Body count

After a week of owning a fish tank the body count currently stands at 4. The casualties include 2 goldfish and 2 rosies. One of the goldfish was the slightly injured one referred to in the recent poll. He made it exactly a week. One of the rosies was DOA and the other one lasted 3 hours. I think they might have gotten smashed in the bag on the way home from Wal-mart. I didn't cry since they were only $.28 each and I only got them to take up space, but it was kind of gross fishing them out (no pun intended). We still have one of the original goldfish, and he seems to be going strong. I think we might just stick with that for awhile. No fancy fish for us. Yet. ;o)

Update: The last remaining fish gave up 3 days after this post. Emily didn't really seem to care. It took her 2 days to even notice. Not sure what the next plan is...

3-year portraits

I took Emily to JCPenney's to get her 3-year portrait pictures taken. I've been nervous about it for a week. I purposely let her pick out a new outfit to buy last week so she would at least put it on. We walked through the mall to get there, and I told her if she cooperated she could ride on the carousel afterwards. I didn't have to fulfill my promise. She sort of did what the photographer asked for a couple quick shots. Then when he asked her to lay on her tummy on the floor she refused and we were pretty much done. At least we got one decent pose, which made it really easy to pick for my portrait package. We were in and out in 15 min. flat. Whew. Emily was then more fascinated with observing the animated "moose" (i.e. reindeer) in the Santa's picture display and playing in the kids' area. We left kicking and screaming. :o) Here are her semi-decent shots:

The floof

I don't wash Lincoln's hair very often, but I did last week. Shortly afterwards he developed a rooster tail "floof" that refused to be combed flat. You could wet it down and smooth it out, but as soon as it dried again it was sticking straight up. It has taken almost a week before enough oils built up again for it to somewhat lay down. Mental note: remember not to wash his hair for a week before his 6-month portrait pictures or church directory pictures. :o)

Cereal necklace

Today I thought I'd be a really creative mom and make cereal necklaces for afternoon snack. I set up everything for Emily to help string the Cheerios & Apple Jacks. All she wanted to do was eat the cereal out of the bowl. I think she had it half gone before I even got started. Once I did have a necklace made she thought it was pretty cool to wear it. However, it took an hour and a demonstration before she actually ate anything off of it. Then I was wishing we had a dog again. :o)

Smiles

Emily's birthday party

Emily's birthday party with the grandparents (and Uncle Tyler) was today. She got some pretty fun gifts. Here is Dr. Emily giving her baby a check-up...

A pretty new dress

Fun puzzles of Green Eggs & Ham



Picking out two goldfish at Wal-mart for her new fish tank



One of the fish we wanted got caught in the net when the associate was trying to catch it. I think its top fin got partially ripped off in the process, but we took it anyway. That one has an orange spot on its tail and the other one has two black spots on its tail. Emily named one "Otto" after the beloved book A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer, illustrated by P.D. Eastman. I'm not sure which one is Otto or what the other fish's name is. Maybe it's better that way. There may be many $.36 Otto's. ;o)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Emily Claire!

Emily's cake

Kids' birthday cakes always seem to be the focal point of party planning and the ultimate test of a mother's creativity and skill. I'm sure I could have fun with it if I had a few spare hours (ha ha) and some practice. So without my sister, Courtney, to decorate a cake for me this year, I took the easy route. Here are the supplies...

Here is the kitchen helper...

Here is the official sprinkle decorator after picking purple as the frosting color and mommy's creative chocolate blobs using the can of Pillsbury Easy Frost...



And here is the birthday girl with her finished cake...

Trick-or-treat...or not

This is our cute little pumpkin...

This is the cute homemade Lego costume we got from a friend...

This is the cute little girl who refused to wear the Lego costume...

Emily was all excited about the costume--especially the hat--when we picked it up a week ago. But when it came time to put it on, forget it. I'm not big into the whole trick-or-treating thing, but I thought it would be a great excuse to go introduce ourselves to our new neighbors since Austin & I have so far only met one each. (Have I mentioned how much I miss our old neighborhood?!?) Secretly, I was just fine with staying home. We had some trick-or-treaters, and Emily loved seeing them, but she still refused to put on a costume. Even when I told her she couldn't have any of the trick-or-treat candy unless she did. Still a no-go. Oh well. I'm just glad I didn't spend any money on her costume. At least Lincoln was cute. Maybe next year...

Hawkeye bandwagon

Birthday supper

Emily got to pick what we had for supper tonight, and she requested green eggs & ham and banana bread. Isn't it great to have a 3-year-old?!? :o) I added hashbrowns and fresh pineapple for a well-rounded breakfast meal. Emily was mostly just interested in the candles. It took awhile, but she did get them blown out herself. (The problem is she "blows" using an /f/ sound.) She wanted to do them again and again. It's a good thing she'll get another shot with her actual cake on Sunday!