Friends

In a few weeks, the theme of the iheartfaces photo blog is going to be friends. Lulu has lots of friends, especially this one:

(I'm thinking about entering this picture in the contest.)

While I was looking for friend theme pics, I came across these gems that I just had to share.

Lulu and Gator (age 6ish) go to a party! They dressed the same, on purpose!

Lulu and Gator sell Girl Scout cookies.

Lulu and Gator make their annual Gingerbread houses.

Lulu and Gator on the boat.

Lulu and Gator go to the zoo!

Ahhhh... Lulu and Gator on top of a mountain - 1 mile above sea level. I sooooo wish that I had taken more pictures this day!

I;m thinking of editing this last mountain picture to include some kind of text... a short Bible verse perhaps??? See this picture as an example. Any suggestions?

Let them eat cake: more birthday dilemmas

Now onto another dilemma.

Am I going to make and decorate Bro's birthday cake or buy one?

A bit of history here...

I make all of Lulu's birthday cakes. Yes, I have my own cake decorating kit and I make her cakes every year - without fail. It's not as hard as it seems; if you can paint-by-number then you can make one of these cakes. I have asked if Lulu would like me to purchase a store-bought cake for her and she has been adament that her birthday cake is ONLY MADE BY MOMMY! Lucky me!

This "tradition" started because Gator's mom made Gator's first cake and told me that this was what I was supposed to do too. (Gator's mom: if you are reading - I love you!) (Read about Lulu and Gator here - you'll have to scroll down a bit.)

Making the cake is fun but is also very, very time consuming. I am wanting to buy Bro's cake because he won't even know the difference anyways. However, that mom-guilt is tugging away at me.

These are my choices, as I see them:

1. Make Bro's cake and Lulu's cake... until they go away to college.

2. Buy Bro's cake but still make Lulu's cake (which may start to make feel Bro left out in years to come - however, he is a boy and my husband said that boys don't care about cakes).

3. Buy Bro's cake and buy Lulu's cake from now on (it was fun while it lasted).

I am thinking about making this cake for Bro, if I make one.

It's easy enough to make. I won't have to buy a special shaped pan or color a bunch of icing and apparently the snowman is made out of rice krispy treats. Can I buy those sugar cubes at the grocery store? How am I going to make the hat?

What do you think? Buy the cake or make it? Do you buy or make at your house? Do you have a tradition that you stopped once you added more children to the mix? Please share.

Did I mention that we didn't even get Bro a Christmas stocking this year? Pathetic or what?

Dinner with Friends

Oh, so much to say and so little time. OK - we went over to a friend's house the other night for a get together. These aren't just ANY friends. This was a get together of friends from forever ago. We were celebrating a homecoming for Top Chef's daughter, Butterfly, who has been away for far to long. I call her Butterfly because I have known her for as long as I can remember. I've seen her go through so many changes in life and develop into the young lady whom I met last night. Butterfly, if you are reading, it was so good to see you and to hug you. You looked great! Keep up the good work!

Where to begin... first off, we had a marvelous dinner prepared by none other than our favorite Top Chef. She is so aptly named because she is an excellent cook. She makes everything great, from meats to cakes and vegetables and everything inbetween. Last night she did not disappoint. Thanks for a great meal and fun time Top Chef.

See her great Key Lime Chiffon cake here?

And the close-up here?

Yummy. Very mouth watering. Nap mom and Dear husband will try to recreate it sometime. We'll see how that goes.

Another highlight to the evening was visiting with Bro's cousin close friend Jay Bird. Look at these cute boys; no, you are NOT seeing double.

To make a 10 year story short, we have known Jay Bird's family since his sister, Gator, and Lulu were babies. Here's my proof.

Now, here are the girls again, 10 years later! Gator is the same best friend mentioned in this post, but not pictured. Now, I have parental permission to blog her pic.

I can't resist adding this pic of them at a Girl Scout event. Are they cute or what?

