Mae's Birthday Cupcake

I decided I should do a separate post about Mae eating her cupcake so that I can include lots of pictures. On Nicholas and Ella's first birthdays, there had been very few sweets prior to their parties. So when they were presented with their first cupcakes, they approached said cakes as though they were strange and forbidden. They were ever so cautious. Not my Mae Mae. She's had numerous encounters with sweets in the past few months so when it was cupcake time, it was game on. She grabbed that thing with both hands. She had two hands full of cupcake so she couldn't quite get herself a bite so Ella helped. Then Mae got it figured out. She seriously ate the entire cupcake except for the chunk that fell down beside her in the high chair. That's my girl!

Happy 1st Birthday, Mae!!!

Our Blessed Mae Mae

Yummy

Mimi and Mae Mae

Sarah and her boys.....Joshua and Ben

Mae's Presents along with the resident gift bosses Ella and Niko (who is on the couch but did quickly assume the other boss role as soon as the first card was opened)

Our little Mae Mae turned one today. I have been a wreck for the last few weeks thinking about my "baby" turning one. She is such a blessing and I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone. I'm so proud of her. She was born into this busy household and she has learned to take it all in stride. She loves her brother and sister. She loves her big stinky dog. She LOVES her Daddy and grandparents. She is pure delight.


We had a nice little party for her this weekend. Mimi and Papa Don drove up from Columbus. Our friends Sarah, Joshua and Ben Waggoner also joined us. Meemaw and Papa Carl were missed while they are traveling out west. Mae liked her dinner, LOVED her cupcake, and could have cared less about her presents.......which was a good thing because her brother and sister really didn't let her help open anything. She did seem to really like the walking/talking Cabbage Patch Doll that we had bought her........I wasn't sure if she would like the doll or be terrified because she's really loud! Mae received so many sweet presents including many beautiful new outfits. Yippee!! I love dressing up my girls!

Small Group Kiddos

Joshua, Joel and Josiah helping me wash Nala (Ben in the background watching!)

Joshua, Joel, Josiah and Kylie washing Nala

"Freeze Dance" with the BLE (Best Lifegroup Ever!) kids and Miss Mary

Last Thursday evening, Lenn and I, along with our friend Mary, babysat most of the kids from our small group while most of the rest of the adults did a service project. So that means 3 adults and 12 busy kids.........oh my! But it was super fun. The kids did so great together. Many of them helped me give Nala a bath........the kids thought they were big stuff. We played lots outside and lots inside and had an overall great time.

Greek Festival September 11, 2010

Last night we had a super fun time going to the Greek Festival with Papa Don and Mimi. They treated us to an evening of yummy food and Greek dancing. The weather was perfect, the food was abundant and the dancing was......challenging. We watched lots of people dancing while the Greek band played. Then we watched young elementary and older elementary-aged children do some of the traditional Greek dances. Ella was ready to roll. She was so eager to dance, and Nicholas wanted to try it out too, so we hit the dance floor. It was so fun and it looked like such simple steps.......except for the fact that I was trying to learn the steps in real time while holding the hands of a 3 and 6-year-old. They don't slow down for beginners!! We had so much fun. We, o.k. I was out of breath.

The dancing was almost as great as the food. Oh my. Greek Salad. Lamb dinner. Appetizer plate loaded with giant chunks of feta, authentic Greek olives, hummus, dolmathes (meat/rice/yums wrapped in grape leaves.......yum), meatballs, spinakopita (which Nicholas promptly reported that it was nowhere near as good as Mimi's.......I agree!!), tiropita (cheese pie), and other yummy stuff. YUM. Then, after you've stuffed yourself, then there's the dessert. They don't have just a few choices.......no.......there's an entire huge tent where you wait in a long line (worth every minute) to walk through the assembly line pointing at that and that and that as you fill your box with tasty delights. The only thing we ate that I can even begin to spell and pronounce was baklava but we sampled probably 10 things. YUM. And Papa and Mimi bought "diples" which were little tasty morsels of deep-fried dough covered in some sweet glazy yumminess. Warm. Bite-sized. Tasty. Oh my. So after all of the taste-testing, some Greek dancing was in order to try to work off some of those calories. Nicholas asked us today when the next Greek festival is........you should have seen how much that boy ate!

Ella's first day of preschool!!

Last Tuesday, Ella started back to preschool for the fall. This year she is in the 3's class with Miss Joni and Miss Nancy. She was very excited to get back to school and meet some new friends. When Nicholas had Miss Joni and Miss Nancy, I cried at the end of the school year because I loved his class and teachers so much. Miss Joni is also the early childhood minister at our church and God created her to work with young children. She could not be more gifted at what she does........we think she's the best!!

10 year Anniversary (August 12, 2010)

Look at these happy kids. Can you believe it's been 10 years already? Lenn bought me beautiful white roses for our anniversary and then we went out for a really nice dinner at Harry and Izzy's downtown. Carl and Evelyn stayed with the kiddos. It's such a rare treat for us to get a date night.......much less an expensive meal at a classy downtown restaurant. Woo hoo!!

Mae is 11 months old!!

Mae was sick for her 11 month pictures so she looks a little weepy. She had a cold and was just not herself. She continues to be so busy and so much fun. In fact, on August 21, when she turned 11 months old, she tried to walk. She made several courageous attempts at walking, piecing together 4 steps at one point. Not much progress on the walking front since then but she tries anytime you encourage her. Almost one year old.......I cannot believe it!!!

From the mouths of babes....

So as part of our homeschooling curriculum this year, we are reading some classic children's books and then doing language arts, science, art, math, etc based on the story. We also identify vocabulary words that we don't know and we write them and their definitions on index cards. Last week, one of our words was "indignant." According to Nicholas's children's dictionary, indignant means the following: "if you are indignant, you are upset and annoyed because you feel that something is not fair." Soon after learning that word together, there was a set of unfortunate circumstances that led to Nicholas not getting to go outside to play baseball one evening when we had said we would probably be able to do that later. Instead, we sent him upstairs to get ready for bed. He was very upset and marched upstairs and then stood at the top of the stairs and said, with hands on hips and bottom lip quivering, "I'm going to use my words. I am very indignant that I don't get to play baseball." I LOVE it!! He was using this huge word in exactly the right context and he was so passionate about it.......he was almost in tears. Priceless.