Cee Turns Three

My, what a difference three years makes...

My baby turned three today. I'm getting used to the idea. She, however, is not. All day she has been saying, "I hate birthdays. I don't want my birthday." Aren't you supposed to wait until you're 30 to do that? Guess we're on the same page. NO MORE BIRTHDAYS!

Since I interrogated Dee last week, I figured I better give equal treatment to his littlest sis.

At three years old here are some of Cee's "favorites" (some in her words, some observed by me):

Food: "cake, broccoli, mashed potatoes", chocolate, milk, chocolate milk, anything sweet, anything on Mom or Dad's plate, soup, fruit strips
Drink: "chocolate, water", lemonade, Mommy's Shakeology shakes
Color: "blue, green", all colors
Animal: "cow", all animals
Person: "princess", Mommy, Daddy, Jeigh, (fights like crazy with Elle, but there's love there...I hope.)
Movie: "princess movie" (?)
To Sleep With: baby dolls
Wear: everything; she changes clothes ALL. DAY. LONG. Skirts, sisters' clothes, pajamas, swim suit, nothing but her underwear and maybe a pair of shoes or boots
To Do: change clothes, play with dolls, help Mommy (especially in the kitchen), cuddle, dance, take baths, be with the big kids
Song: "princess like a ballerina", "I'm Like a Star Shining 'Broccoliiiiii'", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", lots of primary songs and Top 40 songs. She loves music and loves to be sung to every night.
Book: "Lalaloopsy book" (?)
TV show: "Lalaloopsy", Peg and Cat, Dinosaur Train, Curious George, anything on PBS
Candy: "Five candies!", Mommy's gum out of her purse, any candy
Toy: babies, clothes
Place to Eat: "Chick Fil A"
Place to Go: "Chicken nuggets!"
Best Friend: "A green girl and a yellow girl.", Bria Hospodarsky
Thing about Lucy: "Baby dolly."
Way to help Mommy: "Dirt and flowers."
Saying: "I love you!"

  
What do you want to be when you grow up?: "Green. A dolly and a yellow dolly. Nothing." She's so tender and diligent with her dolls. I can only imagine she will be a wonderful mother.
What's your favorite thing about the world?: "I like the moon."
Where do you see yourself in 5 years: "In the dark."
Where do you see yourself in 10 years: "11. And then 12, 14, 16, and 17, 20!"

Cee is such a funny little thing. She's rather bipolar. She is giving you a tight squeeze around the neck one second and screaming at you the next. She wants her blanket on and immediately wants it off. Or vise versa. She wants cheese on her sandwich and then she doesn't.

She gets so upset about the littlest things, starts throwing a fit, and gets sent to her room or even just goes there on her own. She throws her tantrum in her room for a few seconds and then comes strolling out with a big grin on her face like nothing happened. "I be a happy girl now." She talks very well and has for quite a while. Sometimes I just stand and marvel at this miniature adult that walks around our house.

She's bossy and demanding, but so loving too. She loves to cuddle and be held and with her being my little "caboose" I'm grateful for that tender mercy from heaven. She says "I love you!" more than any child I've ever heard and she is just so easy to love back.

We celebrated her birthday a little early on Sunday since Daddy had to leave for work on Monday, her true birthday. She asked for mashed potatoes and broccoli for her birthday dinner. Well, she actually asked for cake, but I convinced her we needed to eat something more substantial before the cake. (Mashed potatoes! A girl after my own heart!) So I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes and gravy, and broccoli...which she didn't eat a bite of. Guess I should have just given her the cake. Pink cake of course.

The Kuglers came to help celebrate and we even had a surprise drop in from Colin and Massi and Rico (who cornered her in Dee's room, scared her to tears, and bit her.) :( She got a few dolls, a dress up dress, shoes, and bag, a puzzle, and an activity center travel case (from Kuglers).

The next day we were busy getting Joe ready to go for his business trip but we made time for a birthday lunch out. She requested Chick-Fil-A which was packed thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr.

That night was pretty anti-climatic with the departure of Daddy; we all tend to get a little forlorn when he leaves. This is when that whole "I hate birthdays!" business came up. I asked her what she wanted me to make for her real birthday dinner.

"Broccoli!"

Done and done.

Happy Birthday, my little one.

Nine is Fine

Today is Dee's ninth birthday! My baby boy is nine years old! Time just keeps marching on...

I interrogated him about his "Favorites" this morning so I could record just what life is like for a nine year old boy these days.

Let's get his favorite of favorites out of the way first: FOOD. (This kid is a bottomless pit.)

Food: tamales, chocolate chip pancakes (every Saturday morning), Oreos, baked potatoes, hamburgers
Drink: cream soda
Place to eat: Tepenyaki, Wendy's (no more kids meals for this guy! He likes to order off the adult menu now. "Plain hamburger, fries, and root beer with lots of ketchup on the side"
Veggie: "COOKED carrots. NOT raw."
Fruit: Green apples
Candy: Airheads

On to other more "trivial" things...

