Might as well face it, she's addicted to...

At church N was asked if he would start playing in the worship team. He plays bass guitar and they would love to have him play on Sundays. The only hurdle is they practice on Thursday evenings and right now N's in school.

They are willing to meet with him on Friday or Saturday evening to practice so he can play.

Can I tell you how cool our worship team is? They are some of the most welcoming and inviting people. It totally made N's day to be asked to play.

In fact he was so excited he came home and started practicing. He had a little help.

I wonder if the worship team knows N's a package deal?

She's a big girl now

Zoe's newest thing is wanting to sit at the table with us. Her high chair is good for breakfast, but beyond that she wants to sit at the table.

We have one of those high tables that have chairs the same height as bar stools, so I've been a little apprehensive to put her at the table.

This weekend we bought a booster seat for her.

Now she wants to sit at the table all the time. To color, to watch cartoons, to drink her water, to talk to mommy, etc. She is in love with her new big girl status.

Recap: The TWOrific birthday

I've been a little MIA on the blog. It's because I've been nursing a cold. If you know me at all, you know I basically shut down, whine and make N wait on me until I'm better. It's part of my charm.

I spent some time catching up on The Office this weekend and playing with Zoe. Because I'm still not 100%, I thought you all would enjoy some pictures from Zoe's birthday party.

The centerpieces. Every two year old need some centerpieces made of paper! Because I get a little carried away.

With her cousin MJ and her new trike. Which has become her chair for snacking and watching cartoons.

Getting ready to plant he seed. Before the mouth full of potting soil.

Our birthday girl. All hyped up on sugar!

I was blind, but now I see

For the last two days I've been seeing something off into the distance. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me because I've got a cold and my drug of choice is NyQuil. I've been in some kind of stupor for a couple days.

Alas it's not the NyQuil, it's more scientific than that. It has something to do with the earth's gravitational pull and the rotations.

We have more sunlight.

When I come to work it's light out. When I pick up Zoe after work it's light out.

I think this could possibly mean that we are on the downhill side of winter. I don't want to say that too loud for fear I'll scare the sun off.

Can you tell I'm still in a NyQuil stupor? I think if I ever left Neil it would be for a cherry flavored bottle of NyQuil.

Apparently I also like writing it's name because I've said it 4 times in this post.

I realize I'm rambling but I can't breathe out of one nostril and I think the lack of oxygen to my brain is causing me to do some rambling on and on about nothing.

Like cold medicine.

Her palate is very refined

Last night I made cookies for a memorial service at church on Thursday. My mom is the memorial service director and has to round up food for the family meal and cookies for the fellowship time.

If you've ever had a mom that is the director of anything, you know you'll get a call to help. I'm happy to. This lady was charming, sweet and it was my privilege to know her.

I made the classic chocolate chip cookie for the fellowship time. Zoe noticed that I was making "tookies" and needed one.

I grabbed one that had cooled down the most and gave it to her. She picked a small piece off, put it in her mouth and immediately spit it back out. The chocolate chips were cool, but still mushy. Apparently mushy chocolate chips are not enjoyed by the 2 year old crowd. She spent the next 15 seconds trying to get that slime off her tongue.

Zoe's rules: Potting soil = good. Melted chocolate = gross.

We had a part-tay

I had no idea the toddler crowd could be such partiers. We had about 13 kids, including the birthday girl.

It was utter chaos. Yet completely fun.

We had a bit of some game time at the beginning. If you've never seen 13 children running and screaming, you're totally missing out. We thought it would be best to start off with that to work up their appetites.

Then we feasted on hot dogs a la picnic style. That can be either good or bad depending on whether or not your plate got eaten off of or stepped on as someone was running through.

After all the food we decided to open presents. Zoe got some really adorable things. Cute clothes, some books, some stuffed animals and lots of toys. She's still learning about opening presents, but her more experienced friends were more than happy to help her unwrap and even break in her newly acquired items. I'm not going to lie, there was a bit of a mob mentality going on during the present opening. I've never seen so many little hands clawing and grabbing at stuff.

We made it out safely and onto seed planting. What is a garden party without some flower seeds. Each child got their own little pot, a spoon to shovel the potting soil and some sweet pea seeds. The birthday girl was the only one to take a big spoonful of potting soil and eat it. She was also the only one to attempt to eat one of the seeds.

I think this year we'll be working on non-food related activities. Apparently snacking is too much a part of her every day life.

In an attempt to get rid of the potting soil taste and the fall-out from me freaking out and rinsing out her mouth, we did cake at the end. Plus there is nothing better than sugaring all those kids up and sending them home.

The birthday girl was a bit shy and preferred not to look at the crowd singing to her. She was more than happy to have a BIG piece of chocolate cake and eat it with a big girl fork.

It is safe to say the party was an absolute hit. I had as much fun as the toddler crowd.

Friday Five Faves - vol. 3

It's been an off-week for me. On one hand I've got so much to be thankful for. On the other, some things have been a struggle. Like my professional life this week. I kinda feel bad about focusing a little on the negative because I hate watching the news or reading some article about how the sky has been falling. I don't want this to be a place people come and have their smile get turned upside down.

I'm really struggling. I'm not going to go into details, but I'm experiencing some professional stresses that would have made me quit prior jobs. I love what I do and I believe in what our office is doing, I just am struggling with certain aspects of things right now. Things that make me dread coming into the office. That keep me up at night. That make the pit of my stomach hurt from stress.

I only know to pray about it. Which is the best thing for these types of things, but I'm human, so my emotions tend to be a little wonky because of it. I'm really hoping to check those at the door this afternoon because I have some partying to do.

Namely with a certain 2 year old and some of her friends. Which is my #1 this week. I'm totally stoked about the party. Not to give too much away, but we have a hot dog/german sausage feed with salads and chips, game time for the kids to include a small basketball hoop, a bean bag toss and a seed planting station. Then the cake is the shape of a butterfly because it totally matches the Garden Party theme. The centerpieces are adorable. I'll post pictures of them after the party.

2) Dinner with family tonight. D & E will be with us the weekend for the festivities. Tonight N's sister and her family are coming over for some food, fellowship and Wii. It'll be nice to visit with them and just enjoy our time together.

3) Zoe's new cowboy boots. Her G.G. sent them from Austin for her birthday. Aren't they adorable? She'll be line dancin' and two steppin' in no time.


4) My amazing husband. N has been helping out around the house this week extra because of how hard things have been for me. I come home to a clean house, clean laundry and a phone call telling me all kinds of sweet lovey-dovey things. He's made this week better. I'm so thankful that he is a husband who can sense my frustrations and my stresses and does what he can to be supportive. He is truly a demonstration of God's grace in my life.

5) Early bed times. Last night at 8 o'clock Zoe brought me her bedtime book and we read it. Then she ran into the kitchen while she asked for a bottle. At 8 o'clock. That is a whole hour before her normal bedtime. When I told her we needed to get ready for bed, you'd think I just told her I killed her puppy. Because she cried and cried and cried. Alligator tears ensued.

After her bottle, she got into her comfy position on my lap, turned her head toward me, blew me a kiss and was asleep. That little gesture there brought a slew of tears and made my week's stresses vanish.

Then I got to watch The Office. Even though it was a rerun, it was new to me.

It was like the perfect evening. Especially since I lost this week. After eating more food this weekend than I should in a week because, hello, celebrating a birthday! Whatever fries she didn't eat, I couldn't let those go to waste. They were birthday fries. We all know those taste better.

Have a great Friday all.