Birthday Madness

A little Birthday Madness around here, as we finally have an 8 year old! If Carly didn't LOVE her birthday (and she DID!) then there could be something wrong with her! Her day started off EARLY with breakfast at iHop when I got off work... so at 7am. Her pick. She showed up wearing shorts and a tank top (coldest morning of the year, so far... 47 degrees) and having made her very own Birthday Ribbon.

Click the picture to view that ribbon... she's so crafty! Here's what she got for breakfast:

Yummy.

Back home, Carly got to open her presents from Auntie Laurie. She made her own card:) (BY THE WAY... I LOVE those robot stamps!!) the Aquamarine movie is from Ben. What a good big brother.

All ready for dinner at the Olive Garden. She's NOW wearing a jacket from Grandma (also got an outfit and lava lamp from Grandma and Grandpa) and a little cash... and an adorable purse from Aunt Randee (filled, to Carly's great delight!, with GUM, lipgloss, and fake fingernails)... and she's wearing jewelry she lifted from my room. Hmmm.

a few presents while waiting for dinner to arrive... Let's just say she was THRILLED with Grammy and Papoo's present. She has since told me that she and Grammy are Practically Twins now that they BOTH have electric blankets! HA! Uncle Steve and Auntie Tracy gave Target gift cards, which she spent TODAY (nintendo DS game, pj's, necklace, 2 'lil kins, Printies... money from Great Grandma covered that, too....)

Fun things from Aunt Rochel... and a pool towel. Our Swim Monkey will totally be styling now!

HA! Carly's Less-than-excited-Cousin. "Where's my food?!?!!?" Actually, he was already eating jar food.

oh, she's clever, all right!

after dinner... CAKE! And Aunt Rochel outdid herself! We saw this cake on Stellan's Mama's blog and well, it was PERFECT for this girl! The Olive Garden staff came over and sang, too, which was GREAT!

Elfy all ready for bed! She's loving Carly's warm present already!

yup, that's where the cat sleeps all night! NOT tied to the bed (that's for you, Tracy)...

Finally, the shoes Carly purchased at Ross with some bday money... she found these lovelies herself! Oh, and got up this morning at 6am because "I thought the shoes might take a little more time to lace up, so I made sure I got up in enough time to get them on..." HA!

Thanks to everyone for making C's bday so very special... she loved the phone calls and cards and gifts. Thanks to Our Personal Baker! You are so very talented! And to the fam for trekking out to the Olive Garden after shopping all day!

Sweet Caroline

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAROLINE!

It's so hard to believe you are EIGHT today! We have been so very blessed to have you as our daughter! You have been a ray of sunshine for our family ~ a well of sweet water that bubbles up with your constant laughter and smiles. It has been so amazing over these last 8 years to watch your personality grow and develop... to see you become this incredibly sensitive and caring little person. We thank God daily that we have been allowed to be your parents and are so eager to see where and how God continues to use you...

"For I know the plans I have for you,"

declares the LORD,

"Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call upon me

and come and pray to me,

and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me

when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you,"

declares the LORD...

~Jeremiah 29:11-14

... Our prayer for you is that you will ALWAYS seek the LORD with your whole heart ~ He will listen to you and will be found by you. You will be so amazed at where HE resides ~ and I believe you will find that it is in the not so random circumstances of life that HE chooses to speak to you the loudest.

We love you so very much!
~ Love, Mommy and Daddy

Thankful

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(picture will be added later... I only took one, and it's a funny one of my Dad and the delicious turkey he made!)  UPDATE:  There's the picture!!

(shocking) My year to work Thanksgiving. So the first thing I'm thankful for, of course, is my job. Next would be my parents who cooked dinner for me!!! THANK YOU! I'd hate to have had to miss out on turkey and YANKEE STUFFING. Mmmmmm.

We went over to my parents to celebrate late this afternoon. They had some fun friends over who all brought stuff to eat (Mmmmmm... are you seeing a pattern here?) and we brought the entertainment. Kids. And tupperware. Hey, LEFTOVERS! We even got to do the traditional go-around-the-table-and-say-what-you-are-thankful-for. With rules, of course... like duh, you aren't allowed to say God or your Family. But we said those things, anyways. In case you are wondering what I'm REALLY thankful for, then you can read ALL the posts I have posted... starting with February 12th. It will take a while. I believe it SHOULD take a while to sort through all the things one is thankful for. And that, familythatI'mthankfulfor, is the extent of my Thanksgiving wisdom for the day.

