Worked my butt off today
And, oh, how I wish that were literal.

I cleaned house all day long. My body is aching, but I got a LOT done. A lot. M's mom and brother and brother's new girlfriend are coming over for Emma's birthday tomorrow. Emma's aunt and cousin won't be coming due to cheer leading duties. It will be a nice cozy birthday celebration. We'll be serving London broil, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cheese casserole, homemade applesauce and biscuits. Then cake.

Now that my house is mostly clean I'm pretty calm about it. I still have to scrub the kitchen and bathroom sinks, but that will wait till after breakfast and showers tomorrow. Fun.
Amen
Praying that the giant dude with the camera doesn't get any closer...

I did it!
I made a Pop's Cake, my first one. It's no beauty but I think it will pass. It's the first time I've used these new 9" layer cake pans that I bought. Unfortunately both layers turned into mounds and, once layered, the top mound developed a fissure. Now it's a Gap Cake. Honestly, my feeling is "who cares?" as long as it tastes good. I'll get back to you on that tomorrow.

Friday, October 05, 2007
Hoist the Jolly Roger, Matey!
Daddy finished a project for his little pirate today. He made her a flagpole and rope with pulleys so she could hoist her own flag on her play structure. Of course for now she'd rather swing on it, which is impossible. Nevermind that she has a swinging rope dangling six feet away from her as she's throwing a fit because she can't swing on the yellow rope. Sigh.

Checking it out.


The first try...


Thar she flies, Matey!


Post flag ceremony slide down the yellow slide.

Take a picture of me!
This was this morning before we left for Mary's.

For Sara
Who pointed out that she hadn't seen any of these so far. The leaves are just starting to turn so the mountains are predominantly green with flecks of color. I took this first one before we left for work this morning so it has the golden hue from the morning sun.


Now we have more golden tones from the late afternoon sun. This is a barn I can see from where we park in the driveway.


This tree is across the road at the end of the driveway.


As we turn out of our driveway toward town this is what we see.


Detail from the tree across the road.

Thursday, October 04, 2007
I haven't forgotten you...
Life is super hectic right now and I apologize that I cannot be a more faithful blogger. We have two birthdays coming up next week. A party is planned for this Sunday with M's family and next Sunday with my family. My house is practically uninhabitable from all the crap that's accumulated since last year when I cleaned it. I have to get this stuff out of here before birthdays and Christmas or you'll never find us after the cave-in. Bear with me please, I promise birthday pictures as I can manage them.
Routines...
Whenever Popi comes into town for work Emma always gets to go to the store to meet him. Every time we do this she has to have her car pulled out of the back room. She must have her gas can, a Pringles single-pack, and some bottled water. It simply has to be this way. She rides around the inside of the store for a while and then demands to be taken outside. She can draw the whole process out a long, long time, extending her visit with Popi and Daddy for as long as she possibly can.


Pit stop.

Autumn Arrives
Today was one of those drop dead gorgeous fall days that makes this my favorite season of the year. The only drawback was that instead of being crisp the air was hot. High seventies hot. However, the atmosphere was crystal clear and I really wish I could have taken more pictures. The fall colors are slowing creeping in. Here are two early birds...

Monday, October 01, 2007
Finally!
Mommy couldn't wait for her to wear this outfit. It's so awesome having a girl to dress. Other mommies of girls know what I'm talking about.

Build-a-Doll
The group poses for their post-cake-and-presents pre-car-ride-across-town picture. (Bonus trivia: the vehicle in the picture backed into my brother's BMW the next morning. Oops!)


Heading into the mall with great excitement and anticipation...


Circle time, where they make and pass out nametags and generally stall for time.


After they chose the doll body and stuffed a satin heart inside, the party host let the girls help at the stuffing machine. Looks painful for the doll.


Next the doll went for it's air bath. There were bits of random fuzz on the floor that presumably "washed" off during this process.


The girls each got to choose a dress and some hair bows and then the dolls were done. The store provided them with a special box and all of the girls signed a stuffed bear for the birthday girl. Here the special girl poses with her creation.

No accidents, BUT...
So I reported there were no accidents which is absolutely true, no potty accidents. She always made it to the toilet to do her business. However, we did have an "episode" on the way to Noni's on Friday night. (Andrea, this is where you stop) After an hour and twenty minutes of driving we were less than one mile from Noni's and Emma starts puking. Three times consecutively, all over her front. I picked up my phone and called the house as we were turning onto Noni and Popi's street. Popi answered and I said "Emma just puked all over herself and we're on your street. Meet us at the car and bring stuff to clean up. Click." How's that for efficient? LOL

It was a disgusting mess and I'm sure I don't have to describe it. Her car seat was ruined for travel. Noni, Popi and I all pitched in and cleaned up the mess. Popi cleaned the books that were on her lap and her clothes. Noni took care of the seat and I swept Emma into the house and straight to the bath. It was the first time she was really acutely conscious of what she had done. Emma "never" pukes. That was maybe the fourth time in her life she's done it. She was learning the words for what she had done and repeating the story about stuff coming out of her mouth.

I bathed her and we cleaned up the seat as best we could. We decided to take the cover to my brother's in a bag and wash it up there, because we couldn't leave it sitting all weekend. Thank goodness Noni and Popi own a spare car seat or we would have been delayed for hours. As it was we were only delayed by 20-30 minutes. Before Emma was even done with her bath she was saying that she was hungry and she was totally fine. She was completely normal for the rest of the weekend.

We went to Wendy's and then hit the road for Maryland. Thank goodness for grandparents who are even happy to see their puke-covered grandchildren pull up.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday Night Quick-post
The weekend went great. I'll post a longer update tomorrow. In the meanwhile, Emma had no accidents so that was great. The girls had a fabulous time at the Build-a-Doll birthday party. Here are some pics to tide you over till tomorrow.