Well, what to say. We celebrated my little man's birthday! Yes, Xander is now a big 3 year old boy, going to preschool this fall and wearing big boy underpants... the latter is still a work in progress but we are doing well. Today we went and picked up more underpants and Xander helped pick some he liked. Such diverse taste, some with robots, others with dogs. Still hard to believe he is 3! Wow.
Xander's party was fun and low key, much like our little man. He requested hot dogs and chips for his event. Mommy managed to add some fun Cars touches. Sometimes I feel with 2 birthdays in the same month its nuts but we had fun and Xander had a great time.
Lots of special gifts from family and friends. We gave Xander a wooden BBQ set which he really took a liking too. He loves serving us up meat haha. Its nice since we knew how much he loved Ariel's kitchen so this is just for him.
... to this! Plus the fire place works and has heat we discovered! Score! It totally changes our living room and I am SO SO SO excited. Can't wait to have our stockings at Christmas time. Plus nothing beats hanging out in the evening with the glow of the 'fire' filling the room.
With the new fireplace came a need to get a little shelf for our DVR and stuff that no longer fit. That meant a trip to Ikea, which for kids is like a mini Disneyland. The new Ikea is pretty crazy. The kids enjoyed checking out the rooms and I saw some good ideas for our bathroom makeover that is down the road at some point. We had lunch since you can't beat the cheap food. The kids LOVED the meatballs and the little table, hee.
We found our little bench that worked perfectly and was inexpensive, woot, and we went off to Home Depot for a new heat light for the bathroom and got some new flowers for our patio planters.
This week also meant back to school haircuts for everyone. First the kids, Xander got his just in time for his birthday party, Ariel got hers next and is sporting a pink hair extension that is super cute. Tonight it was my turn, my locks are gorgeous and dark now and I took off 3-4 inches. Ariel wanted me to get some pink hair too, maybe next time.
Ariel has been doing one last round of swimming lessons this week, she is determined to pass crocodile, and who am I to stand in her way. Technically she old enough to go to swim kids levels now, but after her private lesson, the instructor said it wouldn't hurt for her to finish the 'preschool' program since she is on the petite side. After looking at the red cross page they usually keep kids in the program until they turn 7, so I feel fine doing that, plus she would love to pass whale, just because she wants the silly sticker.
What else... oh Ariel had her pageant which she got to wear her new poofy dress we got second hand on a pageant facebook page.
She ended up winning Level one Supreme. The disappointing part was during crowning they realized someone had stolen 3 of the big tiaras! So they had to crown the girls in smaller ones and they are ordering replacements. The director was in tears and felt so awful for them. Ariel is eagerly waiting for her special cupcake crown to come, this is what it looks like. We are done pageants till October when Ariel has a weekend event that we get to stay at a hotel for. Most likely we will do the odd one here and there, but that will be it once dance starts up again. She is eager for that, and especially her competition class, the girl loves a crowd... SO not something I share with her, but I am happy to encourage it.
My fall is pretty crazy, as I am taking on a new role at church taking over the Children's education area as director, I think that is what they are calling me, and basically restructuring it as we needed some serious changes. I'll share more in the coming weeks, but I am excited and eager to let God use me and my gifts for our church and our kids.
So that is it in a nutshell, well the shorten version. Looking forward to more blogging with some 'Mommy' time I am getting come fall with BOTH kids in school. Wow.
