The pictured sports bottle is what she got for her birthday and the reason she went into the house before getting hurt.

Tonight we decided on a trip to the Mall to walk around and play. BJ discovered the Lego store and we stopped to check it out and the girls quickly found a play table with a mix of Legos to entertain themselves. After having our fill of Lego admiring I looked over to see Phoebe just put something in her mouth. She sees that I caught her and was looking right at me. She got this look on her face and did some stuff with her mouth. I realize once I was over her that her mouth is now empty! I ask, “Phoebe, did you swallow a lego??” She nods her head ‘no’ (I very much did not believe her), but after a few more questions and prodding I find out she ate a Lego man’s head. Luckily it was only the size of a slightly large pea, but still! She is not 18 months, she is 3 years old and I would think she would be beyond sticking stuff in her mouth, much less trying to swallow them!! Poop inspection for Mama the next day or two.

BJ and I are just waiting for her to sprain or break something! We could say her bruises and owies are signs of a fun, active childhood. Which is true to an extent, but most of her injuries are from clumsiness and not much else. I see hair dye in my future….thanks a lot Phoebe!

Phoebe on the other hand, never went down without me. Which got a little exhausting for Mama considering what it took to climb up the thing!

The special treat this year was a snow-cone machine. I know I had 4, and I can’t recall how many Sophia had, but it was about that many as well. Haha!

We had planned on attending Kaboom Town in Addison for a fireworks display, but it poured rain from about 5-7pm making everything muggy and soggy. We just stayed home and relaxed, which was more than fine for 4 exhausted individuals!

However, my sister Tiffany had been to a fireworks show the year before over Grapevine Lake. So on Sunday evening after church and some rest we headed out to The Gaylord Texan, a huge hotel and resort in Grapevine, Texas. Little did we know they were doing an Alice in Wonderland theme!!! We were greeted by large flowers (some with faces) and all sorts of decorations of various craftmanship. It was not a bad way to spend some time before enjoying fireworks!

There was an evil Red Queen wandering about the place asking children (and adults) to curtsy. Once my kiddos got over the initial shock and joy of seeing her they braved it, bowed, and got tapped on each shoulder with her wand and was wished a good time at The Gaylord Texan. It was a big deal for them!

I could not resist stopping by the Rabbit’s Cottage where they had all sorts of sweets and trinkets. Being me, I could also not resist indulging my kiddos in some delicious handmade suckers. You can tell they enjoyed them…..

There was also a man there, dressed as a card, doing balloon *creations* for free. I say creations because he wasn’t really doing balloon animals. As you can see Phoebe asked for a sword, and Sophia wanted anything that would allow her a pink heart balloon. We saw several other children walking around with all sorts of hats, and one kid even had an elephant with large ears, long trunk and everything!

We had a lovely view of the fireworks on the top parking garage and the weather was beautiful for the evening. A perfect combo. Here is a small sample of my hubby’s great photography, but also the fireworks we enjoyed!

On Monday we joined my parents and sister at their house for more delicious BBQ and other yummy food prepared by my mom. We stuffed ourselves and then went to go get BJ’s car out of the shop. Once we got home I got the crazy notion that I could go to the lake by myself with the girls (BJ had homework) and feed the ducks and let the kids play at the beach. It was a lot of fun, but nerve wracking keeping track of them with it being so busy and them being so excited. Sorry no photos! It was a very full and satisfying 3 days for us, but now I am ready for some rest….even if the girls aren’t!

Yes, I know she is laying in the gutter.

They really enjoyed being able to dance in it and shake their booties!

Sophia reflects such joy!

She seemed very proud of herself too. When she dumped it all out I truly saw how much she had stuffed in there. I was amazed!

Well, I will take that! At least she knows what’s what.

We are keeping it clean, dry, and treated with antibiotic ointment. We continue to be very cautious with what she gets to do and how rough her and her sister play together. She reminds me to “be gentle” with her head. She also mentions every once in awhile how “Sissy pushed me into the bed”. Sophia sure won’t live this one down! And I know this will haunt me for some time. I still get so sick to my stomach and want to cry when I think about that day and what happened. But all I do is look at Phoebe and see that she is okay and happy, and that makes me feel much better.

They got her in quickly and worked like a well oiled machine. Everyone knew what they had to do and did it fast and smoothly. They were calm and did not make me feel bad for being a crying wreck. Once they moved her bangs and cleaned the blood away I got to see how bad it really was, and I wish I hadn’t. It is an inch long and was busted open about half an inch. You could see all the fleshy stuff under her skin. I felt so terrible for her. They had her wrapped tight in a blanket and she cried and screamed the worst when they had to inject her with the numbing medicine. She got pissed off all over again when they turned on the bright light for the doctor to see. She would get calm and then cry and yell at them to stop, or to not touch her, or to go away, or to let her out. I couldn’t watch most of the time and just held her hand and covered my face with a Kleenex. BJ arrived after just a couple stitches had been put in. He was very happy to see she was alive and relatively well. We were in and out in less than an hour. I was completely impressed and thankful so I could go home and crash and let Phoebe relax too.

