Birthday Party

Angelica was so excited about her party that we celebrated on Sunday of her birthday weekend. She wanted spaghetti and bread and carrots for dinner. She requested a heart and strawberry party with pink and red, so those were the colors I decorated with. She insisted on wearing her Princess dress for the party, so I bought her a crown to go with it. They enjoyed some bubble blowing time outside and she had so much fun with all the attention. She got some wonderful gifts from her Saint Rose doll, to a coloring book Alli made her, new swimming gear, a Writing-tracing game, new puzzle, books, clothes etc. A spoiled princess indeed. Thanks to everyone for making her birthday weekend so special! Lots of good pics at the end....all smiles that night!

Trying out the new big bubble maker

New Princess Dress Up Shoes

Aunty Megs and Uncle Chris gave her swimming lessons, a cap, goggles and new swimsuit...she has loved all of them!

Practicing

This year she wanted a Heart Cake. I thought it would change but after months that was still what she wanted. So I did a double layer Red Velvet Heart Cake.....so yummy....and teh REAL red velvet icing recipe. I did increase sugar to 2 cups, only used one bottle of red food coloring, used 1 cup oil instead of shortening and doubled the cocoa powder. Angelica wanted hearts and strawberries on the heart cake as well, so I found some heart sprinkles and then cut strawberries in half to look like hearts.

Daddy Daughter Date

When I was growing up one of the main reasons I looked forward to my birthdays was because of my daddy daughter date time! So when we started having kids, Jason decided that he would like to continue that tradition that provided so many special memories for me. So on Saturday of Angelica's birthday weekend, Jason took Angel out to wherever she wanted (well we had to cut some things out as her list was very long!). So they first went to Barnes and Noble and enjoyed some hot chocolate and picked out a book and then hit the pretzel place. Then they went to Toys R Us and she picked out a big bubble maker. Next stop was Goodwill.....where she picked out an entire dress up wardrobe all my herself....and when I first saw the items she had them all on!! I should have gotten a picture then. Not too bad....the hat made me laugh and well the shoes should fit for years to come! So cute....she (and Papa) had a blast! She is already talking about where to go next year!

Four Year Photo Shoot

Angelica's Birthday

This year Angel's birthday was on a Friday. I have decided to try and do something special on their birthday with just that particular child, a special mommy time. So my sister Caitlin came over that morning so I could take Angelica out for a nice brunch at our favorite coffee place down the road, Cafe Bella. She ordered French Toast and a hot chocolate. She was in heaven, especially because the hot chocolate came with whip cream and sprinkles. She was so grown up and carried on "adult" conversation the entire time. I asked her what her favorite things were that happened when she was three. She responded: "Going to swimming lessons, doing school, going potty and having Michaela." hehe, laughed at that one...still thinks I think that we just magically got baby out of my tummy and she picked us up. We had a very fun morning, she was so excited about all her weekend birthday plans all day.
She got to open her gifts from Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Casey because they were not going to be at her party. She has been loving the outside garden tools!!

Emma was still sick, so that night Caitlin and Alli and then friends Sarah and her daughter Abby went with us to Red Robin for dinner, a girls night out. While we were waiting to be seated, Sarah gave Angel a quarter for the stuffed animal claw drop...and she not only won but picked up TWO!! I don't know how many times I tried that thing growing up and NEVER won. She was quite excited.

After dinner, we had them sing to Angelica and she was so shocked, happy and embarrassed. She held on to me and stared at me the entire time!! We thought she might start crying but she just couldn't believe they were singing to her at a restaurant! We got a long good laugh out of it....and Caitlin - finally here is the video clip you have been waiting to see!!

Our Little Composer

Not sure why Angelica thought it was necessary to put her play tea chair on the piano bench....but I secretly was able to tape her the other day while she was composing (until she caught me). Apparently her doodle board makes a great place to write your music (easy to erase your mistakes) and gotta love the songs....all from the Music Man (she saw her Aunt Alli in the show and still LOVES it!).

And then our Monkey-Do (aka, Emma) had to take a shot....

Preschool Day - R & N

For the letters, R & N, we had so many ideas we had to limit ourselves! We did the letter formations first, with Handwriting Without Tears worksheets.

Then it was story time, we try to find books that go with the letters, or the words we are learning that day or crafts we are doing.

We learned about rainbows and the colors that make them.

Then they got to paint their own rainbows and of course the letter for their name.

We made "rainbow flyers" out of paper plates and tissue paper. Ours is STILL hanging up as decoration.

Then the kids got to help with some of their favorite activities....making the EDIBLE items. We made chocolate bird nests and they LOVED them. I just used the chocolate candy melts (Michaels sells them) and then we had leftover Easter egg candy (jelly beans would work for eggs too) and topped with marshmallow birds. YUMMY

To go with lunch, I had rainbow color fruit separated in bowls and had the kids put them on wooden skewers (again found at Michaels) in the order of the rainbow....they really enjoyed this a lot...although Emma had a hard time not eating all the strawberries!!