Missy Margaret

Okay, remember how I said Miss Margaret can be messy. Well, we had kind of a hectic day today at our house so by dinner time I sent both girls up to their seperate rooms to play on their own so that I could make final dinner preparations. They seriously just needed a break from one another and I needed a few moments of silence. They happily agreed and off they went. As I was cooking away I was thinking, wow my kids are awesome! They didn't argue, they listened to what I asked them to do, and best of all it was quiet. It was one of those moments when you think you have everything under control and you are on cloud nine.
Moments later Isabella peeks her head out her door and calls down "Is it dinner time Mommy?" I say, "Almost, why don't you get Margaret and start washing hands." The ever so concerned Isabella calls back, "Mommy, Margaret is not upstairs." Of course I am now worried so I frantically take off for the stairs. Sure enough, she was not in her room. I called out her name, it was quiet. Then I rush to my room and find her looking like this in my bathroom. Yes, she found my lipstick stash and was having the time of her life. It was hard for me not to laugh because she was just so darn cute and at least she only had it on face and hands. My Isabella just never did stuff like this. It is amazing how different and alike they can all be.

"I shive"

Today Margaret tried her smoothie without a lid, can you tell? I thought that as long as I had a straw in her cup she would have no problems, she is almost two! I was wrong. We had smoothie all over the place:) Isabella was cracking up as she kept telling Margaret that she had a moustache. This is just my Margaret, no matter what I give her she finds a way to make it really messy. When I give markers instead of crayons the moment I look away she is coloring her entire body. She loves to eat sand, dirt, and yesterday at the park she was picking up rocks and licking them. Sometimes I wonder what in the heck goes through these little minds. It has been a really big deal to Isabella that she is now four years old so we have been talking about it a lot lately. Every time we ask Margaret how old she is now she tells us "I shive", translation: "I'm five". We go round and round with her to let her know that she is really only one but she insists that she is five. She is in such a hurry to catch up with her sister, I already fear their teenage years!

Check out the hair on this one...

I have so much fun playing around with Walter's hair! Isabella had a lot of hair when she was born and then it all fell out and she was bald until around two. Margaret was born with gobs of hair and never lost it. People actually used to ask me what I ate during pregnancy to create such hair. Even though my dad and older brother are both bald my grandfather is 98 and still has a full head of hair, maybe this is where this hair comes from? When Walter was born again he had gobs of hair but what shocked us the most is the fact that it was red. The red hair is seen quite a bit on my side of the family, I have an uncle, cousin, and nephew with his same hair color. It is interesting to me that they are all males. I have also heard that it has to be on both sides of the family to actually show up in the genes. Any who, his hair is tons of fun to play around with and it is just kind of refreshing not to have to coordinate bows to go with outfits for him:)

Deanna Rose Farm

Yes, this is another post about her birthday (maybe this is why Kyle thinks I go overboard?). Isabella had her party with all of her little friends at the Deanna Rose Farm. This is a great place near where we live. It is a petting farm with lots of activities for the kiddos and the best thing about it is that it is free admission. We go here at least weekly if we can and my kids seem to never get tired of it.

We had a great day and great weather. The ever so careful Isabella enjoyed a hay rack ride with her mommy while the other kids enjoyed fishing, pony rides, and mining for gold.

Every year Mimi (my mom) makes her a decorated cake of her choice and this year it was "My Little Pony". It was delicious Mimi, thanks for all the time put into it.

My dear friend Jenni was there to take pics so I will update party pics as they come!

Because I like birthday's so much we are dragging it out until next weekend when she is having yet another party with the grandparents!

Chuck-E-Cheese

Every year Isabella has choosen to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner on the night of her actual birthday so of course this year was no different. It is so interesting to us that she chooses this place every year because she is deathly afraid of the actual Chuck-E-Cheese. She literally freaks out if she spots him walking around the place. We would gladly take her some other fun place so that maybe we could get something good to eat (their pizza is not the reason for their success) but there is no getting around it. Once again we had a great time watching their Daddy win them all tickets (he loves to play the games) and riding some fun rides!

