Abby's Birthday and Other Kid Updates

So, here are the details of Abby's birthday weekend. Her birthday was actually on Thursday, her birthday party was Saturday, and she opened presents from her grandparents and great grandparents today (Sunday). She had a great time. First, she got a package from her Poppy (Josh's dad and his wife Karen). She got a very pretty coat and new shoes.

This was her reaction to her present from Josh and me...

...A new bike!

Her intimate birthday party on Saturday:

Clockwise: Abby, Shelby, Gracie, Matt, and Emma

It was a luau--Aloha!

They painted their own birdhouses.

They tossed balls into the loops.




Josh and Millie cheered them on.





They limbo-ed.

We had a silly string war.

Look closely and you can see who got stringed the most.

Abby opened her presents.

Everyone showing off their dried birdhouses.

Here is Abby's cake. This is the reason we were up late Friday night. Abby said she wanted a mountain scene cake. I think she expected a regular half sheet cake with a picture of a mountain on it. I thought it would be cool to make it 3-D. Josh and I came up with a plan and he put it all together. It's essentially a six layer cake (including the peak). It's got a waterfall, candy rocks, strawberry tops as plants, and TONS of frosting (not a Fess Up Friday's best friend). It was very fun to make and I think we'll be more creative like this more often.

So that was the fun of The Day of Abby. Here are some other things happening in our house lately:

Matt came out of bed the other night and tried to convince us to let him stay up. He said he couldn't sleep. I told him that was too bad and he needed to get back into bed. He said, "But Mom..." Then he began staring at the television and said, "Me is indicted to TV." I told him that I didn't care if he was addicted to the TV, he needed to go to sleep. Sidenote: I don't know why he insists on using "Me" instead of "I". He's been behind on his speech--about a year--and even though he's doing much better than he has been, he still doesn't remember to say "I". Something more for us to work on this summer.

Millie makes some pretty strange noises. Remember Roscoe P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazzard? I haven't seen the movie (I refuse to--why try to improve on a good thing?) but on the TV show Roscoe has this weird laugh, something like "A ghuh ghuh ghuh!" Millie has a cry that sounds just like that. She also sounds like a crotch-rocket. You know, one of those little motorcycles that technically counts as a motorcycle but isn't nearly as cool. So, what I'm saying is, my infant daughter sounds like a rinky-dink motorcycle and a foolish Southern deputy sheriff. I'm the mother of the year.

There isn't a stand-out Emma moment that I can think of, but if being overly dramatic is what you're missing in your life, have Emma stop by and she'll solve that for you. Today she was freaking out because the missionaries were supposed to be at Mom and Dad's house by 4pm for dinner and it was 3:58 and they weren't there yet so they were NEVER going to show up! Oh, it was SOOO horrible! Oh, what were we going to do??? Anyone need a piece of our Drama Pie?