God is just so good! This past weekend was just awesome for the Clarke family…and I just praise God for it!

It all started on Friday when Eleanor had her 4 month check up. Even though we had to drive about an hour and a half to our doctor’s, Eleanor had to get 3 shots, & Lilli & I got flu shots (Corinne was over my good friend, Rachel’s, house playing with her future husband, Ethan), I was thankful for all of it! There are millions of people who have no medical insurance & millions more who die due to the inability to receive life saving vaccinations (Click here to see how you can help change the life of a child in poverty). It turns out that *little* Eleanor weighs 15 lbs, 7 oz - 85th percentile - and is 26 inches tall - 95th percentile (I wasn’t shocked by this, since all my girls have been in the higher percentiles, although proportionate). To treat ourselves for being so brave, Lilli & I ended up having a McD’s hot fudge sundae (off the dollar menu - woo hoo!) on the way home. That evening, we had dinner over our other good friends, Mandi & Sean’s, house, which is about a half hour west of us…we saw so many deer! I really enjoyed catching up with our friends & especially loved when Mandi showed me what she included in her Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes….she’s so creative! Meanwhile, the girls (yes, they have three girls, also) had fun dressing up and running all over the place!

Saturday was a lazy day spent putzing around However, that evening Ethan spent the night at our house while his mom & dad celebrated their 27th & 30th birthdays together - Happy Birthday Rachel & Nathan!

Sunday always comes too soon, but I was excited to get to church to catch up with more familiar faces. Pastor Mike was really rockin’ out and it was fun watching Eleanor take it all in! I was so encouraged to hear that Sandi, who is in charge of outreach ministry, started the Meals on Wheels and served 75 hot meals to people in our community last week! Wow! That evening I served up the usual “Sunday Spaghetti” and we all put our feet up & relaxed - the girls watched a Little Einsteins movie & Michael & I worked on that “exciting news,” which should be allowed to be revealed within the next few days.

To top it off, I was the winner of TWO giveaways:

* The Chocolistas‘ “Name that Dessert” - my name “Raspberry Snuggles” won me Chocolate and Roses Cupcake Gift Tags from Elegant Snobbery & Special Dark Chocolate Petit-Four Candy Piece Scrabble Pendant from ImJewelee (Thank you to everyone who voted!)
* Christian Women Online CD giveaway - Fransesca Battistelli, “My Paper Heart”

Next weekend should be fun too since we’re changing our assisted living visit from Wednesday to Saturday. This way, Michael can join us AND I have an extra pair of hands to help me with my oh-so-lovely-but-oh-so-all-over-the-place-two-year-old, Corinne.

Here are some pictures of Eleanor at 4 months:

“Tummy Time” has turned into trying-to-roll-over-time.

Happy “Ewon” (thank you, Corinne!)

Biker Baby…it’s just in the genes…

“I love my Poppa!”

Clarke Family Cirque du Soleil!

“So my heart will sing to you. I can’t keep silent.
Lord, my God, I will give you thanks forever.”
~Psalm 30:12

Words cannot express how thankful I am for the life God has given me, so I’ll let the pictures below do the talking (Even though there’s so much I want to share…but I promised Michael that I wouldn’t blog about a specific one until he gave me the “okay.” Be sure to check back for the most exciting news ever!)

These were from last night during our “Clarke Girls Dance Party” …this time, even Poppa joined in!

A couple things worth mentioning: I was excited to snap Lilli’s port de bras…and yes, Corinne’s dress is inside out & backwards - not too bad for dressing herself!

Finally after 6 months of waiting (remember when I bought my tickets?), Michael, Lilli, & I enjoyed an late afternoon of Cirque du Soleil entertainment- Kooza!

It was nice to have some time with Lilli - Corinne & Eleanor were at Great Grandma Jo’s house, where we ended up spending the night (she is so hospitable and I cannot tell you how much I love spending time with her!).

