Grace's Birthday

On Grace's birthday we wanted to have a FUN day! So we went to the movies. After the movie the girls got to play in the play area at the mall before we headed home for lunch.

While Olivia took her nap, Grace helped make her cake. We had baked a heart shaped cake the night before but we had to make frosting and decorate it. She chose a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and it was pretty yummy!

Before dinner we let Grace open her presents. Since she had her party over a week before her actual birthday she only had a few presents to open but she didn't mind. 

 

 She is really into Fairies and Barbies so she got a couple of Barbies and a Tinkerbell scooter.

After her special dinner (she chose steak, smashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls) she got to blow out candles and we had cake and ice cream.

She told me that this was the prettiest cake ever! I am sure glad she thought so.

Happy Birthday Grace!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY GRACE!!!!!!

 Four years ago...

And now...

Gymnastics!

Grace started taking gymnastics over the summer. She loves it! Every week we can tell that she is improving. She gets so excited when it is time to get ready to go. And she can hardly stand still when it is time for class to start. While she is having fun in class I watch through the big windows when I am not chasing Olivia around. 

I took a few pictures with my phone the second week. When she is doing the bars, beam, or trampoline she is further back in the gym so it is harder to get a picture. And it would be too much of a distraction to take Olivia in there to get some pictures so these will have to do for now.

Grace is rolling down the wedge in the first picture. In the second she is about to get up on the semi-circle and in the third she is jumping!

 

My Mom is planning on coming to visit during the week sometime soon so she can watch Grace at gymnastics. Grace is SO excited! She got both of her leotards out today and asked me which one she should wear when her Grandma comes!

Grace is 3!

Last Saturday Grace turned 3!
We had a FUN birthday party for her at our house. She picked the theme - CIRCUS! And then she picked her cake. So the week before her birthday we set out to make her the best cake ever. It took a little bit of time on 4 separate days but I think it was definitely worth it. Day #1 I made the brownie pops for the clown, ringmaster, and animal bodies. Day #2 we used fondant to turn the brownie pops into figures for the cake. Day #3 my Mom and Grace made the cakes - one 10" round and two 6" round cakes that would later be stacked to make a two tier cake. On day #4 we covered each tier in fondant and added circles and stars to the bottom layer and stripes to the top. Once I got the cakes home I had to assemble them all. It was MUCH easier than her first birthday cake. It turned out GREAT! One of the kids at the party asked if the cake came from Cake Boss. That is a huge compliment.

Dustin used 3 colors of crepe paper to create a "circus tent" look in our living room. We had popcorn and cotton candy for all the guests. We had a few carnival games set up for the kids to play as they arrived. Once most everyone was here we went outside and the kids jumped in the bounce house while the men got the pinata ready. After all the candy was collected from the ground it was time for presents!! While Grace opened presents I got the cake ready to be served (cut the entire top layer and about 6 slices off the bottom layer). Then I was told that I forgot about the candles. Oops! Grace didn't seem to mind that she blew her candles out after the cake was already cut. The party turned out great! It was a little crazy with over 30 people in our house but that just adds to the fun, right?

I took a few pictures with my phone before the party so I could put them on facebook. Things were a little too crazy during the party for me to take pictures but my Mom took several so I will eventually have them. Here is the link to my facebook album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557316627254.2037355.140301183&type=1&l=3e16d0ec07

American Girl

We had a nice long weekend for Thanksgiving.
Thursday we had lunch with my family. It was the first Thanksgiving I have spent with my family since 2007. And only the second in seven years. It was nice to stay here for a change and get to participate in the Thanksgiving day events. Dustin even got to do a little Black Friday (on Thursday night) shopping! We spent Friday getting up most of our indoor Christmas decorations. Grace has her own tree (well, it is for her and Olivia but Olivia is too young to help with it this year) to decorate all by herself.

Since the weather was not too great on Saturday, Dustin couldn't get to the outdoor lights. We wanted to do something fun rather than hang around the house so we headed to the American Girl Store. I had a couple of the American Girl dolls growing up and we recently pulled them out of the attic for Grace. I had never been to one of the stores though so it was a real treat for both of us. Both of Grace's dolls got to visit the hair salon and get their hair combed, trimmed, and styled. Grace really enjoyed that!

Grace took this picture of Kirsten in the salon chair with her cape on getting her hair done.

And here is Grace with her doll, Sophie. This is one of the dolls that you choose the eye, hair, and skin color so it didn't have a name so she chose Sophie.

Afterwards, we walked through the Galleria (huge mall that is just next door to the American Girl Store). We were looking for Grace a dress (she is going to be a flower girl in a few weeks!) but didn't find anything. She did get a few new pairs of jeans because all of hers are too short.

While we were walking around we saw this HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of the ice rink.

It ended up being a great way to spend the day! Grace said her favorite part was seeing all of Kirsten and Sophie's friends. And she has fixed their hair numerous times since :)

Play Park

The park in my parents' neighborhood was recently built. We have been waiting for this park for a long time and we finally got to try it out! It was built just the right size for Grace! She LOVES going to the park. There is a pond down by the park that she likes to fish in. Now she can play on the park and go fishing at the same place.

