a strange phenomenon, a day late

It is quite strange that my hubby and I have the same birthday. It has been the topic of many random conversations over the past 8 years. Honestly in some ways it kinda stinks, but really only in the ways that are humbling anyway - it doesn't really have to be all about me even one day out of the year, and baking my own birthday cake is special in its own way. But in more ways it is just pretty darn cool to share your birthday with the love of your life. Thank you Greggie for a fun birthday week :). And thank you to our friends and family who helped us celebrate. We love you all! (and thanks to Amanda for letting steal this photo of Gregg and I, I have none!)

Greggie here is the picture of your girls helping bake your bday pound cake - All of your girls sure do love you!!!

Double A

So, you would think by now I wouldn't be surprised by the things that my older child says. But she still gets me sometimes. Last night, I was trying to clean up the kitchen to get the girls upstairs for their bath (Gregg had class). Well Mary Kathryn comes in and is going through a drawer looking for something. She pulls out a flashlight toy that she used to play with a lot. She starts asking if we can fix it and use it. I am trying to finish what I am doing so I try to just put her off by saying no we need to let Daddy do it. "But Mommy, girls can fix things too; you are a good fixer". Clearly they have been studying Title 9 at Little School. I assured her that yes Girls could do anything that boys could. Then she was asking if we could change the batteries. Again I was just trying to finish the dishes and said, I don't know what kind of batteries that it needs and I think Daddy said it needed a new bulb too or something. Well before I finish that sentence she has unscrewed the top and takes out the old batteries and says, "these are double A aren't they, mom". Of course she was right. At this point I had to stop what I was doing and go and get some new batteries to try in the flashlight. She doesn't let things go, she has a answer for everything and she is not quite 4. But I was somewhat vindicated to discover that I had remembered correctly and there was something else wrong with the toy. But boy was her Daddy proud when I told him the story about his little girl correctly identifying the type of battery.

What the girls have been up tp

Here is Anne sitting in the video drawer of the coffee table. At her 15 mos check up we got a sheet of activities and milestones to look forward too and work towards. One of these was putting words together, well Anne is quite verbose ( says color, picture, broccoli, garage and so much more) and does put words together. The sheet said that we should encourage and praise this behavior, my question is should we praise her when she crawls into the video drawer and says Watch Elmo. Or when we say it is time for bed and and she say No, Read Ark (A Noah's Ark book is her current favorite.)?

Anne in the diaper basket, what a Ham!

A teenager in the making, look at those big hoop earrings. They are actually glow in the dark too, yikes a long 18 years ahead of us, I believe . . .

Mary Kathryn is posing with Gypsy the cat for a school project. They will discussing pets next week at Little School. Mary Kathryn was made for school it seems. She loves it. Several times completely unsolicited she has said "I love school" and "I love my class". I always hear that she is a great listener. We are so proud of our sweet girl. When she is not at school she playing school with Gregg and I and Anne, or Little People, or the baby dolls, or the imaginary friends. She is so funny. I don't think that I am ready for her to turn 4 next month, but I guess I have no choice!

Good Sport

Anne took a special liking to Wooger and the way he read. He must have read 12 books to her in 30 minutes.
Thanks Woogie for being a good sport!

Not to be out done

Anne wanted to be involved in everything that Mary Kathryn and Spencer did. I tried to entertain her, here she is having her own slumber party.

MK's 1st sleepover

Mary Kathryn had Spencer over to spend the night for the first time this weekend. Spencer was the perfect house guest and they had the best time, despite the rain. Lots of playing and pretending. The two of them are so funny together, having real conversations and everything. They were both asleep in Mary Kathryn's bed by 9pm, not too bad.
(In the photo above spencer is playing music on the pot while MK is singing)

Ready for bed, too cute!