Go Climb a Tree

As I was getting a few last minute items for Addie's party...

(side note: as some of you know, we had to go out of town unexpectedly last week, so I promise a birthday party post is in the works and almost complete. the best laid plans, right?) now back to our regularly scheduled post...

I found a huge pink polka-dotted ball and a small green and small purple ball. The girls, all 3 of them, have had so much fun with them! {Some of} the best $5 we've spent.

So it didn't surprise me that Addie and Paul played and played and played with the balls in the days leading up to her party.

It did, however, surprise me to walk outside the day before Addie's party to find my husband two thirds of the way up our huge magnolia tree in the backyard attempting to shake loose not one,

not two,

but three balls  

and a broomstick that were stuck in our tree!

When questioned, he explained that he and Addie had been kicking the ball.

Clearly Addie could not and did not kick the first ball that high.

And she certainly did not throw 2 additional balls and a broomstick (minus the broom part) up in the tree in an initial attempt to free the first one.

Right?

I turned around and walked back inside all the while mumbling under my breath: if he falls out of that tree, he's taking himself to the emergency room!

Thankfully, Paul did not fall out of the tree.

Unfortunately, the balls remained in the tree the day of Addie's party (defeating one of the main purposes of getting them...so kids could play with them at her party)!

Fortunately our good friend's Diane (aka Didi) and Tim's nine year old son along with his family came to Addie's party.

Apparently 9 year old boys have an easier time retrieving objects from a tree than grown men.

And Tyler was quite successful!

I'm pretty sure Addie Paul won't be kicking balls up in our magnolia tree anytime soon.

At least I hope not! :)

If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree.

African Proverb

*thank you to either Paul, Erin, or Diane for taking these pictures. One of the 3 of them had my camera at one point or another during the party (now that's trust, isnt it!). love these pictures! thanks y'all!

Tyler's Soccer Game

Addie and I finally made it to one of Tyler's soccer games. It was indoor soccer, so Addie was a tad more contained (less chasing for me) than if we were outside on a field.

Ellie was so sweet to Addie!

She played ball or chase with her almost the whole time!

Tyler's game was actually a playoff game. They did awesome! He is quite the little soccer player! It was fun to watch him!

And of course she was way excited to see Di and Tim too!

The Swedish Chef

You might remember this crazy character from the Muppets:

Well I think we've got our own {toned down} version of a Swedish Chef around these parts...and clearly much cuter!

I happened to randomly mention to my friend Diane (known around here as DiDi) that I was looking for a little kitchen for Addie. Do you know how expensive some of those things are? Just take my word on it, especially the wooden ones! Fine. Go ahead, stop by P0ttery Barn Kids and check them out for yourself! Leave it to Didi to find the absolute best deal anywhere, and then refuse to let me pay her for it! Don't worry...I'll find a way!

It was pouring down rain yesterday afternoon when we got home. Miserably pouring. Addie had taken a long nap before we picked up Paul and was raring to go when we got home. Perfect time to pull out the new kitchen.

(I'm warning you...these pictures are really grainy/noisy. There wasn't much light, and I refuse to use the on camera flash. Think I might need to invest in another one...me too!)

I put the whole thing together and realized I needed to put batteries in it. So I craned my neck, reached inside the oven, and carefully unscrewed the battery compartment. Totally worth it!

She had a blast!

The little sink makes a running water noise:

And the burners crackle with flames:

Can you hear them?

I wish I could have gotten a better angle on this picture, but you take what you can get with an almost 18 month old! Every time she'd make the water run she'd look up at Paul with this super surprised look! Priceless!

see the resemblance...at least in the expression...to this:

I think I was younger than Addie is now in this picture...I guess that's why I didn't have my curls yet. Oh well. She may be a Daddy's girl, but I'm not letting her eyes and hair go!

Oh...and I can assure you that our child wears clothes, just not when she eats her Daddy's BBQ pizza for dinner!

Thanks for the fun kitchen Didi!

Enough is Enough!

