Pinkalicious!

My sister Amy & I took Lily to see Pinkalicious - The Musical!
Lily LOVES the books, so I thought she would like to see this.
She wore her new pink tutu...she was so excited!

We went to the Crown Uptown.

Their mascot for the children's shows is Brier Fox.

Lily couldn't wait to hug him!

Here is Lily just being goofy until the show started. =)

Lily really liked the show and actually sat still for most of it.

This is the part of the show where Pinkalicious turns pink from eating too many pink cupcakes:

Lily even got pink cotton candy to eat during the show.

Yum!

Lily said she had a good time and really liked the play!

Thanks Amy for going with us!!

Story Time

Lily & I go to Story Time at the library almost every week.
And every week she sits and quietly listens to the stories.
But, whenever it would be time for a song, dance, or finger-play, Lily would curl up in my lap and hide her face.
She actually is pretty shy around people she does not know.
But, for the last few weeks, Lily has started to come out of her shell and she has started loving the dances and songs in Story Time!!
I took my camera today to show how excited she gets.
It is really cute to see how happy she is.

Her FAVORITE part of Story Time has always been BUBBLES!!

They blow bubbles to the kids at the end of each time.

Even though Lily really likes Story Time, she actually prefers to do this:

She can't wait until Story Time is over & we can go do puzzles until it's time to pick Riley up from Preschool.

She also loves to hug this giant giraffe.

Her other favorite thing at the library wasn't there today though, so I don't have a picture. =(

It's her Aunt Amy who is the Children's librarian at the Central Library.

But we get to see her a lot, so it was OK. =)

While it was fun to take Lily before, it is really fun now that she gets so excited!!

Hot Chocolate Shortbread

I found this recipe in Parenting magazine.
And since it is still cold outside, I decided to make them for a snack today.
These hot chocolate shortbread cookies are YUMMY!
I can tell because Riley has eaten three already. ;-)
And because it is so cold, we decided they would be even more yummy dunked IN hot cocoa!

The verdict?

Definitely good!

Here is the recipe in case you want to make these:

Hot Chocolate Shortbread

2 cups flour

1/3 cup instant hot cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 Tbs. butter, softened (I used light margarine & they still tasted good)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tube of vanilla frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 baking pan with foil and pray lightly with cooking spray.

2. Combine flour, salt, and hot cocoa powder in a bowl. Beat the butter & sugar in a separate bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. (about 3 minutes) Add egg & beat well. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until combined.

3. Spread the dough out evenly in the prepared pan. Bake until firm to the touch, about 30 - 35 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Lift the foil and shortbread from pan and place it on a cutting board. Cut into 3/4 inch long pieces. After the cookies have cooled, dot them with frosting.

Enjoy!!

Snooogie

That's how Riley pronounces the word "Snuggie". =)
When the Snuggies came out, my sister Amy really wanted one....just not enough to actually order one.
My mom thought she could probably sew one up for her.
When Riley found out, he wanted one too.
He asked for one every time he saw the commercial.
So, my mom made one for Amy, Riley, and Zach.
(and ended up making them for most of the grandchildren.)
Only she made theirs better than an actual Snuggie, because there is no opening in the back.
It just slips over your head!
Here are Amy, Zach, and Riley in their toasty warm Snooogies.

Lily was too little to have a snooogie when my mom made these.
So she made her a blanket.
Well, lately Lily has been seen wearing Riley's around the house.
Only Riley's is way too long for her.....and she likes to go up and down the stairs with it on.
Not real safe.
So, my mom made one for Lily too!!

Lily LOVES it!!!

She has been wearing it ALL the time!

She wears it while playing:

While reading:

While eating:

And she insisted on having it on for nap yesterday:

No she doesn't sleep with a big smile on her face...she is pretending to sleep......so acting not in her future.... ;-)

Thanks Grammy for the great Snooogie!

DaNcE PaRtY!!

On Monday we were invited over to my nephew Camden's 2nd Birthday party.

It was a Dance Party!

My kids were super excited about it

Lily even wanted to wear a "party dress".

When we got there, their basement was all decked out in streamers and balloons!

