The Queen Gets Her First Pedi!!

Auntie Noni and I took the kids to the park two days ago, but it ended up being RIDICULOUSLY hot that day....Annie and I were miserable.  And the park was totally meant for kids about 5 years old and up.  Anna kept telling me she felt like crying (a bit dramatic?...yes) watching Ellie wander around aimlessly, unable to climb, slide, or find anything fun to do at all.  While we were sitting there baking in the sun (and holding back tears??=)), two nice ladies stopped by and gave us coupons to a goofy salon catered specifically to little girls.   We were hot, we felt sorry for Ellie, and we weren't ready to go home to our husbands yet, so we decided to give it a go.  The polish change on the toes was only $6.95, so it was kind of a no-brainer.  Annie and I decided that we'll be getting our pedicures at Sassy Suzy's from now on, as well.  They may force us to walk the catwalk with pompoms and sing "Go Bananas"(like all the little girls having the b-day party in there were doing), but really, that might only add to our pampering experience.

Ellie LOVED the whole thing.  She was a bit quiet the whole time, though, as she was really nervous.  That worked to our advantage, though, because she actually sat still for us.   The gal who painted Ellie's toes was so sweet; it was one of her first times doing it, and she was so thankful that I didn't care if the paint job was perfect.  Are you kidding me?!  She's two...who cares what it looks like!  Apparently, most moms come in there expecting beautification perfection.  Creepy.  

E got to pick out her own polish color, and she even got a free toe ring...woo woo!  She's been wearing it as a regular ring for the past couple of days everywhere we go.  What a big girl.  

The whole experience was just too much, though...talk about overstimulation...sparkles everywhere, screeching girls, singing, pompoms, etc.  When we left the shop, Ellie immediately passed out in her stroller and slept an additional 2 hours at home in her crib.  

Charlie loved the whole thing, too.  Just sat in his cozy stroller the whole time, chewing on my camera case.  What boy doesn't love watching a bunch of cute ladies walk the catwalk for his viewing pleasure?!

Easter Dinner at Our House

We hosted Easter dinner at our house with Auntie Noni and our dear friends, the McAlpin family.  We did a very non-traditional meal of burgers and dogs...delish!  

Sweet Miss Cindy (McAlpin) spoiled our kiddos rotten this Easter.  Not only did she send them early Easter baskets in the mail, but she also brought 24 plastic eggs filled with MONEY for Ellie to hunt for in our back yard, as well as little Easter gifts for both kids.  In these pics, Ellie's modeling her new goodies...bunny barrettes that Noni thinks look like antlers or something, a bunny coin purse with which to carry all of her "monies," and a mini stuffed rabbit dressed in a flower gown (which she carries everywhere, even to Daddy's baseball game tonight).  And yes, I let her wear those barrettes in public...to day care at the gym, in fact...I think they're darling!

Ellie crashed that night and never had the chance to hunt for her eggs, so we had to do it the next day, but she LOVED it!  She made me get out her basket and eggs for several days following.

Sorry that there are no pictures of Charlie this evening.  Big day for a little boy; he checked out at about 6:30pm...before any of the festivities really even began.

All of a sudden, Ellie is fascinated with Charlie's high chair.  She asks to sit in it all the time!  In fact, I put her in there with snacks now, plop her in front of the TV, and get about 30 minutes of total freedom to get stuff done around the house.  Naughty Mommy, I know.  She chose to eat Easter dinner with us in her throne...too funny.

Easter at Church

I do hate to say this, but church is such a task with two young kiddos.  I get about 10 minutes out of 60, where I feel like I'm absorbing some of what's being said.  So much effort is put forth keeping them quiet that I get very little chance to feel any kind of holiness.  That being said, though, I love taking my family to church and beginning that tradition for my children.  As my mom always tells me, it is during this time that I am making an investment in my kids by teaching them how to sit through a service respectfully, etc.  Ellie and Charlie each had to be removed several times on Easter Sunday, BUT we made it through Communion!  And...they were far better behaved than some of the other kids there.  E and C were far from perfect but they didn't embarrass us this time=).  

After church, the Easter Bunny was waiting outside to greet the kids!  What a surprise for Ellie.  Anna threw her right up there with him, put her hand in his, and walked away.  Ellie must've been a bit scared, but she totally hung in there, and she ended up being so proud of herself...she's STILL telling me that she's a "big girl" because she held the Easter Bunny's hand!

Hah! The Process of Getting a Family Photo...

Yes, yes, go ahead and laugh.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent family photo of the four of us.  Just check out the process on Easter Sunday before church.  Not really a single one worth using, huh?  Oh well.  We were all looking pretty spiffy all dressed up, though=).

The Slow Poke is Getting MOBILE Finally!

