Princess Paige is 5!

Let's catch up on some birthdays, shall we? We have had five of them around here that have gone regrettably unblogged. Paigey girl turned 5 on us this year! She was so excited that she didn't even notice it wasn't our usual birthday fare. After being in Utah for a month, Brandon and I decided we'd had enough time apart. He was here in Texas working and staying alone in a two bedroom apartment that the company provided him. They had no problem with us coming to stay with him, so we did, the first weekend in April. We figured it would be helpful for me to join the house hunting, and good for us all to be together. A month apart from Daddy was rough on us all!

I will note here that the drive from Utah to Texas was incredibly long. Two twelve hour days in the car, (and we don't make stops longer than a few minutes). Not only is it incredibly long, but horribly boring. You have to drive all...the...way...across...New Mexico, which by the way is a place I would never want to live. It just looks gross. Sorry New Mexico! (Ashlee, I'm sure Ramah is a magical exception to this rule. If you ever have reason to make it out that way, I could come and find out!) So needless to say, it's not going to be a drive that takes place often!

Anyway, back on track. So we'd been in Texas for about two and a half weeks when Paige's birthday rolled around. In this two bedroom apartment, we had a kitchen, but it wasn't really set up to cook in apart from a few dishes to eat on, and one sorry pot to cook on the stove in. No knives, etc. We hoped from the get go that it would all be temporary, and didn't want to either purchase a lot of unnecessary stuff, or go digging through our stuff in storage to find things, so we were pretty much eating whatever we could keep in the fridge and assemble easily, or what we could find that came prepared in it's own oven safe baking dish. We did have our Vitamix for morning smoothies thank heavens!! We also were in pretty tight quarters at the apartment. There was no playground, so we had to drive to the park to get our wiggles out. The apartment was in a busy part of the city, and for me, (after having lived in the middle of nowhere for so long) it was really intimidating to get out and about much. I kept hoping that I wouldn't have to get used to this part of town, and so really didn't venture out as much as I probably should have. Looking back I wish I would have made more effort to take the kids out and keep them occupied, but we were all, myself included in a bit of survival mode with so much uncertainty. So needless to say Paige's birthday was not what it should have been, but we still did our best to show our girl how special she is to us.

We made sure to stick to our usual tradition of decorating for the big day in the birthday girl's favorite color. My kids have come to expect this, and honestly I think it's even more fun for me! Paige's birthday breakfast was jumbo sized Costco muffins (we did splurge for some chocolate ones) with a candle in it of course.

 These cuties love each other so much and it melts my heart to see how honestly excited they get for each other.

 From Grandma and Poppy Smith, Paige got some princess Duplos, (Aurora) to add to her collection. Those continue to be a huge hit for our girls, and other than a few dress ups and stuffed animals, are the only toys the girls keep in their room. She also got the new Tinkerbell Pirate Fairies movie.

 Isn't she so beautiful?! I love this picture! She sure loved being the center of attention.

 From Mom and Dad she was given Aurora dress up clothes. She wasted no time in trying them out.

 Then she got to open her outfit for Sparkle from Grandma and Grandpa Morgan. She was so excited about that!

 She was so sweet about her cake. I normally make the kids' cakes myself and was feeling sad I wouldn't get to for her, but she was all sorts of excited about picking out a grocery store cake. I've got to be totally honest and say that it looked nothing like the picture they promised and was a bit sorry in real life, but she thought it was fabulous and still has all the figurines from the top. At least she was happy!

We did some shopping as a family, had facetime with the grandparents and had take-out from our favorite Carabba's as a splurge for dinner. It wasn't much, but if nothing else, my girl knows she is loved.

