Curious George Second Birthday.

The little one enjoyed a fun Curious George themed birthday party a week or so ago. She loves Curious George  so she was pretty excited when she found out her party was about the “hoo hoo haa haa, Goge.” I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest and pbs.com actually had a whole bunch of printables and ideas for the party too {link is here.} I printed some coloring pages, George cut-out masks, and DIY party hats from the PBS site for the kids at the party to play with/take home.

Here’s a bunch of pics from the day…

We served Hundley’s hot dogs, Chef Pisghetti’s mac and cheese, Farmer Renkin’s veggie salsa {recipe here}, popcorn, Curious George gushers, Twizzlers, The Man In The Yellow Hat lemonade, red velvet cupcakes, and George’s banana split bar {with homemade ice cream…thanks, Mom!}

 

 

 

 

She had all her favorite people there…

And she kept sneaking Twizzlers. I made a pillow case dress for her using some Curious George fabric I found from – of all places – Wal-Mart. {If you want to make a similar dress, just Google pillow case dress; there are tons of tutorials online.} Ironically, I thought she would love the dress, but she actually hated it. I may or may not have had to bribe her with a Twizzler to get her to let me put it on her. So odd!

The pic below about sums up her attitude about the dress. Grrr.

 

I had a little extra fabric, and the pup was much more willing to wear it as a bandana than the little one was to wear her dress. Go figure.

 

Her buddies showed up dressed perfectly themed with the party!   

 

I managed to sneak in one quick photo with my two-year-old. Love her.

Even though the invites said gifts weren’t necessary, she received loads of lovely things from her friends and family…

 

 

As a side note, my best friend & I are both due with baby boys just 11 days apart. This will be her 3rd boy, so she’s the expert I’ll call as I try to navigate the unchartered territory! 

 

The little one was on her new “cell phone” the whole time everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. Go figure. She’s two and already using the phone too much! Silly girl.

I love that I have a similar picture of her on her Daddy’s lap with her birthday cupcake one year ago at her Cute as a Button party. Gosh, how quickly time flies!

She seemed to enjoy her party…mainly the people who were there. Below is our 91 year old neighbor, Miss Ruth. The little one and Miss Ruth have a very special bond. They both look for each other outside all the time. The little one yells “Miss Roof!!” from inside our house, and I know that simply means she spotted the very active neighbor doing yard work again. It’s a necessary follow-up to put our shoes on and head over to her house to say hi. Miss Ruth loves the little one dearly; you can just see the joy on her face the moment she gets a hug from my girl. I’m telling you, these two have something very special going on.

It makes me so happy that the little one’s favorite part of the party was the people there. It’s a beautiful thing watching her get so happy to see her family and friends. She is so loved, and so loves others too.

 

Happy birthday to my sweet little monkey! :)

New Year, same Friends.

We spent New Year’s Eve doing the same casual thing we always do – hanging out with our friends, Libby & Scott. The four of us have ended the year together for the past 10 years. It’s simple, predictable, and perfect.

The little one gets pumped when we go to their house because she gets to play with all their trucks and trains.

She also loves cuddling with the boys. Hugs for Brooks…

Rocks with Griff…

Loungin’ with Uncle Scott…

And stories from Auntie Lib….

We enjoyed tacos, the annual salsa & cream cheese dip, brownies, and laughs. Our wild New Year’s Eve night ended by 9pm because of bed times. Times have changed slightly over the last decade.

We’ve missed a year here and there for traveling or weather, and I think we missed last year because the little one was sick, but we’ve done a pretty darn good job sticking together. We are so blessed to have this set of friends to grow up with…and oh how our yearly photos have changed!

Best friend mini-mini session.

My best friend asked me for a quick photo session instead of a gift for little Brooks’ birthday present. And by quick, I mean real quick. With two energetic little guys, we had to move fast and cross our fingers that a few of the shots would actually turn out.

Here’s the beautiful family…

The little one loves hanging with Griff & Brooks. Aren’t they so handsome?

