4th of July Reminder...

For all the locals out there -

Don't forget about the annual 4th of July Breakfast at the park between the library and the fire station at 6am!!  I personally won't be there at 6 {I'm pretty sure on that one!} but will definitely be showing up for it!!  This year they're having an authentic chuck wagon come on down for some show and tell while we eat yummy pancakes, bacon and eggs.  Sound pretty cool to anyone else?!?

See you there!!!  {If you come closer to 7 that is!}  :O)

Oh, and P.S.  Maelee's birthday post is in the works, PROMISE!!!

Can You Believe My Baby is 5?!?

Oh, heavens!!  I can't!!

This year I wanted to start making birthdays really special for our kids.  I just wanted to create a few traditions to make it a magical day, one that they will remember for EVER and always know that they are special to us.  I spent hours the day before making a "happy birthday" banner to hang from the bay window over the kitchen table, and decorated the table with a Tangled table cloth, her present {wrapped in princess paper and topped with a huge bow}, curled ribbons and had the table set with pink dishes for the girls.  She told me she wanted omlettes for breakfast {her fave} so I cut everything up the night before they would come together quickly and smoothly in the morning.

I woke up at 5:20, SO excited for her birthday.  I knew it was going to be a crazy day, so I decided to relish the quiet for a little longer...  That is, of course, until Madi came in at 5:30!  She usually snuggles up next to me and goes right back to sleep if she comes in that early, but not that day!  It was her birthday and she was TOO excited to go back to sleep!  So we got up at 5:40 and started working on breakfast.  Madison was SO CUTE when she saw all the decorations that were just for HER.  She was totally giddy!  Maelee joined us around 6 and was just as ecstatic about all the hullabaloo.

After breakfast, we let her open her present from us - a lady bug tent and tunnel.  She and Maelee were pretty funny to watch as they exercised their imaginations and discovered new uses for a tunnel with a lady bug face on it!  :O)

After Clint went to work, we got ready for Madi's party.  I have to confess here, Madi and I made invitations, and they were super cute...

"Yay!  Yipee!  Yeehaw!  Hurray!

Summertime is here to stay!

Let's slip-n-slide with Madi-May!

A birthday bash

Is worth the splash

So come on down and play!"

BUT...  Well...  Let's just say they ended up making my counter look VERY pretty... and leave it at that!  {Loser Mom, I know!  Thank heavens for texting!!  LOL}

We transferred the banner and table cloth outside, frosted and sprinkled the cupcakes, donned swimsuits and were ready to let the fun begin! 

The kids had a blast with our wiggle worm sprinkler, then our slip-n-slide, then our flower sprinkler!  At one point, the wind picked up Madi's new tent and tunnel - luckily her friend Eliana grabbed the tent...  But Mads wasn't QUITE as lucky in her attempts to grab the tunnel...  I hear this horrific scream and think that someone has just died.  When I finally get her to calm down enough to tell me what had happened, I look out to the ditch that runs in front of our property and see the top of a red lady bug tunnel floating in the shallow water.  Suffice it to say that ditch mud is SQUISHY!!!  :O)

Madi helped me make little goody bags for all the kids, and she was cute handing them all out - very determined to make sure everyone got the RIGHT one.  LOL  Her friends spoiled her with lots of great toys, books, puzzles, games...  Too much fun!

After the party wrapped up, we cleaned up and headed to town to meet my dad for lunch.  He took a day trip to our neck of the woods and treated the girls and I to Madison's restaurant of choice for her birthday {Yes, the golden arches.  Surprised?  I wasn't!}.  He got her a beautifully illustrated book of Disney Princess Bedtime Stories, a Tangled card that sings when you open it and a happy meal {a VERY rare treat for her so she was pretty stoked!!}.  The girls were beyond adorable flirting with and showing off for their Papa Rowan.  Made me happy that he got to see that side of them and that they warmed up to him so much.  In fact, as we were pulling away, Madi asked if we could see him everyday.  I explained that he lived far away and she informed me that we could meet him halfway...  how do you argue with THAT kind of logic?  :O) 

He also brought me a first edition copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm that is over 108 years old!  It's in amazing shape and I'm excited to have a copy to share with my girls... after I read it myself of course!  LOL

Madi played with her new toys while Maelee napped and when Clint got home we let the Birthday Girl choose where we went for dinner, and it again was no surprise when she picked the local hamburger shop Clint's aunt owns.  We ended the day with cupcakes and ice cream with Clint's parents and a bedtime story from her new book.  It was a fabulous day.  She told me at LEAST a dozen times that it was the best birthday EVER!  :O)  It was pretty funny, if she started to get upset over something, I would remind her that she was 5 now and she would pause and then smile and move on.  AMAZING!  I am LOVING 5 so far!!

Happy Birthday Baby... 

