29 March 2009

he's officially 3!

Elijah turned 3 yesterday! we celebreated downtown....lunch at the Gumbo Shop! {My favorite place to eat.} Last semester before hazel was born, elijah, orum and i went to lunch there a few times, and he loves it too!
of course..."the boys" {as renee always refers to them} were getting a little crazy/loud, but this time elijah was the one keeping things under control! "shhh...we don't do that while we eat" --elijah
he thought he would taste the lemon while he was waiting for his crawfish and taso pasta...but decided that talking on the phone would be a better idea.
this little boy is obsessed with the little things of butter. he lines them up, counts them, and then distributes them to those seated at the table. he held this one until the bread arrived.

after lunch we went to jackson square. i was hoping to get some pictures....well, the girls were willing {sort of} but there was too much action around them to actually look at the camera!

renee loves her baby sister, and LOVES taking pictures with her!

elijah decided that he would rather climb a tree...

and then he found this leaf...and carried it around the rest of the day!notice the leaf. the robot guy gave him a sucker, so he had a sucker in one hand and his leaf in the other.
this guy gave him the sucker and then when we were watching the "dragon masters" dance, we found his family!
{only in nola!} and for the grand finale...the flip...i didn't get him in the air, but he did a flip over all these people!
elijah tried to run up and give it a try....i don't think so!
then home for cake! he was so excited that he got a candle with fire again! i cut him a really big piece so it would stand up...he decided to eat it all! he later said he was sick...i guess he doesn't have my sweet tooth quite yet!
happy birthday elijah!! we ♥ you!

28 March 2009

april showers...

have started early and HEAVY!!! thursday night the rain was crazy!!! orum had just gotten home about an hour before i took these pictures and parked his truck on the street as usual. I saw the rain pooling as I walked past the front window, but never imagined that it looked like this! renee ran to the window and said, " it's flooded!!!" {she is terrified of floods!!} so we all went to look, and this is what we saw...the silver and white cars are parked in what would be our front yard...there's rocks on each side of the sidewalk and the girls that live upstairs park there. you can see in the distance orum's truck and the other 2 neighbor's cars halfway under water! the water eventually came right up to the bottom of the steps to our house!

the weather channel says that we only got 2.77 inches of rain, and the city says that the pump was working...hmmm??
well, orum decided to wade throught the water and pull his truck into our driveway. on the way he backed into the trash can that was under water. since pick-up was in a couple of hours, it was full, and there was trash everywhere when the water went down!we then watched this guy drive through....i think if i saw cars half under water then i would have stopped and turned around. he didn't and lucky for him he made it through! the police soon showed up to prevent more dumb people from driving though....

23 March 2009

my latest project...

Hazel is obsessed with ceiling fans! She just stares and laughs at them...actually, all three of my kids have. Do everyone's babies do that, or just mine? well, i decided to make hazel a mobile for some aditional ceiling entertainment.
I saw this one a few months ago at pottery barn kids. cute, but a little plain...well after doing all the fancy nancy birthday party stuff for renee. i decided to take on the task with my new butterfly punch.
i initially was going to make it in all shades of pink, but while making it and looking at this cute little girl in this cute little gown...
it turned into this! and i LOVE it! I wish i could just lie and stare at it all day too!!! it's especially fun when the celing fan is on and the butterflies are "fluttering!" i have since had 2 more requests for moblies...one from elijah and one from renee! :)

20 March 2009

the royal ball...

Renée decided to watch the dance tutorial on the Sleeping Beauty DVD, and Elijah volunteered to be the prince! He didn't take his job as serious as Renée would have liked, but she was glad to have a prince no the less!!!
and this sweeet little one just watched!

fancy nancy tea party!

Renée also had her birthday party last weekend. The girls at her school usually have combined parties and then invite the entire grade--45 girls! It was quite a party! It was at Longue Vue Gardens--a famous estate in New Orleans, fitting for the "Fancy Nancy" Theme! Taylor (the one next to Renée) should be the model for Fancy Nancy!!! She had the look from head to toe, and that's her real hair!!!

One of the other birthday mothers volunteered to be the official party photographer, but here's a peek from the few pictures I took...there were 4 tables set. Each girl received a pink hat, pink gloves, and then the little "bags." Inside each was a boa, "pearl necklace," "diamond ring," clip-on earrings, a bracelet, a butterfly hair clip, and a ring pop.
There was also make-up going on in one of the corners...Renée proudly showing hers off. Of course, she chose pink for everything!This is Renée and Lizette. they are in the same class and renee adores her!