It was so great to see the boys together (and for me to get a glimpse of what the next few months will be like for me, since Jay Bird is a few months older than Bro). Don't let the steady boys in this picture fool you. Went went through all of this (and more)...

to get this...
I wish that I had video of Jay Bird and his "so big" routine. I know, all babies do the "so big" thing but Jay Bird was especially cute!!!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Ah - the annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. Ever since the girls were very young, they have been decorating gingerbread houses with Fairy Grandmother. Some years the girls decorate during a large-ish gathering of friends and other years it is just Fairy Grandmother and her girls. Last year we had about 6-8 children decorating houses; this year was a small get-together with just the girls.

How great is this? Fairy Grandmother provides the houses (which she pre-assembles), candy, and icing (and a great breakfast this year). The girls provide the creativity.

Top house = Gator.

Bottom left = Fairy Grandmother.

Bottom Right = Lulu.

Rumor is that the girls were so excited about decorating that they decided to delay present opening so that they could keep working on their houses? Hmmmm....

Of course, no tween gathering is complete without showing off some mad texting skills. Note to self: I don't want to hear any comlpaints when it comes time to type out that next report. Those typing skills are just fine - as we now see!

Gator's brother, Jay Bird, stopped by to share in the excitement. What a cutie! Fairy Grandmother promises that next year Jay Bird and Bro are going to decorate houses too. OK - maybe in 2010.

We all have holiday traditions, but this is a special one for the girls and Fairy Grandmother. When I was young, I swear that Grand Matriarch used to let me open my gifts Christmas Eve, saving Christmas Day for the Santa presents, but she doesn't remember it that way. Do you have any special traditions that you shared/share with your grandparents?

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day - may I present...

Lulu - age 4 or 5??? Oh sweet bribery! What was she thinking?

And here is Lulu and lifelong friend Gator! Shiver me timbers!

p.s. Ms. Mindless - do you recognize the bed?

Gingerbread House

Lulu made her annual gingerbread house with BFF Gator and Fairy Grandmother.

Here are the results.

looking closer...

this is a reminder NOT TO EAT YELLOW SNOW...

... and here (on the roof) is "prep and landing gear" which made the girls giggle every time they said it... whatever that means...

Graduation - pics

Lulu is in the green dress. Here she is walking in with her class.

Standing with her class and waiting to sit down.

Shaking the hand of the Superintendent of Schools.

With Grandmommy and Daddy.

With her "mom you are embarrassing me" look.

What the heck happened to my hair?

Sigh - with her good buddy Gator.

A water tubing, camping, Tinker Bell birthday

Lulu finally had her Tinker Bell party. We had great fun. Since it was a water tubing part, for safety reasons, she was only permitted to invite three friends to her party. She invited Gator, of course, a cousin, and another close friend.

First things first... here is the Tinker Bell cake that I made.

Here is the Tinker Bell cake pan template.

Lulu and her friends loved the cake. I, for one, think that the cake looked a bit more like Cinderella than Tinker Bell. I probably should have included Tink's ear and added the black outlining as well. It would have made the hair seem scragglier and not so neat and clean.

Either way, it was a hit so I am pleased.

Luvs2Boat and I set up the sleeping accommodations a day ahead of time. Yes, I own a tent (look closely - it's a two-room tent) and will be using it more often in the near future.

The girls had lots of fun jumping off of the pier...

and riding on the inner tube.

Their favorite part had to be flying off of the tube, swimming back to it, and starting all over again.

After the first round of tubing, we ate dinner, went tubing some more, had cake and ice cream, made smores, played Guitar Hero (I'm not kidding), and c-r-a-s-h-e-d by 11:15 (which is mighty early for a group this age).

We woke up Saturday morning to Fairy Grandmother's signature heart waffles. Yummy!

I have to give credit where credit is due... I just arrived with the girls, Fairy Grandmother and Luvs2Boat did the rest. This might have been Lulu's best birthday ever! She says that she wants to do it again next year - I hope that her grandparents are ready!