Alice's Friend Birthday Party

We transformed the playroom into a royal dressing room for Alice's birthday party. I covered the love seat with a pink blanket and brought down *all* (and that's a lot!) of Alice's dress up stuff and baby dolls. She helped me arrange everything - hence all the shoes lined up neatly on the left!
We asked each girl to come in their favorite dress-up or party dress. The morning of the party, Alice decided to wear her matching party dress with Kit, her new American Girl doll.
Of course Alice's birthday cake was a princess Cinderella cake. It's hard to see all the details but she LOVED it. She studied the cake book at the bakery and thought about her choices for weeks!
One of our activities for the party was dancing to the "Bella Dancerella: Disney Princess" DVD. Some of the girls really got into it - but some others ended up sitting on the couch and watching!
We also played "Pass the Crown" a la "Hot Potato." The children loved getting to control when the music started and stopped. We also did a couple of rounds of musical "thrones."
Alice's favorite part of her party was the pinata. You would think it was filled with diamonds! She was obsessed with it and talked about it when the girls first got there. I cut out the bottom and put strings on the flap - but only one had a knot that would pull the bottom of the pinata open. As it turned out, this little girl above was the last one to take a turn (unfortunately Grady didn't get a turn!) and pulled the string to open it up.

Alice said that this day was the best day of her life! It certainly was a special day.

Backing up a bit: Pryor's Birthday

I felt bad about posting something for Alice's birthday when I hadn't even done so for Pryor's birthday! Poor guy! We picked up his cake in the morning, so we had it for lunch the day before his actual birthday! It was a cake weekend!Bob the Builder was a big hit this year! He did like the picture in the cake book of Power Rangers - but Mama said no to that!
It took us a while, but we finally got him to hold up three fingers! He was so proud of himself.
I got this for his birthday - even before he got really into Bob the Builder! I definitely think this will be his Halloween costume! One night, he put the whole thing on himself - even getting it over his cast. He certainly is a big boy. I can't believe he is already three years old!

Another Festival

I just realized how far behind I am on posting pictures! I haven't done Pryor's or Alice's birthday pictures. Before I do those, I want to go chronologically and talk about Murrysville Community Day. I believe this was the very first festival we went to last year, the first weekend we were here.

This is a familiar booth to the fairs around here. The local paper (which I believe serves 4 or 5 communities) goes to the local fairs with their prize wheel. The main prizes are pencils, stickers and various useless penny toys. Well - you would think we were in Vegas!

You can spin the wheel once per hour and you know we were back exactly sixty minutes later! Alice was so excited about it! They remember this wheel from the fairs from last year.
Pryor even got to spin and he was very proud of himself. We didn't get as many gawkers about the casts as we normally do. I think there was so much going on, people didn't pay much attention.
The best part of the fair was the "That Guy with Birds" show. He has a parrot sanctuary and has rescued many birds. He talked all about them and brought them close so all the children could see. I believe this was his first bird he got when he was 19 - and now the bird is 35! I think they can live upwards of 50! He said they found Winston Churchill's bird still alive and saying some nasty words about the Nazi's that Churchill evidently had said!
This is difficult to see - but the parrot he is holding in his hand is one of eighteen registered in the US which will do a head sand. The head is toward the man and the tail and feet are up in the air. Incredible! He even threw it up and caught it - again all while the bird is on it's back. He said to prove he doesn't clip the wings of any of his birds, the bird flew back to it's perch. All the birds that present had been trained to sit on their perches. Nothing was keeping them there - and he had a lot of birds!
Here's the upside down parrot in Grady's left hand. I was taking a picture of him with the birds in his hands and when I went to take this picture vertically, I saw the parrot man had put one on his head! Grady loved it!
Alice had six birds on her! Just crazy! I didn't tell them that you couldn't pay me enough to hold those birds - but the children had a good time. What an experience!

A Hiking we will go

We are finding it difficult to arrange activities for three children when two are in casts!! A week and a half ago we did go hiking - hence the above picture from Duff park. We had an excellent time and the children loved throwing and skipping rocks in the creek. Well, that means that they got dirty. It's fine when children get dirty - not so much when the CASTS get dirty!! I have begun my daily struggle to keep their cast arms from being STINKY! I am almost at my wits end and really looking forward to casts coming off and school starting! Can you hear me screaming, because I'm screaming! T-minus one week for casts off, and one week-one day for the start of school. Whooo hoooo!

A New Week, A New Broken Bone

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's true. The Arnold family has another broken bone!

Unfortunately for me, it's my broken bone! Now granted, it is just a toe (accidentally from the dresser this morning) but boy, does it hurt!! I'll spare you a black and blue picture! HA!

I think from now on, our family will be sequestered in our house and only a few guests will be allowed in! I do not advise visiting - you never know what will happen!

Twins

Well, I know now what it feels like to be "different." People have been staring at us everywhere we go! We went to McDonald's for lunch today - and all 4 tables facing the windows were staring at us while we walked up to the door. Once inside - I must have told the story to 6 or 7 people. This one man wasn't satisfied with my pat, one liner. He must have have asked me 5 or 6 questions!

I wanted to take a picture of both green casts - before something else happened! Good grief!

Cast Photos

For your viewing pleasure:Once the cast went on, Grady really perked up, even though it was almost midnight!
Here is the offending piece of equipment moments before the fall. Note G's cast - not slowing him down at all.
Pryor was excited about his green cast, but his arm still hurt him.
Nothing like an orange Popsicle to make things better!

2 Boys, 2 Casts

Well, if you can believe it, I arrived home from our 2 month summer odyssey with Grady in an arm cast, and just tonight (5 days later) got back from the ER with Pryor in an arm cast. GOOD GRIEF!!

I have been hanging around the house yesterday and today because of Grady and his arm. Finally this afternoon, we headed off to the library but first made a quick trip to the playground. Big mistake! The children had a wonderful time, and right when we were getting ready to go, Pryor fell off some equipment and landed on his left arm. I could tell by the way he was holding his arm that it wasn't good.

We left straight away for the doctors office. Of course it was almost 5 PM by this point and they thought he needed a cast, so they sent me down to the ER of Children's Hospital. (The children's doctor's office doesn't put casts on anyway.) Fortunately, Stephen was nearby and I was able to leave Grady and Alice with him.

I was incredibly impressed with Children's (since I had so much experience from the ER a few days ago) and got in pretty easily. Got x-rays right away and saw the orthopedist fairly quickly (in hospital time.) He saw a hairline fracture in the arm, but not what was really hurting Pryor more towards his wrist. The Dr. said since Pryor is so young, the wrist is more cartilage and they are unable to see breaks there. The arm is broken in both places.

So, he put a full cast on the arm, up the elbow, since young ones can pull off a half cast. His cast is green - and I know when Grady wakes up tomorrow he'll be jealous (since his is just white.) We go to the orthopedist tomorrow for Grady, so he may be getting a new cast too!