One and only little boy at the party! :)
Renée is usually all about dress up, but that day she insisted that she wanted to be a mermaid...so a mermaid she was! She wouldn't even keep a crown on her head!! {highly unusual}
Renée and her new friend Amelia--she's here for a couple of months from japan. She goes to the sacred heart school there, so she's attending the one in nola while her family is here.


After "tea," scones, sandwiches, and cookies...the girls sang happy birthday and had some hot pink cupcakes! They may have looked yummy, but the icing was HORRIBLE!! There were lots of girls trying to scrape the icing off, which meant icing covered gloves...then tears! Luckily, we quickly diverted their attention and sent them outside!

Renee and Sloane. They were heading outside for the butterfly hunt!
Can you see who was the leader of the pack?
yep...elijah! I guess the girls thought maybe the little boy would be the best at hunting bugs/insects! {or whatever a butterfly is classified as}
and when he was done catching butterflies...he started catching girls! and when that didn't work out...
himself! {silly boy!}
I know my kids had a blast, and hopefully the other girls did as well! Happy Birthday Renee!!

16 March 2009

PIRATE PARRRRRRRRTY....

Elijah doesn't turn 3 until the 28th, but we had his party on Saturday while my mom and sister were in town for Renée's party. Although Heather ended up getting sick on the way down and stayed in bed the entire weekend, the kids felt like she was here! And my mom helped with all the madness AND left me with a clean kitchen/empty sink!
Elijah's party was supposed to be at Audubon park, but as soon as we had everything loaded...the rain started! At least, the rain was heavy, and made me feel justified in moving the party indoors! "Captain Elijah" and his little friend "cannon ball cooper" jumped right into action with the swords..."old fish owen" fearfully watched! Luckily he made an escape before the real action started...
Doesn't cooper know that the captain/birthday boy should always win?! I guess he didn't get the memo.
Or maybe it was because Captain Elijah wasn't wearing his captain's hat!
When we were home last month, Mimi took Elijah shopping. He was SO excited when he found this pirate outfit! He told me daily that he was going to wear it for his pirate birthday party. I guess the last days of Elijah in smocked clothes is quickly approaching!! {sad!}
here the cap'n had his mouth full of the cannon balls off the cake plate.

"Peg leg pete" and "sea dog mike"...mike saved the day with his little grill! he and orum were in charge of lunch, and they did a really great job! thanks mike and orum!
and of course, some personalized party garb...
X-marks the spot...
we even had a pirate ship! orum did the hard work. i just painted it....and of course I ran out of time, so it was rather plain.We have a running joke in our house that I'm the one that always fixes/puts together everything, but here's the proof! {I know that it was exactly what he wanted to do when he took a break from studying that day.}Elijah was SO excited about the candles! He kept asking if his cake was going to have fire...and yes it did! the candles were the cannons but no cannon balls by this time...which were just tootsie rolls rolled into balls.
I REALLY missed having my personal baker, Erica around for this party! She made their cute cakes last year! I still have to more years of birthdays to survive alone. I was just going to make cupcakes with some "pirate money" on top, but Elijah spotted a pirate ship cake in Micheal's. He asked SO sweetly and with LOTS of excitement...I didn't buy the pan, but I did attempt to make this one. Not Erica quality, after all it was all from a box, but it pleased a 2 year old!
Renee was telling him how many candles were on the cake and when to blow them out. He blew them all out on the first try...with a little help from her, of course!
don't forget about "mast-huggin hazel!" possible the sweetest pirate ever! she was such a good sport and left it on for a while!
"First Mate Renée" was not thrilled about having a pirate party...until i made the pink do-rags. She insisted for weeks that she was going to be Tinkerbell or a mermaid. She wanted it to be a peter pan party...not just a pirate party, but the cap'n had spoken, and pirates it was.
I had to mention...I DID NOT have anything to do with the socks! He would not take them off, and I'm not sure why!? We have never worn socks with crocs,but for some reason he thought he should...
Here's "Bootleggin Daniella" with Hazel. She and Elijah are in nursery at church together and LOVE to play with each other!
Elijah has been asking for a bike for SO LONG!!! Probably more than a year, and the day has finally come! We defintley have no where by our house to ride, so I guess our trips to the park are about to become more frequent!! It really is THE cutest trike ever! Renee's friend Elsa had one the last time I went to Utah, and after seeing it I could never buy another one! It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so hopefully I will get some cute pictures of it in action!
Mimi gave Elijah this tool table...he "built" a birdhouse for 2 hours! HE LOVES IT!!! The drill is definitely his favorite part! It "drills" out holes...he would drill and then pop the part back in over and over!
I guess the fact that Elijah has asked "Is today my pirate birthday party?" everyday since Saturday would be a good sign that he enjoyed it! We may just have to have another pirate party on the 28th. I don't think either of the kids wants the birthday marathon to end!