Oh, and Carly REALLY DID lose a tooth this morning. (Notice her WISDOM to Ryan last night on the "and I quote" section... regarding letting the Tooth Fairy know she had a birthday coming up) And after losing her tooth, she promptly LOST her lost tooth. And came to me crying HYSTERICALLY about it... "I can NOT believe this has happened again!" to which I told her, "well, honey, you know you can always just leave the Tooth Fairy a note, she doesn't mind your notes" (nor do her millions of blog readers!) to which Super Quick Carly replied, "I know. I already wrote it". HA! Get ready. It's a great one. I will be posting it for your complete ENTERTAINMENT very soon... we have more pressing matters coming first, however!

Lastly. To my sister Tracy. I did not call you today on purpose. I could not handle you talking about your dinner rolls or your pumpkin muffins or coffee. I will call you tomorrow when I have a better handle on my jealousy issue.

... having said that, Happy Thanksgiving!

Build-A-Bear

For Carly's Birthday (which is on Friday!) she wanted a trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop... and I took her EARLY because her birthday falls on Black Friday this year. I am not nuts. I don't enjoy going to the mall on a GOOD day, much less on the Friday after Thanksgiving. As you will see, she loved EVERY minute of it. And hasn't put her "bears" down yet!

Quick Side Note: Carly came up with her outfit on her own... jewelry included. She got lots of compliments on her necklace (Are you loving that, Mom??!!)!

Carly had to wait in line to "stuff" her "Bears". At BAB, they call ALL the animals "bears". Yes, I actually heard the salesperson telling someone on the phone this information. Apparently, the woman on the other side of the phone line was arguing with her that a cat was not actually a bear. Not kidding.

Carly's new friend, the Bear Stuffer.

Here she is making her Wishes on their hearts... The girl asked if Carly wanted to do the whole HEART CEREMONY. Ha. She had to ask? Really? Little Miss was about wetting her pants to do "the Ceremony". I mean, really... she has had her wishes picked out for 2 weeks.

Washing the bears up...

This would be Ginger, sporting her RAYS gear.

Dressing the kitty...

(Love the pose?) and this would be Sugar... who's wedding dress looks suspiciously like Aunt Renae's! And yes, I did encourage my daughter to choose the $3.50 satin panties for her kitty. Hey, a girl needs to have a COMPLETE outfit, right?! And yes, the bears undies cost more than mine. Nice.

Last step... creating their birth certificates.

Busch Gardens... with Eli McGregor

We are already "Off School" for Thanksgiving Break, and spent the First Official Day at Busch Gardens! We took Eli with us, since he's FREE and well, we wanted to spend some time with him... There are MANY pictures here, but all are pretty fun, so ~ Enjoy Eli's Day of being a McGregor, you know, McGREGOR STYLE!!

I know, I know... boring-going-into-the-park-picture... some of these are for his mother... she likes DETAILS about what her kid does without her.

If you are a McGregor who is too short to ride rollercoasters (tragic, I know!) then you spend the time your DAD/Uncle is riding them with the McGregor who ISN'T too short... trying on things in the gift shop.

Yeah, he'd rather have Carly try them on FOR him...

... also while waiting patiently, you get to see the World Famous Clydesdale Horses.

... and, your Mom/Aunt will take you to see some Educational things, such as a replica of King Tut's tomb. Creepy.

... and his mummy.

Right about HERE is where we SHOULD have realized Eli ONLY wanted to be in his stroller...

We TRIED to get him to ride Montu... lucky for him, he's TOO SHORT. Seriously, Eli! If you are going to be a McGregor, you have to ride rollercoasters!

Side Show... for my sister! (Laurie, if you Right Click, you can make that your wallpaper for your desktop! HA! You are WELCOME!)

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #1: Took this picture THROUGH the glass of the giant fish tank... but aren't the babies cute!??! And their very protective Mama is yelling at the roller coasters... HA!

Eli checking out the turtles in the underground fish tank...

... so Uncle Ryan decided he needed to GET OUT of the stroller to see them better... it might not look like it, but Eli is YELLING at Ryan here. What can I say, the boy loves his stroller! And perhaps he watched Jaws with his Dad and the great wall of fish swimming towards him freaked him out. I'm just saying...