I can't believe you changed our lives by making us parents FIVE YEARS AGO!  You were amazing to us then and you still amaze us every single day.  I am SO proud of the beautiful, wonderful little girl you've become, the kind and sensitive big sister, the smarty-smarty preschool graduate, big helper and world's greatest snuggler.  Madison, I LOVE being your Mom.  Thank you for being my daughter and teaching me what it means to love unconditionally.  I hope the next 5 years go a LOT slower!!!!!!!  :O)

HOW MUCH PEE CAN ONE LITTLE PERSON HAVE?!?

After reading blog after blog and talking with lots of friends {AND being pretty tired of seeing Maelee's naked buns poking out from her shirt... ok, that part was actually really cute.  The annoying part was the diaper she had whipped off prior to the streaking}, I finally decided that it was time.

We made the chart:

Bought the Dora panties and the more budget friendly panties:

Stocked up on MnMs,cleared the calendar and let the fun begin!!  {That is supposed to be dripping with sarcasm...}

Actually, I surprised myself by being... yes, I'm going to say it... excited about the whole thing.  She was SO ready and I was ready for her to be day-trained {with all the camping we do every summer, there's no way I'm even attempting night-time... ok, or nap-time yet!}.  She had stayed dry for over 3 hours before, so I figured that for starters I would set the timer for 30 min.  Well...  10 minutes into her first cycle, she comes out of Madi's room holding the package of Dora panties saying, "Uh, oh!  Dora yuck!  Pee, Mom!"  Clean up mess numero uno.  5 minutes later I step in something wet in the kitchen.  I ask Maelee {who had just run into the bathroom} if she had peed and she yells back, "Yep, Mom!  Pee!"  I get that rather large puddle cleaned up and head into the bathroom to rinse out the washcloth, only to find an even BIGGER lake in there!  "Mo pee, Mom.  See?  Look!  Yuck!"  I clean her up, drain the lake and send her and Madi outside.  Literally 2 minutes later she comes back in, "Pee, Mom!  Help!"  FOUR ACCIDENTS IN THE FIRST 30 MINUTES!!  She's killin' me! {which, on a side note, that phrase is her latest adorable phrase, only hers comes out "KI-in me!"}  So, I ended up setting the timer for every 7 minutes that day.  Sheesh!  Day one ended with 8 accidents, 4 pees in the potty and a very small poo {surprised the heck out of me!  Pretty impressive for the first real day of training if you ask me!}.

See that impish look in her eye...? Yeeeah, I do too! :O)

For the first two days I gave her and Madi an MnM {I wanted Madi to be a big part of potty training.  If sister is one of your biggest heroes AND biggest cheerleaders, that's one more person to be a "big girl" for} if she even sat on the potty, just to get her interested and jived for the whole process.  She caught on really quick to it and we spent probably 45 minutes solid on day one going back and forth from the kitchen to the bathroom loading up on MnMs {BUT, she got 45 minutes solid of practice!}.  I know some people aren't in to bribing, but if it helps remind her that this is supposed to be FUN {ha ha} and help her to want to stop and go potty, then I'm down with that.

Day 2 started off with a bang!  Maelee woke up and asked to go potty.  She had on a diaper, but wanted to go in the toilet {yeehaw!}.  To my delight she not only peed but did her dirty business!!  She was absolutely fascinated by it {come to think of it, she's never seen poop in a toilet before so I suppose it's something to marvel at...}.  The rest of the day yielded only TWO accidents!  One outside {no clean-up, yay!} and one while she was playing in my shower {again, no real clean-up.  Double yay!}, but she actually stopped herself that time and finished in the toilet.  We set the timer for 10-15 minutes on day 2, depending on if she pottied or not.  That night was interesting... she realized that we would let her get up if she "needed to go potty"... yeah.  We finally had to get a little stern with her to get her to stay in bed long enough to fall asleep.  But by 11:30pm she had gotten up 3 times, so she slept the rest of the night in her crib.  Gotta admit... didn't see that one coming!

Day 3: Again, only 2 accidents.  Again, outside.  We even went to town and she stayed dry!  We started pulling back on the cheering and treats on day 3, and stopped rewarding unless she actually pottied.  From this point on, we only gave out MnMs if she asked for them.  We also stopped setting the timer and just trying to take her every 45 minutes or so.  We had another rough round of trying to get her to stay in bed that night, and ended up cribbing her again, dang it!

Now, it's 2 weeks into "training" and man oh man am I SO glad I jumped into this whole thing and didn't put it off.  She was DEFINITELY ready to do this.  We went camping this last weekend and she only had TWO accidents!  TOTAL!!  She even woke up dry from naps and nights!  I'm still not going to really push the wearing of panties while sleeping until our crazy summer is winding down, but I'm SO excited that she's doing SO GREAT!! 

I realize that she is the one who made this easy.  I really can't take much credit {beyond sticking with it for those first few days},  BUT... I have SO found my new M.O. for potty training!!!  Now, we just need to adopt a little boy or two to try it on again!  ;O)