Portraits I Love

Recently, we went to JCPenney to get Elina's 5 year portraits done. Usually when I go, I try to throw in the other kids to see what I can get while I'm there. I mean, we're already there so we might as well try it. If we don't get anything good, then I don't have to buy anything, right?

We usually go to JCPenney because it's close. We've always liked the work they do, but it's never been phenomenal. It's just convenient. Well, this time was totally different. The lady we got was SO great with the kids. She really got down to their level, made them laugh, made them say silly things, and got great photos. J and I were seriously impressed. She was very enthusiastic (but not annoyingly so) and the kids loved her. And the pictures really reflect this awesome experience. I got the lady's name and I will definitely be asking for her again next time!

Check these out--

Evie looks so cute, right? Her eyes are wide open and she's happy...

I love this picture because Elina and Eli both have natural smiles...none of that scary-forced stuff! Love it!

And this is the portrait we got of the 3 kids. Eli is doing his semi-forced smile and not looking right at the camera, but I thought this was still wonderful considering there are 3 young children in the picture. (If you are a parent, you know what I mean!)

Coincidentally enough, this was the first time I spent more than my usual $30 on portraits. I'm not sure if that's a good thing...but I'm really happy with these pictures!!

Half Asleep

We have nifty IP cameras in the kids' bedrooms so that we can check up on them every once in awhile, especially to see if they're asleep or awake.

Here is what we saw on Eli's camera one day. Lately, he has been half off of his bed during the middle of the night. This was one time when he was actually trying to fall asleep while he was half on his bed and half off his bed. It was SO funny because his knees kept giving out, but he still wouldn't climb into bed. It's like those times when we start nodding off in public (especially while traveling on public transportation) and our heads tilt toward the front or the side. Our heads keep doing it, but we don't think to tilt our bodies a little bit so that our head could just rest on something. You know what I mean, right? Well...just watch and you'll get it.

Moon Moon Moon

Our current favorite car CD is The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band. We just love them because the tunes are catchy and funny. Elina's fave song is "Victor Vito." Eli is partial to "Rocketship Run" and "Moon Moon Moon."

Here is Eli singing his cute version of "Moon Moon Moon"--


The lyrics are:
Moon, moon, moon, shining bright
Moon, moon, moon, my nightlight
Moon, moon, moon, I can see
Moon, moon, moon, you're taking care of me.

Look up, there's the moon!
Look up, there's the moon!
Look up, there's the moon up in the sky!
It's big and round
And I have found
That it looks just like a pizza pie.

Goodbye to More Friends

[I have to apologize for all the videos and pictures in this post, but I just couldn't help myself because we've all had such a great time together.]

I am so lucky to have J staying with me this summer. She has helped me out tremendously with entertaining Elina and Eli and with running errands. Another plus, is that now I can help friends out of a bind if they need someone to watch their kids since I have an extra set of hands. (I felt so terrible when KT was moving because I could never help her watch all 3 of her kids.)

Elina's piano teacher, Miss K, and her family just moved away a few days ago. Miss K's oldest daughter, AT, has been the kids' babysitter since February of this year. AT just turned 12, but most of the time when she sat for me, I was at home...but just taking care of other things around the house. And even though she may sound young, AT was such a wonderful babysitter. She really loved my kids and she was great with Evie. The kids absolutely adored AT. Originally, I hired AT so that I could get my last-minute things done around the house before the baby arrived. I cleaned and organized closets, got baby clothes out, cleaned baby toys...I was so productive during this time. I was glad to have AT around because then I could get things done, but not have to resort to simply plopping the kids in front of the TV. Then after the baby arrived and family came and left, I had AT come a few days a week to entertain the kids since I was spending most of my days rocking the baby.
Sometimes, AT's sister, KateT, would come to our house, too. KateT is 9 years old and just as wonderful with kids and babies. Miss K's daughters are truly amazing young girls. They are just so sweet, gentle, patient, and nurturing with little ones. We have loved having them around.

