Cakes!

I've been messing around with cake stuff too.  I find that fondant is a lot easier than people think it is.  It's really like rolling out Playdoh (did I write about Playdoh twice in one day?!?!) and cutting shapes out of it.  So far I've made 3 belly cakes for baby showers at church and Olivia's birthday cake.  I really like them!

Memorial Day Fun

For Memorial Day we asked our new neighbors to come over and have dinner with us.  They have 4 little girls in their household.  My Olivia is thrilled about this.  She's already talking about having them over for a sleepover.  What is it with girls and sleepovers?

Kevin and Benjamin set up a pavilion next to our inflatable water slide, and the girls spent hours sliding and giggling and such.  Our new neighbor brought over a large bench, and we were all able to sit outside and chit chat until it was time to start dinner.

Kevin grilled steaks and we had baked potatoes, broccoli, salads, a fruit tray, and fried green tomatoes.  They had never had fried green tomatoes before.  They seemed a bit leery of them, but ended up liking them very much. 

We finished off the evening with a game of Scrabble.  It was wonderful to find out that they were Scrabble fans too!

Here's to new neighbors!!

Weeeeeeeeee!! 

My smaller engineer getting everything set up.

Ahhhh...Playdoh smell

Do you remember that smell?

Olivia purchased 8 containers of Playdoh today with her allowance (note how many shades of pink she purchased).  As soon as we opened it up I remembered the smell.  It sort of made me feel happy.  Odd, huh?

She couldn't wait to get home and use it!  She grabbed my rolling pin and two baskets of cookie cutters and went to town.  She's currently making "a medicine bottle."  Interesting.

Girls!!!

The new neighbors have 4 little girls.  Three of them are over here playing right now.  Olivia is the happiest girl in the world!!  All I hear is chattering and giggling and squealing.  This makes me happy too.

Self-confidence, check!

I was at the chiropractor's office a few months ago.  I had the children with me.  We were sitting in a little room, and I had a massaging thing on my neck.  There were two older ladies in there with us.  They were looking at Olivia and smiling. 

Then one lady asks, "So, how old are you?" 

Olivia says, "I'm free years old.  And I know I'm pretty.  You don't have to tell me." 

The lady looked at me and asked what Olivia had said.  I had never been more thankful for that "only Momma can decipher what the child says" thing.  I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled.  I wanted to crawl under the table!     
I know that she hears it often, but I never realized that she picked it up.  I certainly never realized she could verbalize that she heard it. 

Kevin has often said that he prefers to tell her that she is smart, funny, nice, loving, good at dancing, fun, a great artist, etc. etc.  He wants her to notice those inside sort of things that really make her who she is.  I didn't think that she'd pick up on that stuff yet either.  I guess I was wrong. 

Inside stuff it is.....

"I'm amazing"

Kevin and I take the children out on dates once a month.  One month he has Olivia and I have Benjamin.  The next month we switch.  Last night Benjamin and I went out on our date. We had to head home early, so we finished up our date this morning by going to garage sales.  As we were driving I asked Benjamin to tell me something about himself that I didn't know.  He said, "How about I'm amazing?!"  I told him I already knew that.  He laughed and said, "How about I'm amazingly funny!?" 

Yup, he sure is!  He makes me smile.

"We are like da sheeps"

I was standing in the kitchen on Thursday morning trying to cook breakfast for the children.  It had been a very hard week, so I was having a hard time keeping it together.  I'm stirring oatmeal and crying.  Olivia is sitting in a chair behind me chattering away as Olivia does.  Then she says, "Mommy, do you know Jesus is a shepherd and we are like da sheeps?  And he pick us up berrrrry gentle and HOLD US!"  Then she continued chattering. 

Oh how I needed to hear that!  Sweet little baby speaking words to soothe me when I need them.....

"Out of the mouths of babes......"

Too big to wrap

Olivia says, "Mommy, what do you want for Mudder's day?" I tell her, "I'd like a hotel."  Without missing a beat, Olivia rolls her eyes (!) and says, "Mommy. That is too big to wrap. You know dat!"