Mary's First Birthday

Our Mary Louise turned one last week! She's still best known for her petite frame, so I decided to have a "mini" party for her.

We set up at the park. We're having beautiful evening weather that we wanted to take advantage of, plus Mary has tons of cousins who need room to run around - so it was perfect!

As part of the mini theme, we had all miniature food: sliders (condiments served with doll spoons & knives), lil' smokies cooked like hotdogs and served on mini homemade hotdog buns, pasta salad with mini bowtie pasta & tiny pepperonis, deviled quail eggs, shrimp, a veggie platter of baby carrots, grape tomatoes, mini cucumber slices, and small (Kettle Cooked) potato chips, mini dill pickles, mini oreos, baby goldfish crackers, mini M&Ms, and mini cupcakes.

 

I also made her a little bunting banner, blew up water balloons, and printed wallet-sized pictures of her that I put in 2-inch frames. 

And per tradition, here is the official 1st birthday cake destroying sequence:

 

That's a girl that knows what she wants.

Happy Birthday Little Miss Mary!

(See Sophie's & Sam's if you want)

Sophie Turned 6

Sophie turned 6 on Sunday. 

We were not going have a party for her this year, since we did a big one last year, but on Wednesday after school, we decided that a small "cousins" party the next day would be a good idea.










So we headed to the store to pick out a craft for them to do together, and that is where Sophie's Paint Party was born.

Sophie picked out some ceramic animals to paint as well as some new nail polish. Their paint party consisted of face painting (courtesy of Cathy), painting animals, getting their fingernails and toenails painted, and painting canvases. 

Not unlike her 3rd birthday, where she requested apple pie, several months ago, she asked if she could have cinnamon rolls for her birthday this year instead of cake. So cinnamon rolls it was. Sunday morning, we celebrated her actual birthday with cinnamon rolls at Grandma's house.

This Boy Turned 3

  Yep. This one.

 And just like his 2nd birthday, he loved every second of his special day.

We celebrated by taking the family to one of the big pools and just playing. Sam got some cars and some Little People and he was one happy kid.

Looking handsome.

 

Big sis helping with the packaging.

First glimpse.

"These are all MINE Widdow Peopow???"

 Happy boy.

Then the next day we ate cake with my family after Sunday dinner (at my parents' house while they were out of town).

 

We love our Sam.

We're so glad he's a part of our family.

Sweet Miss Mary

Mary Louise
born October 20th, 2011
6:08am
7lbs, 5oz ~ 20" long

I'm back home now with our sweet Mary girl. We started Thursday morning bright and EARLY - having to be at the hospital at 4am. The 2 hours from 4 to 6am were excruciatingly long, and I was super nervous for my surgery the whole time.

But at 6am, we were finally ready to have the baby. I layed on the operation table, with Jake by my side. I could hear the doctor and nurses working, and then I heard them all exclaim that the baby has lots of dark hair. Jake stood up so he could watch, and it got quiet again as they continued their work. After another minute, I heard the baby start to cry and Jake looked down at me and said softly "it's a girl."

It was such a sweet moment.

And then right away I got to see her.

She looks a lot like Sophie did, but definitely has her own look too. We're just in love with our teeny tiny dark haired little girl.

Mary Lou got to wear the pink pajamas home

Mary's cousins came to visit
Evelyn (left) is 6 weeks older and
Hazel (right) is 8 days older


Enjoying my new baby
(I told you she's tiny!)

Headed Home

We're glad to be home and we're glad to have our baby girl.

Miss Sophie Turned 5!

If you live at our house, you know that Sophie turned 5 on Friday, because she's been counting down to it daily for like 3 weeks. She was SOOO excited. On her birthday, she said to me "I'm 5 now! And tomorrow I'll be 5 too!"

The Birthday Girl

On about the day after her 4th birthday, she declared to me that she wanted a piñata for her next birthday party, and she remembered all year. She also requested a chocolate cake with pink frosting. So we decided to host a party for her with some of her friends from the neighborhood, complete with her requests.

Thanks to a week of gorgeous weather, I decided at the last minute that we could have the entire party out in the front lawn. Outdoor games, pizza on a picnic blanket, a dog piñata, and a chocolate cake with pink frosting. She had a great time!