Milwaukee Kite Festival

Such a fun day!  I wish I had more pictures.  Thanks to Jer, Jim, April & Michael for the kite running and fun!

 

 

Ellen's Golden Birthday

The little cutie turned 4 on the 4th.  As Ellen says, May Thorth.

 

 

This year she got to have a party at home with her best buddies.

 

 

Elsa, Elizabeth, Emma & Ellen

 

 

We had a Golden Book party.  Everyone decorated their own book bag and got a little golden book to take home in their bag.

Ellen really wanted the Barbie cake this year.  She had been asking for it for months, so we had to make her gold!



 Wardrobe change.

 

 One of the presents that Ellen received was a movie, so at the end of the party everyone grabbed a stuffed animal and a blanket and they snuggled in for a movie.

 

Ellie also got to celebrate in Viroqua on her actual birthday.  More gold!





 

 

Lucy's American Girl Birthday

I know, It's March.  Lucy's birthday was in January.  I'm not quite sure what happened to the last two months. . . But here we are, just a few days away from April.  Ugh!
We really did celebrate Lucy's birthday in January.  I promise.  I'm fairly positive I put pictures on facebook.  Every time I put pictures on facebook at not the blog (which is often), I feel like I need to apologize to the blog.  I'm sorry I have neglected you. . .


So. . .  Lucy's American Girl Birthday!

This year, for Lucy's birthday, we gave her the option of having a party or choosing one friend to take to the American Girl Doll store for lunch.  She chose the American Girl lunch in about .5 seconds.  She got her first doll for Christmas and is crazy about her. 

 

Since the store and restaurant are in the Mall of America, we had to make a little pit stop to see Dora on the way there. . .

 

 Then, while we were waiting to go up for lunch, we met Saige.

 

The restaurant is very cute.  All pinks, flowers & little girls!  Each doll had a special seat, so they could be at the table.  They also had their own place setting.

 

Ellen doesn't have a doll (yet), so she got to bring Merida.  They were both just happy to be there!

 

 

 

As an added surprise, we got both of the doll's hair styled.  Lucy's doll, Caroline, also got her ears pierced!

 It was a very fun and special way to celebrate the day.  All three of the girls had a blast and the two adult ladies had a pretty great day too!

 

 

Lost Tooth!

Earlier this month, Lucy lost her 1st tooth.  It was wiggling for weeks and finally came out at school!  The few days before it came out, we started calling it the drawbridge, because it would fold all the way out of her mouth like a drawbridge being lowered. 

 

Just look at that cute gap!

I was a little sad that the tooth came out while she was at school, since I didn't get to see her excited face when it happened.  I quickly got over my sadness when I heard how excited she was that she got to go to the nurse's office and get a treasure chest box to keep her tooth safe in until she got home.



 

One of Lucy's friends told her that you got to ask the tooth fairy for whatever you wanted and she would leave it under your pillow.  Uh- Oh!  I asked her what she wanted. . .

She wrote it out on her letter and put it under her pillow with the tooth in the treasure chest.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I want $2 and a chocolate coin and some candy

 

Her second tooth is already wiggly now.  Maybe she will have lost her two bottom teeth by Christmas?

Fall

It has been a while.  Here is an update on our fall.  The girls 'helped' rake the back yard this year.  Our big maple does not disappoint when it comes to leaf piles!

 

 

 

 

 With the new patio, our back yard has gotten a lot of use!  We fired up the heater and the chimnea and carved pumpkins and roasted marshmallows outside this year.

You can see the old cabinets in the background of the picture above.  We are just about finished with our kitchen remodel.  I'll post some before and after pictures soon.  I'm very excitedly waiting for our new cork floor to come in.

My little girlie girls had to have Halloween nails this year!

 

 I also had to send Lucy to school with a couple of Halloween lunches this year.

 

 Neither of the girls schools had costume days, but they both did something fun.  Lucy's school had a pajama day.  Here is Lucy and her BFF Evey at their lockers.

 

 I love this one of Lucy.  This is before she left the house in the morning.  See how dark it still is out the door?

 

 I got to go to school with Ellen.  It was black and orange day.  We both had pumpkin t-shirts that Ellen picked out.

Here she is at 'show and share' time with her Orange and Black Kitty.  Her teachers wore Mario and Luigi costumes.  They are so great. 

 

A little face paint!

 

 Then, the main event!

The Queen of Hearts and LaLaLoopsey Lucy made their appearances.

 

The girls are having tons of fun and still enjoying school.  Lucy reads to us each night in Spanish.  It is so amazing to see her progress from single words to full sentences.  Ellen is coming out of her shell and making lots of friends at school also.

We had Ellen's parent-teacher conference last week and are looking forward to Lucy's tonight. 

It is so fun to see how they are away from home and parents!