Our 4-Year Old Fairy

Happy Birthday to our sweet 4-year old Anna! I truly can't believe she is so big. She has gone from toddler to big girl in a blink of an eye. Love every bit of her!

We started out her birthday singing to her with her special breakfast "cake" of orange rolls. Grandma G came to town especially for her big day and we're always glad to have her around.

Anna was so excited for her fairy party. She had changed her mind a million times between a princess party and a minnie mouse party. Then suddenly that was all out the window and it was all about fairies. I was happy to oblige. We invited all of her little friends to Kelly Hollow and the festivities began.

Each girl got a new fairy name and Anna had to be Silver Mist, her favorite fairy from the Tinkerbell movie. Then we did a fairy treasure hunt to gather all the pieces of their fairy costumes.

And no fairy is complete without some pixie dust! I sprinkled some "pixie dust" on each of their heads so we could fly.

We played Anna's favorite game from preschool - "Dance any way you want to, stop when I say FREEZE!" and flew and danced around the room to Anna's favorite songs. We had some technical difficulties with the music since we are our probably behind a decade with our digital music players, but it all worked out. :) We also played musical leaves.

They were hungry after all that dancing so it was time for some fairy treats and some punch.

(Anna, Sierra, Evie, Shea, Ella, Madeline, and Ansley)

Then they decorated there own "flower" (cupcake) and we sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl.
She gets so excited but then also embarrassed when everyone is singing to her, so she looks like this: so cute.

I was on a mission to bring back "Heavy, heavy hangover" so they learned how to play and I think it was a hit. Anna wished everyone really BIG things. Like a really BIG unicorn, or BIG boat, or BIG castle.

It was a magical day. And I'm still sweeping up glitter and probably will be until next year. But it's okay. I love this age of imagination and magic. I don't know what I would do without this little girl. Each year just gets better and better with her.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Love you so, so, so much!

Anna's Half Birthday

Anna turned 2 and a half today. I don't quite believe it. She just barely turned 2. So that means she will turn 3 in just barely no time. This can't be happening. But it is. And it has been quite the 2 and a half years with her. Better than I ever would have thought and harder than I ever would have thought. But I love her up and down and back and forth. And back again.

You know she's an only child, so she got a little half birthday celebration with cupcakes. Just for fun. Yes, I know. We need to have another child because this is a little ridiculous, but it was fun and I always love celebrating my half birthday, just for fun. Why not? I say. Because any reason to make cupcakes is a good reason.

So this reminds me to finally post about her actual birthday. That was back in December. I figure now's as good as time as any to post it. I told you I would be going way back. I love birthdays and I would be real mad if I never posted about this because I definitely would forget all of the details. I'm sure I already have. Thank goodness my mom was there to take lots of pictures to remind me. So for the next post, you get a little flashback to 2008. Birthday style.

Our Monkey Birthday Girl

Aren't birthdays the best? Everyone needs at least one day of the year especially for them. And now that I have a child of my own, I want my kids to feel especially special on their birthdays. It's just so fun! So I was super excited to celebrate Anna's 2nd birthday now that she understands a little more about what this birthday business is all about.

Anna was so lucky to wake up on her birthday morning to Grandma G! Grandma even gave her a birthday present before breakfast. A new George! Anna was thrilled as you can see.


We spent the day at one of Anna's favorite places, the Children's Museum.

That night we had her favorite Hawaiian pizza from Mellow Mushroom and made a birthday cake. We were glad Dave had the night off so he could spend the evening with Anna too. And Anna was especially glad because Daddy let her do this...

Then she got to open a few presents. And she was pretty excited about that too.

Party Time!

We waited to have her official party until Saturday so that Dave could be there too. I wasn't expecting him to have any time off, so it worked out great! As I have mentioned (a couple of times) Anna LOVES monkeys, especially Curious George. So it was only fitting to have a monkey party. I think my mom thought I was a little crazy, but I had a lot of fun throwing Anna this party!

Anna was excited to wake up and see her house decked out with monkeys. So she had to start her party day off monkey style, with a banana of course.

And then we waited for our friends to arrive for the party.

When our friends started coming, we made monkey puppets out of paper sacks (with help from mommies) while we waited for everyone to arrive.

After our puppets were done, we read one of Anna's favorite stories, "Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree"

Then we did the "Monkey Dance" with the Wiggles. A couple of times... (Sidenote: Have you seen the new Wiggles? Boo! Not as fun. What happened to the Big Red Car and the monkey dance? And doesn't Jeff get sleepy anymore? I miss Greg.) Back to the party, here we are doin the monkey...

