Seven Year Old Saturday

So, it's official... we have a SEVEN year old!! Unfortunately she is spending her first weekend as a seven year old with a stomach bug. She has been counting down the days all week to wear her Princess Jasmine costume to a Halloween party tonight and now she is not going to be able to go. What a bummer! She was also supposed to get a mani/pedi today but she was too busy throwing up! I'm just hoping it's a 24 hour bug and passes quickly so she can still go trick or treating on Monday. She is so sad right now...it just breaks my heart.I'm just happy she knows how to use the toilet and didn't get sick in her bed...although we had an incident today at Publix when I thought she was feeling better so she ran to the store with me and lost her lunch. We ran to the bathroom and didn't make it. I had to clean up a huge mess, get help from strangers...who I was trying to make sure didn't step in anything, and she got it all over herself and was crying and saying she was sorry--so pitiful. That was quite an eventful afternoon!! Damian is going to stay home with her while I take Max to the party soon.

She might not be feeling well now but she had an awesome party last weekend--thank goodness we had her party last weekend! We went to Red Robin with Damian's parents on her actual birthday Thursday and we let her open her gift from us on the eve of her birthday. We were so excited and couldn't wait. Plus Damian leaves way too early for work and we had to leave quickly after work/school to meet at Red Robin.

Here she is reading her card from us...I love that she reads everything and loves cards--so do I!

She just realized that it's a DS...and she was squealing! She couldn't thank us enough and her smile was a mile wide...it still is despite her being sick! And she continues to thank us!
A very happy 7 year old and her little brother(who had backwards day at school!)

Max got her a Polly Pocket...he was so proud to give her his gift. We also got her the Tangled game which she loves. She used some birthday money to get a turquoise case set and the Cooking Mama game.

So happy to be 7!!

We are so blessed to have such a kind, smart, and thoughtful daughter. We love her so very much and couldn't be prouder of her. She fills us with so much joy! She is my heart!!

Four Year Old Friday

Let's pretend it's Friday...I had every intention of posting these last night but I had a rough night...sooo here they are now.

Max had different fun things planned each day this week: favorite sports team shirt day, crazy hat day, backwards day, pajama day, and yesterday was dress like your favorite storybook character day. He had a blast each day this week and was really excited to dress up yesterday! Except he wasn't a fan of the face paint...he kept begging me to wipe it off, but being the good mother that I am, I made him wear it anyway. I should have taken some pics of his crying/whining faces...those are a fun way to start the day!!

We chose the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". Here he is with his buddy Brody who dressed as a farmer from "Muncha!Muncha! Muncha!"

Adorable boys!!
I baked some homemade chocolate chip cookies for his class to eat while they were reading the story! His teacher loved it!
We also put some goody bags together for his class. He had a blast! When I asked him his favorite part of the day he said "the barbeque chips--my favorite!!" Silly kid!

My cute little mouse...he tried to twitch his nose and kept squeaking and trying to talk to Emma's hamster.

more birthday parties

It seems our weekends have been so full of birthday celebrations lately.

Here are some pics from Max's buddy Tucker's 4th Thomas the Train birthday party at the park. The kids had such a blast! They are definitely my little party animals!

The same weekend as Tucker's party, Max's buddy Jacob from school celebrated his 5th birthday pirate style.

We have my nephew Nathan's birthday celebration coming up in a couple of weeks. He is turning 10 on November 10th so it's extra special this year!

Bring on the parties!!

Emma's 7th Birthday

Emma's birthday celebration was so much fun!

I just love planning a party and getting together with family and friends.

It seriously feels like yesterday we were planning her very 1st birthday and now here we are celebrating her 7th. My girl loves helping bake and especially loves her sweets. So we went with a Bake Shop Birthday theme. Emma, her cousins, and friends made their own pizzas, fruit kabobs, and decorated their own cupcakes.

I ordered chef's hats and had the kids write their names and add stickers to personalize them. I also made cupcake liner flowers for the girl's hats. I made some aprons for all the girls too! I actually found some cute polka-dotted bedskirts in the Target clearance for $3.24. I cut them up and sewed some cupcake ribbon on the top and voila...they were adorable. It was my first time ever sewing and I think they turned out pretty well. (just don't look too close!!)

