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! :)

Her second Easter.

We had a very full, and very happy Easter yesterday. All week, the little one had a particular reply anytime she heard the word “Easter,” and it melted my heart every time!

 

We started the morning out with some simple eggs and gifts for her. I’m not really into the over-the-top big Easter baskets overflowing with candy and tons of toys. I’m that way about Christmas too; I want my kids to remember the reason we’re celebrating, not the stuff they get. Anyway, she had some eggs filled with cereal, fruit leather, raisins, and fruit snacks. She got a couple t-shirts, a jumbo coloring book, and some fun new sunglasses. Simple, but she liked it.

I mean, really, is there anything cuter than a kid just after waking up happily with messy, bedhead? Gosh, she’s cute. :)

I found a fun, colorful “twirly” dress for a good price online at The Children’s Place for her, and she loved spinning in it. I’m not a real girly-girl, but I love bright colors and everyone needs a twirl or two every now and then!

Her braids lasted about half the day, which is much longer than I anticipated…

Our little family of 3.5, ready to head to church on the best Sunday of the year. It’s hard to believe that next year our Easter picture will have two little ones!

After a great time at church, we headed to my Aunt Jane’s and Judy’s house for a potluck, swings, and an Easter egg hunt…

Another family photo…

My gorgeous sister & niece…

The little one was so tired towards the end. Little girl needed her nap!

Her favorite part of the egg hunt was peeling off the stickers that were holding the eggs shut…

After the egg hunt concluded, she got her kite and bubbles {a tradition I loved growing up too}, and we headed to Great Gary & Great Dottie’s. She snuck in a little cat nap on the way, thankfully…

She enjoyed round two of food & egg hunting. Gosh I love these two…

With these eggs, she was very insistent on cracking each one open before putting it in her basket…

Once she decided she was too tired to keep hunting, Great Gary took her inside to get her bag of goodies. Is the picture below so special? It’s really such a blessing that she gets to have such close relationship with not one, but three great grandparents. Amazing.

My favorite part of the day though, was waking up at 4am – well, correction, waking up that early wasn’t my favorite part – but getting up early enough to have a couple quiet hours alone, reading John 20  while my husband & baby girl slept soundly, watching the sun rise paint the sky and declare His faithfulness yet again. I’m so thankful – filled to the brim with gratitude – that God didn’t leave us alone, broken. That we have real hope. True hope. That Jesus didn’t just die. He has risen indeed forever, and that changes everything.

Oh what a glorious day!

Date night.

We don’t do date night nearly enough. We’re homebodies, and we’re way too comfortable just staying at home watching Shark Tank on Friday nights. However, we actually went on a real date night last weekend!

Our church hosted a Sweetheart banquet for Valentines at a local golf course banquet room. And this, this, was the only purse I brought that night! No huge diaper bag with extra outfits just in cast, no lunch box, no work bag packed with a laptop and 10 event folders. Whew – it was liberating!

Along with 199 other people, we had a fantastic lemon garlic chicken, beef tips, mashed potatoes, green beans, brownie a la mode dinner. Oh my, it was delicious.

We laughed all night with the other couples at our table. Meanwhile the little one was having an absolute blast playing in a “band” and creating new songs with her cousin.

I didn’t think that I could love Eugene more than I did on our wedding day, walking down the aisle and watching his eyes well up with tears and his lips form the happiest smile. I’ve been amazed that I love him even more today. Watching him become a father – an amazing one at that - to the little one, seeing him make big sacrifices for the good of our family, experiencing the way he aims to lead our family with a heart for God…I love this man. {So much.}