After all the wiggling, it was time for some monkey food. So we had peanut butter and banana sandwiches, animal crackers, chocolate milk, and other monkey munchies. (No, I did not make those cute toothpicks. Kudos to Martha Stewart Monkey Party Kit.) I got the monkey plates in a 2 pack at Dollar Tree!

Then time for monkey cake and banana ice cream! I have never actually made a birthday cake in anything besides a 13x9 pan before, so this was a new experience for me. I thought for sure I would screw it up some how, but it actually worked out. My mom and Dave even helped. And I'm so proud! Maybe I'll just buy one next time though. :)

And for the payoff...the cutest puffy cheeks blowing out her 2 candles ever!

We then opened presents and let the kids run around like monkeys. Anna had such a fun time and loved every minute of it. And I did too! She loves birthdays and reminds me that my birthday is next, then it's hers again. And since I'm posting this 6 months late, that's really not that far away! Crazy!

I wish I would have posted this sooner so that I would remember all of the fun little details, but better late than never I guess. Here are a few more pictures of the monkey decorations...

And thanks to my mom for all her help! I'm so glad she could be here to celebrate Anna's special day with us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little monkey girl! LOVE YOU! xoxo

Anna's 1st Birthday

I can't quite believe it, but our little baby girl turned 1!
This called for a party of course! We had all of our in-town family come over to celebrate. Anna had an "A" Birthday Party. I was so excited to throw her a birthday party and I got carried away with this little theme. I started about 20 projects and with just getting home from our trip, getting over our colds, and Dave being gone (he got home in time for the party), I only finished about 2! Oh well, most of it wasn't necessary anyway, and it probably turned out better to keep it simple so I could enjoy it. I'll have to keep this in mind for her future birthdays too since whenever I say I'm going to keep it simple, I try to do too much. I loved this day and I think Anna did too!

So what do you do at a 1st birthday party?

1. Eat!

The "A" Menu

• "A" cup of soup
• Asparagus
• Artichoke dip
• Apple cider
• Almonds
• Apple Pie
• "A" cake
• And "Anna" cookies for favors (those yummy ones from IKEA)

And I forgot to get the Animal Crackers. Oh well!

2. Open Presents!

I thought that Anna would not really get the whole present thing this year. Boy was I wrong! When we gave her the first present to open, she did not want to let go of it for anything! I was trying to take the bow off for her and it was an all out battle of tug-o-war! It was good entertainment for the rest of us. Her cousins showed her how to open the presents and once she realized how to rip the paper, she got really into it. I was so surprised. She scored some fun presents: a cute keepsake box from Aunt Sue; a new book, a cute 1st year dolly (even named Anna), and a walker toy from Grandma G and Papa; a musical walker from Uncle Colin; a pretty bow from Aunt Amy and Uncle Wes, and a book and wagon from GrandMary and Grandpa. The best part is that it seemed like she truly was so excited about each present. She got so happy when she saw what it was and wanted to play with each one.

3. Make a Birthday Cake Mess!

Anna got out of her clothes and into her birthday suit for her first taste of cake. She wasn't so sure at first, and just dipped her finger in the frosting. She became more curious as time went on and you know how the rest goes...one birthday girl covered in frosting! She didn't like it when it got stuck on her hands though and would try and flick it off. A few innocent bystanders got hit in the line of her frosting fire.

4. And lastly, and most important, Be Together!

Although we had lots of fun with the food, presents, and cake, the best part is just being together with our family. Anna absolutely loves being with everyone and getting to play with her cousins. She is pretty lucky to have fun cousins that love her as much as she loves them. Anna loved getting pushed and pulled around in her new wagon by her cousins. I thought it might be kind of chaotic to have so many people crammed into our small house, but it actually seemed to be kind of cozy and I am glad that everyone could be there together. Especially since this will probably be our last year home for 5-7 years!

Anna's party was actually the day before her real birthday. (which still seems to count as her birthday to me since I was in labor for all of that day too!) On her actual birthday, we spent the day together with just our little family. We had fun with just the 3 of us!

Good Morning Birthday Girl!

We took Anna to the Cheesecake Factory for her 1st Birthday lunch.

I think she loved it as much as we do!

She had her own plate of bread and bananas. Her favorite!

They brought this little sundae just for me?
They sing too? This place is awesome!

Happy Birthday Sweet Anna!