One last hurrah

Since Kylie and Audrey have to go back to school tomorrow we thought we would try to do something fun in the kitchen. To quote Homer Simpson "Mmm, donuts....".

 I guess tomorrow I'll go back to healthy eating, walking and whipping my house into shape. Darn it.

Christmas toys 2009 - hits and misses

Every year when I'm Christmas shopping for my children I try to keep a list on my computer of what I've bought for each of them. With three children I feel that I have to do this to keep from overbuying for some and slighting others. 
A few days ago I was looking in my recycling bin (that I really need to dump, but am kinda scared to) and ran across last years list. I had to laugh when I read over it. Why you may ask? Because probably more than half of what is on that list is no longer in this house anymore. Sad isn't it? So I thought I would share some of the hits and misses of last year with you. Keep in mind that this is all girly stuff so if you have boys you can just read along, laugh and be thankful.

• The doll bed. I bought this for Kylie because I'm too cheap to buy the real thing from American Girl I thought she would like it for her American girl doll. She liked it for about two seconds. I would say it's probably spent most of this past year gathering dust in her closet. It's okay, the canopy kind of droops which bugs me. I started to get rid of it, but then Kylie decided she would use it. For her webkinz. By the way I paid around $40 for this last year and now walmart.com has it for $19. Go figure.

•  THE Fancy Nancy phone. For months Audrey begged and begged for this thing. Got it for Christmas and never even looked at it. Sophie on the other hand enjoyed it a lot. It went to goodwill a few months back.

 

• Perfection game. I thought the girls would really enjoy this game. They do when we remember to get it out and play with it. Just to warn you, those 25 little oddly shaped pieces do not feel good when you walk on them.

• The doll stroller. This has actually been kind of a hit. The only downfall is that it's kind of bulky. I could collapse it and put it away and it probably wouldn't be so bad, but I'm lazy. Also, I kind of wish that I had bought the fancy shmancy double stroller from Pottery Barn since we have this whole army of doll thing going on around here. 

• The doctor kit. In pink naturally. This was Sophie's absolute must have for last year. From her point of view a definite hit, from moms point of view? There's only so many times a day I can handle getting a shot and having my temperature taken. 

• The Best Friends Inc. Doll. One of Kylie's must haves. She currently resides in the toy bin under the bed naked. I would have to say that's a miss. 

 

• The dollhouse. Hands down a hit. I was kind of worried the girls wouldn't care for it since the dolls are kind of funky looking, but they love it. I love it because it's not as big as a piece of living room furniture and doesn't take up a ton of space.

• And of course the webkinz. My kids are crazy about these things. I was worried that they just wanted them for the codes, but that hasn't been the case oddly enough. They sleep with them and take them everywhere. The only problem is so many family members gave them to the girls last year that some of the codes got lost in the chaos which kind of stunk.

 

The girls received a few other toys as well, but I don't want to bore you senseless with everything. I have to admit that I'm slightly freaked out by how small last years haul looks compared to the list that I have for this year. I have a feeling that in a few months I'll probably be making several goodwill trips for drop-off.

Those &*@!* Christmas lists

I have to admit I am extremely lucky when it comes to my kids in that they rarely ask for things. When they do ask for things it's not for much and I try to get them what they ask for within reason. Usually when I ask them what they want for their birthday or Christmas they'll tell me one or two things. Three at the absolute max. For example Kylie has been wanting an American Girl Coconut dog for nearly a year. Everytime I ask her what she wants for Christmas this is the only thing she asks for. I've been asking her if there's anything else she wants and she consistently tells me there isn't. Audrey asked for the American Girl Ginger Cat and a leapster. Consistently these are the only two things she has wanted.
Well apparently at their school the classes are all making wish lists to put up outside their classroom doors. By the way don't even get me started on how their school never, ever does anything for the other holidays celebrated at this time of year because I'll rant for at least an hour. Kylie brought home her list to work on with her homework the other day. She was actually kind of upset about this list because as she told me there was only one thing she wanted, yet there were something like six or eight lines for them to write on. I told her she could leave the other lines blank if she wanted to, but that was inconceivable to her. Yes, sometimes I wonder if this child is really mine. She finally puts down that she would like some clothes for her dolls, the dog and then she pretty much fills up the rest of the form with books. Then Audrey proceeds to tell me that her class did the same assignment at school already. I ask her what she put on her list. And I am floored. She tells me that she first put a new coat on the list. Huh? That's funny since I just bought her a new coat a few weeks ago and it's hanging in the closet with the tags on it still. I tell her this and she says "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." I ask her what else was on her list fully expecting to hear her say Ginger the cat and a Leapster. She tells me that she can't remember everything that was on the list, but she knows that she wrote down that she wants a Baby Alive that bounces and a DS. Nice. First of all those dolls freak me out. We saw some in Target about two weeks ago and they were all going off like jackhammers. Creepy and weird and no way that thing is coming into my house. And a DS? Really? I had no idea she even knew what one was. The bad thing is that I've already bought one for Kylie and I bought Audrey a leapster. You can kind of see how Christmas morning is going to go here can't you? She'll open the leapster and be happy with it and then Kylie will open her ds and she'll got into typical middle child you don't love me mode. I totally expect to have a huge dent in my forehead by the time Christmas arrives from banging it against the wall.