Paul and I got home today to a rapidly heating up, humidity filled house with a constantly running AC producing nothing but warm air. {try saying that 3 times really fast!}

(this is Addie immediately after we got her up from her nap. pretty unhappy there at first. i know many babies are a tad sweaty when they wake up...but this was a tad extreme for our baby! this was even with the fan on and windows open!)

And two days ago we had to have a roofer come out and re-tar (is that a word?) the flashing around our rock chimney so water would stop trickling pouring inside our wall, creating an ever growing ever wetter ever peeling spot!

And yesterday, we found pieces of our cracking (and now crumbling) plaster kitchen ceiling on the floor due to the house shifting with all the rain.

I won't rehash the last 9 months (a new under the house AC/heater unit, new water line and main sewer line, new refrigerator, new tire, and two dog surgeries), but enough is enough!!!

At least we've had time to pay off the under the house unit.

At least we'll only have to replace the outside unit, if we have to replace anything at all.

At least it's a gorgeous, cool, day with relatively no humidity, which is completely off season here.

At least we've had time to pay off the refrigerator.

At least the trickling pouring water problem was localized in one section of the wall.

At least it was easy to fix (if you count the two trips out by the roofer who just couldnt seem to find anything wrong with it, a friend who's an appraiser finding the actual problem, another friend doing a mold test, and our handyman telling us what we needed to do, how, and when).

At least it's not termites...

At least we're all healthy!!!

But enough of all that!

Addie's growing and changing every day. She's constantly trying new stuff and saying new things.

Her favorite: jumping! She's even gotten some some air time finally!

She's also started this "Oh wow!" face where she makes her mouth in the shape of an "O" like she's just seen the most amazing thing ever!

Her newest word: DiDi! My best friend Diane met us for lunch yesterday. She walked into the room and, with no prompting, Addie yelled out "DiDi!" for the very first time and near about flew out of my arms to get to her!

And then there's the kisses: She's been giving kisses, when asked usually, for a while now. But she reached over to me yesterday, turned my head sideways, and planted a big, slobbery kiss on my cheek out of the blue! Precious and priceless!

Yes, I'm gushing; but no, I'm not trying to tell you that she speaks three languages fluently, performs with the local ballet, or has solved the economic crisis. I mean, she does and has; but I'm not saying that here!

Enough is enough!

You Can Have Bake Your Cake and Eat It Too!

As I mentioned in this {post}, I had the honor of making my best friend's daughter's 5th birthday cake this past weekend! We explored many options. You know, the typical: ...Princess cake...Hannah Mon@tna cake...B@rbie cake, etc, etc.

But their favorite cake was a 3 tiered cake made with fondant...in Hannah Mont@na colors of course!

Well, it was quite the experience! I'd never worked with fondant, but I was just itching to give it a try. And thankfully Di and Ellie were crazy daring enough to give me the chance! The Wi!ton's fondant we bought was D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G, although it looked pretty! So, I found this recipe for Marshmallow fondant. It was easy to make, but I think I gained a few pounds in arm muscle from kneading it!

I'll spare you pictures of the first two cakes I made for practice, but Paul's co-workers seemed to enjoy them!

So here's my Adventure in Cake Making!

It all started out simple, baking 6 layers of cake in three different sizes. But it got a tad complicated after our dog ate half a layer:

But we I recovered.

So it was onto letting the layers cool, stacking and icing each tier, and waiting for the icing to set.

I'd made the fondant the day before because apparently it's better when you let it sit for a day (in the fridge). But it had to be colored. I managed to color the light pink, dark pink, and purple. But by the time it came to the turquoise, I begged Paul to come in and knead the colors in because my hands were so tired. It turned out to be my favorite color!

Then it was on to rolling out the fondant for the layers and finally cutting out the shapes for decorating! It was really cool to see the progression of:

But then I loved finishing all the layers and watching:

So off we went to the birthday party! It was quite the experience trying to transport it. I know, Ace of C@kes puts theirs together on-site...but that wasn't an option and I'm no Ace of any Cake!