Here is the Birthday boy and his Mama dancing away.

Even though Lily was excited before we got there, she suddenly turned shy and would NOT dance. =(

Doesn't she look sad?

She had fun playing upstairs with Granddad though.

Zach and Taby had some great dancing moves.

They were even twirling each other!

Everyone had fun dancing....even the adults!!

Thanks Dianna & Blake for a great time!!

Happy Birthday Camden!!!

Lily Wants To Tell You:

I

Yep....Jeff finally talked me into it....2 1/2 years of wearing me down. ;-)
OK, that might be exaggerating a bit. =)
But he has been asking every once in awhile since she was born.
We were at the mall anyway, so we went to see if they could do both ears at once.
They could.
Poor Zach was beside himself....even trying to talk Lily out of it by telling her they stick a needle in her ear.
He was SO upset that she was going to hurt.
Such a sweet older brother. =)
I assured him it would only hurt for a little bit.
He didn't look like he believed me.
Lily on the other hand was super excited!!!
She picked out the earrings she wanted and happily sat on Daddy's lap while they marked her ears.
(If you are wondering what Riley thought....he didn't. He was happily slurping down his pop. Not a care in the world. So funny.)

Here is Lily waiting for her ears to be pierced......unsuspecting of what is about to happen.

Here she is getting her ears pierced......

....and here she is not too happy that she has them pierced. =(

That's also when the pictures stopped, because the mommy in me had to pick her up and hug her.

Look at that face!!!

She was fine right after she picked out a sucker & sticker though.....

By the time we got home, she was all smiles again!!

She thinks she looks pretty cute. (We do too.)

Want to see the earrings she picked out?

Little pink flowers.

Such a girl!

And in case you were wondering, Zach felt better after he saw that Lily was really OK.

Lily is pretty lucky to have such nice big brothers to look out for her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you are spending the day with the ones you love!

Valentine's Parties!

Riley had his Valentine party at school this morning.
When I walked in to help with the party I saw these yummy things on the table just waiting to be finished by 12 little 4 and 5 year olds!!

What a FUN idea for their party!
Riley and Lily had a great time decorating their own cupcakes.

When they were done decorating, they got to eat other really yummy treats too.

Riley showed me all of his Valentines when we got home.

He was very excited that all of his friends gave him one. :-)

Then later on this afternoon I went to Zach's class for his party.

They had all kinds of yummy treats to eat.

It looks like Zach is making really healthy choices in his snacks, but he just ate all of the cookies before I took the picture. ;-)

Both parties were really fun!!

The Making Of A Snowman

The snow we got last night is great snowman-making snow!!
We made a BIG snowman in the backyard this morning.
First Zach rolled a GIANT ball of snow for the base.
Lily helped too!

After Zach rolled up another ball & I helped him put it on top, Riley added snow to make it smoother.

Then they finished him up by adding his head and making his face!

By this time, Lily was COLD, so she went inside.

I asked her to stay outside for just a few minutes, so I could take her picture next to the snowman, but she kept saying, "I'm done, I'm done" as she was pulling off her boots and pants......so I guess that was a no? =)

Look how big that snowman is!!!

He's taller than Zach!

Good job Zach, Riley, and Lily!

Fun Night!

Last night was Fun Night at All Saints, where Zach & Riley go to school.
They have lots of fun games to play and Lily, Riley, and Zach had a blast playing everything!!

They have a cake walk every year.

This is the cake I brought....

.....it's also the cake the kids picked out when they won one...... =)

They brought home two bags packed full of prizes!

And they won fish again this year.

yeah.....

Zach won three and Riley won one.

Zach was a nice big brother and gave one of his to Lily.

They named them Thunder and Mario (Zach's), Humungasaur (Riley's), and Princess (Lily's).

We were prepared this year and had the tank all ready before we even left for Fun Night.

Lily LOVES these fish!!!

She is not such a good sharer....

This morning she said that ALL of the fish were hers and NONE of them were "the brothers".

She says the fish love HER.

I don't think "the brothers" agree with her.

We all had a good time at Fun Night and it raised a lot of money for the boys' school. Yeah!!