Emma was so excited to celebrate with her BCF(best cousin forever) Hannah and her good friend Rylee who's been in her class since Pre-K.

The girls were so cute getting their baking hats ready and a few boys joined in on the fun too!
I didn't get too many pics of them making the pizzas because we were so busy getting them in the oven. I found some small pizza kits at Wal-mart that were perfect for the party. My mom made chili for us and I had just a few other appetizers as well.

The fruit kabobs were a hit...even though wooden skewers weren't my most brilliant idea, because Gram had to pull out a few band-aids! Nothing serious though.

I made funfetti cupcakes for the kiddos to decorate. I bought the frosting bags and my mom has a ton of icing tips so each of the kids decorated with frosting, m&m's, mini chocolate chips, and sprinkles galore!

My sister made some chocolate cookie dough cupcakes(a recipe from Pinterest) and I made Oreo cupcakes and cake balls. Yummy!!

Since we decorated the cupcakes inside we decided to sing to Emma and open gifts outside. She loved her turquoise "7" candle.

The kids loved bouncing around in our bounce house and just running around outside between all the baking.

I loved watching Emma open her gifts and read all of her cards by herself from our family and friends. She was soooo excited! She is one blessed little girl to have so many people that love her!

We love our baby boys...Noah and Benjamin and to think there will be another one in January--I can hardly wait!! Seriously...I could eat those boys up!!

Emma was thrilled with her new Jasmine costume. She's already tried it on several times and is counting down the days until she can wear it for a Halloween party we're going to this weekend!


We're looking forward to more birthday fun for our sweet girl throughout this week!

Mommy and Me Monday: The birthday girl

Yesterday we celebrated Emma's 7th birthday...hold on I just had to wipe a few tears over my baby girl growing up way too fast...Her actual birthday is this Thursday October 27th. She is beyond excited and has decided we are going to celebrate all week!

You only turn 7 once, so why not!!!

Here are just a couple of pics from her Bake Shop birthday at Gram and Papaw's house with our family and a few friends. We will also be going to Red Robin with Baba and Grandpop, doing a little shopping at Toys R' Us, taking donuts into her class, and getting manicures and pedicures with some friends next Saturday morning.

There are some more pictures of cuteness to come...

Six Year Old Saturday: dancing, baking, and swimming

This weekend is all about our sweet Emma. Today she has her ballet performance for our town's Halloween Howl. She is so excited that she's been practicing her routine everywhere. My mom said she even showed them at EPCOT yesterday while they were waiting in line. Silly girl! Tomorrow we are having her bake shop birthday party with my family and just a few close friends. We are keeping it pretty simple and I decided to have the party at my mom and dad's house so she could invite a couple of friends from her class. It turns out only one of the four we invited can come but I know she will have so much fun. Especially since she has so many cousins!

A couple of weeks ago all of the first graders at our school participated in the water safety and swimming program at the YMCA. Since drowning is a leading cause of death in children in the state of Florida, our school district is very proactive in teaching the kids how to stay safe in and around water. Our first graders go in the fall and kindergarten goes in the spring. My class had so much fun and learned a great deal. It changes our schedule and interrupts our routine but it's always such a hit. I was excited when I found out Emma's class was right before mine so I got to see her at the pool. On the last day the kids were able to jump off the diving board and play in the water splash area. We actually had to have a make-up day on our last day because of a thunderstorm.

Here are a couple pics I was able to snap of my little swimmer.

We're looking forward to an awesome weekend!

My helpful four year old!

Max loves to help Mommy and Daddy. He really is such a sweet boy...see that smile, blue eyes, and those freckles?! They get him out of a lot of trouble...ha ha!

He asks a million questions a day and always wants to help us and his big sister. Whenever he goes to Baba and Grandpop's house, Baba lets him help her wash dishes too! I'm usually doing dishes while the kids are taking their baths and showers. But a couple of weeks ago, Max wanted to help clean up after his favorite meal...spaghetti of course!! The evidence is written all over his face.

