day.

We decided to celebrate the next Sunday and the day went much better. While the girls let Eric sleep in at little, we prepared our now famous green eggs and ham. Grace also signed the card she picked out for Eric and wrapped his gift. And yes, he did eat the breakfast we cooked. What a great sport!

Eric is an amazing dad and all of his girls, myself included, are so thankful that he is ours!

Green Eggs and Ham, Part 2

For fathers day, we decided to have another go around with Green Eggs and Ham. This time we skipped the healthy version and went straight for the food coloring. I have to say that the final visual was quite impressive. Here we colored some water with the food coloring and then soaked the ham in it. It actually worked!
Because we didn't want the toast to feel out of place, we added some green to the butter. Tricky, huh?
Mixing the eggs...yum!
Our masterpiece. It actually tasted great, except the ham really dried out after I cooked it. However, if we contract some strange disease or cancer, it can likely be blamed on the excess of green dye #42 we consumed this day.

Temper, Temper

So we went out to dinner last night and I got my drink to go. Actually it was the drink that Grace and I were sharing. This fact will become important as the story unfolds. Any way, as soon as we got in the car Ella began to pitch a fit because she wanted the cup. Thinking it was kind of cute and funny that she wanted it so badly, I gave it to her to she what she would do.

Apparently she was thirsty.
Really thirsty.
This is Grace, bring Grace (don't ask) and waiting very patiently for her turn with the cup. All she wanted was a quick sip of lemonade.
Well, Ella didn't like this idea very much.
She was obviously not in the mood to share.As Grace was finishing up her turn, I think I actually heard Ella saying, "Give it back now! I want it now! I am going to keep screaming until I get my cup back." Seriously, her communication skills are well above average. Grace finished her turn and gave the cup back. Ella miraculously recovered from the heart failure she had been suffering from only moments before.
This time we heard her say, "Ha, you guys are suckers!"

Things do not look good for us. She is really getting out of hand.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

Girls Camp is next week...the theme is "Steadfast and Immovable" and the stake is using lighthouses as the logo. Each ward had to select a lighthouse for their banner and we picked the St. Augustine Lighthouse. We thought it would be fun to visit before camp.

This is the rag-tag group traveling in the Hansen van. We left the house before 7am so the girls rode up in their PJ's.

This is a picture from the bottom step...the first of over 200. What a chore for the lighthouse keepers who had to climb the stairs every two hours, from dusk to dawn, carrying a heavy bucket of fuel for the fire lighting the lighthouse. See, I was paying attention to the tour guide!
I loved this. I came around the corner and all the girls were just standing there, looking out across the ocean and city. What a great picture!Of course they also had to pose!
Look closely and you will see Eric standing at the top. He was such a great sport. We need a priesthood holder to go with us and he agreed. I actually volunteered him, but he went very willingly and was wonderful. He helped take care of the little girls, kept the older girls entertained in the car and I think he actually enjoyed himself!
Just a group shot. If you look closely you will see Ella in my lap. She thought she was really cool to be part of the action and totally posed for this shot!The leaders...and Ella.