It's that time again!

It's party day!!

We've been counting down to this ever since Chandler turned 4. Carolyn had a birthday. We went for an all-out puzzle theme.

This was the bane of my existence last night.
I found out that coloring is quite tedious if you have any time constraints. It was totally worth it though.

Each kid was supposed to put the missing puzzle piece (their face) in the spot.

We had a definite winner...

I asked him if he could see or was he just that good. He replied, deadpan, "I am just that good."

This year was awesome because I told my child who never eats cake that I was not making her a cake. She could pick anything else she wanted for dessert. She picked ice cream. How easy.

The kids colored dinosaur puzzles to take home with them.

Carolyn had a blast. She is fantastic and stretches me everyday. These are my favorite things about her right now:

• This girl sings and she can remember songs well, but sometimes just half a verse. We will hear that on repeat all day long.
• She counts to ten and then continues 11, 12. 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21...
• Her favorite joke is either "CHANDLER!" or "WATERMELON!" Really, that's it. That's the whole joke.
• She calls Blake "boy." As in, "Come here, boy." "Over here, boy, I want to show you something."

Birthday boy

Fun facts about Blake:

• Redhead
• Loves his sister's dolly
• Gives great snuggles
• Plays peekaboo
• favorite sound: "ooooh"
• favorite food: clementines
• Likes to laugh

Newest known fact about Blake:

• LOVES cake

Blake is now one. The party day is over, and now I plan on taking a 24-hour break before tackling the rest of the Christmas projects head on.

That party was out of this world!

Last night we had a family party, but today we took Carolyn and three of her friends to her favorite play place for a birthday party. The kids played on a bouncy house...

and did some rock climbing.

Here's the party gang racing down the wavy slides.

We let Blake participate a little bit.

Here's her birthday dessert. This year, I did a semi-homemade ice cream cake, but she still didn't like it. I give up on the birthday desserts. Unlike last night, Carolyn managed to blow her candles out.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

I've watched this little girl grow up before my eyes, and it amazes me that she is three today. It doesn't feel like very long ago that I held her in my hospital bed. Around October of last year I realized she just wasn't my baby anymore and was growing into her own person.

She has personality, and I love looking back to her time as a baby and recognizing the early signs. Right now she loves coloring the most. She can amuse herself for hours, and I used to let her until I noticed she was using up all my baby wipes trying to clean crayon off of various surfaces. Now her coloring is a little more supervised.

At 3, she loves to sing songs--real or made up. My current favorite is Teach me to walk in the light. She counts to 10, but almost always misses 7. Same for the letter J. She has learned to assign last names to people and always asks me if people are Horners. She tells me stories that she makes up if she can get them out through her giggles. She will always clean. I've had mornings where she cleans the entire living room for me.

I absolutely love her to pieces. She can make me steaming mad and then say, "Sorry, it was an accident" in the sweetest voice that melts my heart. She is always quick with hugs and kisses and makes me feel like I do a great job. It's good she won't remember all the mistakes I've made with her and we can grow together.

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

I'm not quite sure how this

turned into this


but it happened.

Our little baby is two years old. I should probably stop calling her a baby now. For a little snapshot of Carolyn: her favorite color is blue, she loves pizza, she loves to give hugs and kisses to anyone, she wrestles her cousins and then comes home and piles on her bracelets and necklaces, and she can watch Cars twice a day and still love it. She is such a joy to have in our family.

Baby Turns One!

We threw a small birthday party for Carolyn last month when she turned one. We invited over some friends for cake and ice cream. I made my first fancy cake ever. I think it turned out great. It looks like Carolyn's absolute favorite doll. She didn't seem to enjoy eating her cake, but she did knead it into tiny pieces, which made it easy for her cousin Chandler to share off her tray. Overall, I think she really enjoyed her party--this child loves to be the center of attention.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jeremy!

On Sunday, Carolyn and Harry had a birthday dinner for Jeremy. I think it's been six years or so since Jeremy had a birthday with his family. Anyway, his sister, Melissa, and her husband, Ian, came over to join in the festivities. And what better way to celebrate a birthday than to give CA some presents?