The Amazing Past Month (and a half)

So obviously I am not the best at updating this thing.  Most of you know the reason for that is because I just don't have the time to sit down and upload photos and type anything interesting..  So here is a run down of what I can remember from the last month or so..  I left off with my birthday, and being that my b-day falls in the heart of tax season we never really do much.  I did however get some cake and snagged the birthday candles from Alexa's 5th birthday (which got left behind and never made it on the cake... MOM!)  As you can see the candles made a nice pillar of flames - I was just going to put a 'few' but the girls insisted on putting all of them.  This photo actually makes me kinda sad, because if you look on the sliding glass door you will see a heart that says "love" and some other assorted scribblings..  well that is STILL on the door, over a month later..  that is totally unacceptable!  (where is my maid?!)

For Alexa's birthday (or maybe Christmas) the girls got stick on fingernails..  however Adrianne took all the sticky paper and stuck it to random stuff, so we just had the nails.  They must have asked me a hundred times "when are we going to put the nails on?!"  but it's hard to stick them without any sticky!  So a grand idea came to me, why don't we got to Wal-mart and buy some sticky nail sticker-on-er stuff...  (sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?)  However, much to the girls' disappointment I could not find the sticky back papery stuff that you would think they would sell so you could actually Re-use the nails..  They were so disappointed and nearly in tears that I wouldn't buy the "nail glue" (can you imagine, a 4 and 5 year old with semi-permanent fake nails!).  Well ofcourse, me having that gut wrenching guilt that comes with a mid-isle Wal-mart mental breakdown, I bought them BOTH a set of nails with sticky attached..  Yea, set me back probably $10 (A BIG thank you to whomever bought the first set...)  And ofcourse as soon as we get home we HAVE to put the nails on.  So here they are, in all their glory my 4 and 5 year old with fake nails..

They are little Diva's arn't they?!  So unlike myself.  But I do admit they were SOOO cute with their skirts and high heels and nails and purses and necklaces.

This photo is Alexa in the tub, and I am adding it here because this is the first time that she really has became comfortable with putting her head in the water (since her near drowning two summers ago).  She is still against swimming lessons, but I think she is starting to get her sea-legs back.

One sunny day we took an afternoon trip to the park with Julius and I am so happy I got these photos, I just have to share them (LOOK AT ALEXA SMILING!)

For once I have photos of the child not looking like I beat her into submission!  It's proof that she does actually smile, and she is just super cute with that little grin!  (don't mind those bright green socks, we are still having some 'matching' issues, haha).

The girls are ALWAYS asking to sleep in the living room.  I don't know what the fascination is, but I remember loving doing it when I was little too.  So each weekend we 'try' to sleep in the living room atleast one night (however with the late nights that J and I have been keeping the living room sleeping arrangement has been sparse).  So on this night we let the girls pick a movie, they watched Up, and I even got them ice cream.  This is really the highlight of their week, in fact Adrianne will ask me almost every night if it's a 'living room' night.  J and I don't particularly like the whole living room set up, 1. because it's painful on the back, 2. because there is a big mess the next morning, and 3. it's so hard to get the kiddos to sleep.

Ofcourse Easter came, and then was gone in a flash.  Adrianne and Alexa wrote letters to the Easter bunny, and he secretly got them while they were at gymnastics.  Alexa asked for the Tiana movie, and Adrianne asked for a "purple talking egg" which we saw one day at Safeway (and then she had a breakdown because I wouldn't buy it)...  so guess what, Saturday night who is out SEARCHING for an F-ing Purple Talking Egg!!  Me!  Four stores and one exhausted mommy and I could NOT find a PURPLE one!  I went back to Walmart (the first store) and bought a pink one instead (praying that she wouldn't have a breakdown over the color change..)  I boiled about 3 dozen eggs for the girls and their cousins, it took them maybe a total of 10 minutes to dye them all and then run off to play.  So I sat there and had a grand ol' time with all the dyes and all the eggs.. I love Easter egg dying.

  (you can see the previously mentioned writing on the door is now growing)

Here are some of the creations I made after having been abandoned by my young apprentices.

On Easter the girls got up to find their baskets, however Adrianne was extremely disappointed that her talking egg was not in her basket (it's a talking egg, shouldn't it be hidden and then she find it??)  I tried to calm her down and quickly hid the egg in the closet in the kitchen... thinking that she would hear it while we were having breakfast.  Did she hear it?  It's incessant chattering "I'm over here... You can't find me.."  NOPE.  Alexa finally heard it and together they searched for it, however they gave up looking and I had to 'help' them.  I had put it inside a glove to quiet it's chattering, and then inside a coat pocket, they looked all over on the ground but never in the coats, quite a funny event to watch.  And I am happy to say that Adrianne was happy with her pink egg, although she said with indifference, "I asked the Easter bunny for a purple egg, but he got me a pink one!!"  Later there was the egg hunt, I sent Julius out before work (yes he worked on Easter sunday, tax season you know!) to hide a bundle of eggs.  It was sprinkling during the egg hunt but the kids still had fun, apparently at that age they really don't "look" for eggs, as most of them were walking right past/over the eggs.

April 15th was a thursday so Julius was able to take Friday off, at which point he got the grand idea to make the girls a swing set, here they are digging the main hole for the support beam.

The next day they were able to put together the main support structure (thank you last house owner for leaving a ton of awesome materials to work with!).

 

Then they went to Lowe's to buy the swing set hardware and seats (holy-moley the seats alone were $70!)

This was the finished product of my hubby's ingenuity, I still can't believe he made a swing set, sometimes he is so crafty in a BIG way that I just can't fathom it!

 

So that is pretty much our last several weeks, we've also got our garden planted and a compost bin made.  When you combine all this with J's working and his studying for his 'Final Installment' of the CPA test, and me being at school and studying and trying to finish all my stuff, and the girls both going to school and doing gymnastics, and our multiple volunteering commitments and clubs we are involved with, and basketball, and the NBA Playoffs, the housework, laundry, and cooking... I think it's pretty darn amazing that we have all been able to keep our sanity, I know J's and I's has faltered several times, but I think we can successfully say that we made it through another tax season..  phew!