I Guess You Are Supposed to Supervise Your 18-Month-Old When He's Coloring. . . .

4th Birthday Bash!

We hosted 20 3 and 4 year-olds for Caroline's birthday party on Saturday. It was a blast! I was really struck by how much the kids have grown up in the past year; they were so much more interested in playing with each other, so much more independent from their parents, and so much more ready for games and activities.

Caroline's cake (I was practicing "letting go of control" - didn't I do a good job???)



The birthday girl:



The Clarks!

Caitlin, Caroline, and Brianna:

The little man had an AWESOME time at the party!

I love how cute they are here:

Cate and Caroline, best buds:

The crew:

Blowing out candles:

It was a great party.

Four

We opened presents. . . .

We decorated. . .

We had friends over for macaroni and cheese. . .

We sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles. . .

We celebrated four amazing years. . .

Happy Birthday, Caroline Rose!

Somebody's Been Sleeping In My Bed!!!

I just went upstairs to read for a few minutes before turning in for the night. As is my custom, first I slipped into William's room to watch him sleeping peacefully in his crib. Next I opened Caroline's door to tuck her in, but her bed was empty!

Mine wasn't, though. :)

My little Goldilocks, fast asleep in our bed. And since Daddy's out of town, I think I'm going to leave her there. I know I'll be complaining about breaking the habit before long, but tonight I'm going to soak up all the 3-year-old little girl cuddles I can get since I've only got 2 nights left with a 3-year-old in this house.

Sweet dreams!

Window Treatments

Our Boo just cracks me up. . .





Anybody need an interior decorator for their house?

Gold Will Shine . . .

We've just returned from a whirlwind trip. I know, you are all shocked that the Clark family was traveling once again. NO MORE until Christmas, I promise. Anyway, Steve and I headed out to Colorado Springs to celebrate his 10 year reunion at the Air Force Academy. I started my journey on Wednesday by flying with the kids to Chicago. After I got them settled with my mom, I flew to Colorado on Thursday, and met up with Steve who got to fly all by himself. We spent an awesome weekend with each other and lots of old friends before I headed back to Chicago to pick up the babies and he flew directly back home to a quiet house. I wasn't jealous of him, at all, I'm sure you can tell. Actually, the kids did GREAT on both flights and had an amazing time at Grandma's. They spent tons of time with Grandma, Nana, Papa, Aunt Melisa, Uncle Jay, and the cousins eating junk and going on all sorts of fun outings. No wonder no one really missed me. :)

I dragged my camera all the way to Chicago intending on taking Melisa's Christmas card picture, but the weather was nasty and I never even took my camera out of it's case. I didn't even both taking it to CO. Good thing somebody else took great pics of the weekend. Go check out her blog (and maybe Amy's, J.J's, and Megan's when they get pics up) to see what we were up to! And since I know she is going to call me on it - fine, Erin, I guess there are SOME perks to being your BFF. I'm just waiting for the Gayle King style perks to start happening. :) Love you. Thanks for documenting my life.

And for the record, yes, I really was THAT bored at the football game. I just do not get sports watching. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Caroline's Princess Posse

Monday afternoon has become the highlight of Caroline's week. Why, you ask? The princess play date, of course!

Over the past year, 5 little 3-year-old girls (including Caroline) have become an incredibly tight group of friends. Whether they are at the park, the pool, or a play date in some one's backyard, these girls absolutely light up the minute they see each other, take off to play, and enter an imaginary world where only they know the rules. The cool thing is that whether there are two or five of them at any given time, it doesn't matter. They all love each other, and they all get along in any combination of the 5. It is a magical thing to see.

This fall, the girls all began preschool. The 5 are scattered between 3 different schools and 4 classrooms, so one of the moms (Queen Patti) came up with the brilliant idea to have a regularly scheduled Monday afternoon "princess play date." All five girls show up in their finest princess regalia and run amok in the hostess's house; sugary sweets are eaten, dress up clothes are traded, and elaborate games of "princess baby" are played. It is chaos - girly, crazy, amazingly well-behaved chaos.

Princess play date was at our house yesterday. Unfortunately I'd left my Rebel in the car Steve was using, so I just had my little purse-sized point-and-shoot. Please forgive the quality of the pictures, but since one of the main objectives of this blog is to capture the stories and the memories of our family, I sacrificed good pictures for an incredible memory. Brianna, Bridget, Caitlin, and Cate, thanks for being fabulous friends to my baby girl.