"Save me, Uncle Ryan!!!"

Umm, is it just me, or does my son look EXCEPTIONALLY huge LEANING down to see under the water line? How did this happen?!?!

The Lazy Lions.

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #2: The giraffes. These 2 were running ALL OVER together! Just running side by side, like running buddies! So fun to watch. So graceful. Click on that picture and check out the one on the right's front leg so high in the air. We counted at least 13 giraffes on the "Serengeti Plain" today...

Cousins are good for showing you what's for sale... Eli loved this puppet. Of course!

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #3: The sea otters. See that one there, CLICK on the picture. He was carrying shells in his paw. And he dropped them once, and scrambled like a nut to get them back in his paw before his "friends" stole them! AND, he was running on the land part of their display, WITH THEM IN HIS PAW. So very funny to us! Also funny was

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #4: The zoo keepers walked past their tank and the 4 otters went BONKERS trying to get to them and swam all around the tank following them! Then another group of zoo keepers came out, and they did the same thing! I'm wearing khaki clothes next time I go!

Eli got to watch the TALL ENOUGH McGregor's ride a rollercoaster... that's Carly and Ben in the front, with Ryan right behind them!

Heading out to McDonald's... this cracked me up!!!

He wasn't very happy with me for breaking his french fry in half (hey, I thought he'd like one for each hand!!!) and spent about 10 minutes trying to put it back together!!!

Seriously, Uncle Ryan... I'm not ready to be a McGregor ~ you people are CRAZY!!!

Bragging Rights

I'm pleased to pass on the results of another successful Swim Meet... with the McGregor's! This morning's took place in St. Petersburg.

CARLY

25Y backstroke: previous official time 35.97

today 30.50

25Y butterfly: no previous time

today 33.98

50Y freestyle: previous official time 50.98

today 55something...

(I was writing their times on a paper napkin and my mom.... hi mom, thanks to you and dad for coming today!... said, "you are going to lose that, you better write them on a real piece of paper" and well, of course, I still have the napkin, and can't find the paper anywhere, which is where I was writing the times at the end. Ugh)

Sweet girl was so happy to be spending the morning with her buddies and a little hot cocoa! She was totally THRILLED to have cut over 5 seconds off her backstroke, thought she was pretty clever, she did!

BEN

50Y butterfly: previous official time 49.24

today 46.42 THIS IS A "B cut time"!!!

100Y freestyle: no previous time

today 1:20.06 THIS IS A "B cut time"!!!

and is actually 0.07 seconds from a BB cut time!

50Y freestyle: previous time 31.89

today 33.07

(The picture cracks me up, Ben wearing a swim cap and his winter coat!)

If you remember, Ben has had a really hard time with the butterfly and getting disqualified, so we were SO HAPPY for him to be doing it so well he even got his cut time in! (Read here for a Refresher Course about the motivational cut times). The 100YFree was really just an idea the coach had for Ben to lock in a time, so he went into it thinking that was all he was doing and supposedly "Taking it easy", although, I doubt that was the case! We couldn't believe that right off the block (so to speak!) he rocked a B time!

Also, we went into today hoping and praying that he would get his 50Free time down (as you recall, this is the race he qualified for Junior Olympics with, but will Age Up 6 days before and won't be able to compete), but instead of that, he smoked 2 different races! It is fun when you can SEE in the end that your plan wasn't nearly as good as God's plan... and not a bit random, mind you!

This last part is for my sister... When we got back to our car, there was a wedding going on RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT!! HA! yes, you would be proud, Tracy, we stopped and watched for a while... until we realized that these poor people were getting married outside the AQUATICS center, during a swim meet, where you could very CLEARLY hear parents screaming for their children! AGGGGHHHH!! Before the bride could notice my children were all wet, we got them in the car, snapped a picture, and took off... photo for you, Tracy!

BACK TO MORE APPROPRIATE MATTERS....

Yesterday, I decided that a word has been left out of Philippians 4:13.

Really.

No, really... that's the word. REALLY. There are about 3 places that would be perfectly appropriate for it to be. I tend to be somewhat skeptical, so this one is DEFINITELY for the skeptics! REALLY!

** photo's are from my cell phone... forgot the memory card for my camera! GRRrrrrrr!