Happy Birthday Gracie!!!!

Saturday our little Gracie turned 4 years old! She had been anxiously awaiting her birthday for a few weeks now so she was beyond thrilled when it finally came. I was 100% certain that Gracie was going to choose to have a birthday party because her brother had a party and she typically follows in his footsteps. However, she had other things on her mind because she immediately told me that there was going to be no party. She wanted to get a manicure and pedicure, go out to dinner on the river walk and then come home for a presents and a Tangled cake. I was somewhat surprised by the no party idea but not by the mani-pedi idea. Gracie is a total girly girl so that is right up her alley. I really thought she was going to change her mind about the party but she held her ground. So on Saturday her and I went straight to the nail salon for some pampering which she absolutely loved. As soon as we walked in she was already taking her shoes off and rolling up her jeans. You would think that she was a regular customer by the way she was acting. All I could do the whole time was day dream about all of the wonderful moments her and I will share doing girly girl things. Unfortunately for us it was pouring that day so the river walk was out but Gracie had no problem filling it's spot with Peter Piper's Pizza. Which is where we headed to after her nails were completely dry. After lunch, we finished off the afternoon with cake and presents at home. She told us she had a wonderful day and I believe her! She had her mind set how she wanted to spend her special day and we were just happy to be apart of it!

Girly Girl!

Fun at Peter Piper Pizza

Lexie really enjoyed the pizza! Can you tell?

Ethan is always lucky! I will send him with a few coins and he always comes back with an insane amount of tickets. I can't wait till he turns 21 because I am taking him to Vegas!
Ooops! Did I say that out loud?! Seriously though, crazy luck!


Present Time!
Her facial expressions were cracking me up!

Tangled cake!
She and I loved it!

Tangled Cake

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our Valentine's Day was fun and festive! Which is exactly how we like it! I know there are some people out there who just pass it off as another Hallmark holiday, but I think a day that is devoted to showing your love is wonderful. In fact with the hustle and bustle of daily life, there should be more days to celebrate our love for one another. Thankfully, my kiddos agree with me and love the holiday as well!



We started off our morning with heart shaped pancakes!



Valentine Crafts thanks to Pinny!

Felt Wreath

Felt Heart Garland and Ethan's Love Canvas from last year.

XO wreath for the door

Ethan's Valentines for his classmates, Glow Bracelets!

Gracie's Valentines for her classmates, Playdough!


Ethan and Gracie exploring their loot!

I was trying to think of something special to make the kids for dinner and Ethan came up with a great idea. He remembered that I sometimes make this sandwich from Pampered Chef that is ring shaped. It is delicious, so easy to make and just looks beautiful. He came up with the idea to shape it into a heart and so we had that for dinner with potato soup. I think it came out really cute!

Tiny leg brace

Last week we had a little accident at our house where Lexie got hurt. She was competing with Gracie who could get to Daddy faster but was sidelined when Gracie slipped on the couch. Lexie basically broke Gracie's fall. Since she doesn't walk we did not see a difference in her stance until the next day during therapy time. That is when I noticed she would not put any weight on it so we made an appointment with our doctor. After a series of x-rays we found out that it wasn't broken or fractured but the doctor wants to ere on the side of caution by having her wear a boot for 3 weeks. As of now we are 1 week down so after the next 2 weeks and another round of x-rays, we should be ready to start practicing walking again. She still tries to walk with it but gets easily discouraged because I am either stopping her or the boot unbalances her. Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind the boot too much.

Wiggle worm wouldn't sit still ;)

Award Assembly

Yesterday was the end of another 9 weeks which means awards are given out representing all of the students hard work. Ethan got two ribbons this time and was given his report card. He got excellent for everything and his teacher commented, " Ethan is continuing to make even more progress. He always gives 110% effort!" I will need to remember that the next time I ask him to clean his room. 110% drastically decreases in our house ;) Nonetheless, we are very proud of him and are just happy that he is enjoying school.

I see my mom!!

When he laughs, all seems alright with the world.
I love it that much!

If you look close at Ethan's elbow you will see what happens
when you are having way too much fun on your scooter

Go-Kart & Scooter Races

Since there was no school last Monday due to Martin Luther King Day, we took it as an opportunity to take over the school parking lot for some Go-Kart and scooter races. The kids were ECSTATIC about this and for one moment in time Eric and I were the best parents ever. That was until we told them it was time to go and then were back to being the meanest parents ever. Ethan got to try out his new scooter that he bought for himself using all of his birthday money. We all enjoyed our afternoon and it was quite nice to just relax and have fun!

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan!!!!!!

It feels like I just wrote the post about Ethan's 5th birthday party and now here we are another year later. These years are flying by and our little boy is changing so much. He is such a blessing to our family and such a great big brother!

This year the kids were given a choice between a party or a fancy dinner and a special outing. Well, Ethan choose the fancy dinner and special outing but changed his mind a WEEK before his birthday. Now this realistic/hate to be ambushed mommy was " OH NO buddy, you made your choice, so now you have to stick to it." However, up creeps that horrible thing called mommy guilt! I made a mad dash to the store for invitations and we got them to school the next day. He invited all of his classmates from school and I think we had a great turnout. His theme was Indian Jones, which by the way is not so easy to find but thanks to craigslist and pinny, I think it turned out quite cute. We had it at Peter Piper Pizza which is a first for us and I have to say it was not hectic. I tend to like to throw parties at home because those places can get a little too chaotic for me but we had it early enough so it was quite nice.

Front of the invitation

Inside the invitation

The satchels that I made for everyone.
The boys got the traditional brown whereas the girls got purple.
Each one was personalized too and were so easy to make.

The cake

Everyone eating pizza

Ethan & Gracie
Lexie was already passed out in the stroller.

Opening Gifts

Listening to his new radio while reading a 3d book with 3d glasses.

Gracie showing off her satchel!

A huge thank you goes to Jami at Blackberry Vine for the inspiration, resources to other parties and for emailing me her labels!!