I love that Brooks and his daddy have the such similar expressions in the photo below!

Eh, got 3 out of 4 to look at the camera. ;)

And this pic below cracks me up…classic toddler, heading straight for the “do not enter.”

The photo below is just a candid one, but I thought it was cute so I included it.

True friends are a rare find. Eugene & I have been friends with this family since we were just babies hanging out after a high school football game, long before any of us even dreamed of growing families of our own. I am so thankful for this family – for their friendship, for their Godly model, for the full times of silly laughter we’ve shared all these years.

Fifteen months.

Can you tell it’s busy season for events? I’ve been so swamped with work & life that I haven’t had the chance to keep up with blogging. My girl is fifteen months old this week. Fifteen. Why is it that time goes faster once you have a child? Someone explain it to me, cause I just don’t get it. But it sure is true.

She’s changed so much since I last posted an update on her birthday. I know I’m biased, but she’s so smart, like scary smart sometimes. For instance, she loves to try to eat the pup’s dog food {no, that’s not the smart part…obviously}. So we’ve been working on teaching her that the food is the dog’s. The story goes like this:

Little One: picks up dog food and hovers it over her mouth while looking at me with a smile,  waiting for me to tell her no.
Me: “We don’t eat dog food, do we? Whose food is that?”
Little One: “Dahg! Dahg!”
Me: “Right! So put it back for the dog.”
Little One: carries the piece of dog food to the coffee table, and places it on a magazine – right on the mouth of the golden retriever pictured on the cover of the magazine. “Dahg!”

She cracks me up!

She is very observant. She’s always mimicking us. Eugene puts a hat on; she reaches and takes it off his head and puts it on hers. I write out to-do lists; she grabs a pen and starts scribbling on her paper. Nana washes her hands; she climbs up the step stool and holds her hands under the faucet. She doesn’t miss a beat.

She uses sign language very often – thank you, more, please, eat, same, bath, help, water, I love you {my favorite}. I’m really thankful we taught her some signs. Especially “more.” It has come in incredibly handy to know when she wants something in particular.

She’s also talking more words. She says “yah” so often. Every question I ask her prompts a quick, “Yah!” and a very assertive nod of her head. She says, “hereyago” every time she hands me something. She also still says “ut oh” constantly. All. The. Time. She says: hello, hot, ball, dog, Nana, Mama, Dada, Papa, banana. She’s just starting to try to repeat new words more this week.

She likes to do meticulous, orderly activities like putting lids on Tupperware containers, taking toy eggs out of a crate and putting them back in, or stacking her shoes in a basket. Oh, and she’s obsessed with shoes. Always handing people their shoes. It’s so bad that my niece hides her shoes when she comes to my house because she doesn’t want the little one to mess with them!

She’s still right around 90 percentile in height and 50 in weight. She’s my long & lean girl {no surprise there.} She’s also a pretty good eater. She loves carbs – pretzels, cereal, crackers. She also loves bananas, yogurt, veggie chicken patties, and cottage cheese. She’s pretty good at trying new stuff, but doesn’t necessarily eat a variety of foods. She just sticks with her favorites, but I’m working on her. ;)

Oh, and praise the Lord, we’ve finally reached the point where she will fall asleep on her own {without me holding her!} in her crib. YAYAYA! I love cuddling her, but it’s so nice not to have an hour and a half bedtime routine.

She loves walks, swinging, running, and getting dirty outside. Girl’s not afraid of a mess, that’s for sure! Oh, and I think she will potty train early. She actually tells me sometimes when she has a dirty diaper and loves sitting on the potty. She hates hates hates the church nursery. It’s about 90% of the time that I get paged to come get her. And this is usually the face I see…

Poor girl is persistent, which can certainly be a good and bad/challenging trait. She’s inquisitive, kindhearted, sweet, loving, silly, and smart.

She’s chock full of personality – makes our lives so much fun! We’re beyond blessed with each month spent watching our little one grow.

She is joy!