Things I love this week

I’m following Emily’s lead and Steve’s lead with their similar posts this week about things they love …

Things I love:

• Routine. So many school cancellations this past month. I’m very happy to get back to our regular routine – Ella is happy to see her friends again and I’m glad to spend a little one-on-one time with Eva and get some things done!
• My mom for coming to my rescue and keeping my girls for a night last weekend. I really needed a night off! I loved seeing Black Swan and having sushi with friends too.
• That I have insurance on my cell phone and have already gotten a replacement phone following a incident involving Eva, my phone and a cup of coffee last week!
• That I have two trips to look forward to. One with the whole family to Kalahari waterpark. I am so ready to get away for a little bit. And another to San Fransisco to see my sister. One of the best cities on earth with my sister and a girlfriend, oh man, that will be so much fun. And I just love traveling in general. I can’t believe it’s been like 5 years since I’ve flown!
• A birthday party we went to yesterday. Ella just seems like such a big girl with her friends and I love that she worked really hard on a card and loved giving her a gift!
• That Eva seems to be on the mend from her sinus infection.

OK, feel free to keep up the “things I love this week” trend any bloggers!

I love them dearly but they are driving me crazy

The last couple of days have been crazy. I was already having a bit of cabin fever yesterday (canceled plans due to another sinus infection for Eva) when there was a great nail polish disaster.

I was spending a moment in the bathroom rinsing a diaper when Ella told me she had an accident and spilled nail polish. I knew right away it would be bad. And it was. All over the tile, on their clothes (and I had just put a new outfit on Eva), on Ella’s hands, and on EVA’S HEAD.

I even called Steve down from work. I spent the next hour trying to get it out of Eva’s hair and off her scalp.

So, needless to say, I was pretty happy to go out with a girlfriend for dinner.

And today I decided we are going OUT. To ballet, maybe to Target, maybe out to lunch. Just OUT. For a long time.

Some of it was good, but ballet was very hard to watch with Eva wanting to go up nearby stairs. And Ella did not take it well when I wouldn’t buy her a juice out a vending machine after. Then there was Ella’s urgent potty break that turned into a 20-minute ordeal inside a small dirty Taco Bell all with an unhappy toddler.

So, yeah, it’s been that kind of week. Luckily they have been happily dancing and playing since we’ve been home. Ella has even saved her sister from a few mishaps today. It’s almost making me forget the nail polish stains on her sister’s head. Almost.

Birthday girl – belated, but lots of photos

My girlfriend and our two sugared up children helped me prepare cupcakes for the birthday girl.

Note to self: No need for birthday games, just be sure to have a lot of balloons.

What now? I’m going to wear this hat and you’re doing what with that flaming cupcake?

Frosting first. That’s my girl.

So glad so many cousins live close enough to celebrate with us.

He’s getting older, but my brother still has a way with the ladies.

This ornery girl was quite a mess at the end of the party, so she took a bath with the birthday girl. Meanwhile, Finn discovered friend Liam in the other bath and hopped in that one. Seems like all our parties end with baths now.

It’s so tiring turning one. Time to rest.

A good snow day

I was really hoping Ella’s preschool would not be canceled yesterday. I had work to do. I needed to go to the store. And Ella had an ice cream party planned at school. Plus we’ve already been spending a lot of time at home … but the four or five inches of snow or whatever we had won out.

But we ended up having such a great day. I never got the girls out of their pajamas. Or mine either, until my night zumba class.

I downloaded songs to Ella’s new leapfrog teddybear and customized it for her. She answered a few questions – favorite animal, color, food and now it sings a song about her and says her name when you turn it on. And everytime this song about a purple giraffe who likes to eat sausages (yep, those are her favorites) comes on she giggles and giggles.

Eva took a 3 1/2 hour nap. She was one tired girl. She was up a bit the night before and has had some wrestless sleep. Teething, gas, feeling ill? I don’t know anymore! I can’t wait for her to talk.

We watched a Care Bears movie (I got my work done), we played Barbies and we played an especially fun game of “birthday party” in which I put old toys in gift bags and pretended to be coming to a birthday party for Ella. She loved her presents.

And of course we had our own ice cream party. Both girls sure love their ice cream.

Ella sets up for a pretend party.