They are home!

Yay!  Our girls are home!  They had a great weekend with grandpa, gammy, and aunt Leah.  They went to the mall, played outside in the bounce house, and even enjoyed their first time ever at Chuck-E-Cheese!  They looked ever so cute in these new dresses from gammy that I had to take some photos of them yesterday afternoon.

Little Hails enjoying a mid afternoon snack.  These snack cups = best thing ever!

"Mommy, take my picture next!  I say cheeeeese!!"

Hannah

Our three girls, Hannah, Ella, and Hailee

This was about five seconds after the previous photo.  They don't sit still for anything!

Sweet Ella

Happy girls :)

 Now on to our week filled with play dates, dance, and fun!  Have a good week everyone!!

Parent's Only Weekend

My mom and dad took our kids this past weekend so that Paul and I could have a full weekend to spend some time together, get things done around the house, and get a little bit of a recharge that we needed.  We had such a great time!  On Friday I met my mom in Mansfield (half way) and dropped off the kiddos.  As I was pulling away, I started to get super sad.  Good thing a friend called to chat and get my mind off of leaving them for three nights. 

Friday afternoon I ran errands alone.  How nice.  I made some returns, shopped a little, and checked out the party store for Ella's birthday.  Paul and I went for wings that evening.  We came home for a nice, low key evening of watching the Olympics.  Saturday morning I got up and worked on getting stuff done around the house.  You know, the things you never want to do but need done...clean on top the fridge, clean under the sink, clean out the front coat closet, etc, etc.  I also worked a lot on the girl's baby books.  I only had through month 4 done for the twins and Ella's 2nd birthday wasn't even filled in.  Saturday afternoon we went to the pool with friends- adult style :)  We hung out, drank, ate, and got sun burnt.  It was so nice to relax in the sun and not worry about where the kids were, reapplying sunscreen every 20 minutes, and getting babies home in time for naps. 

Saturday evening we went to the Wine Bistro for dinner with family.  Sunday we got up, went to church (and were actually on time), then went to J Liu for brunch.  The brunch was fantastic!  I love going to nice, different restaurants when we don't have the kids for a day.  Then we headed to the camera store.  I have been wanting a new camera for months and months now.  A higher end, more professional camera.  I had went one day last week and spent a lot of time with a camera gear junkie at our local camera store.  It was a big purchase, so I wanted to bring Paul back before going ahead and buying it.  Well, we did it.  I got the new camera and lens kit and am thrilled!  I have three photo sessions this week and cannot wait to try it out! After the camera store, we went to my aunt and uncle's to check out their new house.  Very nice.

 Yesterday evening I went to a movie with a friend.  We saw The Watch and it was pretty funny.  Now this morning I am hanging out (Paul just left for work) and counting down the minutes until time to go get my girls.  I am missing them so much!  We sure enjoyed our weekend fun, but I am ready to snuggle my sweet babies.

After brunch :)

My old camera....

and my new one!  Yay!

Getting used to the new camera, taking photos of Chloe since I have no children to practice on!

CHLOE!  :)

Party planning

I LOVE party planning!  I really love birthday party planning, for kids.  And I especially love birthday party planning for my own kids :) 

Little Miss Ella has the big 3 birthday coming up soon, in about a month and a half.  Of course, I started thinking about her party a while ago.  The plan was to have something more low key, at our house.  We have some fun things in the backyard for kids and weren't looking to spend the $250 something that a big place would take to rent out.  Plus, Hannah and Hailee will get the big party this year (well, technically early next year).  I still feel guilty about having to cancel their party for them being in the hospital.  Obviously there was nothing we could do about it, but it still makes me sad that they don't have the photos of the big 1st birthday bash like Ella did.  Ella has now had 2 big, fun birthday parties so I think it is definitely the babies' turn next!

The other day I went to Graeter's Ice Cream with a friend and all of our kids (there are 6 between the two of us:).  We went to the Bethel Road one, in Columbus.  It has a nice size play area and of course, lots of good ice cream.  I noticed that they do birthday parties there so I decided to inquire about it.  They have a small to medium size room that you can rent out and all you pay for is ice cream sundaes for each kid!  They can make their own, with toppings of their choosing, which I'm sure would be really fun!  I knew the date and time of the party already, so I asked if they had availability and it was surprisingly available for the exact day and time we wanted!  I was so excited!  We can decorate how we want, bring in pizza and other food, and let the kids play and have a great time!  The space isn't for a huge amount of people, but will be perfect for our guest list. 

The party theme for our house would've been Hello Kitty.  I was so excited about this theme, but having the party at an ice cream parlor I started looking up ice cream party ideas on Etsy and Pinterest.  What do you know, they had super cute ideas!  So, Hello Kitty will be on hold until the 4th birthday party (which I kindof think it fits a 4 versus 3 year old better anyways) and we will stick with the ice cream theme! 

I asked Ella all the way home if she wanted the party at the ice cream shop or at home and she was so excited, screaming "ice cream shop, ice cream shop!"  I had her call her daddy to get the seal of approval once we got home and it was a done deal. 

We are so excited!  Below are some ideas I have found that I can't wait to try out!