So for the last few weeks, Miss K had been trying to pack up the house in order to move. To help them out, J and I offered to take her kids so that she could get things done quicker. Boy, did we have the time of our lives! We took all 7 kids (Miss K's 4 kids plus my 3 kids--crazy, I know!!) to Funtastic Playland (an indoor playground) and Pump It Up (an inflatable playland). Sometimes all the kids would just play at our house or go swimming. Elina and Eli had a wonderful time....and we had a wonderful time watching all these kids. You would think it would be crazy, but AT and KateT are so helpful that it wasn't any problem at all.

Here are all the kids with Zhu Zhu Pets (cute, interactive toy hamsters). Abby and KateT gave Elina her 1st one for her birthday. Elina and Eli LOVE their Zhu Zhu Pets.
Here are all the kids sliding down this one inflatable slide all together at Funtastic Playland--


At Pump It Up, some of the slides were too high and scary for Eli. AT and KateT would always wait for Eli and let him sit on their laps to slide down. (Like I said, they are the sweetest girls ever.) J said that the girls were Eli's bodyguards.
Here are the girls helping Eli up a steep climb--


Here are the girls sliding down with Eli--


Here are all the kids having a great time while eating snacks--


And here is AT just dancing with Eli (he's half-naked because he just got out of the bathtub)--


We even had AT and KateT over for a sleepover with Elina. They played Pretty Pretty Princess, watched a movie while they painted each other's nails, and ate lots of candy. AT and KateT are old enough to know when they are tired and want to go to bed (plus, they were tired from packing up their house), so they were ready to sleep around 11pm. The 3 of them were supposed to sleep on our queen sized bed in the guest room. At 1am, J went to check on the girls and Elina was curled up in a ball by the nightlight sleeping on the floor. Elina said she didn't want to accidentally bump into the other girls while she slept. So J took Elina back to her own room and Elina started crying, "But I want to stay up and play!" J told her that everyone else was asleep, so Elina reluctantly went back to bed.

The next day I asked Elina why she slept by the nightlight on the floor. She said, "Mommy, I wasn't asleep on the floor. My eyes were open and I was just lying there." J looked at me and said, "She was definitely asleep when I picked her up." It's so funny to me that Elina will always deny the fact that she was asleep or that she's sleepy at all. She always hides her yawns, too. It's like she never wants to show signs of sleepiness to us. She always says, "I'm never ever tired" or "I don't want to sleep--ever." She still doesn't understand the beauty of sleep yet.

We sure are going to miss AT and her family!

Our 5 Year Old

I know I say this every year, but I can't believe Elina's already 5 years old and ready for Kindergarten. I can't believe I've been lucky enough to be at home with her for 5 years now. I can't even imagine what it would be like if I didn't get to see all the little things she does almost every day.

She's become so independent this year, which makes me both happy and sad.

1. She does her own chores now, like making her bed and setting the table.

2. She knows how to maneuver her way around our TV/computer using the universal remote (this is a very useful skill when I desperately need a nap).

3. She unbuckles Eli from his car seat now, which is a blessing because he's all the way in the backseat of the van. (It was hard getting back there when I was 8 months pregnant!)

4. She can read well, count by 5's and 10's, tie laces, and tell time on the hour.

5. She plays piano beautifully.

6. She has improved tremendously in gymnastics and can actually do some form of a real cartwheel.

Besides this kind of stuff, Elina has developed a real passion for arts and crafts. She is really a crafty girl who loves to cut and glue things, especially shiny things like gems. She loves to do crafts, but she also loves to make up her own crafts as well. When I can't think of something to make, she always manages to think of something on her own. She is also great at drawing people and different facial expressions. Every day she draws herself as a princess and Eli as a prince.

