Our New Roomie

Every night for the last little while (since we started trying to sleep train her roommate Emme)
Olivia has pitter-pattered her way into our room,
seeking a quieter place to sleep and dragging her quilt behind her.

 At some point, for the sake of her own good night's sleep, we'll probably need to re-train her to stay in her bed all night.

But for now, it's kind of sweet to wake up to this little face each morning.

Hope you get some sleep this weekend. We're headed here. Cannot wait.

The Party

First you must know: I am opposed to birthday parties. I am a birthday scroodge. I'm stingy. I want to share my girls' birthdays with no one and keep them all to myself. Plus, I feel guilty making other kids' parents buy my kid presents.
But Malan had her heart set on a friend party this year and chose a party over a family outing and/or more presents. So we partied.

She debated and researched online with me and finally settled on a theme. With a little pinterest assistance and several trips to the dollar store, we whipped up a pretty fun day.
Here are some tidbits from Malan's fairy birthday party:

 We painted and decorated fairy treasure boxes, filled our own pixie dust bottles, sifted for "lost treasure" and used it to make fairy bracelets, and had some fairy themed snacks.

Malan had the best time, and her friends are all very sweet (it was good to see that.)

A worthwhile event, all in all.

Though when the parents arrived for pickup and found their little girls jumping off the furniture trying to spear ceiling balloons with bamboo fruit skewers, I realized I hadn't thought through everything as thoroughly as I should have. Bad combination there.

P.S. Caleb used our air compressor to fill the balloons (brilliant) and did all the food prep. What a stud.

For my part, I am working on my birthday Scroodginess. I will honor birthdays in my heart and try to keep them all the year.

Seven

Sweet Malan, you were so excited for this birthday.

You counted the days, you prepared the menus: strudel for breakfast in bed, crepes with berries and creme for dinner.

 You wanted a "nature cake" and you took your birthday wish oh so seriously.

All my wishes are for all your wishes to come true.

We had fun today bandaging your and Jane's dolls, who must have been through something horrible, with your new doll first aid kit:

Malan: "Oh no! What happened to you?"
Jane: "I broke my arm and my finger and got lots of cuts on my face.
What happened to you?"
Malan: "I broke my leg and sprained my ankle and got lots of cuts on my arms and legs.
I need an ice pack. Oh look, here's one. Do you want to borrow my crutches?"
Jane: "No, thanks. You're the one with the broken legs."


Sure love you, sweet, thoughtful, bright, creative, beautiful Malan.
Happy Birthday.

Happiness This Week

For Olivia, it came in the form of a red balloon:

 For Jane, it was finding an old friend out in the yard who went missing last winter,

and fixing her up a dainty flower bed where she could recover from her ordeal.

For me, my cup pretty much runneth over after hearing this conversation earlier:

Malan: "I like Justin Beaver."
Jane: "No, I like Justin Beaver."
Malan "No, I like Justin Beaver!"
Jane: "No, I like Justin Beaver!!"
(giggle giggle giggle. Repeat.)

If Justin "Beaver" could only be so lucky. . .

Note to self: Begin Wilson girls' music education tomorrow.

Insights

(Aside: is anyone else as burned out on blogging as I am? Wow.
Dear distant family: I will try to persevere a little longer.)

It was conference weekend. Such a good weekend. Loved staying home with my family. Loved the words of hope and inspiration. Besides the spiritual insights, here are a few familial ones from the weekend:

Emme is low maintenance. Caleb is tired. I mean really tired, weary to the bone. This last year of school has been a doozy. Last month up at 3 am and gone until after dinner each day, and not unusual for the year, so if he sits down for a minute he's a goner. Mostly home this month (huzzah!) to study for boards. Hoping to sneak in a few naps as well.

 Jane is concerned about fire safety. Each day this week before she left for school she made a little basket full of her best things and said on her way out, "Mom, this basket is right here by the door, so if the house burns down while I'm at school you can just grab it on your way out."

 Jane also enjoyed conference. When President Monson said "Hello!" she laughed for about 30 seconds and then added enthusiastically, "Oh, I just LOVE that kind of guy!"

Olivia is "looking good." (Her words.)

 Malan helped me deck the house for Halloween yesterday. She is such a mini me and I love it.

 Final insight: these are yummy. If I had known you could make donuts at home my life would have been very different up to this point. Wow. Try them?

 (Aside: please forgive lack of commenting etc., I'm reevaluating this blog thing. Meaning the hour or two a week I've spent in blog land is becoming harder to spare. I'm sure you can relate, and I won't be offended if you're less present here as well.)

The Autumn Post

As autumn descends, I contemplate my last few weeks in this, the Autumn of my twenties.
I've studied and traveled, married and multiplied.
and now, it seems, I enter. . .

My wreath making years.
Call me Donna Reed, I've been domesticated.

If you find yourself likewise, perhaps you'll enjoy our Autumnal domestic tidbits:

My take on a pinterest find (thanks for letting me mooch, Katie J.)-

 Autumn blooms:

(I stole them from the side of the road. I don't even know if that's legal. I was just waiting for someone to jump out of their car and shout "Hey! Wildflowers are for everyone to enjoy, you selfish, selfish nature thief."
If it was wrong, I got my punishment in the form of the worst allergy attack of my life. I could hardly see out of my oozing eyes well enough to drive home and my dash and windshield now have a fine coating of what used to be on the inside of my nose.
The flowers and I have since made peace.)

 My take on squash: (See it, don't eat it.)

 Leftover burlap. . .

 And alas, I believe I am also entering the Autumn of the adequate metabolism. So you betcha I'll be making every calorie count.

Apple cider floats:
I used this recipe and was not disappointed one little bit.

 Truth be told, something about this time of year really does wake me up and make me want to

cook and create and fill our life with sweet sights and smells and memories.

Trite, but true.

I love you, autumn. Welcome, welcome.

This morning. . .

I walked into Emme and Olivia's room to find O. using E.'s crib for her floor routine. . .

And Emme standing, YES STANDING, practically nose diving out. How can it not have crossed my mind that it was time to move the mattress down?!
Well, disaster averted. Now Emme's crib is furniture surfer safe.
It also just occurred to me to start brushing her teeth even though she sprouted her first pearly white nearly four months ago.
My poor neglected fourth child, is there a therapy fund I should be contributing to?

More Thrift Store Love

Palm sander (Mother's day) + a little glaze (leftover paint mixed with water) + bun feet,
and the tacky thrift store pirate chest. . .

 . . .becomes our new dress ups box.

And what do the Wilson girls most like to dress up and pretend to be?

Poor.

I may have said under my breath once that they don't have to pretend. Ha ha.
Of course, we really do have everything our little student budget hearts desire.
And when we don't, we can usually find it at the thrift store.