This picture is a few hours after she was stitched up and we were changing her bandage. She is still oozing blood some, even today.
Where was Sophia during all this? The nurses set her up at a desk and let her draw with a pink highlighter. Oh, and also gave her a BUNCH of stickers. She drew all sorts of stuff, but as she explained to me, the one pictured below is of Phoebe with the cut on her head (the line going down the middle of her face). I find it interesting she still chose to draw a smiley face on her…..although, she never really has drawn people with any expressions other than happiness. She was good throughout the whole ordeal and never cried once from being scared, worried or nervous. Good for her, because I did NOT need 2 crying, freaking out kids.

Phoebe bounced back well and has been playing around like nothing happened. She does comment, however, every once in awhile about how she cracked her head, broke her head, hurt her head, etc. I am still traumatized from yesterday and get a headache just looking at her head. She has a huge bump on her head as well. We had actually planned on growing her bangs out, but that will have to wait several months I suppose. I need to keep it covered so mama doesn’t always have the visual reminder or what happened to my sweet, sweet baby.

She was very pleasantly surprised and got right up onto it. We got the 16 inch instead of the 12 inch wheels because she is big for her age and she has good growing room. BJ and I have been so shocked at her fast progress in one afternoon with this bike. She can get going pretty fast, steer, and brake. Braking was the last thing she learned but one of the most important! Our original plan had been to get her one at Christmas, but with it being Summer it seemed too perfect to go ahead and get one now. I see many more evenings spent outside riding bikes. Not a bad thing indeed!

While I was gone BJ had the girls watching the most recent animated Wonder Woman movie. After barely 10 minutes of being home she came up to me wearing her pink, long sleeved ballerina body suit with 2 balls (of the same size) stuffed down the front of her to look like boobs. I asked her who she was– “Dianna” she tells me. I was a bit baffled for a moment until daddy explained–”Wonder Woman”. It made total sense. She then went back to the play room and linked together some plastic links to make her “rope”, but really her golden lasso. She tucked it under her panty at the thigh just like Dianna does….almost. What a nut. Daddy at least got some great booby shots!

Notice Sophia and I are dressed as ‘twins’?!
Sophia never held her putter correctly after being shown multiple times by her daddy on how to do it. But it never stopped her from whacking the ball or having a blast while doing it.

They had a “baby putter” for Phoebe. She was a whole other story! She didn’t care how she was supposed to hold it, she was going to do it her own way no matter what, did not want help, and would not give me a turn (we were sharing balls).

She spent most of the time hitting it the first time, then picking up the ball and taking it close to the hole and either taking multiple tries of getting it in. OR she would pick it up and put it right in the hole and say she “did it!”

They were both so proud of themselves and I was shocked at how much fun they had. This was the first time, for both of them, to do miniature golf and they loved it so much. They were so well behaved too which made it even more fun for mommy and daddy!

That is Phoebe smiling and jumping for joy at how awesome she is doing

There were many times and many shots of Sophia with her arms up due to her awesomeness at mini golf as well.
After golf we rode double go-carts. Sophia with BJ and Phoebe with me. Sorry no photos on this one as we all went at the same time. BJ enjoyed passing us. The kids side has a wheel too so they can pretend to drive. Both girls enjoyed that addition. We get to ride for several minutes which is great (you definitely feel like you are getting more of your moneys worth). We then went to the arcade, played a few games, and the girls each earned a little prize: Sophia a pink slinky and Phoebe two little green army men. We couldn’t resist one more trip around the go-cart track and enjoyed ourselves just as much as the first time. Here is a shot of each girl back in the car — post Adventure Landing.

I had fun too!

We topped off the night with dinner at Chick-fil-A (by far the girls most favorite place to eat) and a little play time in the kids play area. Sophia passed out quickly at bedtime. Gee, wonder why?

Phoebe loves to dress up.

Most mornings, within about an hour of being awake she ends up in a ballerina outfit, princess dress, or “sorcerer” pants. Sometimes the princess shoes will be added, sometimes not. As you can see from the photo she was in full Princess mode–crown and wand included. When we visited cousins a month ago she went from dress up to dress up multiple times a day and LOVED IT! She wore her cousin’s Princess shoes so much they ended up giving her blisters. She was hurt and upset from the blisters, but also from not being able to wear the shoes anymore either. We really need to get more dress up stuff to keep this kid clothed and happy!

Things didn’t turn out too bad thankfully. I stripped them down before coming in, put them in the shower and clothes right into the wash. Everything came out wonderfully clean. Chance are looking good for them to play in the mud again.