More about Saturday with the kids

We went to my brothers house to celebrate K and Hailey's birthdays. Caleb turned 8 recently and the princess will be 3 on Friday. The princess was wearing an adorable dress that matches a dress for her American Girl doll (Lindsey Jr.). I think my sister-in-law found it at Ross.

I gave the kids their gifts I picked up for them from Cape Cod as soon as we got there. The younger ones got Webkins and Noah got a shirt. The shirt is a Men's Medium. He put it on and said, "See? It fits perfect!" It was down to his knees. This is the fashion sense of an 11-year-old boy.

A little later K and Hails opened their birthday gifts. K got more Webkins and Hailey got new stuff for her bunnies (Calico Corners animal doll house stuff). I made her doll a tutu and gave her an Amelia Bedelia book (Amy - get Boo an Amelia Bedelia book - she will love it).

We ate some yummy dinner then played for a little while and had some cake. I love playing with these kids. They are all so different and they love spending time together. Everyone wanted to help feed jBug or play with him or hold him. Monkey is always happy playing there because he loves his older cousins who are always happy to stop what they are doing and play with him. Plus, Hailey and I get to do silly girlie stuff like play dress ups or dolls or just lay around laughing and giggling at silly things.

So then there was cake. Ice cream cake and regular cake. The kids "dug" right in. With their mouths. It was fun and they are old enough not to make a huge mess. Monkey didn't know what to think of it and was very neat while eating with no utensils. They thought it was funny that they had icing all over their faces and noses.

So it was a fun afternoon with the kiddos.

Oh...and that photo of all of them was pure luck. Noah, Caleb and Josh are all old enough now to behave and smile for just long enough to get a photo. Or I should say if you give Bug to Caleb then K will smile willingly. Once we got Monkey on Noah's lap then Noah was making Monkey smile. The first photo with just the boys had Hailey over to the side pouting to hold Bug. Then I just put her in front of the boys and clicked real quick. The luck came in when I realized no one had blinked or turned their head or made a face. Really I just click and click and click and hope that at least one of the photos will be a good one. And there's a lot of "look over here!" "smile!" "Monkey come sit here!" "look at the camera!" along with various other noises.

a few items of business

1. MEGAN IS HOME! Not that I can see her, but now I can talk to her on the phone and text her and that makes me happy - because she listens to a whole lot of my craziness and still likes me.

2. I have new readership! Emily Albright and her mom. I will be posting a wedding-related post for them, which sounds weird, but it's not really. I promise.

3. Cristin had her baby, Owen! 4 weeks early! Apparently he was ready to be born. He's in the hospital so he can finish growing and getting ready for the real world - so best wishes and lots of prayers to the Ricks family. He's a cutie!! Congratulations! (and in related news, I got prezzies sent out there just in time for his arrival! When he does come home, I hope they are enjoyed by him and his mommy.)

4. I spent most of my day yesterday with the kiddos. I took K his birthday presents early since I'll be gone this weekend. I can't believe he's 8. Craziness. He and Joshie are way into this Webkins thing - which I'm loving because it's so not as confusing and/or annoying as Pokemon. So he is now the proud owner of a Rotweiler named Steven (a name I chose) and a Gecko named Mark. K's name choices are the best ever - he doesn't waste his time with silly pet names - he goes for the serious people names. Love it. The rest of my time was spent playing pretend and dress ups with the Princess. We had a tea party (during which she remarked, "this is a wonderful tea party") complete with princess dishes, real (and delish) cookies and water instead of tea. I think she likes playing with me because I play all her girlie games with her. And I'm totally fine with that. It was such a fun day. I love those kiddos.

5. I'm going to the beach on Wednesday with one of my bestest pallies, Jamie!! I am so excited and so happy we made this vacation work! See all my exclamation marks?! That's how happy I am. I need a vacation very badly.

6. This is my final point and maybe it should have been first so in case I lost any of you. I need an idea of a name for my projects blog. Something fun but not annoying. Something having to do with me or a nick name of mine (Lindle, Linnie, Lindsey Lou Who, Zizi, Scooter, etc.) that I can put up there as a title so it's not so boring. So, pass along your ideas. I figure who better to ask than the ones who know me so well?

That's all for now. More posts to come soon!

More evidence that I have a clone...

Friday night I watched the kiddos (minus Noah) and, like always, I pulled out my camera and the princess and I played the Camera Game. The Camera Game is one of my favorite things to do and I'll play with anyone who is willing. My niece is always willing and has recently started coming up with her own variety of faces. She'll pose and say, "take this one." When we first started playing this game on Friday I was watching the faces she was making and trying to coordinate - then I just got so distracted that I had a hard time doing that. She was being so silly and fun AND she was making MY faces which was so funny for me to watch.

Here's me:

Here's she:




Here's us:

That right there would be a face I make all the time when I play the camera game. See my first picture in this post. It's freaky.

I pretty much just love being her friend.

The Princess and The Monkey

They aren't babies anymore.

The Princess and The Monkey (2005/2006)