Cake & Presents for Four

Andrew came back from Tennessee and his visit to the beach with his dad's side of his family a few days after Lily's birthday and it was time for cake, ice cream, and presents with Lily.  She wanted to wait for him, so we did.  She also wanted a pink heart with purple sprinkles birthday cake, so she got just that.  Happy 4th birthday, Punky! 

She was very excited about her presents and I love how open she is about her excitement!
She got a Frozen sisters poster and tshirt she had seen when we were in a store once, some Disney Klip Klop princesses, and her very own Lego Friends sets. Her daddy picked out a special pink flashlight for her! She loves playing with his flashlights!

Andrew {with the help of his Dad}wrapped up his gift to her. He gave her a UniKitty Lego movie cup, a sweet little Tupperware tea set, and the "It's so fluffy!" unicorn that Andrew's dad crocheted! 

Lily loved all of it!

Violet is 11 months!

Yesterday Violet turned 11 months old!  I truly cannot believe she's almost one! This has really been the fastest year of my life. I don't know if it's the four kids or that I'm older or a combination, but whew...we were just on our way to the hospital trying not to have her in the car!

In between marinating chicken for supper and needing to cook, I scooped her up and headed outside to take a few pictures of this sweet 11 month old!

What eleven months looks like for Violet:

Girl loves to eat! She's having formula as well as food. She eats both baby food and table foods and loves pretty much everything except green beans and peas in the table variety.  She hates having her face wiped and when she sees you coming, she immediately tries to push your hands away while she's shaking her head and whining/crying/yelling so you don't do it.  She continues to hate being put in her carseat, but once she's in, she's fine and is a great traveler in the car.  She sleeps great at night and takes 2 naps a day. She's got 8 teeth--4 on top and 4 on bottom.  The 4 on top came in all at once and as soon as those started to break, the two on either side of her middle bottom started to pop through too.  Yep, six teeth at once. Her hair is lightening up and while it's still brown, she has some lighter spots that are blonde-ish.  Brown eyed girl, just like Lily though they have different color browns. She continues to be a mama's girl and when she's crankypants, she doesn't even want her daddy to hold her...just me.   She crawls a funny little crab crawl with one knee regular crawling and the other foot up pushing her along instead of a knee. She pulls up on the furniture or a person and she just started standing for a couple seconds on her own. She looooooooves music! Dancing, "singing", and moving as soon as someone is singing or a song starts.  She also holds her own with her big sister.  Lily isn't the most gentle of sorts when it comes to playing with Violet. They adore each other and I love watching their relationship develop. Violet also loves to hang out with Andrew and fortunately he feels the same.  He's so good with both the girls! I'm grateful for that. "Bubba" is one of her new words.

These pictures capture her personality perfectly.

Happy 11 months, Pippi!

July 24, 2014

We like to do something special on actual birthday days even though a party is planned for another day, so when Lily's actual birthday rolled around we knew we'd be celebrating our girl then too!

We continued our tradition of taking Lily to a bakery to pick out a special cupcake--which is one of my favorites! We tried a new bakery this year and although the first time we attempted to go, they weren't open yet, we did make it back and had success!

First, we had a playdate with some of our best friends at a new-to-all-of-us park though!  The day was beautiful! It had started off with a little bit cooler weather which seemed to be par for the summer this year. The sun came out and it warmed up. In fact, at times it was hot with no cloud cover and no breeze. We all brought lunch and found a picnic table to eat before the kids played in the sand, on swings, the big boys rode skateboards, and the moms got to hang with the babies and chat.  It was a perfect afternoon!

 
After the park, we headed back to the bakery!  Lily picked a special chocolate cupcake that had a cherry on top!  She wanted to sit outside on the bench to eat it while I snapped some pictures.

 Violet was worn out after the park, so she fell asleep contemplating.

We headed home and the girls took a nap! Lily decided that she wanted to eat at Eat 'n Park for her birthday dinner this year!  It was Violet's first time to sit in a highchair at a restaurant too.

One of the best parts of having a summer birthday and 2 days after her daddy's birthday that Lily loves is going to a local ice cream shop! We always go on George's birthday {and many other times} and for some reason Lily decided that ice cream shop is called "Daddy's Birthday!"  So, after supper, we headed to "Daddy's Birthday" for ice cream.  She chooses a teeny vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles every time!

Lily decided that she wanted to wait the couple days until Andrew got home from the beach to have her cake and open her presents!  She is a very empathetic girl and cares about how her family and friends are feeling or if they're included, so this didn't really surprise me. I love this about her!  

It was a happy 4th birthday for our Punky Pie!