The Cahill's

Ivy loves ladybugs so I used that as the theme for the party. We celebrated over the weekend at Brian’s parents.

I made t-shirt dresses for the girls – they were really easy and turned out super cute!

The cake! (Compliments to Benj. for the superb photography!)

Ivy was very excited about the cake and Lance was excited about blowing out the candles.

The kids got umbrellas and water guns, along with some cute dresses for Ivy.

We took the umbrellas outside to see how they worked while Papa Doc provided some rain.

The kids made sure we were safe from the rain too. I love the interaction between Brian and Ivy.

Here’s another shot of Ivy’s dress – it says “Little Ladybug”

Lance got the hang of water guns really fast and had the greatest laugh as he shot people. Then Nana brought out enough guns for everyone and a war broke out. Lance quickly figured out that the bigger the gun, the better.

Ivy played a while but also took time out for a little art work. We ended the evening with swimming, then the kids played in their bed for at least half an hour before falling asleep – too much cake I guess.

Today I threw a little party for Ivy and her friends.

We had ladybug cupcakes and red kool-aid – a momentary lapse of judgment on my part. However, there were enough sippy cups to go around and all was well.

We painted rocks to look like lady bugs….sort of.

Then we played pin the spot on the lady bug along with lots of ring around the rosie (Ivy’s favorite game).  She given a lot of coloring supplies and has already tried out all of them.

Then tonight Brian’s grandparents are taking us out to dinner for her birthday. What a bunch of fun celebrations for our full-of-fun girl!

Had several home videos I thought it would be fun to share, so grab some pizza, pull up a chair and enjoy!

Pirate lingo learned this week.

Lance tries to encourage a less than cooperative baby Flora to eat.

Flora goes for the toys! Today she was in the play room and we all moved to the living room. I heard her call out in protest and then scoot/crawl all the way down the hall to join us.

Brian helping Ivy swim. I didn’t have the camera the night she swam by herself. It sure is fun to watch them develop new skills.

Unpacking after a trip to my Mom’s I found the kids had smuggled a few books into their suitcase. One of these became the inspiration for the activities for this week – Whales!

We also used this as an opportunity to read Jonah and the whale – their all time favorite Bible story.

Monday we colored a picture of a whale (and Jonah) with crayon then painted blue water over it (the idea was that it wouldn’t stick to the crayon). Some people have asked where I get my ideas – this one came from a toddler Bible curriculum my mom just gave me.

The next day we made a whale out of a milk jug. This came from some random site I found on the internet as I looked up toy whales. Lance fell in love with the whale right away and stuffed everything in it’s mouth.

Wednesday we watched videos of whales spouting on YouTube so the kids would have an idea of what I was talking about. Lance loved saying “thar she blows!” Afterward we went swimming and practiced “spouting” (or blowing bubbles).

We also watched a few clips of dolphin shows so Ivy is making the dolphin jump “really high!’”

Thursday we hit the pool again (hey, it’s summer!) and re-enacted the story of Jonah. (We were going to do it the day before but I forgot the whale and didn’t feel like hauling everyone back upstairs to get it). The kids told Jonah to “go to the Nibabah” but Jonah disobeyed and took a boat. Ivy makes a big storm which gets Jonah thrown overboard.

Lance quickly scoops up Jonah (a little wooden man).  Inside the whale Lance says that “he prayed to God.”

This prayer results in Jonah being spit out on land (Lance impersonates the whale). Set free, Jonah goes to Nineveh and Ivy knows that he tells the people to “stop being bad!” Lance finishes the story with, “he obeyed God.”

And for the last day, we made whale shaped pancakes – or at least two turned out with decent shape (Lance thought the other one looked like a rabbit). I also made a Jonah.

The kids were so delighted with the pancakes that they ate them without any syrup! They ate Jonah first, I think they believed themselves to be whales.

Coming up next: Dinosaurs!! (scary!)