A few things about five year old Paige:
She is our super socialite. Whenever we go anywhere she is always looking to make a new friend, and usually succeeds!
She loves to sing and dance, and color, color color. I'm constantly refilling the paper and she is always looking to fill up wall space with pictures. She loves to send pictures to people, or make cards. In the last few months, she's loved to try writing notes as well. She did take some convincing that her name is spelled P-a-i-g-e and not P-A-J, but we've got that down now.
She loves to play pretend anything. Sometimes it's a game of Mommy/babies, sometimes it's princesses and pirates, sometimes it's copying a show she has seen. My girls can entertain themselves for hours this way and for now, I don't usually interrupt it. Not even for school. I love to see them play so well together and be so creative. They are easily lost in a world of their own and it's adorable to watch.
She is a quick learner. She has officially joined our school this year as one of the big kids, (last year was the basics of reading and motor skills like cutting). She loves to read and takes no convincing like her brothers did at that age. She loves to write and keeps at it, even when it's hard, or she spelled something wrong. She soaks up like a sponge whatever her brothers are doing and it's been hilarious to sit down to a math lesson only to realize she already knows whatever is being covered that day. Right and left? Duh, mom. Two cubes and three cubes makes five? She can do it in her sleep. She is excited and hungry to learn and it is a joy to teach her.
Paige is a party animal. She's always trying to plan a tea party or a girls' night. She does get a little grumpy if things don't go exactly the way she imagines them, (lemonade and cookies in the girls' room doesn't exactly keep with house rules around here) but she's always up for a good time.

We love love love our exuberant little Paige. She's still a BIG personality in a  SMALL package, and we are so grateful she is ours. She is a good example to her younger sisters and a great friend to her Mom. I couldn't be more proud.

More From Our Homeschool

One of the fun things about homeschool is that the little ones are always watching and learning with the big kids.  They remember certain things that they've done and get excited about the time when they themselves can do it.  Being allowed to handle scissors is one of these highly anticipated milestones.  This year Paige gets to be an official student.  She is currently learning to read with my all time favorite Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, working through the Saxon Math K program and completing the projects in I Can Cut: Big Skills for Little Hands.  She's watched the boys go through the "cutting book" jealously and loves being a big girl now!  Remembering that Andrew's own pizza cutting activity made the blog, she had to have her own picture to post for bragging rights.  You earned it girl!

Please pardon the hair.  My girls are going through a phase where they love to pretend that they are the girls from Despicable Me.  Paige calls herself Edith, Claire is "Ag-us" and Emma is "Margo! Margo! MARGO!" I don't think they actually know which girl is which on the show, and neither do I, but their play is adorable.

We get a lot of questions about our decision to homeschool.  I hesitate to post about it too much on the blog because it's one of those topics that tend to make people really uncomfortable.  But I want to share more, because it's a big part of our life, and I hope that sharing will help people understand it a little better.  I'm certainly not trying to convince anyone to make the same decision, so please don't take it that way.  I just hope that maybe it will help people to see the value and validity in such a decision for others and to dispel some of the weird ideas that people tend to assume are just part of the package. To give some reassurance that we've thought long and hard about this before jumping in, and to give y'all some hope that our children will be well adjusted adults. ;)

Today I was thinking again about the benefits of homeschool, and this post here from the Matt Walsh blog helped me to further explore some of my feelings.  It's not a post about homeschooling at all.  It's a blog response to a boy struggling with being bullied in school.  I absolutely loved the response.  He tells this boy,

Do you know why so many kids at your school don’t like you? Because you make them uncomfortable. You aren’t going with the program. You aren’t behaving like they think you should. You aren’t the sort of person they think you should be. You have passions, you are intelligent, you think more than you speak, you are thoughtful. Those traits will serve you well in the real world, but in the claustrophobic confines of public school — where mindless collectivism and groupthink reign supreme — they’ll cause you trouble. The only way you can really get the herd to “accept you” is to fall in line and join their stampede. I hope you don’t do that, Alex. You sound like a fascinating and awesome person, I’d hate to see you compromise even one ounce of your individuality for the sake of a bunch of insecure cows.

And then my favorite part comes here:

 We put a ridiculous premium on “friends” in our society, as if we can measure a man by the number of acquaintances he has accumulated. What you’ll realize when you’re an aging, grizzled, world weary 27 year old like me, is that family is far more important than friends. We are only capable of having a limited number of close, meaningful, intimate human relationships. People who waste their quota on their peers at the expense of their family will regret it one day.

