Four and Fabulous!

I wanted to take a picture of the birthday girl this morning. She was being rather uncooperative (to put it nicely), so this is the best I got. This is what she wore to school today - crown, tutu, and all!

Partying at Pink Bliss

We had Ashley's 4th birthday party today at Pink Bliss. It was a girlie-girl's paradise: costumes, make-up, manicures, and hair-dos. In addition to our regular girl friends and family members, we also invited all the girls in her class, and they all came! Ashley loved it and has already asked if she can have her 5th birthday party there.

Before the transformation to Fairy Princess

Nate the photographer

Jenna S., Jenna P., and the birthday girl


The Krebs Girls

With her best school friend Maddie

Ten fingers, ten colors!

"Lim-boa": a twist on the classic party game

It wouldn't be a party without the cupcakes!

Luck O' the Irish

Jeff has been wanting to celebrate his Irish heritage, so today we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown where we unexpectedly ran into the Krebs.

It wouldn't be a St. Patrick's Day parade without bagpipes...

...or pints!

Missy's dad on his John Deere. I'm not sure what tractors have to do with St. Patrick's day, but hey, they are green!

Here Comes the Flower Girl

Ashley is going to be one of the flower girls in my friend Danielle's wedding this summer. Today we met at the bridal store to try on dresses. My little diva loved every minute of it...frilly dresses, a wall of mirrors, and lots people commenting on how pretty she looked!

Springtime!

Spring has sprung in central AR! Being a weather nerd, I always keep up with the local forecast here, in PA, and in SW FL. Today it is actually warmer here than it is in Ft. Myers. According to my phone, it is 72 degrees!

You've Got a Friend in Me

In my opinion, Toy Story is one of the greatest children's movies ever made. Both the original movie and the sequel should be required viewing for all parents - especially the parents of little boys. Buzz Lightyear was the object of Nathan's obsession from age 2 to approx. age 5, and I was a little sad when he stopped playing with his Buzz(es) and Woody on a regular basis.

However, Ashley has now started playing with them pretty often. It's funny to see how differently a little girl plays with the same toys that her big brother once played with. For Nathan, it was usually some intergalactic showdown between the space rangers and the cowboy. But when Ashley plays, Buzz and Woody are either her babies or students in her Sunday School class. This morning they got in trouble because they were not listening when she "read" the Bible to them. Here's a picture from last week of her setting up a game of Hi Ho Cherry-O for the four of us. Too cute!

Speaking of Woody, I don't think that I ever posted this pic from Disney World. The quality is not great, but it was one of my favorite shots from the whole trip. During one of the Magic Kingdom parades, Woody came over to us to give Ashley a kiss on the hand. Again, too cute!

The Medal Count

No, this has nothing to do with the Olympics. I thought that I would include another post about the Pinewood Derby (last one - I promise!) At Nate's pack meeting last week, we found out that he had won TWO medals - Bronze for "Best Design" and Gold for "Most Realistic".

For this month's Cub Scout outing, Jeff and Nathan went with his den to the Little Rock Climbing Center. By all accounts, it was "awesome"! In fact, Nate decided that he wants to have his next birthday party here. Before they even got home, he had the calendar out and had picked a date in October.

Not to be left out of the rock climbing action, Ashley had to show me her skills on the rock wall at Nate's school.

More Snow Days and V-Day

Last week was a blur for me! Between the surprise snow storm, surprise surgery (for Sean), and trip to Oklahoma for Jeff's family reunion, I really need my day off today! To recap, we were supposed to get up to 1/2" of snow on Sunday night, but instead we woke up on Monday to a winter wonderland. It kept snowing all day with some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen in Arkansas falling around noon. Jeff and the kids were home Monday through Wednesday.

Our igloo - Jeff actually finished the top, but we didn't get any pictures because it was getting dark. For the record, making an igloo is hard work! But how often do we get enough snow in central AR to even try?

Mom and Dad came over on Tuesday and helped the kids build a snowman. He melted down to a snow stump yesterday.

On Thursday, we were starting to get back to "normal" (whatever that means!) when Debbie called and said that Sean was going to the hospital with suspected appendicitis. Jeff picked up Abby, and she spent the night here as we waited to hear news on Sean and watched for the second round of snow we were predicted to get this week. Fortunately, the surgery went well, and we did not get any more snow.

I took Abby home on Friday morning, and then Ashley and I went to Nathan's Valentine's Day party at school that afternoon.

Since the weather permitted, we travelled to Atwood, OK, for the Cook family reunion (Jeff's grandmother's family). We left on Friday and came back Saturday. It was about 5 1/2 hours each way, but the kids slept a couple of hours on the way there and then rode back in Aunt Karen's van. (Thanks again, Karen!) Jeff, Phyllis, and I had a peaceful ride back home.

I know this was a long post, but like I said, it was a crazy week. If you're still with me after all this rambling, I would ask that you please remember to pray for Phyllis. She will be having surgery on Thursday at 5:30 am to repair her tricuspid valve. Any open-heart surgery is a major operation, but this one is supposed to be especially complicated because of the location of the valve. Wishing you all a great week!

Derby Day

The rescheduled Pinewood Derby was held on Saturday. The final, unofficial weigh-in on my scales at work was 141.44 grams (Maximum: 141.75 grams = 5 ounces). I was unsure how accurate the Pinewood scales would be, but they were actually very precise. Our official weigh-in was 4.99 ounces. Whew! Just under the limit.

Nathan's car turned out great. He won the first heat with a time of 3.7 seconds. Unfortunately, the 2nd heat included the 2 fastest cars in his age division. Since they scored points based on rank and not time, he did not make the finals.

Nathan did win an award for "Best Design". I guess that is a little bit like getting "Miss Photogenic", but at least it's something. Jeff, Wayne, and I were definitely checking out the specs on the winning cars. Next year, it's on!

Daddy/Daughter Time

Our church had a Daddy/Daughter Pancake Breakfast on Saturday morning. Jeff took these pictures, though he didn't get any that included both daddy and daughter.