And the craziness begins...........

This weekend seemed to be the kick off of the holiday madness for us. It was a lot of fun, but I'm kind of happy that today is just plain old Monday with nothing scheduled. At the beginning of the December my husband and I have always given the girls matching pajamas for Christmas. We wrap them and put them under the tree so they can open them and then wear them all that month. The funny thing is even though they know pretty much without a doubt that their present will be pj's they still get extremely excited. Since at least one of my girls is asleep in the evenings before her father gets home from work we decided to wait until Friday to have the opening of the pj's. 

 

 Since I was kind of worried that they would open their gifts and start to moan, "great. pajamas again." (which they didn't by the way) I had another little something for them to open. I picked up some of the little webkinz for them thus earning my spot as mom of the year. I know most kids are kind of over the whole webkinz thing, but mine are still crazy over it.

 Then on Saturday I decided to take the girls to a parade in a nearby town. My husband was working so yeah, not a very smart decision on my part. Luckily my mom and dad met us when we got there so it wasn't too bad. Kylie and Sophie had fun, but Audrey did not. As I've said before she tends to be super sensitive to noise, textures, etc. and the noise level was really bothering her. 

 Naturally my family being my family the parade was not without incident. First we parked in a church parking lot. The girls were playing in this little garden area while we were waiting for the parade to start and I was standing a few feet away with my mom and dad talking. Some woman that apparently had no clue as to how to drive an SUV pulled into the parking lot. She swung out to try to park and came within inches of hitting my mom, dad and me. Then she almost mowed down my kids. Needless to say mama bear was pissed. Then when the parade ended I put the kids in the car and Kylie immediately began to cry that she needed to go to the bathroom. I told her I would drive her to a nearby McDonalds. Umm, yeah that didn't happen. I pulled the car out only to find that someone from the sheriffs office had pulled their car in front of the exit and I couldn't get out. So I started to back up, but a line of cars had formed behind me so I was stuck. So I'm sitting on a street stuck in traffic with a crying eight year old. Then the parade doubled back so I had to wait for that to clear. Finally the bands and floats went by and the officer moved his car and pulled out into traffic. A few other officers were bringing up the rear of the parade and one let me out into traffic. No sooner had I pulled out into the street than lights and sirens came on. Naturally since I had done nothing wrong I ignored them. Then the car next to me turned on his siren, flashed his lights and CAME ON THE BULLHORN and told me to get off the road until the parade cleared. Two words. NEVER AGAIN. 
Sunday luckily was much better. We took the girls to the Shriners Christmas party. They had a great time and I almost got a picture of all of them with Santa. 

 

Two out of three's not so bad. Oh, and apparently Santa wears an earring. Weird huh? Then the girls went out in the 40 degree weather with no coats (because their mom totally sucks) and road a train. 

 They felt like popsicles when they got back, but they had fun. Then we left the party and took the girls to see Tangled. If you haven't seen this movie you really need to. It was really cute. Kylie has despised pretty much anything princess-y since she was about six (weird kid, I know) and even she loved it. All in all it was a pretty good weekend I think.

He's back..............

A few years ago I heard some moms talking about something called The Elf on the Shelf. I didn't really know what they were talking about, but I knew it had something to do with looking for an elf at Christmastime. I finally decided to get in on the action last year and I am so glad I did. I ordered an elf on the shelf kit through Borders not really even knowing what I was getting. What arrived was a box that contained a small toy elf and a book explaining the story of the elf. Apparently you're supposed to put the elf away and read the story to your children. Basically the story tells how Santa Claus sends one of his scout elves to the homes of children to watch over them during the day. At night when the children are sleeping the elf reports back to the North Pole to give Santa the low down. Each morning when the children wake up they have to look for the elf because he likes to hide in different spots around the house. The one catch is that they cannot touch him or his magic will disappear. 