Thinking about this post, I realized is that at least for me, public school didn't teach me to form lasting, meaningful relationships.  I have about two friends from school years that I try to keep in regular contact with.  The rest are just facebook acquaintances.  Yes, I do realize the value in having known and learned from others in younger years, but I do hope for my kids that quality will make up for quantity.  I feel lucky to have been a part of the good friendships I had way back when.  Because most of the time I felt so awkward.  I was always hyper sensitive to what people must be thinking of me, and it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized they were all too busy thinking the same thing to care!  I was painfully shy, but I didn't realize until it was pointed out to me years later that much of my shyness came off as aloofness.  Many of my "friends" were actually friends of my friends.  I didn't develop a real closeness to most of them.  I realize that this is not the case for many people and that lots of adults have life-long meaningful friendships from public school.  But for me it was a social rat race and I hated it.  Simply putting children in large groups doesn't teach them to behave well, or form healthy relationships.  Good parenting does that.  I know there are many children lucky enough to have both the good parenting and good friends at school.  For us, I feel that teaching our children how to love and respect each other, while keeping them in an environment where they feel loved and safe is the best way to help them really learn how to interact with others in the "real world."  And for the record, public school is not at all like the "real world" in our minds.

I don't mean to say that we don't want our kids to have friends outside of our family.  That is absolutely not the case.  But especially in these younger years, I want friendships formed carefully, in environments where they can be guided and choose friends that actually have the same interests and values and not just because they happen to be stuck with them in the same room all day.  To teach them what it really means to be a friend and how to cultivate that.  We don't stay holed up in the house all day.  We involve our children in sports, in church activities and I take them ev-er-y-where I go.  They interact with real people of varying ages and backgrounds on a regular basis.  But I want their first and greatest influence to be at home.

To the question of, "Aren't you worried your kids will be weird?" or the statement of, "I knew this one homeschool family and they were so weird!" my answer is emphatically, that I hope they will be!  I want them to always stay as unique and special as they are now.  I don't want them to learn how to behave like everyone else.  What is becoming socially acceptable anymore is changing, and changing fast.  I want my kids to think and learn and feel for themselves and not to please others.

Again, I know that fabulous parents everywhere are accomplishing the same goals we have while participating in the public school system, and I applaud you.  Sincerely and from the heart.  I hope that our differences can be appreciated, and that it can be acknowledged that different means can accomplish the same ends.

Swimming

I had high hopes for swim lessons this year.  The boys took from a fabulous teacher last summer and even into the winter.  She knew just how to gain their confidence, and how to explain things so they could understand and execute it easily.  They were doing so well.  As you can imagine, the thought of going to the pool with six children so young is enough to have me hyperventilating into the nearest paper bag and I was really looking forward to another summer to solidify what the boys had learned and get Paige started as well.

Sadly, the lessons were a bust.  There was only one 8-day session offered at the local pool and the teacher started out by telling the boys they couldn't go off the diving board because they couldn't swim.  All the confidence they had went right out the window and even though they would both boldly jump off the board and swim the length of the pool before, at the end of this session neither passed even the beginning level with this teacher.  Grrr!!

But, we made the best of it and hopefully next summer we'll have more pool time, both with better lessons and as a family.  I couldn't resist sharing these couple of pictures of Paige.  She was so excited and so adorable.

Here she is waiting to take her turn jumping in.  Don't you love the look on her face?!

And here was the three of them ready to go on their first day.  Claire and Emma were extremely jealous, so yes, I did buy them each a pair of goggles for the bathtub too.  ;)

Busted!

I'm normally not big on telling on my children when they do something naughty....but this one was too funny.  So a few weeks ago I decided to take Parker and Drew to the library during a quiet moment at home when Claire, Emma and Noah were all asleep.  All Brandon had to do was watch Paige.  Out of six kids, it was one on one.  The odds were in his favor.  This can't go wrong, right?  To be honest, I didn't know that it hadn't.  I came home and Paige was playing quietly, and everything looked right as rain.  I should have seen that sweet little face as a warning sign that something had happened.  As it was, I didn't see the writing on the wall, if you will until the next day.

 The sneaky little artist had left her mark in a discreet location, (in the corner behind our big chair) but left her trademark drawing as the red herring removing all doubt as to whom the culprit was.  Seriously, the kid never draws anything else.  This is her self portrait.  Occasionally she gets creative and she'll add in other people, (who all look exactly the same to the untrained eye) or my personal favorite - autobots like Heatwave and Chase - but no drawing is without her infamous stick figure self.

