Present Time

This is Matthew opening his new Greg doll from The Wiggles. He already has an Anthony doll that was Madeline's. Greg is no longer with the group but I found this one at a consignment shop- a must have!

So then he got his Anthony doll out to play with them together.

And he took Greg over to Pop to show him.

This Hot Wheels set was from Claire and Blake but Blake wanted to take it back home with him! ha ha

Here they are checking it out.

Buzz Lightyear!!!

Lollie sent a Sesame Street ball pit that was a big hit. It's still set up in the living room.

Puzzle with cars, planes, trains, etc.

MaMaw sent a Buzz Lightyear Goodie box with tons of Buzz stuff!

Wiggles dance mat.

More car play.

Mr. ONEderful

This was Friday night, Matthew's last night to be 1. He slept in his Mr. ONEderful shirt and I got some cute pictures for the blog. And yes, this weekend he looked like he grew another foot!

Final Preparations

These are the cookies we took to school with Matthew on Friday so he could celebrate with his little class. (they could only have white frosting with sprinkles due to some of the other kid's allergies).

Cupcakes are all baked, now ready to assemble them into the Football pull apart cake and frost...

Had to take a picture of the stairs from up above as this was the first time since we moved in back in Oct that they were absolutely 100% cleaned off. We were cleaning for Matthew's party on Saturday and got everything put up where it belonged. And yes, there is now something back on the stairs, they stayed clear for 2 days only. =)

Matthew

My Sweet Little Man will be 2 tomorrow! Tonight will be his last night to wear his shirt that says "Mr. ONEderful". I'll be posting a picture of him in it on the blog! He's so sweet we could just eat him up! He loves loves The Wiggles, dances and sings along with them. He still prefers to be held, resists bedtime, and is showing a little interest is what this big white thing called a 'potty' is. Reciting colors and different animals are fun to him as well as his little books, Buzz & Woody and Sissy's old stick horse (he also will never turn down a chance to play Polly Pocket with her either!). (On a side note, from what I can tell, his favorite of all the colors is white! We laugh at Jeff that all 3 of his last vehicles were white since he could care less about appearances and color is #1 on my list).
Brother loves any outside play, the blowup pool, toy balls, etc. but above all else is still YahYee the Penguin. This is still his fave and special companion.
We look forward to his birthday tomorrow and seeing everyone but we're also a teensy bit sad to see him get one more step away from babyhood. He's growing so fast! When I first found out we were having a boy I thought 'what in the world am I going to do with a BOY?!?' as it was alien territory. But I quickly learned how SWEET little boys are and they are CRAZY about their mommies! ha ha Happy Birthday Sweet Matthew!!!

Birthday Cake

With Madeline's and now Matthew's birthday cakes being made by moi I am appreciating what I tasked my own Mother with on my birthdays. Whereas Nancy asked for the SAME kind of cake each year (pan cake with a rainbow- boring) I came up with real doozies. Somehow Mother was always able to pull it off. Below are some pics I found that show 2 of them.
Madeline's cake was one I was able to construct into a bear and tomorrow I will be making one appear -hopefully- like a football. Of course it might just come out looking like a big brown diamond shape! ha ha


On this birthday I wanted a snowman cake, but I didn't want a picture of a snowman on a cake, I wanted the cake to BE a snowman. Mother even used upside down ice cream cones frosted green for pine trees! That's my Uncle Scotty, cousin Leigh Anne, Nan, Aunt Merrill, cousin Julie, Daddy, me and Mother circa 1981.

This year I wanted a cake with a castle on it and a moat and the little silver beads on top of the castle were specified request too! ha ha

Seriously??!!!

This is the MONSTER tooth that Madeline had pulled today at the dentist. Can you believe the size of this thing???? It's like part walrus or something! Seriously, look at the roots on this thing! Ouch!
The Tooth Fairy is going to be very generous to her tonight I'm sure! Madeline was very brave and it went as smooth as pie!

Order Up!

They both brought their sippy cups to me through the little cut through into the kitchen for a refill.

