This past Saturday Andrew turned the big three! We started the day with breakfast cake, sang happy birthday, and then we each said something we loved about Andrew. Corinne even said that she loves that Andrew shares his toys.
That afternoon, we had a smallish party with close family and a few of Andrew's buddies from church. He was so excited to be three and having a birthday cake.
Andrew, we love you so much big guy! You are so smart and fun, loving and kind. What a special gift from God.
playing in the bounce house
these are Andrew's cousins who are closest in age to him - Darren (2) and Ashley (3 1/2)
this is from before we had kids...that was the life...
notice the dogs on the couch and a wooden coffee table with candy on it
I'm not really sure how I feel about this, but it really makes me laugh! Sorry if it offends anyone!
Awhile back, I posted about a great book called "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. In the book, he recommends that books be stored with the cover facing out, b/c they are more appealing to kids that way. The old-school, library way of storing them on shelves with the spines facing out does not draw kids to the books b/c they cannot see the picture on the front.
One of the suggestions he gives is to use rain gutter. It sounds odd, but hear me out. For a teacher, the space under the chalkboard is usually a waste. But put a strip of rain gutter there, and its an instant book shelf.
We decided to use rain gutter for storage in Andrew's room. There are many fancy book holders out there, but they are large bulky pieces of furniture and cost a lot sometimes. I was really pleased with how the rain gutter works, and Andrew loves putting his books away. Plus, I think it cost us less than $10. Awesome!
Okay, so I know I'm changing the blog up a lot, but I can't help it! While I don't like change, I do like to change things. I like to move and change furniture, paint colors, fabrics, and my blog, apparently. But now things are acting funny with it. Like if you're reading this, you're noticing that the type is all the way over to the left. And on one template I tried, the blog title was totally messed up. I don't know if I'm just being too testy for blogger and now I'm being punished, or what. And also, I don't have the option to change the font and size of font anymore. Are any of you other bloggers out there have these problems??? Please, bare with me!
I know I'm just now getting around to this, but I have been sick. So, for New Year's Eve, we went to a party at our friend's house. It is actually the 3rd annual party for our Sunday school class and its always themed. This year the theme was "Tacky Formal." Clark wore his Dad's old tux and I wore my older sister's homecoming dress from 1991. Complete with blue shoes.
When you look at these pictures, remember our friends all look very normal in real life!
How flippin' cute is this skirt?!
I was reading my old friend, Missie's, blog today and she had these really cute pics of her daughter up. In one, she had on this major purple tutu and looked so cute! I've been wanting one for Corinne, so Missie told me to look at Gymboree.
Big mistake!
I think I'm really going to have to go back to work just to buy Corinne's clothes from there now. Oh my gosh! I don't know why I've never looked at Gymboree before. Well, probably b/c it's out of our budget. But, oh my!
And there were really cute little sailor shorts and then a little bathing suit with a turtle on it and little curly bows...
Our Christmas celebrations are spread out over three days, amongst our parents and siblings. We had a great holiday! Hope you did, too. Enjoy the pics!
