Happy Birthday Andrew!

Over the weekend we celebrated this cool guy's 5th birthday with a family pool party.  Weather was amazing and the party was a great success. 

Since our little buddy does not like cake, I made him a rice krispie birthday cake.  So easy and fun!

Andrew stole the camera and took a selfie.

The highlight for Andrew was opening his presents, in fact he wanted the party to be over about an hour after it started just because he wanted to see those presents.  The lucky little guy got a lot of great toys.

No party would be complete without a goodie bag!  Andrew's friends got a teeny tiny little bucket (I mean really really small), filled with swedish fish, a fish squirter and some cool shades.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Gracie turned 6 this past Wednesday. Grace is very sweet and is maturing so much.  She is such a big girl!  She is an amazing sister and could not be sweeter to everyone, even little Stinky Andrew.  She is kind and friendly, I frequently hear from other moms how Grace always says hi to them and gives them hugs!   She is trying so hard at school.  Her behavior at school is impeccable and her teachers are very complimentary of how well she plays with others and how hard is is concentrating on her school work. 

Her birthday happened to be they day of her monthly Daisy Troop meeting, so I signed up to help that day.  The great moms that run the troop organized an amazing Easter egg hunt at a neighborhood home and the girls were totally not phased by the frigid weather.  They had a ball!  They even got to see the Easter Bunny and he taught them how to hop.

Then we had dinner out, at Gracie's choice of restaurant.  She only ate a tiny bit of her food, and later I figured out why...after she threw up all over the place in her sleep.  Poor thing, sick on her birthday!   

Andrew's Birthday

 

We celebrated Andrew's birthday in Mexico, because that is soooo much easier for everyone (me).  He got some fun gifts, danced to his favorite song, ate stick donuts (churros) and got to break open a pinata. 

 

And....them do have meatballs in Mexico!

Grace got really into the pinata.  She was taking out all of her pent up frustration.  It was sorta scary.

Andrew was really excited about these batman socks.  Which are no where to be found.  I think they probably got thrown away with all the wrapping paper.  Whoops.

The boys hanging at the bar. 

 



Happy 5th Birthday Gracie!

Today is Gracie's 5th birthday!

 

 

I had her at the doctor last week and she is 44 inches tall and 41 pounds.  She is getting so big!

She had a special day at school and then we went out for dinner.  While we were there, Gracie opened her remaining cards and gifts.

 

And had a delicious meal of macaroni & cheese and milk.  

 

Andrew said "Happy Birthday Gracie" and enjoyed a dinner of milk and a forkful of ketchup.

Here is a link to a video from our dinner out on Gracie's 1st birthday 4 years ago in Chicago.
And here is a link to last year's post with a bunch of cute pictures of Grace.

Beautiful Weather and Grace's Birthday (again)

The weather the past few days has been amazing!  Unfortunately, we could not get any great pictures of the kids at the park this weekend.  Most looked like this....

And I kept asking the kids to sit with me on the bench to get a cute picture of the 3 of us, because I do not think one of those exists. 

 This is all I got.  Me carrying a defiant Andrew to a timeout for running away from the playground.

 Both, errr, all three of my kids had a great time on the slides.

 The kids each have a favorite song that they call "my song".  Andrew's is "Your Love" by The Outfielders.  Grace's changes all the time. 

 

So we heard Andrew's in the car today and Grace was soooo sad that we didn't hear HER song.

 

On the way to my parents house, we took the lakefront.  Everyone was out enjoying the weather.  Gotta love the first really warm weather of the season.  All the Milwaukeeans break out their shorts and tank tops.  This is not necessarily a pretty sight.  I didn't get any good shots from the moving car.  And that is a good thing.  Lots of pasty flesh.

 And finally, we celebrated Grace's birthday with Mark, Maura, and both sets of Grandparents.  Grace chose the menu "Pasta, fruit, orange juice and brownies."

Gracie's 5th Birthday - Fancy Nancy Party

This past Saturday, we celebrated Gracie's 5th birthday with a Fancy Nancy party for her and all of her friends.  We had 10 girls join us and it was a lot of fun!

We held the party at the Little Red Store (not my house as originally planned - which ended up being a very good move), and it was adorable and a great location for the event.  All the girls looked so posh.  The decorations were smashing.  And all in all it was a great success.

When the girls arrived, they each chose a fancy bracelet and a bag with a tiara and wand to decorate.  The girls all sat silently and worked on their bags, tiaras and wands for about 15 minutes.  It was pretty cute.

After that, the girls enjoyed a delicious meal of goldfish crackers, cheese sandwiches, PB&Js, cheese skewers and fruit.  Everything was on a frilly toothpick, except the goldfish which were in fancy cupcake liners.  So delicious!  Note, if you are going to serve 4 and 5 year olds food on a toothpick, be sure to remind them to remove the toothpick before eating the food. 

 

Andrew and Daddy were the only boys Grace allowed at the party.  Andrew was so excited, probably a little too excited, to go to the "fancy fancy" party.  He and dad even dressed up with button downs, khakis and Andrew wore his dapper saddle shoes.  He loved sitting at the big table with all the ladies and eating goldfish. 

After lunch we played games.  First was "Pin the Tiara on Fancy Nancy".  It was pretty cute and funny.

One little girl even got confused and thought we were playing "Pin the Tiara on Gracie's Mom's Belly"

Then we played a rousing game of "Guess How Many Fancy Necklaces are in this Jar"  (snappy title, huh?).  Some of the girls refused to guess, and we had other funny guesses like "a lot" and one girl asked if she could count first.  So cute.  The winners of each game got a new fancy necklace to take home. 

Then (finally) it was time for the cake!  I topped the cake with a little bunting I made that matched some larger paper buntings we hung around the room. 

Gracie wanted a purple cake with pink frosting.  So I did not disappoint her.  Although I must say that I don't think any of the girls noticed the ombre purple cake I made....not sure that was worth the effort!

Oh and here are the invitations.....

and flowers (Gracie picked them out)...

I would also like to say that Gracie was a very good sport.  She was nice to all of her friends and made everyone feel welcome. I was a little nervous because she did say, right before the party, "This is all about me!"  I do think she just said that because I always reminder her, before she goes to other people's parties, that it is their special day.  And really, it was all about her. 

She was also a generous little girl.  She agreed that she didn't need a bunch of presents so we had girls bring books for the House of Peace.  Such a sweet girl!

Also a big thank you to Jane for getting dressed up and helping with the party!  Gracie, Kevin and I really appreciate it!