Isabella didn't ask for much for her birthday. Just the important things that a four-year-old needs: a scooter, underwear, and makeup. Her cousin Madeline moved here from Texas in July and introduced her to scooters, she has been drooling over one ever since. As you can see her wish was granted and she could hardly sleep because she was worried about when she could ride it again.

The Princess is Four!

We can't believe it, but our Isabella has turned four!!!!

As with all of my children's birthday's, Kyle thinks I go a little overboard. What he still doesn't understand, even after knowing me for the last 11 years (yes that is how long we have known each other), is that I LOVE birthday's. Not so much mine anymore, as I have gotten older and had children they really are no big deal to me. I just want to make the day magical and special for them. Maybe it is because my kiddos are so close in age and I feel like they have to share so much and everything has to be so even all of the time that this is the one day I can spoil them, who knows. So the night before her big day I am running around like I am on crack decorating her door, her breakfast chair, and making a big fuss over everything while Kyle is lying on the couch making fun of me. I had her door all decked out with streamers and ballons and I was just so excited for her to see it when she woke up. Well, I should have remembered what child I was dealing with because about 3:30 in the morning she woke up to do her nightly potty and she opened up her door to the craziness and freaked a little bit. Once I had her calmed she informed me that she didn't like those things (streamers) and wanted them off of her door. Oh well, it is the thought that counts right?

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

"Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come Again Another Day"

Okay, so my kids are soooo over this rain. Is it ever going to stop? We had grand plans today to attend the Apple Festival that is going on at Deanna Rose Farm. Mimi is in town and we were just going to make a full weekend of it. If it keeps raining we might have to do a craft of making boats so that we can go places this weekend in them:) Hopefully the Festival is rescheduled to another weekend. I was looking forward to apple cider and applesauce galore. Hopefully the rain is not spoiling anyone's big plans and not causing some terrible flooding. Much prayers for those affected by Hurricane Ike!

Good Friends...

Tonight we spent the evening hanging out with our best buds Austin and Addison. What is so great about this friendship is that I am best buds with their mommy too. I have known her and her husband since highschool. Austin and Isabella have been hanging out since before she could really walk so it has been so fun for me to watch them grow into such great friends. They have a true male/female relationship. Isabella is the bossy one and Austin is the peacemaker just trying to make Isabella happy.

Our husbands were away for the night so we had big plans of margaritas and possibly a movie if the kiddos allowed. Our evening was a little thrown off with the tornado action that was going on in the Johnson County area so there was no chance on the movie, but we did get a few margaritas in. This was such a fun evening for us, when Kyle is on call it seems like each minute is an hour. Tonight flew by thanks to good friends and good drinks:)

P.S. check out Margaret's new pose for the camera. Everytime I tell her to say "cheese" this is what she does, isn't she just glamorous!

Hey Duso!

Today was a sad day for Isabella, she had to return Duso to preschool. You may be wondering who in the heck Duso is. He is a well loved puppet whale that is passed among her classmates. They each take turns bringing Duso home and including him in all of the family rituals. After his stay with each family they write about their adventures with Duso and an illustration from each child.

Isabella came out of class on Thursday just beaming. The first thing she said was "Mom, I have Duso." Once I saw Duso it was hard for me to understand what all of the excitment was about, he looks like he needs to spend the night swimming in Oxyclean. My other worry was how in the world we were going to keep track of him until the following Tuesday when she returned to class. I mean I try to keep things organized around the house but we do loose many things around here. I just didn't want to be known as the mom who lost Duso.

Much to my surprise Isabella kept an eye on Duso the entire time that we had him. She made sure he went everywhere with us. He went to the park several times, got to go to the KU game, and slept with her every night. When I mentioned that maybe Duso needed a bath, she informed me that I would need to ask Ms Ginny about that.

I know that this all seems silly but it did mean the world to Isabella. Sometimes it is just the simplest things that mean the most. Although he wasn't the prettiest puppet I had ever seen, he meant the world to my little girl and made her feel special.

