Happy 4th Birthday Sarah

Wow!! What a party. Momo Jan did a fantastic job! It was Tinkerrific! Scott's mother gave Sarah's birthday party at her house, and it was definitely a party to remember. All of Sarah's friends came dressed in their leotards not quite sure what to expect. I think they were all impressed though. As they waited for all the guests to arrive they colored quietly. When everyone arrived (including our surprise guest cousin Tess) they were transformed into little tinker fairies by cousin Emily and big sisters Madison and Morgan. They got wings, bracelets, earrings, skirts, and fairy dust on their eyes, checks, and lips. Then we all went outside and lined up to enter Tinker Bell's magical forest. This is a playroom at the back of the house that Momo Jan converted into Tinker Bell's forest. It was magical. It had a tree in the corner that came out onto the ceiling, flowers all around the bottom of the walls, and a table set up for a tea party. The girls had their own fairy place mats and custom made lady bug seats. They were served fairy juice with homemade ice cubes, bananas with sprinkles, cheese, carrots, and pig in the blankets. For dessert of course we had Tinker Bell cake with ice cream. They had a great time. Sarah doesn't like being made the center of attention; therefore, she had already told me she didn't want us to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Last year she cried when we did. She requested we sing "Jesus Loves Me" and that's what we did.

Poor Howie

If Howie survives Sarah's childhood, it will be a miracle. Sarah was outside playing the other day with our cat. As I watched her walk across the back porch I noticed she had the cat on the LEASH! Of course her Daddy and I have told her that you don't put a leash on cats, but she must have forgotten. (I know she didn't really forget.) Anyway I opened the door and said, "Sarah you know you're not supposed to put a leash on Howie." So she dropped it. Our leash is one of those big black retractable leashes. You can imagine what happened next. Howie took off with this big, loud black thing bouncing behind him across our deck. He climbed up the tree you see in the picture as far as he could before hanging the handle on a limb. I was afraid things would get worse if we didn't get him down, so I called Scott at work to tell him about the dilemma. I held onto the leash so he wouldn't go any farther as I waited for Scott to get home, and Sarah hid in the tree house and cried.

Daddy to the rescue!! There were a few close calls before Scott finally unhooked the leash. Howie is fine now, but he didn't come down out of the tree until 9:30 that night.

New coats for the girls.

As you may can tell from the new picture up top that Tina has been busy. She made those coats for the girls! Even put the flowers on the pockets. It took many hours but she got them all done. Makes me think of Proverbs 31:21.

But wait! There's more. I got home the other day and we had this new pillow on the bed. I thought she had found it in town or something, but nope, she made it. I keep telling her she needs to sell this stuff on eBay or something. She'd probably make some mucho money! Wow, all this and good looks too, am I a lucky man or what?

We really do love Howie!!

Well, Sarah pulled off a good one. Tina walked outside to check on the girls playing and she found Sarah in the garage with PAINT! Yellow paint was all over her clothes and some other minor things in the garage. A quick check around indicated no real damage, she hadn't gotten to the car yet! WHEW!!! So into the house for appropirate punishment and a change of clothes for Sarah, our little angel.

(Editor's Note: This was a previous picture from baking cookies. That's flower on her nose, not paint. Plus, she wasn't smiling that much after Tina found the paint!)

Fastforward a few hours and I come home from work. Tina's re-hashing the day to me when she mentions Sarah's new-found fondness for painting our items in the garage. That's when I realized what that yellow stuff was I saw on Howie! Oh yeah, she painted the cat. Poor Howie. He wouldn't get near Sarah for a couple of days. It's wearing off. He's mostly black again!

Fun at the Creek

The girls are out of school, that always means some type of grand adventure at the Hailey house. We have this little creek behind our house, it's really a need place for the kids to play. We're always hearing the kids from the cul-de-sac out there playing around. Of course our three are constantly begging to go down there. This time of year is perfect, during the summer we've seen lots of snakes!

The whole reason to have the camera down there was because I wanted this shot of Sarah halfway across the creek. I never did get the timing right or the camera to focus, but you get the idea.

Can you hear me saying, "Okay, girls. Don't get wet, let me show you how to . . . doh!" Fortunately Tina was right there with the camera.

Every great creek HAS to have an old log to cross somewhere.

For days Sarah wouldn't say "creek", she called it the "creep". Until we could convince her otherwise, she kept saying, "When can we go see the creep?". I'm just glad she never asked Tina in public!