I Found Them!

At least I think I did . . . it's amazing what 18 or 19 years (and several lbs.) can do to a person!

A Blast From the Past . . .

Who are these people, and where did they go?

Rat-a-phewww-ee . . . not so good.

Emily discovered last night that one really shouldn't eat too many gummy bears in a single sitting. Since she sat next to her Daddy when we were at the movie theater, I had no idea she had ingested almost a whole bag of them! Thanks, Daddy! She woke up with a sick tummy at midnight and threw up 2 or 3 times before finally falling back to sleep. At one point, I think I heard her say that she was "never going to eat anything gummy ever again!" Lesson learned.

Rat-a-too-ee . . . C'est tres bien!

Tonight Frank and I surprised the girls and took them to go see Disney Pixar's "Ratatouille." What an absolutment charmant movie! Emily and Carly loved it (and so did we!) Four out of four stars from us! We've decided that Monday nights are great for going to the movies. There weren't a whole lot of people in the theater, and we had our pick of primo seats (right in the middle and a little more than halfway up.) I think we'll definitely be doing this again!

Happy Birthday, Haley!

Today Emily and Carly's friend, Haley, celebrated her 7th birthday with a party at our neighborhood pool. Despite some really stormy weather this morning, the afternoon turned out to be surprisingly perfect for hanging out at the pool.

The sun was just a wee bit bright!

Emily and Haley

Emily and Carly

"Come on, vamonos . . ."

This morning we drove out to Katy for Cousin Alli's "Dora the Explorer" splish-splash birthday bash. Despite the drizzly weather, the girls enjoyed splishing and splashing around and playing on the fun waterslides Alli had in her backyard.

They also had fun crafting their own personalized sun visors.

Happy 3rd birthday, Alli! We love you!

Today also marks "Little Noni's" 87th birthday - - - WOW! We're looking forward to seeing her when she comes down from Maryland to visit us in August!

Emily Goes "Hollywood"

Today, Emily attended a birthday party for her friend, Naomi. The theme was "come dressed as your favorite hollywood superstar." It should have been "just come dressed as Hannah Montana." I've never seen so many little blonde wigs in one place! It was hilarious! I think Emily was one of the only originals at the party. Since her Halloween costume from last year still fit her perfectly, she went dressed as an "American Idol," complete with diva sunglasses and a sparkly microphone. Here's our little superstar before she left home to stroll the red carpet . . .

I hope she'll remember all of us when she hits the big time!

Dirt Free (Mostly)

Today, Dirt Free came out to clean our carpets. We've used them before, always with great results. While the representative showed up on time and cleaned the downstairs carpet to my satisfaction, I should have checked the upstairs before leaving the house with the girls for a while while the carpet dried. For some reason, we now have a rather large blackish ring on one of the top steps leading into the gameroom. The rep. must have set a canister of some sort on the step while he was cleaning the carpet in the gameroom. You would think he would have noticed the ring on his way back down the stairs, but apparently not. Needless to say, he'll be coming back tomorrow.

Notes to self:

• Unless it's an absolute emergency, do not ever plan to have the carpets cleaned during the summer while the kids aren't in school.
• Despite what the carpet cleaning rep. tells you, the carpet will not dry within an hour.

"There's No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk . . ."

Who came up with that saying anyway? Whoever said it must have had tile flooring throughout his or her entire house. Which is not the case in our house. Can you see where I'm going with this?

We had a little accident this morning at breakfast time. It seems that while Carly was trying to bring her empty cereal bowl (or should I say somewhat empty cereal bowl) to the kitchen counter this morning, she misjudged just how high the countertop was and just how much milk was still left in her bowl. Although the bowl managed to make it to the edge of the counter, unfortunately, the majority of the milk did not, and most of it wound up on the living room carpet, adjacent to the tile floor in the kitchen. Now why couldn't it have just landed on the tile in the kitchen, I ask you? Because it's Monday!

The carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow.

Peace and Quiet

Frank and I got to enjoy some alone time without the girls this weekend! (Is that two weekends in a row now?) Emily and Carly spent Saturday night with Noni and Poppy out in Katy. Half the fun for them is packing their own bags. (Of course, Mommy still double-checks the bags before they head out the door!) Here are the divas all packed up and ready to go!

This Little Piggy Went to the Market . . .

Carly asked me at the dinner table tonight, "Mommy, when can I get a pedicare?" Of course, she was actually referring to a "pedicure." So, Mommy pulled out the nail polish tonight after bath time and gave the girls each a mini-pedi. Here are the results . . .

Happy 4th of July!

After Frank and I enjoyed dinner and a movie last night (if you haven't seen the latest Die Hard action flick, it's really quite good!) with some of our old neighbors from Pearland (let me clarify - - - they're not old - - - we just don't happen to live across the street from them anymore!), today was for relaxing and BBQing. The rain managed to let up this afternoon, and Gigi, Uncle Steven, and Cousin Brianna came over, and we threw some baby back ribs on the grill. After all of the finger licking, the girls entertained us with another one of their lovely "fashion shows," and we feasted on a yummy cake that Gigi had whipped up. Emily and Carly were somewhat disappointed tonight that the usual 4th of July festivities and fireworks display in our neighborhood were canceled due to the wet weather we've been having lately, but they quickly settled for watching fireworks on TV while eating popcorn. Happy 4th!

"Toys Are Us"

It seems that Emily and Carly both think they have mastered the art of cleaning up their toys and pulling the wool over my eyes . . .

It's always been a struggle to get the girls to clean up the upstairs playroom and their bedrooms, and it's usually not accomplished without a bit of yelling (mostly them) and crying (mostly me!), so I thought I would try something new the other day. I promised them I wouldn't constantly bug them about picking up their stuff all day long if they would promise me to pick up their toys and other belongings at least twice a day - - - once before Daddy gets home from work and one more time before bedtime. Anything left out after clean-up time disappears into a bag and "goes away" for a period of time. They agreed to the deal, and things have been working out extremely well. Both parties have been very satisfied with the arrangement - - - at least until today!

While in Emily's room this morning, I stubbed my toe on something poking out from under her bed. When I had a little look-see to determine what the offender was (thinking maybe a wayward Barbie accessory or a forgotten hair clip,) I was surprised to discover a whole treasure trove of toys! It seems that the little fartknocker has been shoving all manner of things under her bed during clean-up time to avoid putting them where they actually belong! I guess she and Carly made their own special little pact to speed up the cleaning process, since after careful examination, it became apparent Carly had stashed quite a bit under her bed as well! Now the rule is "anything left out in plain sight" and "anything pushed under the bed or any other piece of furniture" goes into the dreaded bag. I guess I should have been more specific with my clean-up instructions. Silly me!

All Wrapped Up

"Hey, Mommy . . . can you do that thing on my head like you do when you get out of the shower?"

Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .