Serious Birthday Girl!

I wanted to quickly post a picture of our Gabriella to wish her a happy birthday! She is 2 years old today. She is a firecracker who keeps us all on our toes. She is the boss of the house and she knows it. She manages to leave a trail of giggling people wherever she goes.

This came in especially handy as she and I just got back from Utah where we attended my sweet Grandmother's funeral. Gabriella made all those around her smile and that is what my Grandmother would have wanted us to do. We all love her and try to look for the good in all her craziness! Happy Birthday little Bree! Watch out world, she's 2!

It's your lucky day! Or month to be exact:) ZinneyLou, maker of the cutest totes in the world, is running a special for the month of April. Get $5.00 off any size tote! She makes a few different sizes--perfect for purses, diaper bags, church bag and scripture bags. They are excellent quality and come in so many fun patterns. Check out Zinney Lou's adorable totes, but be warned, you will want more than one!

Strong National Museum of PLAY!

One of the best things about moving to upstate NY is that we are close to the Strong National Museum of Play. Seriously, a museum about playing?!? I was in love the first time we went there. We have been about 6 times in the past 1.5 years. It is a fun place for kids to explore, play, have fun and learn. We rarely get to see the whole museum in one visit because there is so much to do. Often we have met our awesome friends the Daytons (who live in Buffalo) at the museum. We will miss them at the museum as they will be moving out west in a few weeks. So before they move we decided we needed to meet up one more time to play. It was a fun day, I wish we both could have stayed longer!
Mariah is trying to read to all 6 kids in Big Bird's nest, but baby bird Christian is flying away...
The museum was having a Dr. Suess celebration the day we were there. The kids made these awesome Suess inspired hats
Joshua giving Bree a ride in the Sesame Street cab. Don't worry Bree quickly managed to take over the driving resposibilites.
Joshua is better suited for driving a race car anyway. This is his favorite thing in the whole place. He is watching a screen that is simulating a real race. They have big lights that tell him when to go and if he jumps the gun he gets a false start. He is very good at it, and serious about it as well:)
Gabriella loved to help her sisters build a big tower, they could have done without her help. She is a bit of a monster!

Where is the baby?

This is a phrase I often holler out to my older kids when it has been a few minutes since I last heard Gabriella (she is almost 2, I wonder when I will stop calling her the baby). Anyway, we all went on a search for her because we couldn't find her anywhere. I walked into her bedroom just in time to see her closet door slowly close. I opened it and found Gabriella hiding in this spot. She was VERY proud of herself for getting all the way up on her dresser and closing the door. The older kids thought she was quite clever as well. Nothing is safe in our house with this climber around!

Two little monkey's jumping on the bed...

I was baby-sitting sweet Janie a few days ago and I let her go in and wake up Gabriella from her nap. Gabriella was so excited to see her, but also very confused as to why she was there. I put Jane in bed with Bree along with a few books. They were so funny. Of course as soon as Bree realized she was holding the "Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" book their quiet story time erupted into spontaneous jumping. It was so cute to her these little monkey's singing about jumping on the bed. Silly, silly girls!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I feel so lucky to have such cute kids who love to get dressed in green on St. Patrick's Day. You would have thought it was Christmas around here as excited as they were. As a tradition in our family I draw a little shamrock on the kids cheek with green marker, even Bree wanted one on her cheek. When I was little my mom would put a little foil shamrock sticker on our cheek to wear to school. She always put a few extra in my pocket to give to my friends. I wish I could find those stickers, it is one of my favorite memories! I have had enough food tinted green with food coloring to last me at least until next year, yuck--not a fan of food coloring.
LOOK! Can you see the grass behind my kids??? Unless you live in upstate NY you will find it hard to believe there is still grass under all the snow we had this year. 145 inches to be almost exact! We beat out Buffalo and Rochester by at least 40 inches. That is not a competition I like to win! Joshua keeps reminding me that tomorrow is the first day of Spring and we should be getting out the summer clothes. I hope he is not devastated to find out the high tomorrow is going to be about 41.

Please tell me this happens to you too...

I was rushing about the house yesterday looking for Gabriella's shoes so we could get the kids to school on time and I could not find them anywhere! She likes to play with them throughout the day and so they end up in strange places. After looking in a few places, I came up with the shoes in the picture above. Three shoes, not one of them a matching pair. At this point I was desperate and was willing to put her in unmatching shoes. Well, as you can see from the picture they are ALL THE LEFT SHOE!!! What the heck? It was one of those mornings...

Luckily, I found her church shoes.