Two birthday parties

Heh heh... My phone gets the silliest pictures....



Yes- it's been three weeks or so since I last blogged. I don't have any decent excuses, other than the normal "OMG I'm so crazy busy I don't even have time to use the restroom" variety.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've attended two birthday parties. The first was Amelia's first birthday party. Amelia is Griffin's sister and Dana and Finley's daughter. Then, the following weekend we headed to Chesapeake to Lucas and Lily's third birthday party. This was a whole adventure in itself, as we ended up staying in a motel that was taken over by gangs, and where the fire alarm on Saturday night went off on an hourly basis. It turns out that some "Valentine's Day Lovers" in the room down the hall from us were burning candles and incense, and that kept tripping off the fire alarm. I should have known we were in for a treat when we passed their room and saw fake rose petals sprinkled all over the carpet in front of their door. Ugh. Redmond, if you ever decide to get all romantic with me by booking a room at America's Best Value Inn in Norfolk... don't.

A couple of videos...

Sadie, Lucas and Lily had a grand time marching in the silly drum parade!



Like most kids, Lucas and Lily actually find the confetti inside birthday gift bags more exciting than the actual gifts...



Watch Sadie as we sing "Happy Birthday" to Amelia. There's a picture further down where you can see Sadie planning a stealthy cake attack in the corner of the picture...



On to pictures.... Here are some pictures from Amelia's party.


Every time we go to Dana and Finley's house, I always seem to get a picture of Sadie hanging out under their playground set.


I can't believe she managed to squish herself into Amelia's little Bumbo chair!


Grapes are so much fun to eat...
The happy Lee/Deaton family...

Look at the left bottom corner of this picture... See our little stealth cake stealer?


Here are some pics from Lucas and Lily's party. Yes, Sadie's wearing the same party dress. She's obsessed with that thing. I think she wore it to school today...











Sadie loves to play with her little wooden pizza kit. Thanks, Uncle Robert and Aunt Marsha!

Recent video clips...

We played Hide and Seek in the snow... First, Sadie looks for me... Note that she calls herself "Wyatt" and me "Princess Pea". She is currently in this stage of constant fantasy play, and I never know what fictional characters we're all going to play at any given moment. There's some PBS Kids show on learning to read PBS called "Super Why", and Wyatt and Princess Pea are characters on the show. The one recurring theme is this- she is always in the "star" character role, and I am always a "plucky sidekick".



Now, Sadie wants me to find her, but she needs to work a little on her hiding skills...



Mommy and Sadie play on the slide together... I'm a bit big for such things...





This is part of the Fire Safety demo the Chapel Hill fire fighters gave at Malcolm's birthday party.



Here are the kids as they first discover the fire truck... And it's Tarheel Blue!



Sadie, the fire fighter, driving the truck... Notice me telling her "Here, let me help you do it yourself!" I hate saying that, but Sadie is often in full autonomy mode, and since I am not going to allow her to, say, sword fight all by herself, I often have to offer to "help" her do it "by herself". I sometimes wince at the ways we have to actively manipulate our kids.




Here are the kids on the engine making siren sounds...



Here are the fire fighters leading the "Happy Birthday" song for Malcolm...