Today

Here are some snapshots of Grace singing, dancing and spinning by herself in the backyard while I made dinner.  

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!

Shopping with Andrew

Andrew and I ran out to Boston Store to grab him a new spring coat.  He really wanted a purple one, but I have searched the internet high and low and concluded that it doesn't exist for a 2 yr old boy.  So he had to settle with a navy blue one. 

On the way out we stopped in the shoe department.  Andrew loved to pick up the sparkly shoes and say "Oh so fancy!" and he made sure to leave lots of finger and face prints on the nearby perfume counter windows.  Andrew found these "fancy" red shoes that he just had to try on. The boy has good taste.

Then, when walking by Bath & Body Works, he had to stop in.  I haven't been in one of those stores in years, as I find them to be somewhat offensive in the odor.  Andrew wanted lotion for his hands and selected some ridiculous mango scent.  Luckily, I noticed the men's section of the store and steered him over there.  He chose "oak".  Now I cannot smell due to my cold, but I am pretty sure I have the most manly smelling toddler in town.

A couple side notes:
1. While I am typing this Andrew is "cleaning" by dipping a sponge in his applesauce and wiping it on the counter. 
2. An excellent benefit to having a cold for over 4 weeks, is that I have not smelled Andrew's stinky diapers in 4 weeks.  Makes it much easier to play dumb, "What Kevin?  It smells in here?  I had no idea!  Maybe Andrew needs a diaper change?"
3.  I have to go now, as Andrew needs to "check his email".

Recently 2

We have been talking a lot about the upcoming arrival of #3.  I got out 2 baby dolls and let the kids play with the baby gear.  It was adorable.  Andrew named his doll "Charlie" and Grace named hers "Rose."  Not sure where they came up with the names?

 Kevin and I went to Chicago for a night.  It was our last getaway before the baby comes.  I was pretty under the weather, so it wasn't as fun as it should have been.  It was nice to get away for a night and get some shopping done.  I stopped at the Chicago location of Magnolia Bakery and picked up some cupcakes for Gracie and I to enjoy together.  She chose the one with the purple frosting, ate 1/2 and then decided that she didn't like it.  She begged me to trade.

 

Fair trade?  I think not.

Whenever Grace gets her picture taken, Andrew makes me take some pictures of him.  

Finally, today the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The kids went to the zoo with both grandmas and their dad.  We also took a family walk after dinner.  We were quite the sight.  I was limping along at the worlds slowest pace, holding up my gigantic stomach.  Andrew picked up a stick every 5 feet, so he was moving at my pace.  Gracie was running and then totally wiped out and skinned up both knees.  So she walked home sobbing (justified as her knees were pretty torn up). 

In order to help her deal with the pain, I let her open up a birthday gift from her Aunt Amy.  It is the world's fanciest nightgown!  So posh. Of course, Grace had to demonstrate how upset she is about her knees.  

 

And about 2 seconds later, she turned on the charm for this photo.

And here is the requisite photo of Drew in his jammies, flexing his muscles for the ladies. 

Shake, Shake, Shake!

Yesterday, Gracie and I stopped at McDonald's to pick up a Shamrock Shake.  I have been sick for over 2 weeks and was having a craving and the baby needed the calories, those are my official excuses.

She kept asking me what Shamrock Shakes are, and I kept saying they are shakes.  Admittedly, not the best answer.  I don't think she got it. 

I think she was also a little confused, because it happened to be a day that she did not get a superstar stamp at school.  Her teacher gives each child a hand stamp every day that they behave all day.  There have only been 2 days so far that Gracie did not get a stamp.  I have talked to other parents and their kids only get stamps a few times a week.  Gracie is the ultimate rule follower.  And the smartest, cutest and best behaved 4K student.  Ever.  Obviously.  Apparently, she didn't clean up something when her teacher asked her too.  Naughty Gracie! 

Whatever, I wanted a shake.  It was not the day to teach her some lesson about behaving at school or something. 

When we got the total due in the drive through, $4.22, Grace gasped from the backseat.  "Mommy, do we have enough money to pay for that?!"  I used this as an opportunity to explain that we pay for all our necessities first, like our house, food, school, etc. and then we can use the money left over to buy some fun things.  And we don't buy things we can't afford.  And that is why we don't buy her toys all the time, because we need the money for other things.  I turned back and she had an expression on her face that clearly read, "Sorry I asked."  So, I dropped the fiscal responsibility conversation.

After Gracie finished her shake, she was on a total sugar high.  She came up to me and was like, "Oh I get it! Its like ice cream!  But you DRINK it with a straw, you don't EAT it with a spoon!  A shake!  A shake!  Shake, shake shake!"  And then she danced around the kitchen shaking her booty.   

Amy and Mark - If I wasn't sick we definitely would have gotten a large, shared and saved a dollar.  Just like we were raised.  For you outsiders, whenever we would get fast food (usually only on vacation) growing up, we would always just get 2 large sodas and all share.  Much cheaper than all getting individual small sodas.  Obviously.

And while I am on the topic of Grace, I will share 2 conversations from last week:

"Hey Mom, is it Crazy Friday today?"

"Uh, no Grace. Why?"
"You know like it was Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday this week?"

"Mom, how do you spell two?"
"Do you mean the number two or the word to?"
"How do you spell two?!  Ugh two, you know the word two!" 
"Like, I have on two boots or I am going to the store? Can you use it in a sentence?"
Sure Mom, 'How do you spell two?'