Happy Birthday, Kate!

So somehow the years have flown by and my baby girl is now a grown-up 4 year old! I don't know how I didn't realize it was going by so fast!

We had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese (chaotic, but at least the massive mess wasn't at MY house!) and they all had lots of fun! There were 13 kids in all, plus moms and a few dads. We had a blast! Kate even let us get her next to Chuck E! She's been terrified of him for years, but when she saw her girlfriends hugging him, she had to do it, too!

Jamie and I got her a big-girl bike! She got it first thing this morning, it was a little too big to wrap and take to the party! She was SO excited, she hurried and got dressed and started asking to go on a bike ride. She rode circles through the house- den, kitchen, hallway, dining room- and really got the hang of it pretty quickly!

I'm going to go play with the kids now, turns out they grow up fast whether you pay attention or not, and I don't want to miss any of it!

So I found out what to expect next!

So this was drill weekend, and we always have J's troops over for dinner and whatever. Kate has totally fallen head-over-heels in love with 2 of the guys, Brandon and Chris. Last night, everyone was starting to leave and before too long it was Brandon, Chris and Jemen (another of J's troops, who Kate had been playing tea party with all evening). When they were the only ones left, Kate turns to Jemen and says, "You can go now, I want to spend time with my boys." What on earth will she be doing/saying when she's 16??


The weather has been much better (until this weekend, but that's another post...) and Kate and I have enjoyed watching the kids play on the school playground. I hear she and Alec yelling across the backyard every day, and sometimes I sneak and take pictures! Can you see him?

And finally, my sweet, beautiful daughter has apparently inherited her mother's penchant for body art! Luckily (HOPEFULLY!) these are washable markers!

Latest funny Kate story!

What in the world am I going to do with this child??

So Jamie was home alone with Kate and all of a sudden he hears her in the kitchen laughing hysterically. Sometimes that's a beautiful sound, nothing warms the heart like a child's laughter, right? Well, we've learned the hard way that it usually means she's up to something.

Molly, our 6-month-old English Springer Spaniel was in the kitchen eating and Kate had gone in with her. There stands Kate, PANTS DOWN, and there's Molly behind her, licking her fanny!

Seriously, what will she do next??? I'm almost afraid to ask!

We're off to see the wizard

So tonight starts the LONG tornado scare-season! I'm not sure when the actual season is, but so far tonight we've been to the basement twice!

Introducing the latest Stover blog feature- The Tornado Count! Might be fun to keep track of our basement trips! Count along with us, the counter is over on the right.

Just what I needed- another way to waste time on the computer!

Ok, so my cousin and BFF Kathy (hey Kathy!!) sent me a link to a program (service?) I saw several months ago and forgot about- http://www.stumbleupon.com/. Oh my gosh, I was up till 1am last night playing with it! Here's what you do- download their program (service?), register, click things you're interested on a list, then when you're all set up, you just click a little button at the top of your screen that says "Stumble". How cool- it gives you a different website every time and all related to whatever you said you're interested in! I clicked things like K-12 education, optical illusions (the boys love those), cooking, art, and it has given me some really cool sites! Here are some of the ones I've liked the most:

http://www.stellaceleste.com/htm/knots/tutorials.htm- this one teaches you all about how to make those really intricate Chinese knots, you never know when you'll use that kind of info!
http://www.cottonmonster.com/- I love these kinds of things, they're so cute and can't be that hard to make, right??
http://www.mysticalball.com/- The boys loved this one, they were amazed!
http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/marblemagnets- Hello- easy kid-made Mother's Day presents!
http://www.blingit.us/blog/2008/02/27/pictures-taken-just-at-the-right-time/- VERY funny, Kate and I had fun laughing at some of these!
http://catalogs.google.com/- because everyone that knows me knows I LOVE catalogs!
http://www.justaplant.com/story/index.html- Because, seriously?

So try it for yourself, see what kind of neat/odd/funny/gross/stupid things you can find!