However, there were some pros and cons about the show:

Pros
* AMAZING talent!
* Non-stop action…other than intermission.
* Incredible costumes
* Not a bad seat in the house - but I was excited that we were only 4 rows from the stage

Cons:
* WAY too expensive snackie foods (a Pepsi was over six bucks!)
* I’ve been spoiled by La Nouba and Kooza didn’t have the same “wow” moments. (This act was left out…which I was REALLY looking forward to seeing!)
* Too much adult humor. Even though the kids didn’t *get* the jokes, I still could have done without them - especially when one clown fainted and another went to give him CPR…well let’s just say that them rolling around on the floor while kinky music playing in the background is not something I wanted to watch or have to distract my 5 year old from. It’s too bad that from now on I will have to call ahead to make sure there is no inappropriate content - and then explain what I mean by “inappropriate.”

Overall though, I’m thankful we were able to see a show and spend some fun time with our oldest gal

Nope, didn’t fall off the face of the planet, so don’t worry I’ve been so incredibly busy & I promise I will catch up on my emails and phone calls…

I took some advice from one of my best friends, Debbie (also known as my Titus 2 woman), and rested. Wait- I’ve been “so incredibly busy” but rested at the same time? I guess you could say, I’ve been busy resting…lol.

For once, I’m not fretting over unloading the dishes, packing my hubby’s lunch, or doing laundry. Instead, I’m trying to make the most of the time - with my family & and by giving myself some much needed quiet time. Seriously, I got to take a nap on Tuesday - woo hoo! Even if I dust today, more will come back tomorrow…so why worry about it…especially when we could be playing outside in the leaves!

So, even though I have SO much that I want to write about: like my awesome CVS trip, my new online Bible study with my friend, Abbie (she makes the Compassion Friends, remember?), my new knitting projects from some books I received from my amazing friend, Laura, as well as our apple picking adventure on Saturday…

it might - and probably - will have to wait until I’m done resting

Woo Hoo! It’s Friday! I really don’t have anything to post, other than the fact that I am so excited to spend the weekend with my crazy nutty family!

What Eleanor did while I went to get a diaper from the dryer...look closely...lol

Corinne in her new knitted longies.

Lilli using her towels like "a big girl."

A good morning message from my hubby :)

And since I hardly post pictures of myself...why not. (Next time I should wait for the steam leave...lol.)

Around here, Fridays are “Clarke Family Pizza Party Day” where mom (that’s me) makes the dough and the rest of the family gets to decorate their own pizzas. Lilli really looks forward to Fridays because she “just loves pizza so much!” I wanted to add another theme to the week’s menu so I decided to look at what the rest of my family loves to eat:

Eleanor: Mommy’s Milk
Corinne: CARBS, CARBS, CARBS!
Michael: Mexican

Well, I’m not going to pass myself around to the rest of my family, and we sure can’t just have bread for a meal, so I decided that Mexican was the way to go. I had originally thought of “Taco Tuesday,” but Michael suggested “Mexican Monday,” which of course is brilliant because it leaves the menu open to other entrees other than just tacos. Yesterday was our first Mexican Monday:

The Enchiladas were a hit with the fam, but my Flan wasn’t. I guess not everyone can have an “educated palette” (right Dad?)

This week has been pretty eventful! If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t blogged in a week!

Memorial Day was fun - we had the Oliver’s over for a cookout. Michael had some “man time” with Nate & I always enjoy Rachel’s company and watching the kids play together. Ethan’s quite the man: he gave a kiss to Corinne at the last play date, and this time he was flirting with Lilli…I better watch out when Eleanor arrives
The rest of the week included running to two of Lilli’s gymnastics classes, a prenatal appointment (the doctor’s thought I might be going into preterm labor…did I mention this by far is the strangest pregnancy of my three??? All is fine though so no worries), kiddie pool & outside time (the weather has been great!), and admiring my hubby on his progress in his garage/shop (insulation is in, drywall is up, let the painting begin!!)

And even though I didn’t win Mandi’s first giveaway for a couple pair of BabyLegs by Tick A Too, it’s a new week and I’m excited to blog about her next giveaway:

This week’s winner will receive a subscription to both Family Fun and Wondertime, which include recipes, learning activities, & crafts.

To enter, simply leave a comment on Mandi’s blog with your name and a way to contact you if you win!

