her birthday celebrated--finally

Olivia had a fever two weeks ago when this slumber party was first planned. Plan B was last night which we stuck to, despite having had a more complicated week than anticipated.

After eating pizza, the girls decorated t-shirts.

They loved it!

Next they swam, which explains the wet hair and bathing suit in this shot.

They went inside, got pajamas on, and dressed their dolls into the skirts I had made for each of them. I bought the little shirts.

By this time, it had started to drizzle so I only got this lousy shot of them in our garage. I had visions of the dolls all posed together, wearing my designs but it was not to be :)

At 10 p, we all made homemade playdoh together. Another super fun, easy, yet BIG hit. After it was all combined, they each kneaded their own portion and then colored it to their liking. I had small ziploc containers for each girl, and they put their name on those.

Now, the rest of the night did spin out of my control in that the girls moved from basement to bedroom at about 1am. I think they fell asleep around 2ish. And from about midnight on, Skipper the Dog, barked and carried on endlessly.

Still, a success though.

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the perm

before:

After:

Ever since receiving perm rods with her newest American Girl doll, Olivia has wanted to try this out for herself. Yesterday, she convinced my mom and sister to roll her up! No solution was used so this is more of a temp, than a perm. She has the thickest hair already so those curls took hold like nobody's business. It shortened her hair by at least 2 inches.

In the top one, doesn't she look like she belongs on a greeting card, circa 1968?

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keeping my mind occupied

I am kind of at loose ends so I just sat down and made a scrapbook page. My goal is to fill in my 2009 photo book monthly pages with some special events that warrant more face time. I knew I wanted to do this but just had not started. So what was wrong with tonight, huh? I broke out the recent pics from last week since that memory is still clear in my mind. I am still using all of the same papers, elements and color schemes so in the end it will all tie together.

No doubt, there are other more productive things to be done but there's always Monday for that...

Oh, I also spray painted my thrifty chair today. I need to give it a second coat and then it will be ready for the big reveal.

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staycation plus a bit of bad news...

Dave took off Wed-Fri for us to do some fun things together as a fam. Wednesday, we visited a lake that our neighbors were staying at. Both girls went tubing even in the pouring rain. Brave little souls.

On Thursday, we went to Kings Island where both girls showed even more spirit by riding rides they have never conquered before!

Olivia on the Drop Zone.This is the Drop Zone. You go up one billion stories at least, and then the whole dang things falls in one big whoosh to the bottom. Ok, that is how it seemed to Shelby and I as we watched Dave and Olivia do this. CRAZY.Here in seat 7 are Dave and Shelby on the Runaway Reptar. Again, having Shelby out of my sight had my heart in my chest. When they finally came around the final bend, Olivia shouted: she's smiling, she's smiling!

And Friday, we headed to Coney Island for the first true sunny day, which we planned to spend swimming and riding water slides.

These pictures represent a good start to our day which very unfortunately, ended when I received a phone call that my Dad had suddenly and unexpectedly died. I raced off to the hospital and saw him one last time. The best guess is that he died of a pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in the lung.

As I write this, it still feels very unbelievable. This week will move forward with sadness, a memorial service, and hopefully coping and healing.

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celebration: the day after

Here is the B'day girl modeling her glasses from her Goody Bag.

Shelby and her friends Gillian and Lauren, enjoying an attraction.

A picture I forced, of my two girls together.

And some of the group with Chuck E. Cheese himself.

I must say, CEC did not disappoint again this year (Shelby's choice twice). It is very low maintenance for the party parent, they take care of everything and move the party along and the kids have fun. I also think it is a good value especially if I ever tallied what I have spent on some of the themed parties I have thrown at home. This year, I had them do it all: from balloons, pizza to cake and goody bags.

Onto gifts...she got a couple of standouts last night. First, the Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center is very cool. It is well made, and well thought out. Plus, you can download many more templates online.
Right now, my girls are doing this Glitter Lava which is neat too. Less messy than glitter glue. It is described as putty, and you push into the grooves of the shapes provided to create "art". Shelby got the jewelry set and as it is a slow process, it is keeping them quite busy.

Note: Pictures are impossible at CEC, so please cut me some slack on these taken with my point and shoot!

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