Color: black and red
Toy: Skylanders, Legos
Thing to wear: pajamas (particularly Skylander jammies)
To do: play video games (currently obsessed with Skylander Swap Force)
Thing about school: "Nothing, I don't like school."
Movie: Turbo, Monsters University, Despicable Me 2
Person: "You, Mom!" but I think he would say Dad if I wasn't around. ;)
Place to go: Pocatello
Thing to do outside: "Shoot bows and arrows", ride bike
Thing to do with family: Go out to dinner
Holiday: birthday and Christmas
Song: "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim (only because it's the music for a Skylander commercial). We also have recently discovered that he harbors a secret love for anything by ABBA. (But really...who doesn't love ABBA??). He also likes music that has a lot of electric sounds in it (ie. Tron soundtrack)
Church song: "I am a Child of God"
Thing about the world: "That it invented TV."
TV show: Family Feud
Thing to sleep with: one regular pillow and two pillow pets all propped on top of each other. Coverings in THIS specific order: sheets, bed spread, army blanket, Mario blanket, Pooh Bear blanket (has to have the soft side UP and Pooh Bear head up), and to top it all off, an electric blanket on HIGH.
Thing about self: "That I have Skylanders. That I'm alive. That I have allergies."
Thing about being 8: "Playing with my friends."

Best friend: Gage G.
Other friends: Jack, Stephen, Xavier, Damien

What do you want to be when you grow up: A hunter or a salesman (of everything)
What would you do with a million dollars?: "Buy everything. Buy all the Skylanders. And if I have money left over...an iPad."
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?: "College"
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?: "A graveyard. Or Hawaii."
What about a mission or marriage?: "Never."

(Someone please tell me this kid's priorities will change before he's thirty and still playing Skylanders in our basement.)

This kid cracks me up. He really is so very good at heart. He has a very obsessive nature where he hyper focuses on one thing for a long time (Ahem...just like his mother). Right now that obsession revolves around Skylanders and where his next meal is coming from, but I hope that one day it will come in handy.

Dee has such a gentle heart and is very tender with his sisters. (Unless he is need of a good wrestling session and Dad's not available.) Dee has gotten very good at cleaning his room. He loves to help in the kitchen. Dee also loves playing team sports and is discovering a "like" for reading. He's usually up for trying new things and I love his adventurous spirit.

Dee asks me constantly if we can have tamales for dinner, but they take so darn long to make I always tell him no. I just couldn't turn him down on his special day so ALL DAY Saturday was spent making 100 plus tamales. We had tamales for his birthday dinner on Sunday and now we have several packages frozen to be enjoyed throughout the next several months. A win for all of us!

For his birthday cake he asked if I could make the "Undead" Skylander symbol. I gave it my best shot; this was my first time making and using fondant. We'll call this decent.

Since Dee is allergic to milk and I was all out of his special "butter" I used coconut oil to make the frosting for the first time. My mixer is not working so well so there were lots of little chunks of coconut oil in the frosting. Oh well. It sure smelled amazing.

He sure seemed pleased so that's all that really matters.

I forgot to buy candles too, but I think the matches go well with the "Undead" thing we have going on here.


Now if only Amazon would deliver his gifts that I ordered a couple of weeks ago...

Nine is fine. Hopefully ten will be even better! Happy Birthday Dee! We sure love you!!

Getting Back my Groove with a Giveaway!

I'm trying to get back into my blogging groove again. It hasn't been easy; I still feel like I'm recouping from the cowgirl birthday party we just had for my (brand new) four year old Elle this past weekend. It was a fantastic party, but I have vowed to never do that again. I've realized that I am turning into one of those Pinterest Moms that I despise. You know the kind...The mom that turns their kid into a brat because of loads of overdone parties (as well as lots of other overdone stuff too I imagine).

I didn't used to be like this. We used to just to do cake and a few presents with our little immediate family. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the party planning passion this year. Remember the Super Mario Bros. Party I did earlier this year for my son? And then there was the Rainbow Party for the youngest, Cee, when she turned one (I'm not sure I ever posted pictures for that one).

Now this Cowgirl Party has pushed it too far. At least that's what my husband says. I hate to say it, but...he's right. It's time to tame it down. We can't afford the time or money to do this every year for all four of our children. And if each party has to be bigger and better than the last...where will it end? (Bankruptcy, juvenile detention, or a psychologist's office, that's where.)

I know there's a happy medium in this somewhere...

But look at me. I have wandered far from the post I had intended to write. Ahem. Pardon me.

What I meant to say here is...

Yeah! for blogging! And to celebrate a (hopefully dedicated) return to blogging I wanted to host a giveaway! The Party Works, a website that offers a multitude of party supplies, stumbled upon my Super Mario Bros. party post and has offered to give a Super Mario Bros. Party Pack for 8 to one of my readers! Pretty cool, huh?

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me just why you like to read Hanging by a Silver Lining or what one of your favorite posts of mine were. Shameless I know, but we could all use a little ego boost every now and then, right?

For extra entries, share this giveaway on Facebook or your own blog. Make sure to leave a new comment along with a blog link and your email address for each thing that you do.

The giveaway will close Monday the 16th at midnight and the winner will be announced on Tuesday the 17th.

P.S. Sorry to any international friends but this prize can only be shipped within the United States.