I had a little chuckle to myself before going to her and asking calmly, "Paige, honey I noticed something on the wall behind the chair." She, being no dummy instantly burst into tears, "Was it a DRAWD?!" She asked with all the drama you'd expect from a four year old girl and then some.  At that point I lost all the decorum I had left and had a good laugh.  Notwithstanding the fact that this was absolutely the naughtiest thing she'd done in a while, I didn't have the heart to do anything more than give the obligatory finger wag and 'don't do it again' speech.  I will note here that she absolutely did do it again a few days later, adding to the original art.  She seemed to be going through a phase that week of just not being able to control the naughty impulses to do things she knew she shouldn't.  Lucky for me it was a short phase and she seems to have gotten it out of her system without having to have any serious intervention. ;)

I am also going to shamelessly say I TOLD YOU SO, to the man who has given me endless crap over crayon on the wall.  All in good humor my love!

To give a further example of her adorable art - and some of the hilarious things said at our house - I give you her latest math lesson.  A graph showing all the members of our family separated by gender.  Girls on the top row, boys on the bottom.  In case you're curious, from left to right it's Paige, Clarie, Emma, Mom and then on the bottom, Parker, Noah, Andrew and Dad.  

.After she drew Claire she stuck her tag on the graph and then said, "Oh no!  I forgot to give Claire eyelashes!  I almost made her look like a boy!"  Followed by peals of giggles.  Yes folks, the girl has three brothers and she still thinks eyelashes are what set us apart.

If that doesn't give you a good laugh, Andrew at one point believed that we are all born looking like his little sisters, and that eventually we will all um, grow some stuff, and become boys.  I had to explain this one so. many. times.  Even after having a baby brother I'm still not sure he has it straight. ;)

On a similar topic, Andrew asked me the other day, "Mom, when I was a baby, how did I get in your tummy?"  The gears in my head started turning, but before I let the conversation get away from us, I decided to ask him some questions to figure out what it was he really wanted to know.  I've learned that with little kids these questions are usually not asking what we think they are and that they are satisfied with broad answers on the topic.  Come to find out, he wanted to know more about the umbilical cord!  So we had a lovely little chat about how my body gave him food while he was growing and I took care of him and kept him warm until he was big enough to be born and that after that he didn't need his umbilical cord anymore and the doctor took it off and that's why he has a belly button!  Hoorah!

Seriously, never a dull moment around here.

A Hard Goodbye

After four years of hard use, the "blankie" made for Paige by her Great Grandma Claire Speirs has literally been loved to pieces.  Today it was time to say goodbye.  It was getting to be a safety hazard as it had big pieces  missing where both she and Noah have been tangled up in.  This girl has slept with this blanket every night since she came home from the hospital.  From the time she was such a teeny tiny peanut that she had to be wrapped up tight and wear a hat to bed to keep herself warm - even in summer - until now it has always been there.  She's used it as everything from comforter to a cape.  She's insisted on taking it almost everywhere with her, carrying it by looping her finger through a quilt tie, snuggled in it by putting her feet between the layers, you name it - this quilt has seen it all.  Sadly, as I looked at it today there really wasn't anything left of it to save as momento.  The pieces remaining are threadbare.  I should have done something with it sooner, but I wasn't ready to admit that it was time for her to move on.  Yes, I shed a tear or two when we said our final goodbye.

 Paige was a big girl about it.  She LOVES that raggedy old rag, but we'd prepared her well for the goodbye and even got her a new snuggle blanket.  Being just a Target purchase, I don't know that this one will be quite as special....but it will serve the purpose since all of my kids have the habit of having to have a blanket to go to bed.  Getting something new also helped make the transition fun.  She got to pick it out herself, and of course it HAD to be pink.  ;)

Owen Daniel

No, the name from the post title is NOT an announcement.  ;)  It's the way Paige usually sings "Old MacDonald."  Isn't that too funny?  Or sometimes it's Paigey Daniel.  It varies according to what she can remember and what mood she's in.  She's great at improv.  Here's an example of her excellent improv skills from before she even had a clue what that darn farmer's name was:
MVI 4433[1] from Katie Morgan on Vimeo.

The next video showcases her knowledge of the months of the year!  It was a lesson for the boys...but as usual around here, when the boys are learning/doing something the girls have to be right in the middle of it too.  These three little sweeties are the cutest friends and they play together so well!!  Melts my heart.
MVI 4434[1] from Katie Morgan on Vimeo.

Birthday Girl!

Paige turned 4 this year!  Sigh.....it just never stops, does it?  While it does make me sad to see it go by so fast, she is soooo much fun to watch grow.  We love our Princess Paige!  We had a special breakfast with her favorite "roll ups" (cinnamon rolls - not fancy, from the tube) eggs, and straw-ba-berries.