Look at the Big Boy!!  Charlie is FINALLY starting to get a bit more mobile.  I swear, this boy was a blob until about 9.5 months old!!  He just watches Ellie fly all around him, and until last week, he would just whine or wail until whatever was out of reach was brought to him or he was picked up.  That kid would ride my hip all day long every day if he could.  Things are turning around quickly, though.  He just started really scooting around in the past three days or so, and he's soooooo much happier!...way less whining, he's so proud of his Big Boy self, and Mommy is getting some much-needed freedom.  He still wails when I walk out of his eye sight, but I've found that there's a whole lot I can get done within range of that munchkin's eye sight.

The Fate of the Easter Egg

So, Ellie carried that blue egg around all night that night Annie came over for dinner.  The day leading up to this evening was a rough one for miss Elle-Belle.  Daddy was on the road with his team in Richmond, so Mommy was on her own with the kiddos.  When I'm on my own, I keep them BUSY...best way for me to avoid feeling lonely and best way to tire them out so that they'll take a long afternoon nap for me!  Ellie REFUSED her nap that day (played "Ring Around the Rosie" with her stuffed animals and sang "Go Potty Go" for two hours in her crib, instead).  So, by the time Auntie Noni got over the house for dinner with the eggs in hand, Ellie was a WRECK!  And when she's a wreck, she tends to hide her fatigue with frenzy...she turns into a red-headed Tasmanian Devil, I swear!  I told her to quite climbing the furniture countless times that night...especially with a hard-boiled egg in hand!  (Mind you, our home is on the market, too, and I was having to keep it spotless for showings the whole time we were home...yolk ground into the carpet?...no thank you.)

At some point in the evening, the climbing got out of control (and climbing with a hard-boiled egg in hand is quite difficult), and she rolled off the couch, absolutely NAILING her head on the underside of the coffee table.  Poor baby really hurt herself, but I really didn't feel sorry for her.  I'd told her not to climb 5000 times that evening...and I've been doing so for the past five months.  Anyway, I so now understand my Dad's famous line when we were growing up and asked to go out to play without wearing our shoes: "Fine. But don't you come home crying when you stub your toe, because I won't feel sorry for you." Gosh, I used to think he was cruel.  Oh, yes, and the egg was everywhere!  Yolk ground into the living room carpet, for sure.  

After her recovery (from both the head injury and the broken egg), I left her to snuggle with Noni on the couch (and gave her the second blue egg to hold), while I went upstairs to feed Charlie and put him to bed.  Annie and I both separately noticed that it was odd how calm and "snuggly" Ellie was with her.  She NEVER sits still like that.  Anyway, by the time I came back down, the restless day had taken it's toll, and Ellie had passed out COLD in her Auntie's lap.  Such a weird thing, since it usually takes Ellie at least thirty minutes of reading books in the dark and or singing with her "animal friends" to fall asleep at night.  The whole thing was super cute at first, but then it started to get scary when we could move her all around, open up her eye lids and peek at her eyes, talk loudly to her, and still, she wouldn't wake up.  We called Mahgie immediately...did she have a concussion from the fall??  We kept an eye on her and followed all of Mahgie's nursey advice, but it turns out that she was just that tired.  Easter absolutely wore that little girl out. 

Easter Egg Day with Auntie Noni

Ellie and Charlie have the best Auntie.  She does all of the activities and crafts their mommy refuses to do, because they might be too messy to bother with=).  So, two days before Easter, Anna had us over to dye eggs.  Ellie was in HEAVEN!  Patience is not something this red-headed toddler is gifted with, though, and so the whole waiting for the dye to take and the drying process was more than a bit frustrating for her.  The egg package also came with eye and mouth stickers for her eggs; the dummies that came up with that idea should be fired!....cheap stickers don't stick to wet eggs!!... and toddlers get very, very angry about that!

The day after Easter, when all was said and done, Noni brought two of the leftover dyed eggs to eat with our salads that night.  Ellie saw them and had a totally different idea of what we'd be doing with those guys.  She just wanted to carry an egg around in her hand all night long...blue food coloring all over her hands and face...somehow none ended up on the furniture (well, maybe just a little on the khaki chair in the living room, but it was nothing a little Resolve couldn't handle).  See my next post to find out what happened to her poor egg in the end.

Modeling the new 'Do

Ellie got her Easter haircut this afternoon at the most darling kids' salon in Charlotte.  She got to sit in a fire engine, watch Charlie Brown's Easter cartoon, and pic out a new giant pink hair bow.  As you can tell from the rat's nest she was sporting in previous postings, this kiddo was LONG overdue for a chop.  Boy, have I ever learned that you get what you pay for when it comes to kids' haircuts.  The last one I got for her was in Orlando at a Hair Cuttery...you know, like a Fantastic Sam's knock-off.  That thing lasted for about a week; in the blink of an eye, we were back to the red mullet again.  I think I paid 8 bucks for that job.  I paid a whopping $17 for her 7 minutes in the fire engine today, and by the time I paid for the bow and left a tip, we were up to a whopping $28!!  Totally worth it, though.  She looks absolutely darling, she had a ball, and I think it will last for longer than a week.  For $28, it better!

