Solid Gold Dancers? Dance Party USA? Madonna, is that you???

I bet my sister had no idea that the Wii would be this much fun for our entire family...and I mean entire...

Each person that comes to our house and plays gets a character on the Wii game. This has been fun it itself. However, when Caitlin got Dance Party from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop for her birthday, we started a whole new disco party in basement, baby!

Note the 2 slackers in the bottom of the picture (Macy and Grandma Phyllis)...join in "Who Let the Dogs Out!" ladies!!! Who can resist?

Macy doesn't like to hold the remote, and her dances are off and on. However, Caitlin has learned to tell Macy after each dance that she won, and Macy screams with delight and hugs her sister like she just won a gold medal. Caitlin is pretty competitive, and works really hard to get her gold crown in dancing! Look out, So You Think You Can Dance! We're comin'!

"I tourn tree in Febooary!"

We celebrated Caitlin and Macy's 7th and 3rd birthdays together with family before senior night of Jon's basketball team. We were blessed to have Grandma Phyllis, Grandma Dawn, Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Don here to celebrate with us.

Caitlin got pop-its, clothes, DS and wii games, and books. Macy got shoes (which she's posing for the camera below...and yes, I am worried about her poses), strawberry shortcake dolls, polly pockets, clothes, books, barbies, and A NEW BLUE GUY! Great Aunt Sheila and Ole Uncle Mark sent some gifts and among them were these things called, Ugly Guys, which Macy immediately renamed Blue Guy, in memory of her old Blue Guy which was "put in the tash by mom cuz I put it in da tolet...after I peed in dere." We were so thankful to have another Blue Guy!

Macy got to choose the cake - purple (of course) Dora (double of course), since she only got to have a family party and not a friend party. Caitlin was fine with that.

Macy is quite the little 3 year old who still throws tantrums, will fold her arms and tell you she's mad at you if she doesn't get her way, hates being sent to her room (but is working on her "mad faces" so she doesn't get sent to her room as much), and mentions daily that "Dad - you my best fend." She often comments that nobody else can be Dad's best friend, Cakelin (Caitlin) has to be mom's best friend because Dad is already taken. Macy is a pistol, who will dance entire basketball games (especially high school ones where the band is always playing). People often dote on her and talk about how cute she is, and then when they talk to her, and tell her that, she then pulls out the, "I'm not cute! I'm Macy!" in her angriest tone. I then tell them that I doubt if they want to take her home anymore! As her parents, we wouldn't change that little stinker for one second! Her vibrant personalities, too-old for her age poses, snotty looks, statements and sneers are nothing compared to her love for her sister, her funny voices and laughs, and her complete satisfaction for being the baby of the family. She is a loving wonderful little 3 year old who brings us many joys, laughs, and definitely exercise! We love her more than she will ever know!

Seven Years Old...and sadly counting

Caitlin turned 7 this year and as I watched her with her friends posing for pictures and sharing squeals of excitement over girly gifts, I found myself sad and scared of all this happening too fast.

I am so proud of the little girl she is...so sweet with her sister and including her in almost everything she does. She loves school and talks about it a lot, but I sense some of her classmates "rubbing" off on her over the weekends when she hopes for a holiday on Monday. She can't wait for swimming and has mentioned her excitement for swimming lessons! She wants to get into karate terribly and loves to read. I have seen so much growth in her reading this year, and we are working on math (help!). Her teacher describes her as such a pleaser and says all the teachers want 20 of her in their room. Mrs. Plessl says she's where she's supposed to be in all subjects and about the middle of the class. Jon thinks I was upset by that, probably remembering our graduate school years together where I strived for A's on everything, but I was actually quite pleased. I so don't want her to try to be perfect on everything - that's so hard on a kid. She certainly is perfect in our eyes. She's very well behaved, with the exception of rambunctiousness and rough - housing...I don't know where my kids get that, but they can jump off the back of the couch and fly off the beds to the hall with the best of 'em. She's a happy kid who is very sensitive, especially with her dad. She backs mom no matter what - Jon will try to poke fun at me and get Caitlin to join in and it's so cute how Caitlin refuses. I use that as much as I can to win "discussions."

For her birthday, we invited all the girls in her class to a movie, Gnomeo and Juliet. They had a great time! We had them arrive 30 minutes before the movie, opened presents at the speed of sound and downed fruit punch and birthday cupcakes. To top it off, popcorn, pop and candy came with the package and all 10 girls were full of sugar!!! They did amazingly well (which was much to our surprise since they had screaming contests in the party room before the movie - Jon had to drop the hammer on that one)!