Bella is 3, Part 2, Cake decorating

 Look at all those empty bottles of skittles!

 Our bulletin board! Skittle filled (these were the party favors)

 I got out Bella's baby book from a packed box and put it on display.

I went to pick up the plain cakes and started decorating!

 It really was not as easy as it looks.

 Next, her tutor brought a gift over. A cute piggy bank doll. She really loves this.

And then...I let the girls decorate the other little cake. So much fun.

And we all ate skittles along the way, of course. A day later, after all the party, etc. She said she didn't like the cake because it was too 'smacky'. She came up with that word all on her own to describe exactly what it was. She was right, after sticking the skittle cake in the fridge, they got too hard and chewy, or 'smacky' as our Bella might say.

Good job decorating girls!

Bella turns 3, Part 1

Bella chose to have a 'rainbow skittles' themed day to celebrate her third birthday. Here she is under the rainbow (all the streamers I hadn't packed up already). This was for a game to be played at her party. The girls woke up, chose dresses to wear (this one because it spins), and then we had her tell us how old she was. Here she is getting the right number of fingers up.

 Right number of fingers, with a face still concentrating...

 Okay, now smile, three-year-old!

 Soph got in on the action, reminding us that in 2 weeks she will be five.

LOVE this pic!

This crown was actually Sophia's from the U.S. when she went to 'English school' (as she calls it), she even remembers her teacher's name! Bella donned this thing for about 20 seconds.

Showing you some of her crazy curls. I really have no idea what to do with these things.

Tobin decides to wake up (rather, we decide to go in and get him up, he had been awake for awhile)

 For breakfast we went with traditional pancakes. I pulled some fake flowers out of a box and used some crepe paper for a table runner...

Streamers from the ceiling. I used all I had. (still completely undecided about Sophia's birthday, we know we will invite school friends, but not sure where or how, since we leave for Thailand the next day, and our house will be all packed up).

please excuse this pancake. I somewhat jokingly tried the first pancake in the shape of a three, it was thick and too big, and quite funny looking. David took over the pancake making and I thought he was going to retry some more '3s' but we miscommunicated, and she was stuck with my big ugly '3'. But we all still enjoyed the pancakes.

 We let Sophia give Bella her gift in the morning before the party, to spread things out a bit, and because Sophia was TOO excited. I let her pick this gift out herself.

A little plastic purse, fake make-up, jewelry, etc. Bella really did love it. Sophia does too.

What does this boy think about it all? 

Not too sure, but he likes to take a sip of cold water and then open his mouth and let it run all down his chin and neck, he giggles as he does this. One way to cool off, I suppose.

Helping the birthday girl get all dolled up.

The Boxcar Children

 Still the eve of her birthday, Bella really gets into her roll as 'Violet' in The Boxcar Children. We just finished this read-aloud. Soph read some of it, but we all wanted to move through the story just a tad faster, so she was willing to let us read on. This was the chapter on helping in the Cherry orchard picking cherries.

And just like in the story, they stopped to eat a few, but not too many.
The girls loved this book, and started pretending that everything was a boxcar and they needed to find things to go in it in order to live. Sophia got way more into and told me everyday that she wanted to live in a boxcar. It has worn off a little, but she is always game for an adventure, with Bella right at her heels.

Bella's Birthday Eve

 We had been talking up Bella's birthday for a while. In the end she wanted a rainbow skittle cake and party. I had seen a cake on Pinterest and thought it doable for all the craziness going on, (I actually have no idea what candy was originally on the cake). Then I discovered she likes the local bakery cakes, so I got them to make me two very small cakes and just put white icing on it. It has been my experience in the past (like with haircuts) that even though you say one thing and even show pictures, they still will follow what they think looks best. I was pleasantly surprised when these cakes came out as plain as could be just like I wanted. I spent more on the skittles for her little party than on the cakes.

 I had to have the girls sort the skittles so that I could decorate the cake more easily. This was Friday the day before her birthday. I also took Bella to the store with me to get some more things.

 She loves riding this car, and as you can tell by the four pics in this post, she loves showing the Victory sign. Peace, my friends.

 The party plan was for one family to come, and both our families' helpers (Ayis), so this was not really a party with lots of kids, but it was sure to be very fun for her. She was so excited the day before!!!

What every husband should know...

...about stay-at-home-moms. I loved this article, even though I am the mom in the scenario, David is the one who sent it to me!

Snapshots

David has been gone a few days, and is actually coming back a day early, Yeah! I finally managed to get some snapshots of what we have been up to while he has been gone. Let's take a look:

 Obviously David was still here for this one since he took the pic, the girls were helping me make banana bread, my face looks crazed, but things were fine. The girls like to eat flour, plain. Weird.

 David may have been home for this one too, the days are all running together for me. This snapshot is simply to show Sophia's home decor. She found some candles on my vanity and then went and got plastic saucers from her kitchen to put underneath. She was so proud at the beauty she had created, so we took a pic.

Dumpling night without daddy. Annabelle hugged and kissed on Tobin a bit, and I missed all the good shots. oops. super cute. I love to see Annabelle's huge smile and hear her contagious giggle when she sees Tobin, it is priceless.

 Hey daddy, I am up to no good while you are away (at least that is what this look seems to say)

This has the appearance of walking, but he is not. Though today more than any other he stood by himself without holding onto anything. I think he is getting braver. 

Any outside time we can muster up we do. It has basically rained non-stop since daddy left, but when the sun squeezes out, we go out too.

Sophia and I have adventures on the moto in the rain. The first day, with all our rain gear on, I forgot to put helmets on either one of us. That is a big OOPS. If ever a time we need those it is in the rain!



The below seen 'crawling critters' were a huge success and was taken straight from THIS BLOG .

 When Sophia talked to daddy on the phone she gave him an incredibly detailed description of every step we did to make these. Seriously.

 Bella loved her crawling butterfly! Do you love their outfits? Sophia picked them out for them. The girls have worn these Gator and State outfits OUT, they have holes and all.

Embarrassing moment for Tobin. Hope daddy doesn't get mad that I snapped this. While he does look a little girly in his 'turban', our Ayi put this on him and then said that he looked like what a guy would wear from a minority group here. And she is right. They don't wear turbans but a headdress that looks a little like this. 

 Tobin is babble crazy, with just a few words. But today he started saying more, including 'haochi' which means 'it tastes good'. So this is about his 4th word and it is Chinese. Crazy how these brains work. He has also gotten very good at an angry scream.

Yes, this precious face can get very angry and compete with the girls on a high pitch. Piercing.


And then Sophia had to put the headdress on too...this girl.

 We had made a fort in the background. It was still raining.

V is for victory. Always.