Elina is also a very sweet older sister to Eli and Evie. She loves to entertain Eli and she loves to play with him. They dance together, play dress up, and chase each other. And despite Evie's colic, Elina has still grown to love her baby sister. She loves to chat with Evie and to show her new toys. She even writes Evie notes and leaves them under her bed. One note she wrote was, "Dear Baby, I love you. If you cry, I will make you not cry. From Elina." It was so sweet. She's just a great big help around the house.

Now here is a list of Elina's current faves--

Fave foods: Pei-Wei kids' lo-mein, mac n cheese, and pancakes
Fave snack: chocolate Teddy Grahams
Fave drinks: chocolate milk, strawberry milk
Fave restaurant: Luby's (really?!?)
Fave piece of clothing: fancy dresses
Fave princess: Belle
Fave movie: Beauty and the Beast
Fave shows: Hello Kitty, Between the Lions, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Thomas and Friends
Fave animal: mouse (she claims she wants a pet mouse)
Fave past times: arts and crafts, coloring, drawing, writing, cooking
Fave books: My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, the Gerald and Piggie series by Mo Willems, and the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel
Fave colors: silver, pink

We love our Elina!

One More Summer Camp Class

Last Friday, the kids went off to another summer camp class for a day.

Eli attended a Cut and Paste class and had lots of fun cutting things. He cut straws, tissue paper, ribbon, and lots more to create a collage. He already knows how to cut and use glue, but I just had to send him to another camp class because he has so much fun at school.

Elina attended a mini-musical class taught by her music teacher at school. They put on a musical called The Teddy Bears' Picnic. The class ran from 9am-1pm. During this time they made their costumes, colored the set, and learned some songs and choreography. When the parents went to pick-up the kids at 1pm, the kids performed their mini-musical and then there was a "cast party" with mini-cupcakes at the end. How cute is that?? Elina's friend, D, was also in the class and they both ended up being teddy bears. Every bear could come up with their own name and out of 4 bears, Elina was the only bear who wanted her teddy bear to be named her own name, Elina. The other bears were named Furry, Curly, and Fuzzy or something like that...then there was Elina (the bear). Funny, right? Elina had so much fun performing on stage. She was even in charge of laying out the picnic blanket for the picnic. The teacher told me that they do a drama class like this once a week after school and they perform a different play/musical every month. I think I might have to sign Elina up for this because she had such a great time!

Here are excerpts from the musical--





Look! Everyone wants to be Elina, the teddy bear!

The Actual Birthday

On Elina's real birthday (the day after the birthday party), she woke up to a bedroom floor covered with balloons. Then when she opened her bedroom door, she saw pink streamers hanging down from the top of the door frame. She was SO excited! She ran downstairs and I made her the breakfast of her choice--chocolate chip pancakes. Every year I let the kids choose what color they want their birthday breakfast to be and, of course, Elina picked pink (just like last year). The pink didn't show up as well on the pancakes though (another live and learn moment). I also made her a heart-shaped pancake and some pancakes in the shape of an "E." The kids loved the "E" pancakes! I think I'll have to start making letter pancakes for special occasions. We also put a candle in the pancakes and sang "Happy Birthday" to Elina. She was in heaven.

Then we let her open 1 gift, which happened to be Eli's gift. Eli "got" Elina a fancy Tinkerbell nightgown. Right after Elina saw it, she took off her PJs and put the nightgown on. She loved it.

After breakfast I gave Elina 3 Yes Passes to use. I explained to her that she could use a Yes Pass whenever she wanted us to change our answers to "yes" if we said "no" to a request. But I told her that it would have to be within reason. I said, "I know you want to go to Taiwan to visit Aunt A, but even if I change the answer to 'yes,' I still wouldn't be able to take you to Taiwan today." She understood, but B was still worried about what she would use her Yes Pass for during the course of the day.

For lunch, Elina chose to go to her favorite restaurant, Luby's. But this time she only wanted to go with Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma. The rest of us were not invited for some reason. So we let the 3 of them go off on their date. Elina had her perfect meal of mac n cheese, broccoli, jello...and then some extra desserts, like strawberry shortcake and some chocolate. When they got back home, my mom told us that Elina said that the reason she didn't want the rest of us there was because she wanted to be able to eat anything she wanted to eat (e.g. chocolate). Can you believe that?? That's the reason we had been banned! Little did she know that since it was her birthday we probably would've just let her eat whatever she wanted.