If you blog about this contest and come back and leave her a comment with a link to the post, you will receive THREE additional entries.

Additionally, if you tell someone about the contest and they mention your name in their entry, you will receive an additional entry as well.

We shall see what this week brings

Our weekends are usually busy…getting “stuff done” that normally doesn’t get done during the week. This weekend wasn’t any different in that sense, but man - I think we went non-stop! (We even forgot to watch Battlestar Gallactica on SciFi Rewind- gasp!!)

Friday we went into the city…well I suppose some call it a suburb, but to us “country folk,” Fairfax is definitely the city. While Michael had a doctor’s appointment, the girls and I decided to hit up Fair Oaks Mall. I was excited to get to Yankee Candle Company (I’ve been debating over THIS item but wanted to see it in person before I bought it, which I happily ended up doing) and the girls were excited to play in the indoor playground area - or as some of us describe it: the place to take your kids so they completely wear themselves out and conk out in the car on the way home, which of course didn’t happen for us - the girls had as much fun jumping on our bed when we got home.

Saturday was a complete “nesting” day for me. I re-organized (yes, organized…again) the girls play room, decided to pick up some great craft supplies from Oriental Trading Company (thanks Mandi!), and ran errands with my partner in crime (also known as Lilli ). I’ve been wanting to get a LARGE chalkboard for the girls, but am not going to spend a large amount of money on something that we can make for a lot less (and have fun doing at the same time). My sister in law, Tracy, had painted a chalkboard on one of her walls and said it was awesome. The wall behind the girls’ door is perfect for that so Lilli and I went off to Lowes for chalkboard paint, as well as some other ”supplies” needed by my project lovin’ hubby. Target was another stop for some picture frames, as well as Chik Fil A to get a super duper mega yummy milkshake…I believe this was Lilli’s favorite “errand.”

Today I started off a little under the weather. But after I perked up, we painted the girls’ wall, made some more birdfeeders, got the laundry going (Lilli loves to sort) while Michael & Smiley worked on Michael’s garage…something about rafters???, did yard work, played on the playground, and had an enjoyable cookout with our incredible neighbors Wade & Julie. We should all sleep well tonight…especially the girls, who had a blast splashing around in our neighbor’s hot tub!

Ok so I couldn’t wait to share…KOOZA tickets finally went on sale (June 8th for the public) and I snatched some up faster than you could say…well, anything really. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a HUGE Cirque Du Soleil fan! Living in Florida for a few years allowed me the chance to see La Nouba a couple (okay at least six) times, but now since I am a mother of (almost) three, I don’t get to travel around to see them. Fortunately, Michael and I live close (enough) to DC that we can drive the two hours to see the touring shows. Last summer, we saw Delirium and I am super excited not only to see KOOZA early November when it comes to The Plateau at National Harbor in DC, but because Michael and I are going to bring Lilli with us - my little gymnast is going to be so excited she is going to flip! No pun intended
But seriously, I really give thanks to God for taking such good care of us, providing everything we need, and allowing us to enjoy these special events together as a family.

Today is Lilli’s 5th birthday! That’s right…my little “big girl” is 5 years old! Where did the time go?! People tend to say, “It seems that only yesterday….” and it is so true. It seems that only yesterday she was my little Lilli Bean, jumping around and acting silly. And now, she’s my big Lilli Bean…and well, still jumping around and acting even more silly…lol. At this rate, I wonder what the next five years will bring…hahahah.

Since the beginning of the month, she has been counting down the days, which is something new - it’s funny with her growing up, she’s finally realized her birthday is HER special day. We’ll be celebrating with our family, but throughout the day, I have little fun activities planned: helping her make a Birthday Crown to wear all day, singing “Happy Birthday” to her on the hour-every-hour, & “Mommy’s Mani/Pedi’s” (where I will be the nail tech…wish me luck) to name a few. I also found a great cake idea from Betty Crocker that completely fits Lilli’s personality…I’ll post pictures of the “masterpiece” later on today, so stay tuned
Ok…here it is (or was…) after she blew out her candles…she was SO excited