 

I have to admit I was very skeptical when I first read the story to my kids, but they seemed to really be into it so I thought I would give it a shot. I mean, hey if it is incentive for them not to kill each other and possibly clean their rooms it can't hurt to try right? So last year the tradition began. The kids loved their little elf and every morning during the month of December they would wake up and the first thing out of their mouth would be "Where's the elf?" Audrey liked our little elf so much that she cried herself to sleep on Christmas eve because she knew she wouldn't see it again until this year. Luckily Santa left a note telling her that if since she was so good that he would let the elf come back a little early next time. So this year the day after Thanksgiving our little friend arrived and the kids have been having a blast. Saturday Audrey and Sophie decided to destroy their bedroom and not clean it up so guess who was hanging out in their room Sunday morning? I'm actually thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to have a Valentines elf, an Easter elf, an independence day elf, a Halloween elf, a Thanksgiving elf............

Playing Hooky

Friday we had to take Sophie to New Orleans to get her skin graft checked out. I gave Audrey and Kylie the option of staying home and having my mom and dad watch them after school or playing hooky from school and going with us. They chose option two. Now before you get jealous thinking that we went down to the French Quarter and did all the fun touristy type stuff and ate some awesome food don't. Last year we did that and the girls didn't care for any of it. So this year after Sophie had her appointment we went to Lakeside mall and did some shopping. Sad, I know. After shopping we road over to Gulfport Ms. and went to the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center. This place is awesome. They have all these cool areas where the kids can dress up.

margaritas anyone?

 Or they can film a cooking show.

 Or experiment with science.

 

See what it's like to do construction work.

 Or just climb around and burn off some excess energy.

 

 All in all we had a really great day and I'm glad the kids chose option number two.

My kids are so strange

Last night the girls helped me put a few decorations out for Thanksgiving. The kitchen looked especially cute with the placemats and napkin rings they made last year. After we had our little Martha moment we went about our bedtime routine as usual. Or so I thought. This morning I woke up to this:

 Apparently someone in our family is an aspiring comedian.

Finally finished!

My husband and I have been working on a project for the girls for what feels like forever now. It didn't actually take long to put together, it was just a matter of finding time to do it. It is finally done now. Introducing the new puppet theater/bakery/lemonade stand.

 Sorry for the craptacular pictures (as usual). We originally were going to make a puppet theater, but then decided the girls could use it for other things if they wanted. They told us they wanted a bakery and lemonade stand so I made different signs for them to change out with magnets on the back. 

I also painted a chalkboard on the front so they could have something to write on. Please pretend you don't notice the crooked pink lines around it. I was trying to frame it, but misplaced my painters tape so I had to freehand it. After I finished I realized the tape was underneath the stand the entire time. So typical. 
The sides have hinges so we can fold it flat and slide it under the bed when the girls aren't using it. It's not perfect of course (Duh! It's something my husband and I made), but so far the girls seem to like it. 

Open Letter Friday

Being the dork I am I often compose little letters in my head to companies, annoying people, etc. I thought I would start sharing them with you guys (I know, I know you're thrilled right?) on Fridays. If you would like to add  yours you are more than welcome to either include it in the comment section or if I can ever remember how to do the McLinky thing then I'll include a link up at the bottom of the post. Happy Friday!

Dear Employer (a.k.a my children),
This letter is to let you know that I am putting you on notice. If serious changes are not made within the workplace (a.k.a home) soon then I shall be forced to tender my resignation. As I'm sure you have no clue what I am referring to I thought I would outline it for you.

1. Food- My days of playing short order cook are over. If you don't like what I make for dinner then you can either make a sandwich or go hungry. Also, there are at least ten boxes of cereal in the pantry that  you are more than welcome to help yourself to. No, snack cakes do not count as dinner.
2. Homework- My school days ended more years ago than I care to remember. That means that I've already done all of my homework and I will not be doing yours. If you wait until the last minute to do a project, well my friend you are on your own. Harsh? Maybe, but I refuse to be yelled at by my own children because I "don't know what I'm doing".
3. Referee Services-  As entertaining as it is to listen to you tattle on each other from the time you wake up until you go to bed at night I'm afraid I can no longer do provide this service. The wall in my bedroom has a huge dent in it from beating my head against it and I'm afraid if I do it much longer then I will end up putting a hole in it. 
4.  Cleaning- Contrary to popular belief we do not have a self cleaning house. Crazy isn't it? If you cannot pick up after yourselves then your weekly allowance will be going into my bank, not yours. 