The party was at Pump !t Up.

So imagine this:
4 HUGE blow up things.

2 with slides

a double wide jumpy jump!

10-15 five year olds + moms and 2 dads

and Addie

Well I wasn't going to let her age size or lack of mobility keep her us from having fun. So off we trekked up the very steeply inclined ladder with kid sized rungs meant for climbing with both hands leading up to the top of a very tall slide...held up only by AIR, all while carrying a 30 pound bag of potatoes baby!

and sliding down! Addie strictly forbids you to click on this picture for fear of being dreadfully embarrassed of her mother's fearful look! I love roller coasters, but honestly people, that slide was steep, slick, and FAST!

But you can't have a ball in a room without Addie honing in on it! The 5 year olds were playing with a tennis ball and one kid let it go. Well, Addie was off after it at lightening speed, daring any 5 year old to get in her way! She pounced on it; and as you can see, didn't miss a beat!

One of our friends from church was there and her little sister came along too. Anna (the little sister) has been walking since she was 8 months old. So while she was a tad much surer on her feet, Addie kept right up with her. They were so cute together!

Daddy was a great sport about the whole thing. He drove while I held the cake and yelled kindly requested that he quit taking turns at such high speeds. Ok people, in all reality he probably wasn't driving that fast, I was just trying to make sure the cake didn't melt or slide off!

It was by no means perfect. It had bumps and dimples that I just couldn't seem to smooth out. The top layer wasn't completely centered. And it near about drove me crazy to look at these pictures...but this:

sure did make one precious 5 year old a very happy birthday girl! Happy Birthday El-Bell! We love you!

I think Addie might have enjoyed herself a tad bit too!

...ya think?

One of Many: Part 2

So back to the Big Birthday Day! After a good nap, Addie and I headed to meet some friends at the park for a playdate and lunch. Addie loves to swing:

But she had even more fun swinging with her little friend Anna!

We enjoyed seeing Diane, Tyler, and Ellie too! Ellie's such a good helper! She even held Addie while I prevented the stroller from tipping over!

{Mmmm...dirt and woodchips!)

After the park, we all went back to their house to see Tyler and Ellie's beautifully redone rooms! We were so happy to get to see them on Addie's Big Day!

Baby Dawgs

It's fairly common knowledge around here that Addie's daddy loves him some Georgia Bulldawgs, despite the fact that our best friend Tim played for Auburn. Now, don't get me wrong, we love Uncle Tim (and Aunt Di) and always pull for Auburn...except when they are playing Georgia!

Addie's Gramma and her husband Albert gave her a Georgia Bulldawgs t-shirt for Christmas. It is the cutest little thing ever. Size 2T little. And it fits our 10 month old like it was made for her! So for fear that this specific shirt might not make to football season, I wanted to make sure we had a picture in it!

Since it was below freezing outside (and dark...i took these a few weeks ago), I had to take this one inside. So the lighting is a little weird, but I still thought they turned out cute.

Presents, Play, and Puppy Dog Tails

I'm SO far behind on my blog posts. As you can see, I've been slightly focused on redesigning our blog layout and header, and I've practically forgotten to post! Well, last weekend we got to spend some time with our sweet friends the Castros. We had fun exchanging slightly delayed Christmas presents, playing games, and eating yummy homemade macaroni and cheese that Paul made! Here are some pictures from the the night:

Addie loves tissue paper...but plastic paper is way more fun!

watching Tyler

Tyler and Walter (they were dogsitting)

watching Ellie, who was furiously running back and forth from one side of the living room to the other, entertaining Addie. As you can see though, Addie was almost frantic that she's couldnt even begin to keep up with Ellie! She will one day...too soon I'm afraid!

Ellie being a sweet helper.

Apples to Apples anyone?

And of course I couldnt resist taking pictures of Walter, who is a 6 week old American Mastiff puppy

sweet puppy eyes!

getting sleepy...

sacked out!

...and so was Addie by the time we got home!