Bakin' Pee

OK- the song is called "Breaking Free," but Ella still has a little trouble with some of her sounds and calls it "Bakin' Pee."


Steve and Madison sang together at the first "Creekside's Got Talent" talent show! I am still amazed that Madison gets up in front of people and sings her heart out! She doesn't act scared at all! Plus, I'm a little jealous that she gets to use real microphones. All I had was my hairbrush! She didn't memorize her words either (I wonder where she gets that), so they had sheets of paper rustling throughout the performance. We'll work on stage presence later! Here is a sampling of their work. For you die-hard Madison fans (grandparents), I'll get you the entire footage later!

Here Comes the Bride... (and the cutest flower girl you've ever seen!)

Madison had a wonderful weekend. She got to be in the wedding of Katie, one of her first babysitters. She got to wear a beautiful dress. It matched the brides and it really was pretty! The wedding was gorgeous too!

The only hitch to the whole wedding came at the rehearsal dinner. We were finishing up our meal and had just eaten dessert. I had noticed some flashing red lights outside of the patio area, but I thought a car had been pulled over. I left to take Ella to the restroom. All of a sudden, the bathroom door opens and Steve is in the doorway saying, "We have to get out of here- hurry!" I had no idea what was going on, so I grabbed Ella off of the potty (fortunately, she was finished) and ran outside. Unfortunately, since Ella was on the potty when I picked her up, I flashed the whole restaurant with her bare bottom. Apparently, while we were in the restroom, the waiters came in and said that there had been a bomb threat called into the restaurant, and everyone had to evacuate the building! Katie and Corry will have a great story to go along with their perfect wedding!

Enjoy the pictures!

I Survived!!!

I did it!

I survived my first sleepover.

OK, it's not my first sleepover, but it is my first sleepover as a parent!

We had four sweet girls over to our house Wednesday to celebrate Madison's 8th birthday. Since her actual birthday wasn't that great, I was really hoping the sleepover would be better. It was!

The girls arrived and we made individual pizzas. Most of the girls made theirs nice and neat, but one had to use ALL of the sauce, which made her pizza almost inedible!

After pizza, Madison got to open her presents. She got a Webkinz- again, I wish I had thought of that! Her friend has a matching puppy!

She got LOTS of HSM and Hannah Montana dolls. She got a pool for the dolls to play in and the girls spent a lot of time playing with the pool.

She also got a soccer ball, so the girls went outside and played soccer for awhile.

The only drama came before soccer. Not everyone had shoes to play in, so Madison was letting girls borrow her shoes. Words were exchanged over tennis shoes, and three girls ended up in tears. I quickly turned on "teacher mode" and got to the bottom of the disagreement. After the appropriate people apologized, everyone was fine. All over tennis shoes, go figure!

After soccer, I gave manicures and pedicures to all of the girls. I have never painted that many nails in my life! They turned out very cute and all of the girls liked the crazy colors I chose! :)

We also made soap- yes, I said soap. This was a spa party after all! The girls had a lot of fun (with the exception of Madison sticking her hand in the hot soap after I warned her about it!! :) They got to make different colors of soap in the shape of purses, shoes, dragonflies, etc. They turned out really cool! I told Steve I might take this up as a hobby and he just laughed at me. Oh well. I'll make him a bar of soap and he'll feel better about it!

Around midnight, the girls laid down for the evening- yeah, right. Since our bedroom is right below the media room, we could hear every move that they made. For the most part, they laid down, but I did have to go up there a couple of times. Madison said they went to sleep around 2:00 am. I was out by 1:30, so I have no idea what happened! :)

The next morning, we had cinnamon rolls and it was time to go home!

Madison said that this is "what an 8 year old girl dreams her party will be," so I think it was a success.

I'm still tired, so I'm off to take a nap!

The Simpsons go to Springfield

I know... I know. My last name is Simpson and I'm from Springfield. I'll go ahead and give you a minute to laugh...

Anyway, we had a great time visiting my family. It was a much more relaxing trip than last time! Here we go...

We always celebrate the summer birthdays- me, Madison and Ella- with a dinner. My mom made the biggest chocolate cake I have ever seen! Seriously, 8 people ate on it at 3 meals and I'm not sure we finished it! I didn't take a picture of it, but it was delicious!

My dad retired (suddenly) from Missouri State University this year. When my mom retired a couple of years ago, Tamra, Dad and I were able to throw her a surprise party that really surprised her! My dad didn't get that however. He got this digital photo frame with pictures of his retirement parties. (Notice the lovely cross-stitch piece on the wall behind him. I made that in jr. high!)

Don't feel too bad for him. We really surprised him on his 60th birthday!

My parents kept the girls a couple of nights and they had sooo much fun. They went swimming, watched Disney channel, played and played and played! They also took them to the Butterfly Palace in Branson for their birthdays! Madison got to go through twice because Ella was too scared to go in. Worked out well for Madison!

Steve and I really enjoyed staying up with Tamra and Jason (without little girls walking in trying to come up with ways to stay up with us!) Tamra and I watched So You Think You Can Dance, Days of our Lives, Jon and Kate Plus 8, etc., while Steve and Jason played X-Box until all hours of the night. We also dyed each other's hair. Did we do a good job?

We also worked on Tamra's blog. If she gets it up and running, I'll put a link to the side of mine! No pressure Tam!

On Sunday, we went to church. We usually have to be at Creekside on Sundays, so this doesn't happen very often. This quilt names the founding members of the South National Church of Christ in 1931. My great-grandparents were founding members and the girls are standing under their names.

We went to lunch after church. We wanted our waiter to get a picture of all of us. Mom gave him her camera first and got a great picture. I gave him my camera and got this...

Meet Jennifer, the waitress who dropped a fork and was picking it up while our waiter took the picture! :) Also, notice Ella on the end!

After lunch my mom took me shopping for my birthday. I'm like the homeless person you give food to instead of money because you want to make sure they use that money for food. She won't give me money anymore because she doesn't think I will spend it on myself. (She's right- the girls look so much better in their clothes!) Anyway, it was tax-free weekend, so I cleaned up!! She kept saying, "You haven't met your budget yet. You can get something else!" I have no idea what my budget was, but I had fun! Thanks Mom and Dad!

On Monday, Dad took Tamra and me to lunch. This has become a tradition for us. We get some time alone with Dad and he gets to enjoy a good meal at a girlie restaurant! :)

Ella was in rare form while we were there. She only got about 6 hours of sleep the night before we left and she refused to sleep in the car. She also missed her nap several days, so she was really tired. She spent a great deal of time looking like this...

We had a great time and look forward to seeing you all soon!