I have spoken to my union representative (a.k.a. dad) and he believes that these changes are quite reasonable and should go into effect immediately. Looking forward to a new and improved workplace!
Sincerely,
Mom

No more school work please!

I really love when school starts because I'm one of those people that desperately needs schedule and routine. However, one thing that I don't love about school being in session is all the extra work it brings with it. Luckily this year the girls have teachers that don't assign massive amounts of homework. Unfortunately they do assign 'projects'. Lots and lots of projects. I dread looking in the girls assignment folder when they get home from school because there is almost always a letter about an upcoming project in it. Currently Kylie has a math project and a reading project to do. Yesterday Audrey brought home one of the dreaded notes informing me that she has a project to do for her reading class. The thing that drives me insane about these projects is they usually require me to go buy things for them. I promise I'm not being cheap when I say this, I'm being lazy. Nine times out of ten it's some strange, obscure thing that I have to run all over town to find. Also, unlike their homework assignments the projects almost always have to be done over the weekends so they can be turned in on Monday. That of course means that I have to ride them all weekend to get them finished. See, this doesn't really work for me. Weekends are supposed to be the time for me to make my husband finish his projects around the house. So teachers I'm begging you, please lighten up on the projects. Please?? Cause I'm really wanting to get some work done in my kitchen and I don't know if I have it in me to wait until summer break.

Mommy's got some more bragging to do!

Sorry guys, but mommy has got to brag on her kids some.
Yesterday Audrey brought home her AR folder and she had all 100's in it. I'm so excited because she wasn't doing so hot on her AR tests when school began and I know that she has been working really hard on her reading. She tends to compare herself to Kylie a lot and even though she is just as smart as Kylie she doesn't see it and gets down on herself a lot. Typical middle child behaviour I suppose. 
Kylie is also doing really well on her AR tests. She set a goal for herself at the beginning of the school year, she wants to make the 100 book club by Christmas. Currently she is at 81. I think she'll make it. She's testing on books in the upper fifth grade level (she's in third) so I was a bit worried about her getting in over her head, but she seems to be doing fine. She also won second place in a writing contest between the third, fourth and fifth grades. She's a little embarrassed because now her essay is being submitted for competition among the other schools in the county. She hates extra attention so this is killing her. 
Sophie? Well she had kind of a rough night last night so I'm going to have to dig deep here. Hmm..... oh she helped me make this cake yesterday and didn't even try to eat any of the chocolate. she's a huge chocoholic so that's saying a lot.

Don't laugh at my pitiful jack-o-lantern. Well okay, go ahead and laugh, I know it's kind of sad. I've been told that it tastes really, really good though. I wouldn't know because I've haven't had any since I'm trying to be good and all. Anyway, I'll quit bragging on my awesome kids now. I hope all of you have a fantastic day today!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun at the park.

Linking up with Angry Julie Monday.

Open Letter Friday

Being the dork I am I often compose little letters in my head to companies, annoying people, etc. I thought I would start sharing them with you guys (I know, I know you're thrilled right?) on Fridays. If you would like to add  yours you are more than welcome to either include it in the comment section or if I can ever remember how to do the McLinky thing then I'll include a link up at the bottom of the post. Happy Friday!
Dear Clueless Mom,
Storytime at the local library is such a fun thing for our children. What is especially fun? Watching your child beat on a glass door for over twenty minutes while you sit around and pretend you don't notice. Not only is it loud and distracting to the children that are trying to listen to the librarian it makes me a nervous wreck. I'm telling you this because while you sit outside the storytime room with your other mom friends drinking your coffee (By the way the no food and no drinks sign they have posted? I'm pretty sure it's for everyone) I've got my phone ready to speed dial 911 when the glass breaks and little precious starts to bleed out. So please don't worry about your child, just go back to being oblivious. And when your child runs through the library pulling books off the shelf? Don't worry about that either. I'm sure someone will pick them up. Same thing with the puzzle pieces your angel was throwing at everyone. Now that was amusing. The ear splitting screams were kind of fun too. Looking forward to seeing you guys next week!
Sincerely,
Annoyed Mommy

Proud mommy moment

Allow me to brag for a moment on my eldest child if you will. 