Then we had a little Cold Stone cupcake for Elina (that she didn't get to eat right away since we wanted her to open presents before Eli's nap). Elina got lots of dress up costumes and fancy princess dresses this year. She also got a new crown, a game, some clothes, and some arts and crafts stuff.

Then for dinner Elina chose Maggiano's. For dessert we got a lemon pie and the waiter put pretty candles in it. My dad (Ah-Gong) was freaking out a little because he was worried the waiters would come over and sing "Happy Birthday." Since my dad owns restaurants, he is always worried about causing a scene in any eating establishment. If Evie even starts to make a peep, he suggests that we take her outside. Plus, my dad hates bringing attention to himself. So if the waiters were going to sing "Happy Birthday," he was fully prepared to leave the table. Luckily for him, the waitstaff at Maggiano's don't sing. But after the waiter put the dessert with the lit candles in front of Elina, Elina said, "Ok, you guys have to sing now." My dad looked shocked, but how can you tell a 5 year old that you're not going to sing to her on her birthday?? We told my dad we would all just sing it quietly...so we did...and my dad survived the trauma. And Elina was on Cloud 9.

Once we got home it was bedtime, but Elina ran to grab a Yes Pass. She came up to me and asked, "Mommy, can I eat the ice cream cupcake that I didn't get to eat earlier?" I was about to shake my head and then she handed me the Yes Pass. Smart girl. (Elina didn't end up using her other 2 Yes Passes on her actual birthday. Does that mean we just say "yes" to everything already?? Wow.) So Elina stayed up even later and had another dessert. Later when she was in bed she complained that her belly hurt. Hmmmmmm....was it the jello, the strawberry shortcake, the chocolate, the lemon pie, or the ice cream cupcake?? Belly ache or not, Elina definitely was sad that her birthday came to an end that night. That girl is already excited about her next birthday! Who can blame her?

Of course we also played our family birthday bingo game, where the cards are made up of the birthday person's favorite things at the moment. Some of Elina's fave things were: crayons, Pinkalicious, Hello Kitty, gems, princesses, L, A (the kids' babysitter), Luby's, and a trampoline. The winner of each round of bingo wins money. The first 3 rounds were worth $1 each. The last round was worth $5 and somehow, Elina managed to win the big prize. That girl also won the last round at Eli's Bingo when Eli turned 2! How does she do it?? So here is Elina's own recap of her wonderful day--

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY, ELINA!

Pretend Soup

Recently, we bought the book Pretend Soup and we just love it. It's a cookbook for preschoolers and up. The recipes are simple, but still tasty. There's an adult version of a recipe and then there's a kid version after it. The kid version is a series of diagrams that shows each step of the recipe so that even a non-reader can follow the recipe. The point is to let the children do everything--prep, cut, pour, mix. The kids LOVE that they can do everything. I must admit that I was a bit of a neat freak when it came to letting the kids make messes, but ever since Evie's arrival I've lowered my standards tremendously. Now I stress less about messes and I give the kids more freedom to do things on their own....like cutting food, cracking eggs, and measuring and pouring liquids. In the pictures above, my little chefs are cutting fruit, squeezing limes/lemons, prepping a muffin pan, and mixing batter.

