ten smile tuesday

as i start typing this it is 11:38 p.m....so i've still made it for ten smile TUESDAY as opposed to wednesday! and no, i wasn't actually planning to be up this late posting my smiles...the plan was to put them up tomorrow morning...BUT i can't sleep, so i figured i might as well get them up now! so without further ado...

1. the very reason my smiles weren't posted earlier. i spent much of the day working on these dresses...a trip to jo-anns--where i spotted the fabric, cutting, sewing, and creating...and voila! and guess what...i spent less than $10 on the entire project!

2. kater's new skills...as mentioned in yesterday's post.

3. bath time...seriously...these girlies LOVE the bath...and when they're happy...well, that just makes for a happy mama too!

4. my little craft monster. libbers is SO into crafts right now (and, of course, you all know that i am SO into that!)...yesterday we made a castle, which she was SO into. of course, kate sat on it...but no worries...i fixed it. mike was at a meeting during all of the castle-sitting excitement, and i was telling him the story as he was watching some video i'd taken of kate tooling through the living room with the walker. so elizabeth is proudly displaying her castle for the camera, and you can see kate (king kong jr.) making a bee-line for it, and then the screen goes blank. mike's comment, "oh man...you totally should have gotten it on video. that would have been hilarious!" yep...one more thing that would make me a front-runner in the mom of the year contest....sitting behind the video camera and cracking up as kate (clothed only in a diaper) demolishes the castle and elizabeth bursts into uncontrollable wails of distress...yeah...h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!

5. a stable and functioning potty. well, better yet...the husband that fixed said potty. apparently the toilet in the half bath was missing some screws...meaning it occasionally tilted a wee bit. but no more tilt-a-potty in our bathroom thanks to my man. and along with that he fixed the toilet paper thing-a-majig so that the toilet paper no longer falls right off...and installed a new shower head in our bathroom. its been a big week!

6. having my sister here with us saturday. it was actually a unique visit because i was just my sister and clover (her puppy). since she lives out of state i often see her in conjunction with the whole fam...and not that i don't love the fam, but it was really nice to have some time just with her. we hung out...went shoe shopping...grabbed some pizza...it was fun. and better yet...she is coming back tomorrow, and we have hair appointments together thursday morning...and she offered to hang with the kiddos for a bit tomorrow so mike and i can go on a date. we L-O-V-E aunt shell! (sorry no pictures of aunt shell or clover...BUT i do have a picture of the fun the girls are having with the bin o' legos she brough them!)

7. the fact that while this lego scattering was happening i was out shopping all by myself...and not just grocery shopping...nope, cruising the aisles at jo-anns, picking out fabric for our MOPS baby gifts, crafting on someone else's dime...well, except i did find that fabric for the girls dresses. AND when i got home from the crafting, well, i got to read stories and be lavished with hugs and kisses...and then walk downstairs to a nice clean living room...free from legos and peek-a-blocks and dog toys and books and......have i mentioned that my hubby is swell!

8. this sweet, juicy, ripe watermelon...fresh from the farmer's stand not far from our house. i've been watching and waiting, anticipating their tasty fruits and veggies, and they opened last week. hooray!

9. my dear friend lora asked us if elizabeth could be the flower girl in their wedding...how sweet is that. i haven't told libs yet because i know she is going to be SO excited...she'll probably ask every ten minutes from when she finds out until the moment of the wedding..."is it today?" "do i marry 'uncle keif' today?" (apparently i should wait to tell her until right before i coerce her (oops....i mean she walks) down the aisle)

10. a few moments of outdoor fun. with vbs and some super steamy weather we haven't been outside too much lately, but we did catch some swingset time saturday morning. and then i caught these shots of the girls enjoying the sunshine while i grilled some hotdogs (okay...so i feel like i mention us eating hotdogs a lot...we aren't hotdog obsessed...really...in fact, until last summer i had kind of sworn off hotdogs forever...and then i met them...kosher beef hotdogs...and the love affair began).

11. one final bonus smile...in honor of kate's rapidly approaching first birthday. gators galore! seriously, i am on the hunt for alligator paraphenalia...and our stash of gator gear is adding up. just last week i discovered Gater Tots (you really should stop by...such cute stuff) and i might have been sucked into buying a gater t-shirt for the birthday girl. then i found alligator squirters at the dollar tree...and i told elizabeth she could pick out a tube of wrapping paper at the dollar tree...what does she select (on her first try too!)...wrapping paper with alligators (well, and monkey and lions and tigers...but the gators are there too!). let me tell you...i'm going to have to take lots of pictures of this gator party so that someday kate will know we did it!