More February Photos

Sophia's birthday celebration (2/15):






And some cute pictures of Julia that Sophia took the next day:

Happy Birthday, Sophia

Here is a birthday post for Sophia, a day late. She had a party and it was a lot of fun, but I was too busy and then too tired to blog about it. Here are a few photos:

The party guests did shrinky-dinks (fun!)


And we had strawberry cupcakes


Yum!


Here's the big 8 year old!

Sophia's Squirrel Bag

Here's a crafty project we did this week, I just finished it last night. This is a felt squirrel made (by me) from a picture drawn by Sophia. She insisted it needed to be sewn onto her bag.



We are doing lots of little crafty stuff, typical of this time of year when we're starting to feel the cabin fever. I'll try to post more as things get finished...

edited to add:
Yes, that is the same dress she was wearing on Thursday...;)

A Lile Post

I meant to do this sooner, but we've been busy... I've been anxious to move on from the Poo and Pee posts. :)

So, this is a post about Sophia and her dog, Lile. (Lily)



Lile is about the closest thing to a "blankie" that any of our kids has had. She is a webkinz chihuahua that Sophia received for Christmas last year. Lile goes everywhere that Sophie goes. Lile eats off of Sophie's plate at dinner, sleeps at her side at night, sits by her at church, and so on. Lile is Sophie's best friend and also her favorite experimental surgery subject. Lile has had hip replacement surgery, tail replacement surgery, liver transplant surgery, and brain surgery (and a few others, I'm sure). Sophie has a weird fascination with operating on animals, and even though she loves Lile, she regularly snips her open, messes with her fluff, then borrows a needle and thread to sew her back up. To quote my mother, my kids are weird.

Here is Lile's photo shoot (by Sophia, of course)

Front

Side

Other side (I think this one is her good side)

Back side


Note the sign behind Lile, you can't read it but it says "Liel" with hearts and a butterfly. If you look closely, she is also surrounded by paper butterflies. :)

Here is Lile with her would-be dognapper:

Oh no, she's been taken hostage!

She's getting away!!!!


Not to worry, a hefty ransom of a cookie was paid, and Lile and Sophie were reunited later that afternoon. ;)

Photography by Sophie

Here are some photos by Sophia of the fish,

Princess Leia:


Aaron:


Aiden:


They are all male betta fish, so they live in separate tanks. I don't claim any responsibility for their silly names, which I may or may not have spelled correctly. :)

Sophia, in motion and at rest

Jumping from the window sill onto the bed.


"Watching a movie."

Sophia's Fashion Designs

Here is a sampling of outfits for girls, designed by Sophia. The descriptions are by Sophia, just typed by mom. :)


A violet skirt with a pretty Valentine's Day shirt and heart-shaped earrings. This outfit comes with a green belt, peach high heels and a purple rose.



A green and peach party dress with a pretty heart-shaped necklace that is pink, and pretty blue high heels.



This outfit comes with a violet purse and high heel boots. The dress has pretty orange ribbons for straps and can be worn on a date or to a party.



This outfit has a brown shirt and blue pants with a pretty pink belt; the jewelry is a pretty heart-shaped necklace and pretty earrings; the shoes are violet purple and come with the outfit also.



This is a wedding dress for a flower girl, or it can also be worn to a party or everywhere you go.

Friday (all day)

Happy Birthday Sophia! (our big 7-year-old girl)


Sophia's Birthday Shrinky Dinks


Twin Pinkys (from The Cute Book)


The Birthday Girl


Birthday Cupcake Picture

Happy Birthday to our friend Chris, too, who sometimes reads this blog and doubtless remembers Sophia's birth since she was there. :)

Sophia's creations Part 2

Sophia is always coming up with cool ideas and making cool stuff. Here is some more cool stuff: Our picnic in the park lunch bag (above).

Sophia's colored paper, drinking straws, and tape playground (isn't is clever?)
Sophia is going through a big (around two feet) paper dolls phase. The one on the far left is Ariel, and the one in the middle is Nausicaa, and the one on the far right is Soleil ( Soleil is french for sun).

Sophia's New Cycle

Before Anna was born, we took family bike rides in the following way: Margaret and I rode our own bikes, and Tony pulled a two-seater trailer with the little girls on board. We've been struggling lately with the dilemma of how we can bring everyone along now that we have one more kid. We considered getting Sophie her own bicycle so that Anna could take her place in the trailer, but she doesn't ride without training wheels yet and she's really too little to keep up. Then Tony had a great idea, and we purchased this tandem bike attachment:

Isn't she cute? She's really happy, too. So now our family bike rides will go thus: Tony with Sophia on the tandem bike, Me pulling the trailer with the two little ones, and Margaret riding her own bike (lucky).
I think riding the tandem bike will help Sophie learn to balance as well, I guess we'll see.

Sophia's creations

Sophia is very creative. She is all about presentation. So is Ellie.
How to make a tomato flower:
You take a piece of tomato, then kind of rip up the middle to make a stem. Then take some little pieces of bread and add them as leaves.



How to make a makeup kit:
What you do is take some toilet paper and pile it up, then you staple it around the edges. Then you fold up another piece of paper and put that on top with some lip gloss.