Baking By Herself

Madeline baked her very own chocolate chip cookies all by herself today. She picked them out at the store, added the ingredients, cracked her own egg, mixed it all and spooned out the batter.

We are the only ones eating these as she couldn't help licking her fingers after she spooned out each one onto the pan! ha ha

She was very proud of herself!

Oldies But Goodies Part II

These jeans were Toughskins. They were pink and white checked. Dee lived 2 houses down from us at this time and I used to run down the street to her house a lot. She had told me that if I wore these Toughskins I wouldn't skin my knees on the pavement if I fell. I thought these were magic jeans because of that! ha ha I would get out on the road and run as hard and fast as I could to test them out. =) In this picture it looks like I was getting ready to go out and try them again.

Me and Nan 1979.

Look at how much I look like Madeline and Matthew in this one! This was 1977.

Nan and I with our cats Rascal and Velma. Velma has quite a story attached to her- just ask Nan how she came to be stuck with that name and how she met her demise......

Madeline likes to hear the story how Nan and I would roll the cats up in the front of our shirts and sneak past Mother to take them inside to play in our rooms. Like Mother didn't notice big black bulges in the front of our shirts! =)

Jump-a-thon

Matthew enjoys jumping off the club chair in the living room. He is very pleased with himself each time and if no one else notices, he'll just clap for himself! These pictures were taken on about jump #83.

Jingle

Is it a sing that your child watches too much tv when she's been singing a commercial jingle all day? Madeline has been going on and on with 'Nationwide is on your side'. ha ha ha

Quote of the day

I found this quote in my magazine today and thought it was blog worthy:

"If a child is given love, he becomes loving...
If he's helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful.
And if he has been truly valued at home... he grows up
secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others."
-Dr. Joyce Brothers, 1974

Oldies But Goodies

I'm in the middle of a big project of getting a majority of my old pictures that have no negatives saved on disk. Here is a goodie of me and baby Nan circa 1979. Look at that guilty look and posture I have with Nan's little self laying in the floor 1/2 out of the frame. It could be construed that I had hit her and knocked her down with that big book on the floor and then quickly assumed the "who me?" stance! That didn't happen of course, she was laying in the floor playing.... I'm just sayin'.

I'm going to post a bunch of 'old goodies' I found later on to share. Some are really sweet and some are worth a few chuckles! And who knows, some of you family members out there might be in a few of the 1970's-80's flashbacks! Stay tuned!

Little Buckaroo

We found Madeline's old cowboy boots today. They are still too big for Matthew but he had fun in them regardless! He calls them 'Woody Shoes' for Woody in Toy Story. He knows who Buzz Lightyear is so now we are learning who Woody the cowboy is .

He was definitely strutting!

2nd Grade Here We Come!

I took Madeline to Justice today to get some back to school clothes. Namely shoes. In public school they can only wear sneakers and nothing else whereas at the private school she's been at she could wear sandals or boots or Crocs, etc. I'm glad she went with me because I would have never picked these out for her, but she loves them and they are kinda cute! (And no, they aren't supposed to have laces.) I think she is getting excited about starting her new school. 2nd grade here we come!

He gave it all he could...

Matthew got a little off of his sleep schedule over the holiday weekend. We had to get him back on track last night. He stayed up as long as he could and finally gave out on the couch while watching his beloved Wiggles.

It's That Time of Year Again!

Mother's tiger lilies are blooming! I'm so glad they survived the transplant! Now to start putting the others I have in containers around the yard!

Watermelon on the 4th of July- it's tradition

Breakfast of Champions

I asked Matthew what he wanted to eat this morning after we got up and he said "hot dog" and "chips"! ha ha

Madeline's First Sleepover!

Madeline had her very first ever sleepover last night. She spent the night at my friend Joyce's house and she was looking forward to it all week. Joyce has 2 cats and Madeline wrapped up a box with cat toys in it for them. She packed her own bag and couldn't wait to get there!

Here she is about to go in. I had to get a picture of her outside the front door of her first spend-the-night. I think the plans were to eat ice cream, watch a movie, paint fingernails and play with the kitties. Madeline is concerned that I will pick her up too early today! ha ha