It's HER Birthday!!!

It's Rosie's 9th Birthday today!! 

I can hardly believe it. 

Wasn't just yesterday I was bringing her to the first day of preschool?

(one of the few before pictures we have)

This little girl has my heart.  

As much as I think we are so different, we are very much alike too. 

We are two extremely emotional girls and you get us into an argument... usually one of 

us ends up crying.  

Nothing makes me happier than to see her love for being creative.  

She watches me like a hawk while I craft, scrapbook, or sew, and then does it on her own. 

Love sharing the love of creating!!! 

(April 2010)

Yes, we have a hard relationship from the start and yes, we struggle with 

trusting each other with our hearts... but when it is just the two of us 

we are able to bond and grow our relationship as mother and daughter.

(September 2010)

I look forward to many more mother/daughter dates, lots of pedicures, 

heart to heart talks and seeing you grow up to be such a kind and caring young lady.

(September 2011)

You are such a strong human being.  

You have been thrown so much in life and are such an 

inspiration on love.  Your brothers and sisters are so lucky 

to have you in their corner because they couldn't have a better 

big sister!

 (October 2012)

So I hope you enjoy your day and feel special as 

we celebrate you!!! 

Happy Birthday Rosie!! 

Date Nights!!!

So in the past few weeks, I have had my share of night outs.  

I am not complaining.
It is really nice every once in awhile to do things we don't normally do.  

On my last blog post I shared that each child received a date out with 

one of us for good progress reports at school. 

While, Gigi was the only one who picked me originally... after our fun date 

then the other two wanted to switch to mommy's side.  

I wasn't complaining! 

So last weekend I took Rosie out for a day of pampering and girl fun. 

I know she really wanted to do everything I did with her sister but I wanted 

to make each child's day special to them so we did completely different activities.

We started off at the Mall and tried on some Christmas dresses then 

we headed to get a pedicure.  

I totally luck out on these dates because during Gigi's makeover I got my eyes made over and 

for Rosie I had my feet done too.  Yeah!! 

After relaxing and enjoying our pedicures.  

We walked to some of her favorite stores in the mall. 

Claire's, Justice, Bath and Body. 

She was happy as a clam. 

Then we went out to dinner.  

She originally wanted to go to Chili's like Gigi, but I asked her if she could eat anything what would she want? Her answer..... Cheeseballs. 

SO we went to a local restaurant called The Filling Station. 

We ordered a few appetizers including cheeseballs and chit chatted about school, friends... and everything under the sun.  I don't really have to do much talking when I am with her. 

We ended our night with a trip to Mommy's favorite store Target. 

She wanted to make sure she spent MORE time with me than her sister. 

We are a competitive family. 

On Wednesday Night, I went out with some of my girlfriends that I don't' see nearly enough. 

Lexi is about to have her third child and I hadn't seen her since this summer when she wasn't even showing!  

When did a night with Vino Van Gogh, which was super fun. 

The instructor lead you step by step on how to create a very cool piece of art and it was amazing on how different everyone's art was.   We all used the same colors and same brushes, but they turned out so different and cool! 

Here's my finished product.  

It is now proudly hung in the bathroom since it needed something fun in there.  

The paining isn't perfect but I like it.  

Then this past weekend I took Bubba out for a mother son date.  

For all the dates, I snuck in some much needed shopping like shoe shopping for Gigi and dress shopping for Rosie, but for Bubba he needed a suit for first communion in the spring and I thought this was a perfect time to have him try some stuff on.  

We headed to the Mall once again, a place he has been very rarely. 

He had never been in a dressing room before, so that was a new experience for him. 

When I told him we were going to try on suits, he knew exactly how he wanted it to look. 

Black suit, white shirt, black tie.  

Just like a person on Shake it Up. 

Gotta like a guy who knows what he likes.  

We found a suit, that fits him big so he can use it a long time, and he tried on 7 ties.  

And wanted to wear this look to school. 

After trying on suits AND black dress shoes, we got snacks at the food court (key is to reward them after they try on clothes makes the trying shoes on and suits go more smoothly). 

While walking through JCPenny's to go to the bathroom, we accidentally walked through the lady's lingerie section.  Bubba mouth hung open and he couldn't contain his giggles and laughter.  

He couldn't say "underwear" without breaking out in contagious giggles.  

The best quote of the day is when we finally made it through the section 5 seconds later (which was the longest 5 seconds ever!!) he turns to me and says, "that was so awkward!"  Yes, honey it was. 

Bubba requested we go on the escalator... so we rode the escalator up and down 3 times. 

