Upcoming Birthdays!

Taylor and Alyssa both have birthdays coming up in the next 10 days. I'm in the midst of planning a princess party for 5 year olds and a High School Musical party for 8 year olds. Both of them have quite a LONG list of friends they want to invite so we'll see how we manage to trim it down. I somehow don't desire to have 18 8 year olds (yes, that is how many are on Alyssa's list) or 15 5 year olds (yes, that's Tay's list - every girl from preschool excpet one plus all the ones in the neighborhood who are close to her age and a few from outside the neighborhood too - she tried to include everyone she had heard Alyssa invite that she knew too, but I drew the line on that one!).

When I asked Alyssa what she wanted, she of course, said WebKinz. She also asked for a baby stuffed animal giraffe (her giraffe is getting old and needs to have babies she says - the zoo giraffe had a baby this year and we saw it a few weeks ago!), her own email address, a fish or dog, heelys (shoes with wheels in the heel), two weekends without pulling weeds, no chores for a week, late-overs with friends and a lot of different books among many other items that were definitely out of the price range of most (including mom and dad) like a trip to Hawaii and her own digital camera. She has a whole list going on at all times of things she wants. She's like me ... dreams big and keeps tally on all the dreams and always can think of more. I remember being challenged to dream big once - to write a list of 100 things I wanted or things I wanted to do and I didn't have that hard of a time! I'm happy with what I have, but to me to not dream of more is to stop living!

Taylor on the other hand, is much easier going, more like her dad. For Steve, he's content to take it as it comes and would have a hard time writing 10 things he wants. Taylor's right there with him. When asked what she wanted she said an ice cream cone with green ice cream (mint chocolate chip - that part is definitely my daughter - that's my favorite too) and a popsicle! That was it. When I asked what else and really tried to get more from her, she said ice cream in a bowl. : ) Easy to please! I think for her birthday party we are going to skip the cake (since she won't eat it anyway) and have ice cream cones with green ice cream for everyone. I'll fill them the night before and freeze them in cupcake pans (a tip I read somewhere - maybe Family Fun magazine). I'll put a candle in the top of hers and we'll sing and call it good for her. We're still trying to figure out what else to get her. I think we're going to do a dollhouse - she LOVES to play with Barbies and Little People. She creates whole towns for them using the headboard from Jessica's bed, pillows, blankets, drawers, and other toys. I remember when I was about 7, my friend Alisa and I used to create entire cities from my mom's afghans, couch cushions, boxes and anything else we could find. Guess she got a little bit of me after all! The obsessive tendencies are all Steve though ... definitely not me! : )

Signing out for the night! Hope all is well for those of you reading this! If you haven't left a comment, please do - even if it is just to say hi!