Here's Elina mixin' it up--



So far we have made 3 things--Pretend Soup, Lemon-Lime Soda, and Popovers. The kids loved eating and drinking everything. And I must admit, everything tasted really good. It's just awesome how proud they are at the end. Look at how happy they are as they enjoy their Pretend Soup--

An Artsy Party

This year Elina has really developed a love for arts and crafts. Every day she wants to do a real craft. You can always find Elina with a crayon, marker, pen, pair of scissors, or glue in her hand at any given time of day. That girl lives and breathes arts and crafts....so we decided to have Elina's 5th birthday party at Artworks, a children's art studio. We have always had the kids' birthday parties at home, but this year I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it because of the new baby. I'm really glad we had it at Artworks because we didn't have to do as much prep work or clean up. What a nice change!
For the party, Elina got to select different art centers that she wanted. She chose crown making, lace painting, record player drawing, butterfly making, fan making, crayon rubbings, the Imagination Station (cutting and gluing anything to create your own masterpiece), bookmarks, playdough, and sawdust gluing. Elina managed to hit every single center during her party. That's how she works whenever we go to Artworks for Open Art. She just goes from one station to another without wasting a single second. She's definitely efficient! All the kids had a wonderful time making their crafts and getting dirty.

After the centers, everyone had some snacks. J and I had painted a big picture that we put on a long table and we put all the snacks and cake on top of it. We had seen this cute idea in a parenting magazine. So there was a picture of a hot air balloon, a snail, and 2 flowers. We put a bowl of tortilla chips on the snail shell, cups of fruit (grapes and watermelon balls) as the flower petals, bowls of dip for the center of the flowers, a bowl of pita chips and crackers for the balloon, and a plate of cubed cheese for the basket under the hot air balloon. Then we just put Elina's butterfly birthday cake in the sky. This year Elina requested an orange-flavored cake in the shape of a butterfly. It wasn't too hard to make, but I accidentally used too much pink icing coloring so it came out a little more hot pink than I would've liked. Luckily, Elina still thought it was the most beautiful cake ever. Phew! The cake was yummy and homemade. Plus, it had M&Ms and Spree all over it.

After cake, Elina opened her presents. We did it the same way as last year where each kid would sit next to her while she opened up the present. I love doing it this way because then Elina will be more likely to remember the gift-giver. It also gives the gift-giver a chance to explain the gift. Elina got some really great presents from her friends...arts and crafts stuff, clothes, toys, and a vet costume. She was in heaven.

One of Elina's classmates had remembered that during the school year Elina mentioned that she really wanted a black marble because she didn't have one. So this classmate gave her a black marble from her own personal collection at home. It was so sweet! And it turned out that this single marble was Elina's favorite gift of all. Go figure!! (Elina's showing off the marble in the picture to the left.)

It was a great birthday party and everyone had lots of fun, especially Elina. It was funny because one of the moms said that this was the most mild birthday party she had ever attended. She was amazed the kids were all so well-behaved and quiet. I hadn't thought about it until she mentioned it and it was so true. Granted it was a small party with only about 10 kids, but I was still impressed. I was also impressed with how well everyone listened in the beginning when the Artworks employees explained each of the centers to the kids. What a great bunch of kids!

Just Dance

There is a lot of dancing going on at the house these days, especially with J around. She is young, so she is good about updating her iPod with new and hip music. Here are the kids rockin' out to one of J's songs--


Here is when someone else decides to join in the fun (by the way, Eli is only in his diaper because he just took a bath....plus, he likes to go around without clothes on anyway)--


Here are the kids doing a dance of royalty (we love that Eli has his own cape and crown now...he feels more like a real prince)--

3 Months

Evie just turned 3 months! She's already 12 pounds and 23.5 inches long. (She gained over a pound and grew another inch since last month.) At this age, Eli was only 9 pounds and 22.5 inches long. He had little stick legs, whereas Evie's got these thick thighs with rolls. We love our chubby baby! We just don't love to rock the chubby baby.

We are slowly developing a routine. It's not always consistent, but it's been running fairly smoothly. I nurse her every 3-4 hours and she's usually in bed by 10pm. She's also been sleeping 6-7 hours for her long stretch, so that's been nice for me. It would be nicer if I would go to bed right after she goes to bed, but something usually comes up and I stay up at least until 11 or 11:30pm. It's really the only time I have to get my own things done or to spend time with B, so I have to stay up a little.