I think he was squealing he was so happy to help.

I love his concentration!
Emma is also a huge help! I just hope they both are willing to help when they are preteens and teenagers. Emma practically begs me to let her dust the furniture and clean the floors.

Their help sure made cleaning up the dishes more fun and a little messier but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Way Back When-esday

Well, here we are better late than never!! It has been quite a week...and I'm only halfway through it! This week I decided to look back at some fun/funny pics from pumpkin patch visits. We had so much fun last weekend and it made me think back to years past. Damian and I were just oohing and aahing about how little the kids were and how much they've grown and changed.

Unfortunately, I didn't start using Snapfish until 2006 so Emma's first couple of visits aren't on the computer, but they are in an album which is more than I can say for my pictures from the last couple of years. But, I'm working on it! Now if only I could finish Max's scrapbook...from his first year! I also have all of my fall pics from 2009 and 2010 stuck on my old laptop. I really need to figure out a way to get them off of there.

This first picture makes me laugh out loud. I love these kids so much! This was our attempt at a cousin pic. As you can see...not everyone was willing to cooperate! I'm pretty sure this was the best one of the bunch!

October 2008

Hannah holding Elizabeth, Emma holding Allie, Nathan, Max,(touching his toes) and Rachel behind Joshua

Max-October 2008

oh my goodness--my little pumpkin



They are still so sweet together

Max's first visit-October 2007

October-2006

When there were only 4...

Joshua, Nathan, Hannah, and Emma

It's so much fun to reminisce with Cheryl at Twinfatuation!

Fall Fun

We have had a busy, busy weekend! Birthday parties and family fun was how our time was spent during these beautiful fall days. We also snuck in a trip to the pumpkin patch and a date night! It doesn't get much better than that!

Saturday afternoon we took the kids to Ergle's for a Pumpkin Patch visit. We always go to Ergle's to pick out our Christmas tree, so I was excited when I heard they had a pumpkin patch this year. They had a train ride(I thought it was a hay ride...oops) which the kids loved and they had a huge selection of pumpkins. We let the kids get a couple of little ones which they took to Baba and Grandpop's house to paint and decorate while Mommy and Daddy had a date night out at a local Japanese restaurant. Yamato's was yummy and it was a great ending to a fun day.

It really has been a fantastic weekend! There are birthday party pics to come from Tucker's party on Saturday and Jacob's(Max's buddy from school) party on Sunday! Mom's taxi will also be back in full force with Emma going to ballet, girl scouts, and religious education and it looks like I will be helping out with the 4th grade religious ed. this year too.

I have a lot to do this week to get ready for Emma's birthday party with our family and a couple of her friends next Sunday and her ballet performance at the Halloween Howl on Saturday. Not to mention Open House is on Thursday and I have a teacher workday/workshop on Friday. Whew--I better get some sleep tonight. It's going to be a jam-packed week and weekend!

Way Back When-esday: five years ago

I came across this pic of Damian, Emma, and I from exactly five years ago. I cannot believe how quickly five years has gone by.This honestly feels like yesterday!!

Emma was almost 2 years old and the apple of our eye!! (she still is of course but shares the spotlight with little brother now!) I forget how long(and blonde) my hair was back then. I also think I look so much younger...having two kids and teaching first graders for over 10 years has aged me a little--I do believe.

I also think of all that has happened in our lives over the last five years, the ups, downs, and in betweens! I love my family of four and I can only imagine what the next five years has in store for us. I only know that it will be full of love, laughter, and many happy memories will be made!

I'm looking back with Cheryl at Twinfatuation this week!

thirty years old

On September 24th my "baby" sister Brooke turned 30 years old! We had a fun celebration at a local Japanese steakhouse Mizu. I still can hardly believe she is thirty! She is not only a fabulous sister but a terrific friend!

The kids were very excited about the hibachi grill!!

cute cousins

The birthday girl and I!

All of the kids loved using the chopsticks!












The birthday girl blowing out the candles on her ice cream cake!

It was a fun, entertaining birthday celebration!