Happy Birthday Ryan!

My husband turned 32 last week.  I haven't hardly talked about him on the blog since I primarily talk about the girls, but he is a super laid back guy.  Because of this I tend to be a little too lazy complacent when it comes to birthday plans.  The day of his birthday,  I still didn't know what I was going to get him!  My boss encouraged me to have a mini-party for him that night, so I left the office a little early and headed to our local one-stop shop.  I picked up a little cake, candles, a couple of packages of Snickers and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups (his favorites), party hats, noisemakers and a bottle of Crown Royal.  When I went to checkout, I realized that I didn't have my ID with me and therefore couldn't buy the whiskey (I couldn't believe I actually got carded, but seriously?!).   I called my father-in-law and asked him to meet me at the little convenience store not far from home so I could actually come home with the good part of the gift!  So after the small detour, I was home with my little family and ready to celebrate.

The girls had a riot at Daddy's birthday party!  Claire absolutely loves playing birthday so this was such a treat to have an actual birthday and real cake.  We had a great time until a nasty migrane wiped me out.  I felt so awful heading to bed and leaving the birthday boy to clean up all the mess.  What a happy birthday for him...

This past weekend was full of celebrations with family.  Lots of good food, laughs and gift cards (my husband LOVES gift cards).  What a blessing to be able to celebrate with everyone!  

Ryan I hope your 32nd Birthday was wonderful and I hope your 32nd year is full of joy.  I love you more with every passing year and cannot be thankful enough for your support, help, encouragement and love.  The girls and I are so blessed because of you!

Happy 3rd Birthday Claire!

If you ask Claire her birthday, she will respond with, "March the First!".  If you ask Claire how old she is, she will shrug her shoulders and say, "I don't know."  With some prodding, she will eventually respond with an emphatic, "THREE!".

Since her actual birthday was on a Thursday she took cupcakes decorated for each of her daycare friends and her daycare providers family.  We stayed up late on Wednesday night as she chose sprinkles for each person.  She picked all chocolate sprinkles for the boys, since they were brown.  The girls got all the rest of the colors (we really only had girly colored sprinkles).  I was a bit of an emotional wreck to be at work on her birthday.  Thankfully, her daycare provider emailed me photos of her special day complete with candles and all!  That evening, we gave her one small gift, a microphone on a stand.  She loves performing on it!!  "Riley Grandma" (Ryan's mom whose dog is named Riley) came over with a book, flashlight and puzzles for the birthday girl to open.  We then had the second round of cupcakes and more singing.

Claire's party was on Saturday evening.  I had taken Friday off so I had almost two whole days to get everything ready.  I needed every single minute of course!  The theme of the party was a Bake Shop since Claire loves cooking/baking so much.  I had lots of help making the vision come to life; decorations were made by Shannon from Sweet Stellas, the cake was from my friend Lisa and the birthday girl had a skirt and bow made by Anna's Bow Shop.  In typical Claire fashion, she wouldn't wear the adorable fabric strip skirt for the party - but it is so cute!  My parents and niece Dakota came over three hours early to help with food preparations.  They were a huge help, there is no way I would have made it on time.  Ryan's mom helped get everything set up and cleaned up.  I am so thankful to everyone that helped make her party perfect!!

Ryan made these Bake Shops - one for the salad bar and the other was the cupcake decorating station

The loot for the guests!

Let the traumatic threes begin! She was running away from me - grr!

We had such a great time with all our guests!  We ate soup, salad and bread for dinner then feasted on cake while the birthday girl opened gifts.  She got some wonderful things, we truly have some fantastic people in our lives that surround our little girl with so much love.  I feel so blessed after the party!!

Enjoy some photos of the party in action!  

Happy 3rd Birthday Claire!!  We love you so much!!

Wordless Wednesday :: Happy Birthdays

Celebrating two special birthdays for two very special people.  My best friend Jen's 30th and my brother's 21st!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Happy weekend.  What a trying few weeks we have had in our house.  Natalie has been sick the last couple weeks.  Just when I thought she turned the corner, she came down with a low grade fever and became very lazy for three and a half days.  On Thursday she began to perk up, only to break out with a rash today.  Poor little girl can't catch a break!!

On a happier note, I was able to celebrate my best friend's 30th birthday today.  We had a delicious lunch, afternoon at the spa and ended the day with pizza and cocktails.  I am very thankful to have Jen in my life and so happy to celebrate together!!  While we were out, I realized that I didn't have five laughs and today provided me with two otherwise this would be the top three laughs :-)

5.  Claire has started to act very grown-up lately.  I guess that she knows she'll be three here in about 6 weeks.  Ryan came home from work on evening and was greeted by a very emphatic Claire, "Hi Daddy, how was your day today? How was work?"

4.  Natalie is becoming quite the little monkey.  She loves to climb on anything in sight.  Her favorite obstacles as of late are the little chairs.  She climbs up, stands on the seat, squeals while jumping up and down.  She is so proud of herself!

3.  Jen told me the story that during a road trip one day, her daughter Addison (who will be three in May) passed a police officer who had his flashers on while assisting a broke down car.  I honestly don't remember all the details to the story, but it went something like this:
 Addison (from the backseat), "Mommy that guy is naughty!"
Jen: "The police officer is just helping since that guys' car is broken down."
Addison: "That guy is naughty.  That pisses me off!"
I seriously laughed until I cried!

2.  Claire still has her pacifier at naps/night and we often allow it first thing in the morning when she's laying on the couch watching cartoons.  I am really over that thing and cannot wait for the paci fairy to visit.  I often refer to it as "your stinkin' paci" since it often gets lost and we are looking for it at the most inconvenient times.  One night before bed, we were looking for the said paci and Claire busts out, "Where is my stinkin' paci?"  She mimicked my tone perfectly and I thought Ryan was going to fall out of his chair laughing.

1.  The last laugh is from today.  At lunch we went dutch, both pulling out our (same) bank debit cards to pay our respective half of the bill.  Then we went to a local sports bar for pizza and cocktails after our spa day.  I was planning on treating Jen since we hit happy hour prices. When I got the receipt copy to sign, I realized Jen's name was on the signature line.  We laughed that she actually treated us to dinner and drinks.  We were quite thankful that we figured out our cards had been switched at that point as well.  Then as we were leaving, I had the realization that I used 'my' bank card to pay for our spa afternoon, which of course meant that Jen had funded her own birthday celebration!  I haven't laughed that hard all week, it brought me to tears!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!  We have swimming lessons tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening birthday dinner with my younger brother - he's turning 21!!

Wordless Wednesday :: Happy Birthday Maggie Grandma

Happy Birthday Mom!!  I love you very much!!!!!!!