Baby Stoughtie #4

We got another glace at the baby last Monday - which was a great birthday present - plus, my mom was able to go with Ashley & me which was fun.  Here are a couple of pictures we got.  This one is a profile shot.  Looks just like Ashley did.

And this one is the little leg with the foot resting on the wall. 

The white lines are the bones and the little white dot at the top of the knee is the knee cap.  It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly formed they are at this point.  We'll get another glance in about 5 weeks which will be our 4th ultrasound.  One of the advantages of being "advanced maternal age."

Girls Choir concert

The girls went to sing at the "expirement" home yesterday (as Abby calls it) with their choir.  If you remember the post from their last concert then you will understand that from the moment we walked in the room, Charlie was looking for "the lady with the M&M's."  We did not find her.  His next priority was to take pictures.  This was fine with me as it keeps him occupied, but I forgot to grab the camera from him to get some "decent" pictures.  So, here is all I have from the concert. 

Nice ladies watching the concert (possibly annoyed that this is take 15 out of 27 shots of them):

Same carpet - sans blue M&M:

Um, Charlie:

Charlie's shoes - same ones as last time!

The back of Abby's head:

YEA! A shot of someone we know!

Granted, I deleted about 80 pictures, but I'd say one good shot is worth it.  :)

Sky High

We have a trampoline place here in town that is ridiculous in so many ways.  The kids had their first trip there for "homeschool day" last week.  Fitting.  It's a huge warehouse separated into 5 different sections, each filled with trampolines.  A regular jumping area, a trampoline/dodge ball room, a little kids area, a party room, and a FOAM PIT area!!!  I thought of my sister so much in this place.  She would have a foam pit house if it existed.  Alli - we'll have to take you there some time.  The girls loved it.  Charlie tried to love it, but his version of brave was downscaled several notches.  Here is a video of Ashley.

Here is Charlie's first attempt:

By the end of our time there, he really had it down.  :)

I didn't get any videos/picture of Abby.  She was in heaven with a warehouse full of trampolines to run around in.  I think she was throwing dodge balls at the big kids most of the time.  It's not cheap, but on a rainy day, you can't beat it!

Ashley turns 9!!!

This is so hard to believe.  I wanted to make her birthday special, but wasn't feeling very creative.  Fortunately, one of Ashley's love languages is quality time - a very awesome one to have.  :)  So, we spent ALL MORNING (and afternoon) making donuts.  This was not the plan - to spend all day doing it, but it ended up being a good thing.  I figured they would be pretty easy.  I think to most people they would be, but stuff like this seems to take longer here.  Not sure if it's me or the help, hard to blame the help on this one.  Here is step 14 out of 83 - roll out the dough.  Abby was all over this.

Skip a few dozen steps - while the donuts are frying, you are supposed to make the glaze.  This sounds logical, but this multi-tasking seemed especially difficult.  Especially since you fry 2 donuts at a time and flip them every 20 seconds.  I had to seriously let go of my control freakishness with this project and trust Ashley & Abby with tasks on their own.  This went over (semi) well. 

Ashley making the glaze:

..while Abby dipped the donuts. (no sampling going on here)

Linds made a special trip over and was pleased to sample the freshly fried donuts.  There is nothing healthy about these things - but they were good.  :)

Around 2pm, our donuts were finally done.  I can't even tell you how many we ate.  Far more than we would ever allow our kids to eat at KKD!!!

This was a totally fun birthday project, but not one that we will repeat anytime soon.  :)

After eating nothing but fried dough & sugar all day, we rounded it up with angel food cake, strawberries & whip cream for dessert.  The sugar was bursting through their pores. 

Overall, a very memorable birthday and the sugar eventually wore off.  (and don't tell the kids but the left over donuts were tossed - KKD's win hands down for leftovers!)

Happy Birthday, Smash!