Bill is the best daddy ever. Last weekend he spent most of Saturday building a birdhouse with Caley. It was a "daddy date." They came up with the design and Caley helped nail and paint. Afterward she helped him work in the garage, which she was very happy to do!

Clams and Kites

Caley and Amelia are in Astoria for a few days. My mom sent us some pictures and it looks like they're having a great time! They've gone clamming, kite flying, carousel, swimming, and just hanging out with Grama and Papa. But also giving my parents a run for their money, especially around bedtime. Two girls in the same room for night-night = lots of giggles! Here are some pictures of their time away. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Caley's Daddy Date

Bill was able to take some time off this week and last. One afternoon he and Caley went on a date and had a great time! Here are some super cute pictures.
They visited our townhouse that was Caley's first home. Look at the shiny siding!!

This is at Emery's Garden, a nursery in Lynnwood. Actually it's more like a nursery/farm with free roaming peacocks and chickens in coops.

They visited a park on 164th st in Lynnwood and Caley tried her hand at taking pictures of Daddy.

It's an EVE party!

For Caley's birthday, she said she wanted an EVE party. (EVE is from the movie WALL-E.) And that's what she got! It's been like an EVE factory at our house for the last few weeks. For her party she invited three girlfriends over for dinner, cake and watching WALL-E! Then they had a sleepover! It's been really fun planning and preparing for this party.

The invitation

The practice cake...looks okay, tasted sickenly sweet.

The Rice Krispie treat cake we had at playgroup.

The biggest project by far was the EVE doll pillows. I got the idea from this website and adapted it based on the materials I could find. I'm not a seamstress by any means, so this was fairly challenging for me, especially since I hadn't used my sewing machine for over 2 years. Actually there are a lot of mistakes and if I were to make many more hopefully each one would look better than the last. But it's for kids, so who cares. For the body I used T-shirts. For the patches I used felt because it doesn't fray, and for her plant symbol I used iron-on patches for pants cut into the correct shapes.

The girls also made EVE puppets. I originally was going to have them stuff the dolls, but that'd be too much work sewing them back up on party night. They seemed to enjoy the puppets!

And finally, the last EVE cake!

They didn't sleep as much as I'd hoped, but it was still a really fun party!

"Thank you friends for coming to my party!" -Caley

Happy Birthday Big Girl!!

Today Caley is 4 years old. Happy Birthday Caleyboo! We love you so much! Thanks for making the last year memorable.

Good job Amelia!

I was in Fred Meyer last week with only Amelia because Caley was in Playland. (But I did not feel like I was cheating on Cost Cutter!) Amelia was pushing the cart around, and several people stopped and commented how cute she was. An older lady asked what her name was and I said "Amelia" and she said, "That's a good, real name. It's not stupid like those new made-up names you hear nowadays." 

I didn't tell her that Big Sister has a "made up" name that's only gained popularity in the last 3o years. See Kaylee's popularity here (we changed the spelling to make our Caley unique and to distinguish her from her namesake TV character.) Just for fun, here is Amelia's popularity.

How Caley Helps

We've started having Caley do chores and earn allowance. Her chores are usually to clean her room and set the table. She also helps me put the dishes away, which isn't a chore, just part of living here--do your part. ;) Every morning we go over the day's schedule, including her chores. When the day is over we put the "Day" card back on the whiteboard and the cards with the chores she's done. When the week is over and she's done her chores, she get $1. Last week we gave her the money in coins so she can portion it out easier for tithing the next day at preschool church.  

So she's been super helpful around the house lately. It's been really refreshing. Here's another way she's been helping, enjoy!