 Then it was off to church to bless our sweet baby Noah!  How much fun is that for one day?  And to top it off, we had some special company to share it with.  My parents, and my Grandma Karpowitz were lovely enough to come and share the weekend with us and celebrate.  It was nice to have some extra love around for our new baby boy.  I love this man, by the way.

 After church Parker was excited to give his sister a birthday present that he'd made for her all by himself, including the wrapping paper.  He made her a story book that he colored himself and then colored his own wrapping paper and stapled it up.  He couldn't wait to give it to her!  I thought it was so sweet that he'd come up with this on his own.  We haven't been terribly good at encouraging the kids to give gifts to each other and I was proud that he'd do it himself!  Those two are extra special friends.

Then Mom and Dad gave Paige her first gift.  Her "makin' girl" stuff!  Isn't she adorable?  Then she wanted to help make her own birthday cake.  We had plans for a beautiful pink princess cake, and well.....it ended up looking like kids helped with it.....but I think that made it even tastier.

 Parker insisted on writing "Happy Birthday Paige" himself on the cake.

 Then after dinner it was time to open presents!  She was certainly spoiled.  New shoes, a sorting set, pattern beads, princess accessories, new jammies from Grandma and Poppy.....

 a Cinderella dress and movie from Grandma and Grandpa Morgan,

and some girly stuff from Mom and Dad.  She always wants to have a purse like me, so we got her one of her very own and had fun filling it with things a big girl should have.  Sunglasses, lip gloss, a mirror, nail polish and the cute hat. 

We sure love our Paigey lady and had fun celebrating her special day!  She's already busy planning the next one.  It's kinda hard for her to go through birthdaypalooza in July and then have to wait all the way until April for her turn.  ;)

Some Cute Things

These pictures are actually from clear back in May but they're adorable.  And it's my blog.  So I'll post them because I want to.  ;)  This Claire Bear has the funnest personality.  She is a party animal!  She is always happy and always ready to be silly.  She's also trying to talk a lot more these days and it's so fun to hear her little voice.  If only we could get those crazy bangs to grow out so she didn't always have hair in her face!

I had been cutting up watermelon for dinner and the girls decided to chow down early on the leftover pieces.  It was a nice way to cool off.  Do you love how Paige totally buried her face in it to get to the good stuff?

This was the welcome home sign that Parker made for me when I came home from camp.  It was taped to the wall and the kids were hiding in the closet ready to jump out.  I will say....I LOVED girls camp.  The girls in my ward are FANTASTIC.  We had a lot of fun and my spirit was filled; BUT I MISSED THOSE BABIES.  It was good for them to have some time with Dad - who by the way did a fantastic job...he took all 5 kids to the zoo BY HIMSELF and took them to launch model rockets and in general just had a great time - but I know that my place is home with these kiddos and I'm so lucky that I get to do that!  It puts the biggest smile on my face to wake up to them every day and to spend so much time with their intelligent inquisitive little minds.  I guess the time away just made me appreciate it all the more.  Not to mention that I LOVED the hugs and kisses and general excitement when I came in.  Daddy gets that every day and it was fun to be on the receiving end of it for a change.

......And something not so fun or cute.  My thermostat the last three days.  Yeah, that 03 really means 103.  It just can't show three numbers at a time.  Our AC has been kaput.  Walking across the carpet upstairs has been like walking across hot pavement.  Lucky for us the downstairs has been somewhat bearable, (with a fan) so we've made it through and it was finally fixed tonight!!  We're down to 94 and falling which is why I can stand to sit at the computer.  Thank heavens!  It really makes me wonder how people lived here before air conditioning. :P

Keepin' it Cool

It is already popsicle weather here in Kansas.  Heaven help us by the end of summer!  But there are two good things I love about a homemade popsicle.  One, I think the messy faces are absolutely adorable, and a good excuse for a bath at the end of a hot sticky day; and two, even though Andrew only believes in two food groups - one being vegetables, (inedible) and the other being "real food" - he'll eat anything that is colorful and frozen in the shape of a rocket or a "shooting star."  Even if Mom hides spinach in it, or (EEK!) didn't actually use any sugar to make it.  ;)

I think Claire was absolutely floored that I was taking pictures of her instead of getting her busted for being so messy.  She wouldn't actually look at me for any of these pictures.  But HOLY COW does that girl know how to eat a popsicle.  Or maybe the problem is that she doesn't.  It would probably depend on whether you ask Mom or Dad.  ;)  I wish I could have gotten a better shot of that right knee.....she was absolutely slathered there.

