Birthdays with the Bergers

This weekend we headed to Dallas to see cousin Abby Berger and celebrate her second birthday! Abby is about a year younger than Betsy and a year older than Ella and I foresee MANY fun nights in the future for the three of these little ones. They enjoy each other's company so much, and it's nice for Betsy to have a girl-cousin her age to hang out with, as she has several boy-cousins close-by to play with.

On Saturday we drove up for the party, and it was at a fun location called Kidville. It was by far the most interactive and kid-centered birthday party I've ever been to. It was FANTASTIC. The kids attending were the perfect ages for the activities they had! They made crafts (sunglasses and tambourines!) they got temporary tattoo-stickers, the played in a kid oriented gym, they had pizza and juice and the cake (OMG. It was amazing. Christi, could you just send me ONE more piece?).

After the party we headed back to Abby's house to open presents (where Betsy helped with the opening). The girls played dress up for a while, and then we all headed over to the mall so Abby and Betsy could build-a-bear which was part of our birthday gift for Abs! They were all a little cranky, but they built their bears (Betsy picked a blue bear that sings the Jonas Brother's Love Bug song. Abby picked a traditional bear that sings Happy Birthday!). Then we went out for Mexican food.

Our little monsters slept SO hard after all that excitement...though I did find Betsy curled in a ball on the Berger couch after climbing out of the portacrib in the office!

We had a great time and we are so excited to get to see them in a couple weeks for EJB and ECB's birthday party in December!

I LOVE all this family close by. It's such a gift for my girls to be BFFs with their cousins. Now for a few pictures!

Hi-Ho, to the North Pole I go!

This year we're participating in the Elf-On-The-Shelf game. This concept is basically a book that tells kiddos that a scout elf is coming to visit our home for the holiday season. The children name the elf (our elf is Hi-Ho-Guy), and the elf flies to the North Pole nightly to report to Santa if the children have been naughty or nice. Betsy also insists Hi-Ho-Guy sings the Hi-Ho song to Santa nightly.

Last night we read our Elf on the Shelf book in bed as a family and as soon as the kiddos fell asleep Ben ran to the living room to move Hi-Ho-Guy. This morning Betsy and Ben rushed into the living room to find him (hanging out on a candlestick) and tell him that Betsy slept in her bed all night last night.

Betsy and Ben also whispered to Hi-Ho-Guy what they would like Santa to bring this year. Betsy said "pink camera" and I'm pretty sure Ben whispered PlayStation 3. Too bad Ben's been so naughty this year.

This is a fun little game for Betsy and I love that she understands it this year! I'm looking forward to Hi-Ho-Guy (or a different named version) every year while the girls grow up. I'll have to post pictures of the fun places our elf finds to monitor the Bralley behaviour.

Don't tell Betsy and Ella...

Don't tell Betsy and Ella (for three more weeks until their birthdays!) but this is what they are getting from my mom and myself for their birthdays! My kiddos have lots of toys, and Christmas quickly follows their birthdays. So we were thinking this would be a fun present for the two little ones to grow into for a few years to come! We ordered the 'oversize' anywhere chair from Pottery Barn kids, and the bottom one is a size comparison for how 'oversize' it really is. I can easily sit in this chair, but it's low enough to the ground that the girls can get in and out on their own. Betsy and Ella both got red chairs, and I think these will be a great addition to their space in the playroom! A friend pointed me to a 'secret sale' PB was having and another friend sent me a coupon code, so I ended up getting both for the price of one.

I can't wait for their birthdays to get here so we can show them! It's a good thing we have so many fun plans in the next few weeks to keep us busy until then :)

The longest day of the year

Is it just me, or did this 'longest day of the year' seem to last FOREVER? It was like a time warp opened and we crammed three days worth of stuff into one day. Ben cleaned out the garage, built a bench, took down the Christmas decor, took Betsy for breakfast, went grocery shopping, cooked four meals for dinners this week, gave the kids a bath, and we watched a movie! And I made four pumpkin rolls, wrapped Christmas presents, put up and decorated the tree, cleaned the kitchen (twice) had a wrestling match with the girls, helped Ella work on her walking, ordered Christmas cards and new wall prints for our house.

The kiddos slept great, played with us and one another (and loved the fisher price nativity set that came out with the Christmas stuff). Bets was SO EXCITED about the tree, it makes us even more excited about the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was SO much fun this year. Betsy and William are at an age where they really understand what's happening. Ella and Hudson are just along for the ride. I can't express with words how much I love seeing my girls with my nephews so often. Betsy and Will are SO close. They adore one another, and are probably the best friends of all time. It's like they are twins, who spend just enough time apart to really like each other. I hope 10 years from now as they hit their teen years they still love, play, and protect one another like they do now.

Betsy has a big appreciation for cows that carried over to our Halloween theme this year. We see cows almost daily in the couple miles we drive from my in-laws house to our house. We also happen to LOVE... Chick Fil A. We decided to make Betsy and William cows together, then we borrowed a costume for Ella and three cows yielded the CFA advertising 'Eat mor chikin' motif. Cousin Hudson (or Huddy) came as Simba from the Lion King. My father-in-law Jim came over, and Ben, Mary, JD and Jim all took the kids TOTing while Tiffany and I handed out candy.

Here are pictures of our little hiefers!