 Last night at the PTA meeting Kylie was awarded citizen of the month. Again. Fourth year in a row. She takes after me ya know. Okay maybe not. My husband and I are thinking that this kind of thing must skip a generation. Regardless I am very proud of my baby. She works so hard in school and even though she rolls her eyes and acts like this is all no big deal I know she's proud of herself too.

Mommy is in trouble again

I have a confession to make. I swear. Not on an everyday basis, but sometimes things happen and a word or ten two may slip out. My husband keeps telling me that one day it's going to bite me in the butt and well.... I guess that day came.
First let me give you the back story. Last week my sidekick Sophie and I went to do some shopping. When we were leaving the shopping center a bus ran a traffic light and almost hit us. Scared the hell out of me. Needless to say the bus driver got an earful.  Then two days later we almost were run over by another bus. I kid you not, I could not make this up if I tried. I was running errands with the kids and as we were leaving our neighborhood they noticed a bus in someones yard dropping them off. They thought it was strange that a bus would pull into someones driveway and I was explaining to them that the bus was from a local group that works with mentally challenged adults. As we neared the exit of our neighborhood the bus driver started backing out. I guess he/she figured that being in a neighborhood as opposed to on the highway they didn't need to you know, look behind them. I had to slam on brakes to keep from being run over. Once again words were screamed spoken.
Apparently someone was listening in. Closely. You see, yesterday my husband had the day off work. Sophie was playing in the living room and basically minding her own business and for some reason he thought it would be funny to tease her. Why he insists on doing this I don't know, but he does. I wasn't in the room so I didn't hear exactly what he said but he later told me it had something to do with telling her that he was going to trade her in for a boy. She called him a stupid ass. He actually came into the room to fuss at me about it because according to him he knows exactly where she picked it up. Can you feel me rolling my eyes here?  I mean really. You act like one, you're gonna get called one. Apparently he doesn't agree with me so now I'm the bad mommy yet again. Oh well, I guess there are worse things I could be. Like a stupid......never mind, not gonna go there.

For your viewing pleasure...........

Everytime I take out the camera to snap some pictures of my kids they inevitably ask me to "make a movie". Sophie asked me to make one of her and I thought I would share (don't worry, it's very short). 

In case you don't understand what she's saying it is "you gotta wiggle it, just a little bit." Yep, we are so proud. I suppose I should be relieved that she didn't sing Promiscuous Girl by Nelly Furtado as that seems to be her new favorite lately. 

Yet another reason why I'm losing my mind

This morning as Kylie and Audrey were leaving for school I noticed that my keys weren't were they normally are. There is a table when you walk in our front door to the left and I always put my keys on it or in the drawer on it. I have a bazillion errands that I have to do today including one really big one when the kids get home from school (which I will be posting about tomorrow!) so I thought I would find my keys and put them with my purse. I looked in the drawer again thinking maybe they were under something inside of it. Nope. So I looked under the table in the baskets where the kids leave their shoes. Nada. I then proceed to take all of the cushions out of the furniture, scratch my head in amazement at the amount of cheerios I find under the cushions, move the furniture, dump out my purse, look in the car, call my husband and get a little bit hysterical, go through the garbage, look in the kids rooms, under the beds, in the laundry room....... well you get the picture. I searched for almost 2 hours!
My poor husband calls me to tell me that he will come home and give me his set of keys when someone can relieve him at work.  I tell him I'll continue the search and call him if anything turns up. As a last resort I decide to go through everything one more time. I have a storage bench in the living room that I keep throws in and I started looking in there. As I moved one of the throws I noticed a brown sock. Seemed kind of weird since the kids pretty much live in sandals except for when they go to school and then they have to wear white socks. I then noticed the sock looked kind of funny.

For ten points can you find what is wrong with the white throw?

So I picked up the sock and found not only my keys, but a can of potpourri spray that I had been looking for yesterday. 

I'll give you three guesses who put it there. And here's a hint,  her name doesn't start with A, K, or L. 

