Nine

Nine.

Today she is nine.  

I think we are in a sweet spot right now with the girls.  

Can we just slow down time?

13 years!

Matt and I are celebrating our 13 year anniversary today.  

I love you Matty.

Five, projects, and more snow.

So, winter continues....

Our schedule has been crazy with school.  I'm not sure we've had a regular week since we've been back from Winter Break.  It's nice to have lazy mornings with all the 2 hour delays, but the lack of routine is pretty crazy.  On days that Lily has preschool when there is a 2 hour delay, her schedule is unaffected, so Abby stays with me while I take Lily to preschool drop off.  

One morning we took advantage of this and stopped for breakfast burritos after drop off.  Abby LOVED it.

We also celebrated Lily's birthday last week.  Five.  Can you believe it?  We've only had a small celebration with the 4 of us because weather and illness (and honestly, busy schedules too) keeps getting in the way of other family joining us. 

She got her first big American Girl Doll- the Doll of the Year, Isabelle.  This is the moment when Abby figured it out and Lily just looks a little smug.  I love it.

Here is Isabelle begin introduced to Molly and Kit.

Last week I worked on a new project:  a princess-playdress.  I bought a pattern and tutorial on Etsy and just dove in.  I made my first attempt for Lily, as a Rapunzel dress.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

We again got a ton of snow.  Again.  This time, however, we have a new snowblower!  It definitely makes clearing the driveway so much easier.  Matt was in a much better mood when he came in than when he shoveled in the past.

We decided to go on a quick walk after lunch to get some fresh air today.  It wasn't completely bitter cold out and we thought we'd just walk down the street and back.  The girls had so much fun.

This picture got a ton of "likes" on Facebook, but you didn't see the second shot, which, when together, clearly shows who the ham in the family is.  At least for this moment.  Good grief.  That girl.

And... you put a giant mound of snow in front of the house and someone is going to want to climb it.  

If you look close, you can see the snowball, in air, that Abby threw at me as I took the picture.  Sneak.

And, finally, the forecast for you all.... this made Matt laugh for about 10 minutes when I texted it to him a week or so ago.  Enjoy.

Eight

Oh, how I love you so, Abigail Grace.

Eight years old.  

Full of smiles and smarts and bounce.

You glowed with your friends at your gymnastics party this weekend.  It was fun to watch.

Happy Birthday!

Four

Lily is four.

That's crazy.  How did that happen?!  

I have learned finally, that it is so much easier to have birthday parties out somewhere than at your house.  So much less cleaning and pressure.  The hardest part is deciding where.  This time around, we decided, after several ideas, to rent the gymnastics gym.  It was a very fun time with family and friends.  We had a Tinkerbell/Peter Pan theme.

We started with these cute invitations that I found on Etsy.  Too cute.  I then asked the gym to have some games with a fairy/pirate twist- which they did.  They played versions of hide and seek and tag and all kinds of other things, along with lots of free time on the gym equipment.

The birthday girl with her fairy wings

... and then the food.  All of my ideas are straight from Pinterest.  (Can I get a "God Bless Pinterest?")

The labels for the food are from Etsy also.

Mr. Smee's Sea Dip (ranch dip dyed blue with goldfish crackers)

Strawberries from Neverland and Fairy Cookie Wands 

Pirate Pretzel Swords and Gold Doubloons (Nilla Wafers)

Pixie Dust as party favors (you know, to use in case of emergencies)

(I bought the bottles from Hobby Lobby and hot glued them shut)

-and then on her "real" birthday we celebrated with a cupcake from our favorite cupcake bakery.  YUM.

Playing with some of her new Legos

Playing with her new Doc McStuffins puzzle

Our Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving week out on Tuesday with special programs at both of the girls' schools.

Lily's preschool had a special Grandparent's Day program, and since all of our grandparent's are out of state, we went!  There was a marionette show.  It was super fun.  The kids had a choice to go sit up front and Lily was up there right away.  She is the one with a gray shirt and pink pants- kind of in the back-center.

Then, we went home, had lunch, and went straight to Abby's school for her class' special Thanksgiving play, which was awesome.  They had different scenes all around the room.  Abby was part of the "modern table."

The Mayflower:

Then on Wednesday, we headed over to Ohio for Thanksgiving.  My sister ended up really sick on Thanksgiving.  We don't know if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug or what, but we got some time with my nephew Jacob....

The three littles watching a movie.  I don't think Jacob sits this still for very long but he had his cousins modeling for him.  :)  On a side note, one of the movies we watched was Arthur Christmas.  It was very cute.  I highly recommend it.

Grandma, Papa, Abby, and Lily made a homemade gingerbread house.  It was fabulous.  

By the end decorating phase, just Papa and Abby were left, but it is awesome.

...and last but not least... the wishbone.  It's the girls' first time doing it.  I had to explain it, which Abby understood.  She won her wish, but then Lily cheered and said she won too.  That's okay.  No losers here!

...now on to Christmas season!  I can't wait to get all our decorations up!