crazy birthday party

You know, sometimes we just have to accept that we come from crazy, and crazy begets more crazy. Our poor children our doomed. Mom had a wild and ....hairy birthday party this year at the local bowling alley. Big shocker the Tates decided to kick it up a notch by wearing silly hats. Like we don't draw enough attention to ourselves when we are out in public as it is!! I remember as a child in theme parks we always got singled out and chosen to go up front because we make the most noise, the biggest scene. Well we had an absolute ball with each other. The kids ate it up and Mom made some wonderful albeit unique birthday memories. We love you Mi-Mi!!

Its so much more then just cake and ice cream now

Tis the season, I'll say. We are hard core into the life of the weekly scheduled birthday party. Thus is the life of parents of school age kids. And not just pin the tail on the donkey anymore. Now it's hay rides and face painting, bouncing castles and theme parties. It's tiring but I must say it's a blast. Abigail has so many sweet classmates in her little preschool we all just bring it out for each other's kids. This week was little Katie. They've been friends since Abigail was 2. The party was at her grandparents house out in ten buck two. The girls had a ball at the princess party complete w/ tu-tus and tiara making. Chloe did her best to keep up, and was a little less then thrilled at the hay ride but I had fun anyway and the scenery was breathtaking. The kids were really only interested in an old donkey named Moe on the way who wandered over to the fence as we pulled alongside hoping for carrots. We party regularly, this month 3 out of the 4 weekends we've had parties to hit. Abigail doesn't mind. My social butterfly is all about any and every thing she is allowed to celebrate, decorate and eat cake for. Chloe, well she doesn't always know what hit her but she holds her own totting along behind her big sister. :)

just doin our thing

we should all be so bold with our fashion statements



picnic in our favorite park. I gave poor Abigail my hat after this. She has my eyes in the sun.

Brian and I bought this couch years ago w/ them in mind, 2 cushions in the middle just for the wee ones. Here they are on movie night enjoying our 'boogers and flies' meal. [burgers and fries]


Both girls love to collect random flowers and weeds to fill my lap with while we sit outside


We are loving the onset of consistent warm weather. Is that bad that I influence my girls so much on my detest of winter. Sorry girls. But I get in such a better mood when we can spend our days picking weeds and playing in the carport w/ no shoes on! :) Lots of lazy days around here. Here are some pictures of just simple life at home. Our normal. I love to sit in the sun and watch the girls scramble around our back yard. We do that a lot. I have a picture posted of my purple tulips. They are very sentimental tulips to me. Abigail and I planted them the first fall we lived here in this house. The funny thing was we planted them when I was 9 months pregnant. Have you ever seen a gestationally mature woman try to get down and dig a hole in the dirt?? Well I made myself laugh, and the Bit too when we did it. There is no easy way to squat that low w/ a big ole belly but we worked it out. And every March now I can look at those odd color flowers and smile. It's a nice memory for me.
We entertain each other mostly, that's nothing new. Brian and I don't need to go out much. These girls offer nice cheap entertainment for us. It is a blast just to wind them up and watch them go. A few weeks ago I was working on something on my computer when I looked over as Abigail shut Chloe into our coat closet. "Sweetie let your sister out, you're going to scare her" Abigail responded, "but mommy I have to leave her in there so she can become a princess!", me.."No dear, you're going to traumatize her, please let her out". A very forlorn, monkey armed Bit opened up the closet. Chloe sat content on the closet floor wide eyed holding her blanket and grinned behind her passy in her mouth, Abigail shrugged her little shoulders and said w/ a frown "see, she's not a princess yet, we need to leave her in there". Never a dull moment. I love the crazy things they say and do. Some days the noise levels around here have to make dogs ears perk up and look over at our simple brick ranch w/ curiosity. It's a lot of laughs that's for sure.