The weekend recap

As crazy as it sounds I'm kind of glad it's Monday. This weekend was a little on the hectic side and I need my routine back. 
Friday night I did something absolutely horrible. Audrey and I were in the living room dancing to music videos (yeah, I'm pretty horrible, but that's not the horrible thing I'm talking about) and having a good time. Apparently while we were dancing Sophie walked into the room to watch. I had no idea she was there and I turned around and when I did my arm smacked her right across the face. Talk about feeling like the worst mom in the world! I sat and held her while she cried and told me that I was a mean mommy and that I didn't love her. Luckily she was fine, no blood, no bruises, but it scared the hell out of me. Five minutes later she was running around the house and we were best friends again.
Then Saturday I decided to go and price some things for a bathroom project we are about to start. My husband was working, it was raining and I had three kids with me. Can someone reserve my padded room already? 
Sunday I ended up hosting a birthday party. I was talking to my mom on the phone last week and my brother stopped by her house and asked her to ask me if it would be okay if he had a birthday get together at my house for his daughter.  Normally he and his wife throw these huge parties for their daughter, but they are going through a divorce this year so I guess that's off. I didn't mind, just told him to call and give me details. Naturally he never called. The guy is clueless. So yesterday at 2:00 I had a house full of people I didn't even know and only a birthday cake. Good times I tell ya. Luckily though my mom and dad showed up with the rest of the party supplies and everyone ended up having a good time. At least I think this little monkey did.

 Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

This parenting thing

One would think that by the time you have three children you could pretty much parent in your sleep. In my case one would be oh so wrong. Lately I keep finding myself second guessing my parenting decisions. I hate this. I like to make a decision about something and feel good about it knowing I did the right thing. Apparently my parenting handbook (the one I got late that was missing half the pages) failed to mention that sometimes there are no right and wrong answers. Right now I'm wondering should I call the doctor about that weird rash Kylie has, should I go back to work to help out financially, should I put Sophie back in gymnastics even though I hated taking her last year? I hate to say a definitive yes or no because I hate to screw up, but at the same time I can't just keep saying I don't know to everything. Maybe I should call my mom. Not for her advice, but to see if she still has my magic eight ball from when I was a kid.

I am in love...................with a shirt!

Some of you may not be aware of this because it's something I don't believe I've ever talked about on my blog, but I love to buy clothes for my children. Not just the basic necessities, but the cute, fun stuff. I mean I really love to buy kids clothes. When Kylie was an only child (for about all of two seconds) she pretty much only wore smocked dresses (we are in the south ya know!). If we wanted to go really casual I would buy her something from Ralph Lauren or maybe an A line style dress from Kelly's Kids. Then when Audrey came along I went on a Baby Lulu kick. I not only bought the girls matching outfits, but I also ordered the special bows and socks to match. Heck, at one time I even had three of the diaper bags from Baby Lulu so I could coordinate with them. 
Anyway, I'm sure you're all shaking your heads in disgust at me now and wondering what my point is. The point is that this is kind of a hobby for me. Some people might like to scrapbook, others may sew, do photography, or watch/play sports. I like to shop. That being said over the years I've bought just about every brand of kids clothes you can imagine. And lately I've been a little bored. The girls have to wear uniforms to school so I've been saying that this year since it will be Sophie's last year before starting school I am really going to have fun with her clothes. So far it's not worked out so great. All of the brands I usually turn to just haven't been all that impressive to me. At all. Maybe I'm asking too much, but I've really been looking for something cute and a little different. Too much to ask? Apparently so. Until someone recommended an Etsy seller to me. Normally I steer clear of etsy. There are just so many sellers on there and I get frustrated trying to search for things because every time I search for something on there I end up with 100's of pages and it's just too much to weed through. Also, I've heard so many horror stories of people ordering things on etsy only to wait forever on their items and in the end having to file with paypal to get their money back. Well this time I lucked out. Someone recommended the shop Piper! to me and I just fell in love. The prices are extremely reasonable so I thought I would order a few things just to see what I thought. It took about three weeks from the time I ordered until I received my package. Sophie didn't want to try on her new duds, so I got Audrey to do it for me.

This is the 'Little Miss' top. Isn't it cute? I'm not sure if we'll wear it with the skirt or not, but I just love it!

I also ordered a long sleeve top. You know just in case the weather here ever decides to drop back down to the double digits.

This is from the 'dress up' print. Cute, huh? The great thing about this seller is she lets you choose from a tank  top, short sleeve top or a long sleeve top. The other great thing? Only $14! By the way I am not recommending this seller because I'm getting anything (she doesn't even know I'm posting this), I just love to pass along great finds when I run across them.