Thanks to Duso!

Our Little Redhead

Okay, so here is how this conversation went:

Kyle: "What's wrong Walter, do you need something?"

Walter: slobber, toot, cry

Kyle: "You want a playstation, of course we will get you a playstation. You want to play it every night with daddy and no bedtime. Of course we can do this, I am sure mommy won't mind."

Walter: lots and lots of smiles for daddy

It has been so much fun listening to Kyle and Walter plan their golfing trips and their late nights of video games. Kyle loves his girls but he also knows that at some point he will need his sanity (like when they turn 13) and someone to escape with:)

Waving the soggy wheat...

Rain, sleet, or snow plan on the Zimmerman clan to be at the game! Yes, we spent a soggy evening in Lawrence watching the Jayhawk's victory. The day actually started out promising. Isabella woke up feeling much better (must have just been a little virus, no sign of it yet in the other two). Kyle got to mow the lawn, the girls got to play outside and then around lunch time we had some sprinkles here.
We went ahead and packed up the "mini" and got our KU gear on. I did make plans for Walter and Margaret to go stay with Mimi and Papa because I knew that another late game was not going to work out with all three kids plus with the weather being like it was there was no way they would have enjoyed it. When Kyle and I went into Margaret's room after her nap she saw that we were all wearing our Jayhawks and she insisted on putting her outfit on. I didn't have the heart to tell her quite yet that she would not be going to the game. Once she had her "hayhawk" cheerleader outfit on she was ready to go. Isabella has always loved going to the games and even just driving through Lawrence is a delight to her because she thinks that the Jayhawks live there. I guess I didn't realize that Margaret loved it so much too.
Once in the car I mentioned to Margaret that she would be going to Mimi's house to help Mimi and Papa take care of Walter. Of course she yelled "NO" every time I mentioned it. I was a bit nervous because I didn't even think that this would be a big issue. Once she saw my mom she was fine and when they watched the game on TV she did her cheerleader kicks the whole time.
As I have said to Kyle, I think the brainwashing worked:)
Isabella made it through most of the game with us and we had a great time. No pics this week, it was just too darn wet! Hopefully next game we will get some good fall weather with no rain!

Bitten by a bug...

Today started out like any other day at our house. Waffles and smoothies, tummy time with Walter, and of course feeding our fish Pipi. We had a wonderful day planned playing outside in the beautiful weather. By lunch time things were not looking so good. My Isabella started to get sick. She spent the rest of the day on the couch with her bowl and her "bobby" (this is what she calls her blankie) watching "Anne". By dinner time she spiked a really high fever and even passed up a can of Sprite to help settle her tummy. After a cool bath she is finally tucked in and sleeping. She is most upset with the thought of maybe not getting to go to the KU game tomorrow. She even offered to go to bed early because I always tell her that rest will help her to get better. I am just praying that my other two kiddos don't get this. Is this already a preview of winter? She has only been in school and dance lessons for two weeks now and we already have a sickness. Yikes!!! I am headed to Costco this weekend to stock up on my Clorox Wipes:)

Splish Splash

Today was our last official day of fun in the sun at the neighborhood pool. We have had a blast there this summer and we are sad that it has ended. The girls have come so far with their swimming this summer I can't believe it.
Isabella can now go all the way under and jump in from the side. She is so very cautious about everything that she does so this is a REALLY big deal for her. We tried many weeks to convince her to do these things but just like every milestone in her life thus far she is not going to do it until it is on her terms.
And little Margaret, my adventurous one, loves to stand on the edge and count to her version of ten before splashing into the water. This is the child I didn't take swimming lessons with yet you would think she was part fish if you saw her swim. I love the diversity in my girls:)
Walter made it into the water a few times this summer but was usually very happy just snoozing on the side. We tried to always go during his morning nap so that I could hang with the girls. Thank goodness we had a somewhat mild summer so that I could get away with this.
I guess we will pack up our floaties until next summer!!