And in the hair.....

In case anyone is interested, these popsicles were fresh strawberries, a mix of frozen raspberries and blueberries, a banana, a splash of OJ and a whole bunch of spinach.  We also made a batch of "fudgesicles" with raw cashews, banana, cocoa and vanilla.  Mmmmm.

Paige

Isn't this girl a heartbreaker?  I absolutely love this picture of her.  It's so sweet.  But, you should also know that she is T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  Like last Friday when she locked the door, (from the inside) to the room where Emma was sleeping, then walked out and shut it.  And then not even an hour later I walked in the living room to find little strands of the most beautiful blonde hair strewn all over the fireplace hearth....and a few steps away a pair of scissors.  Luckily it blends in to her cute little haircut - whew!  And when Grandma asks her on the phone that afternoon what she's been doing she has no problem whatsoever saying, "I being a naughty girl!"  She's just like that.  And it's hilarious.  And even though she makes us crazy, we love her strong little spirit.  She makes us smile every day.  Love you Paige!

This picture here shows the sass a little better. ;)

And yes, I know I need to figure out how to adjust these backlit photos.  I feel like the green hue is taking over everything in them....still working on that.  ;)

The Birthday......Finally

I think the biggest reason it took me so long to post about Paige's birthday is because I KNEW it was going to be a monster post.  What else could it be with this girl?  She is the life of the party around here and she'd been WAITING and WAITING for this day to come.  And I didn't want to leave anything out and it's my blog.  So there.

So remember how I usually do birthday crowns for the birthday-ee?  Totally spaced it this year.  But lucky for me Grandma Mokie saved the day with a birthday card that doubled as a princess crown.  Score!  And the kids were never the wiser. ;)

We had the usual birthday muffins.

At breakfast we let everyone have a candle and join in the fun, but Claire wasn't quite sure why we gave her one.  And doesn't she have the most gorgeous eyes?!  I also have to let you know here that she does the CUTEST rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" known to man.  It's a little something like this: "Burtday.............to YOU! BURTDAY!........Burtday................to YOU! BURTDAY!"

I love how happy a few simple birthday decorations make my kids.  Oh gosh.  A sign, some balloons and a little crepe paper goes a long way for making these kids feel like their Mama "loves them most-er."  Daddy even got in on the fun with me this year and enjoyed himself a bit.  After all, it was for his girl. ;)

Umm.....I'm sorry.  I die over this next picture every time I see it.  I am SO GLAD these kids have each other.  And so are they if you hadn't noticed. ;)

And again, in case you missed the cuteness....and because I can't help myself.

Then after breakfast we let Paige open a few presents.  Because, er, um....she'd already sort of opened a couple of them when we weren't looking.

Seriously....crepe paper provides hours of entertainment.  I have loads of these hilarious pictures.

And these cute ones.

This boy takes his running fast seriously.

In honor of our Princess Paige we made "Rapunzel tower cupcakes".  I thought they turned out quite nicely. Cupcake baked in a cake cone, frosted and rolled in green coconut grass, vines, whatever you want to call it and topped with a sugar cone roof.  Some with added sparkly embellishments.

Up next we have what the boys have been waiting and waiting for.  They got "water bombs" in their Easter baskets and have been dying for a chance to use them.  Paige's birthday was the perfect occasion.

This last water bomb shot ended with Andrew in tears telling Dad he didn't want him to play water bombs with them anymore.  Yes, Drew needs to toughen up a bit, but maybe it wasn't totally fair for Dad to hold the four year old down before he broke the balloon right on his head.

Then time for more presents.

And cake to round off the day.  I had elaborate plans for a cake that looked like a princess castle, but the execution wasn't going so well.  Dad stepped in and saved the day creating a Tangled scene.  Seriously, the man has mad cake decorating skills.

He wanted to make sure you all notice the waterfall.  Ooooooh, ahhhhhhh.  Seriously though honey.  You rock.  I loved it and your girl loved it.

Thumbs up for this birthday!  We love you Paige-y girl!!  You brighten our world every. single. day!!!