Royal princess/prince party

Matthew was so excited when he received an invitation to the ball, er, um, I mean birthday party. His friend, Sarah, turned 4 and had a royal party. The girls donned princess skirts when they arrived and the boys put on their "Prince Phillip" capes (as Sarah called them). I was a little worried that Matthew might be sad that he didn't receive a princess skirt since he roams the house with his blanket wrapped around his waist referring to himself as a 'princess.' Luckily, he was fine with wearing a cape. I think he was just thrilled to be at a party.

At the party they went on a treasure hunt and bejeweled a crown with the jewels from their treasure chest...

played 'kiss the frog' (similar to pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey) in which Matthew cheated and moved the blindfold to put the lips right on the frog's mouth.

They tried to squish as much royalty as possible into the beautiful castle...

Enjoyed eating a beautifully made Ariel princess cake (it turned out great, Kim!)...

and dressed up like the royalty that they are, complete with their bejeweled crown, beaded necklace and huge jeweld ring! Matthew really enjoyed the party and has been wearing his attire around the house every day since! It was a dream come true for him. Happy birthday Sarah and thank you for inviting us!

Mad dance skills

As part of our family home evening on Monday night, we decided to have a dance fest. Here are some of Corinne's mad dancing skills.

2 months old

Nora is now 2 months old. We went for her 2 month check-up and she is 10lb 3 oz, and 22 inches long. She's still a small thing, but a very happy baby!

Learning the hard way

Corinne and Matthew begin the mornings with a cup of milk. It seems they can't function without it. So, I'll give them some milk so I can get breakfast ready and get the day started. Many times they will take their milk to various places in the house and play with toys until it's time to eat. Then it becomes a hide-and-seek game for me to find the milk. Yesterday I lost. I couldn't find Corinne's milk no matter where I looked. I searched her usual hiding places to no avail. Today, I finally won! I was feeding Nora in her room and found the milk cup hiding in a corner. Corinne just happened to be in the room and spied it the same time I did. Since I was a little busy and couldn't just jump right up, she started drinking the milk before I could stop her. I then assumed that the milk must still be fine since she didn't spit it out and continued to drink it. How wrong I was. I don't know why kids are so picky at mealtimes yet can manage to swallow rancid milk or bleach or all kinds of other chemicals without noticing the horrible taste. A few minutes later (I'm still feeding Nora), Corinne looks at me with a funny look and starts spewing white chunks everywhere. I grab the nearest burp cloth and hold it up to her to try to minimize the mess, but she shakes her head back and forth almost purposely to fling the chunks to the farthest corners of the room. Mealtime abruptly ends for Nora and I put her down on the ground and carry a crying Corinne at arms length down the hall and to the bathtub leaving a trail of chunks behind. I turn the water on and pour some toys into the tub to keep her happy while I do my best to clean up the foul-smelling mess. As if the vomit smell isn't bad enough, it is combined with the putrifying smell of rancid milk. The only smell worse is gangrene. Not even Matthew's poop, stored in his colon for days before being excreted, can top this odor. After several minutes of scrubbing and trying to find every last white chunk dispersed throughout the room, I now have to scrub down Corinne and try to make sure I get the smell off of her, which I don't think I fully did since I didn't wash her hair--I'll save that for tonight. I refuse to take pictures of or post pictures of this event. No one wants to see it. All of you mothers will have plenty of opportunities to see vomit first hand without having to see pictures of it from other children. We'll just call this whole experience a lesson learned with sour milk. May you never experience it!

Children's Museum

Our friends, the Orrs came to visit for a couple of days and encouraged us to go with them to the Children's Museum in Niantic. It took little persuasion to get us to go since it is freezing outside and the kids are getting severe cabin fever. Corinne's all dressed and ready to go once she gets a jacket on!

Here's Michael Orr with his son, Raife.

Matthew was building with everything he could find.

Corinne preferred tools and trains to the more domestic food play centers. We had a great time! Thanks Orrs!