And yep, I guess my kids do actually look at and smile for the camera on occasion...only when they feel like a million bucks, though.  Can you tell this girl feels beautiful?

2009 Season Opener in Charlotte

Joe's playing for the Atlanta Braves' AAA team, the Gwinnett Braves, this year, and amazingly, the team opened the season in Charlotte against Joe's old team, the Charlotte Knights Thursday afternoon.  We have him home with us for a four day series...including Easter Sunday...baseball things NEVER work out this well!  We feel so lucky, and we're enjoying every last minute we're getting with him.  Auntie Noni and I took the kids to the season opener; the weather was beautiful, the kids were perfectly behaved (!), and we ate our weight in Goldfish and Starburst jelly beans.  

We tried to get some photos of the kids with their daddy after the game, but my kids REFUSE to look at the camera when I'm desperate for them to...drives me nuts!  And, I'm sure you all can tell from the picture, it had been a long afternoon and Charlie was at the end of his rope already by the time we tried to get his shot with Dad.  Oh well, worth a try.  Many more games and many more photos to come, we hope.

Easter Bunny Arrives Early...Yippee!

Our dear friends here in Charlotte, the McAlpin Family, sent the most adorable early Easter baskets for the kids in the mail two days ago.  Such a fun way to prep Ellie for the big day.  Miss Cindy sent them an empty paint bucket filled with fake grass, mini kites, wind-up stuffed animals, bunny ear head bands, "gooey" frogs, sponge animals, and an egg filled with their first real "paper money!!!"  Both were in heaven...kissing the frog, chewing the frog, and discovering the joy of a dollar bill.  Momma was in heaven, too...an afternoon of perfectly entertained kids... what a gift for all!

Homemade Bunny Ears

We just joined the local YMCA here in Charlotte for the few weeks that we're home.  They have the most fantastic child care center, where toddlers and preschoolers are in a pre-pre-school environment.  They sit at little desks and do art projects, have organized snack time, play outside at "recess," and even get to go on "buggy rides" all around the Y's grounds.  Ellie LOVES the organized activities.  As evidenced in this picture, she brings home some sweet projects.  I totally remember making these construction paper headbands in grade school, myself.  The one I remember was at Thanksgiving, where I wore fake paper feathers on my band.  I love seeing that some things never change.  She came home and wore these bunny ears for the next four hours.  She's well prepped and very ready for the arrival of the Easter Bunny tomorrow morning.

And, please, just check out those silly fatty chin rolls she's got going on right now!  Too cute.

Charlie Hangin' with his PopPop

Joe's parents came to visit us in Orlando towards the very end of our stay there.  Goodness, do those babies ever love their grandparents?!  Ellie was spoiled with tons of play time with her Mimi, extended "Berenstein Bears" story time with PopPop, and about 40 pieces of Littlest Pet Shop toys as an early Easter gift. Charlie got lots of attention, which really, is all that boy every wants....somebody to look him in the eye and carry him around the house all day.  Momma loved the break from that exhausting duty!  

I love this picture of two very happy Borchard men...do you see any resemblance?

I'm a Glutton for Self-Punishment

Nasty Christmas Card circa 1994: Are you kidding me?! Did Annie and I ever go through an ugly stage?!  I feel like all kids our age went through the same disastrous "finding of one's style"...BIG fashion mistakes, BIGGER hair mistakes, and where was Proactiv in the early 90's?!  Nowadays, though, kids this age are actually cute.  They workout at the gym (what?!), they were $200 jeans, they get their hair highlighted, and they don't have zits.  I hate today's teenagers...in some sick way, I'm insanely jealous of them.  They get to go through their adolescence (ugh, I hate that word) without a Christmas card picture like this.  Nevertheless, enjoy this lovely blast from the past.  

What a Birthday!!

For Dad's birthday, Annie and I contacted as many of my dad's friends and family, asking them to send a post card for his 60th birthday (copied the idea from family friends, the Heralds).  We just wanted to find a way to remind Dad of how loved he is and to show him how many lives he's touched over the last 60 years.  He got such a kick out it.  Best part of all was to see how long it took him to figure it out...why he was so lucky to be receiving so many random post cards in the mail.  We got a report from my mom every morning as the whole thing went down...quite fun.  Thanks a million to all who participated.  What a great gift for Dad, and we certainly couldn't have done it without all of your help.