I worked really hard to find some cheap fun for all the kids and so Bubba and went to Walmart to 

play a few video games in the arcade they have there.  

he had fun gong to the coin machine and getting quarters and playing the games.

After that, we made an unplanned stop at Gamestop so he could look at all the games and start a Holiday Wishlist.  He scoured the aisles looking at everything and then started playing one of the games up front.  I kept checking my watch and wondering when I should have him move along so we could go to dinner but he was having so much fun.  NOW I know how men feel when they have to sit at a store while we, ladies, shop around.  I was really bored.  

I tried to find something to look at but there are only so many times I can read the back of a video game I have no interest in. 

After 30 minutes in Gamestop.... I was watching the clock.. we headed off for dinner. 

Bubba suggested Old Chicago and that sounded good to me, so away we went.  

We sat on the same side of the table so we had a good view of the football game on tv, I can't tell you who was playing, but Bubba is really starting to love watching sports so he was in heaven.  

I loved these little dates with my guys and gals.  

I learned more about them... some stuff like which boys/girl they like, I wish I didn't know... but I feel privileged that they trust enough to confide in me. 

I am going to have to plan more "dates" soon because I really liked getting all dressed up and going out.

Hopefully daddy doesn't mind.  LOL

Mommy and Me Date

Saturday was a special day.

Gigi cashed in her "mommy time" coupon.

For parent/teacher conferences a week ago, we told the

kids if we got good reports that they are trying their best and

working hard on their grades then they would

get a date with either mommy or daddy.  

Gigi automatically picked me. 

The other two picked daddy because he is more fun.  :-( 

I was bummed, but they don't know how much Mommy can be. 

We took off on Saturday afternoon. 

First stop on our date was lunch.

Gigi picked Chili's, so we had a good girl talk while we waited for our food.

After lunch, we headed to a shoe store. 

During her basketball game that morning I noticed she was slipping and sliding down the court with no traction on her school tennis shoes, so we went shopping for shoes for basketball. 

What girl doesn't like shoe shopping?

Our last stop was JCPenny's.

I was trying to think of things to do on the dates that didn't cost a bundle. 

The important thing was the time together not the money we spent.

So we went to the Sephora counter to get an Express Makeover. 

We both had our eyes done and Gigi was in HEAVEN!!

The lady had her at purple glitter! 

Gigi came home with a lip gloss we purchased and I also got a few small things for Rosie's

birthday coming up.  Daddy is not so happy.  

I loved having the time with her to talk about school, friends, and

any else that she wanted to without being interrupted by her siblings. 

What a special day!!   

Yesterday ended up being a perfect Fall day!!

We worked on some things around the house and were outside

as much as possible. 

We have one corner of the backyard where the neighbor's birch tree drops the perfect

leaves on our side of the fence.  The kids spent hours raking them into a huge pile and then jumping in it, only to do it over and over again.   

I found traces of the leaf pile strewn all over the house today!  

 Then Daddy came home with more brown bags and our fun was done.

 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!!!

Trick or Treat

Halloween is over but we still have enough

candy to last us through the winter.

As much as I detest dressing up for Halloween,

I love to help my kids celebrate the holiday. 

We waited until the last possible day to carve or "paint" pumpkins. 

Daddy had been so busy and I dreaded doing the whole carving

thing by myself because I don't really let the kids

use sharp knives... so paint it was.

  The girls had a blast painting the pumpkins. 

I had everything set up after school and the kids were excited to get started.

  

 

The finished pumpkins. 

We added a little bling this year. 

They turned out so cute!

Of course you know which one is the boy's.

The next day we ventured out into the rain for trick or treat. 

Costumes for the girls were all handmade, the ninja costume was not.

Lil Miss was Snow White.

Rosie was a beautiful butterfly.

Gigi was a peacock.

Bubba was Storm Shadow from G I Joe.



There was a bit of a drizzle all night as we trick or treated but that didn't

dampen the kids spirits. 

The worst part was waiting until Daddy got home to go.

He didn't pull into the driveway until 5:05 and the kids were

going bonkers... missing a whole 5 minutes of trick or treat time. 

After an hour in the rain and walking around the neighborhood the

kids were content to stay at home and pick through their loot.

Mommy just wanted a coffee and to sit by the fire to get warm.

 

Our neighbors are too good to our kids.

They got big sized candy bars, Wendy's frosty coupons, and

bags of goodies... plus some. 

It took Lil Miss awhile to get the hang of it.  The first house she went up to

she screamed "Candy!!" instead of "Trick or Treat". 

By the third or fourth house she got into the rhythm.