4 Years Old

With Carly's birthday falling on Easter, it was a full day to say the least. So we did presents after lunch, but we were too full and sleepy for naps to do cake and ice cream then too. So we did that after dinner and basically right before bed. (That's why Carly's in her pjs.)
Also this morning when I opened the door for her to walk into her Bible class, I heard her teacher say, "Well, hello, Carly. I'm glad you're here."
Carly's response was, "I'm 4 years old!" So yes she's very excited about her birthday.

So after lunch, we let her open presents from us and other relatives. She's been asking for a microphone and I had the hardest time finding one that wasn't all commercialized with High School Musical or Hannah Montana. But just when I had pretty much given up, I found one at the church building that the teens were about to throw out when we were cleaning up the teen room. I thought it was a pretty good find. By the look on her face, I think you can tell she loved it. But she also said, "Wow, this is the one from the teen room." Smarty pants. She didn't seem to mind though.

A new cash register from G&G Hinds

A razor scooter from G&G Phelps--now she can ride like cousin Isaiah.

Isaac cheesing for the camera with a very sleepy daddy in the background. He got off work a few hours early so he could wake up in time to go to services with us. That way he got to be awake for ALL the Easter and birthday festivities. Well, I guess partially awake if you count the present opening.

An Egg-cellent Day

Here are the posed Easter outfit pictures. Love that snow in the background, huh? Isaac's hat is hands down my favorite part of their outfits. Unfortunately he wouldn't wear it at church today. But at least he wore it in some pictures today.
And now, the Easter basket revealing in the morning. Here's Carly's basket.

And her good morning pose--if you look carefully you can probably see the sleep in her eyes.

Isaac's basket

Investigating

oooh! look what's inside!

After services the teens hide eggs in the annex (fellowship hall). It was a fun for all, but I also appreciate that they could make this memory with their "church" friends. In the future, I'm sure many of these kids will be in the youth group together.

Carly and Morgan were all over the room--basically a blur.
Look at how long Carly's hair is getting!

Isaac took a little longer to figure everything out, but he caught on a lot quicker than I thought he would.

Party Pics

We celebrated Carly's 4th birthday one day early with her friends. She had a blast with her Dora the Explorer party that we hosted at church building. Here's a quick recap of the night.

Carly cheating her way to a pin the bracelet on Dora victory.
(cheaterrrrr!)Isaac hanging out with Miss Karen. She's one of his Bible class teacher's and he's always content with her.

The party guests getting their beverages.

Beth setting out the chips for our fiesta!
I made moose steak fajitas, and they were pretty good if I do say so myself. Shawn and I were worried that the meat would be too tough, but after some advice from Beth and some googling, I think it all worked out well.

Starting our adventure. If you've never seen a Dora episode, you're missing out, and some of this may not make sense. But Dora usually goes on an adventure that has three stops. And she always has her trusty backpack. So I found a free pattern online, some clearance fabric at walmart and made little drawstring backpacks for them as their loot bags. The girls got purple ones like Dora and the boys got a blue camo print.

At the start of our adventure, Bubble Tunnel. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that we were searching for the birthday cake because Swiper the Fox (Dora's arch nemesis) had swipped the cake while we were eating. So at Bubble Tunnel I had them check their backpacks for something that would help them get through the dark tunnel.

Flashlights, of course!

Catching stars along the path--another one of Dora's favorite pastimes.

Justus navigating his way across Crocodile Lake. We also saved the frogs in the lake. (They were little water squirters that they got to put in their backpacks.) Michael is more of a Cars fan than Dora apparently.

Luke dressed up as Swiper the Fox and just about scared the pants off the kids.

Carly and Morgan knew what to say and led the others, "Swiper, no swipping."

A very happy 4 year old.

The cake. I traced a picture onto wax paper, cut it up into pieces, traced it onto the cake and then filled in the outlines with colored frosting. Whew! I'm tired just telling you about it. But, I am proud to say that I freehanded the lettering.

Dora's head wound vs.

Isaac's head wound
a slip + a fall = a rug burn
and just in time for those easter pictures in the morning...boys.

Present Time.
This was the first thing Carly opened and she was genuinely delighted. It was a fishing lure from Uncle Lee. Then part two of the package was a life vest. She knew just what they were and explained them to her friends who had puzzled reactions about why she was so excited about a funny looking wire thingy in a plastic package.

Here's Carly's new dress from Justus. Lela told us that when she asked him what he wanted to get her, he anwered, "I think I want to get her a dress." And it had to be a blue one too. Should we be concerned that a young man in her life is already trying to dictate her wardrobe....hmmm. We'll let it slide this time, Justus. :)

Yeah, a new baby doll! Thank you, Miss Jeanie.

Dress up clothes from Janet and Kevin.

A princess ready for a day on the high seas.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped us throw the party. And thank you for all the gifts for Carly. They were all so thoughtful and just right for her. You all know her very well.

Using My Dectective Skills

On Saturday, I made a carrot cake for our potluck lunch the next day with our church family. Both of the kids helped me make it. Isaac thought it was great to have a turn dumping in one of the cups of sugar.
So several hours later, I had the cakes cooling on the table. I thought they were reasonably far enough out of reach form our little man. However, not much is out of his reach now that he's figured out how to climb into chairs--and then while he's up there why not just climb onto the table too? So when Isaac climbed up to the table on Saturday night, I was trying to keep my eye on him. But apparently I looked away at the wrong time. Or Isaac just took advantage of attention being diverted. Anyway, this is what I was left to deduce with.

rather compromising proximity to the evidence

exhibit A--the bite

the suspect--doing his best to look innocent (sorry the picture's a little blurry)

exhibit B: this detective observed the aforementioned suspect chewing with cake crumbs on the side of his face

So with a bite missing from one cake layer, I went a head and iced it, but I kept a toothpick marking the bite area. I figured Isaac had just marked my slice for me. As it turned out, he did me a favor, because that was the only slice that remained when I was finished with my meal and ready for dessert. (It was on a plate in the church kitchen so no one would accidentally eat it.) The rest of the cake was gone. In a way if it wasn't for my rascally son, I wouldn't have gotten any cake. So thanks for the cake, little guy!

No Joke

I should have posted this on April Fool's Day, because it seems to crazy. But this is really what the snow pile looks like along our walkway to the front door. I took this picture on Thursday. Things have melted since then thanks to another good day of sunshine and then some rain. But of course the pile remains, it's just a little less deep than it was in this picture.
The crazy part is that not only do we have a lot of snow compared to lower 48-ers, but we have a lot compared to other Juneau-ites. Our area of town just tends to get more snowfall than most in town. So it's funny to have people come over and say, "Wow, I thought we had a lot of snow at our house!" I guess that means that we probably have "the most snow in our yard" bragging rights among everybody that we know. Most of you are probably glad to conceed that contest.

Buckle Up

I thought I would share these cute pictures that I found on our camera. Shawn must have taken them yesterday while I was gone substituting. That's right, momma's back at it again. I've just recently started substituting again, but I've only made myself available on Monday's and Tuesday's right now. Those are Shawn's days off so he is getting to have some fun daddy time with the kids. Since I headed off to work yesterday, we swapped some carseats. That's why there were some inside for these two to crawl into. I'm sure that Carly did all the buckling, she's pretty good at that. I've really been enjoying watching them play together lately. They are become great playmates.