Here are some things that Evie does now--
1. She loves to smile and coo, especially in response to another person. She loves "chatting" with all of us, especially with Elina. She will sit there and listen to Elina's songs and stories. It's so cute. Here she is smiling and cooing and being cute--



2. Her neck is getting stronger. When we hold her upright, she doesn't fall over like a limp body anymore. 3. She loves to suck on her fists, which causes a drooly mess on her onesies nowadays. She still hasn't figured out that there's a yummy thumb tucked in there, but we're sure she will soon.


4. She is still not a fan of the car seat, but instead of crying 100% of the time, we're down to about 50-70% of the time. Yesterday she was in a good mood and on the way to our destination, she actually only cried about 25% of the time. So there's hope yet.

5. She loves, loves bathtime. The minute B puts her into the water, she's in heaven. She smiles from ear to ear and just enjoys herself.

6. Evie also loves being outside. She enjoys her evening walks to get the mail with B. He always takes her in the evening since that's her cranky time. Generally, she doesn't cry while she's outside, but the minute she gets indoors she starts up again.

She is definitely getting better. Her alert time is increasing and her crying periods are decreasing. Slowly, she's coming around. She definitely makes us work for it though. She's not one of those babies who will just sit in a stroller and be content. When we're out with her, someone is usually rocking her or doing squats of some kind. But at least she's not screaming the whole time now. Things can only continue to get better!

7 Years

This Fourth of July, B and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. 7 years and 3 kids...crazy, right? It's been a tiring, but fun 7 years so far. With these 3 kids, B and I always wish for more sleep and for more hours in a day, but we wouldn't have our lives any other way. The kids keep us busy, but we love them more than anything. We just can't believe 7 years have already flown by. I guess time flies when you're having fun and completely exhausted.Honestly, we didn't really do too much for our anniversary. I'm kind of on lock down since I have to nurse Evie every 3 hours or so. We decided to go to the Alamo Drafthouse to catch lunch and a movie. We love the Drafthouse because you can get both things done at once. We're all about efficiency, not romance these days. Sad. But it really works for us because it combines our 2 fave things--eating out and watching a movie.

J watched the kids for us and we went to see Toy Story 3. It was such a great movie because it was sad, funny, and scary. But we felt like it was really more for older kids and adults rather than little kids. We felt like a lot of the issues they dealt with were really heavy and more mature than what Elina could comprehend. I thought that some of the toys (e.g. Big Baby) and some of the scenes were kinda scary. But we totally thought Ken and Mr. Potato Head (as a tortilla) were absolutely hilarious. I also had tears in my eyes when Andy was talking about Woody at the end.

This movie really made me think of Elina and her relationships with her toys. Her Cuddlebunny is equivalent to Woody and her cat, Sally, is like Buzz Lightyear. The toys in our house get lots of love and lots of playtime. I loved watching those scenes where young Andy or Bonnie made up elaborate story lines for their toys. It's totally the way Elina plays with her toys right now. I love it.

Anyway, I got sidetracked...so that's basically all we did for our anniversary. J was nice enough to watch the kids while we went out to celebrate. It was simple, but it was time to ourselves.

For the actual Fourth of July holiday, we had dinner with some friends in the neighborhood. It was a simple get together to share some food and conversation while all the kids played together. I made the Marscapone and Citrus Berry Tarte I made for Christmas. This time I added blueberries with the raspberries so that they came out red, white, and blue. For the party I made the puff pastry into stars in order to be festive, but at home, I didn't bother cutting out any shapes (being the lazy lady that I am). Either way it was yummy!

We also had J take Elina out to watch the Sea World fireworks. They didn't actually go into the park. Instead they just parked at the nearby elementary school and watched it from there--which was just as good of a view, but with less of a crowd. Elina loved staying up late. She and J ate popcorn and popsicles while they watched the show. They had a great time!

So that was our Fourth in a nutshell. Nothing too elaborate, but totally fun for everyone!