Olivia even got to try out the slide. She is a little too small to keep up with her big sister though.

Can you believe how big Grace is getting? She will be 3 in less than a month!

Sidewalk Paint

I have been finding a lot of fun things on Pinterest lately.
One of our favorites this week was the sidewalk paint recipe.

It was a bit cooler (only around 100 - we finally got some rain!) and there was a slight chance for more rain (perfect for washing our sidewalk after we were finished) so it was a great chance for us to try it out.

The recipe is simple: 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup water mixed together with some food coloring.
I am putting food coloring and cornstarch on our shopping list for next week because we have been finding lots of fun activities that call for both of them.

Grace had a great time painting our sidewalk (she even painted the house a little!).
And we got more rain (and even cooler weather today - we spent some time outside and Grace said it was COLD!) so the cleanup was super easy :-)

We will definitely have to do this again!

Grocery Shopper

I had a little helper with me on our last grocery shopping trip!

I decided to give Grace a "job" to help keep her occupied and make shopping for food a little more fun for her. The night before our shopping trip I made our lists. Yes, we each had our own (although my list had all the things on her list and then more). Grace's list had things that she likes and things that would be easy for her to find in the store. And her list was in pictures (google images came in very handy!). There were carrots, bell peppers, milk, meat, cereal, cheese, and juice all on her list. She also got her own notepad and pen (and also some crayons). However, I think her favorite part of grocery shopping is the very last aisle. The way our store is set up, the ice cream section is the very last thing you walk by. Grace always loves to pick out a special treat before we checkout. This particular trip she chose a box of Moo Bars!

All About Grace

Grace turned 2 1/2 this month! I told her it was her half birthday since she is always talking about her first birthday. So what has Grace been up to? She is in the pool probably 4-5 times every week!She has a book about a little boy or wants a nickname so she thought she needed one too. So she decided her nickname was Fish. She is getting really good at swimming with her puddle jumper. Sometimes she forgets she doesn't have it on (and one day she forgot she didn't even have her bathing suit on and we were just putting our feet in) and takes off and swims like a rock. She never wants to get out of the pool! She will take a break for her Oreo dippers. And then with a little convincing she will get out to come inside to swipe one of Grandpa's skinny cow ice cream treats. She also likes to put on her lounge clothes when she gets out of the pool.

And this is just her little backyard pool. She does all of her swimming in Grandma's BIG pool!

She is such a funny girl. And she is so smart! She can count (I have no idea how high she can actually count but at least somewhere in the teens), she can spell her name, she knows shapes, colors, letters. This year we are going to start pre-school! We are going to homeschool the girls and it will be fun to get started with out first year.

We spent one day at home and pulled out some shaving cream. It was a mess but also a lot of fun!

Grace loves to play with other kids. Especially kids who are a few years older than her. She loves to go to church and see all of her friends there. She is constantly talking about all of her friends. Nations of Fun is always a lot more fun when she finds a friend to help her get to the places she is not tall enough to reach.

Grace is VERY independent too. She always wants to dress herself (and she can do it very well!). Sometimes she will be wearing her clothes backwards or inside out or her shoes on the wrong feet. She does know right and left though but still gets the shoes on wrong occasionally. She has a name for every pair of shoes. She has her running shoes, her Grandma shoes (New Balance and they have an "N" on them like Grandma's), her crocs, her princess sandals, her Brandy shoes, her Uncle Deuce boots, her water sandals, and swimming shoes....

And she loves to wear her hair in pigtails with big, pretty bows.

One of the funny things she tells us is "No, I'm not beautiful yet" when we haven't fixed her hair and put her hairbows in.

Grace and Olivia at 3 months

Some of my favorite pictures of Grace as a baby were taken at 3 months. I really wanted to do the same pictures for Olivia. My Mom set up the same blanket and backdrop we used for Grace's picture so we could take Olivia's picture on the day she turned 3 months old.

This pink dress was Grace's first Easter dress. I found a dress made out of the same fabric just a few weeks ago in Grace's size so they wore matching dresses on Mother's Day!

And for some reason this was my favorite picture for the longest time! I just love the little black and white dress.
So now that their pictures are side by side, can you guess which one is Grace and which one is Olivia? I don't think they look that much alike at all!

My Girls

I just love these pictures of my girls.

You can just see how much Grace adores her baby sister.

Grace has been a great helper and seems very protective of Olivia.
I know they are going to grow up to be best friends.
Having two girls is such a great blessing!

A day for Grace

On Friday my Mom came over with her Grandma bag to spend some time playing with Grace. They drew pictures on the driveway with chalk, painted on Grace's easel, and flew a kite!

Could a little girl possibly have more fun?

Grace's Birthday

I was going to blog about our Christmas but then realized I hadn't blogged about Grace's birthday. Her birthday was on a Friday this year and we had asked her Daddy to come home after PT with donuts. He came home but forgot the donuts!! So, after he headed back to work Grace and I hopped in the car and went to the donut shop. I think this was the first time she has ever been in a donut shop and she enjoyed picking out her donut so much. It worked out great that her Daddy doesn't have the best memory. She got a pink donut with sprinkles. We came home and ate are breakfast and then she wanted more sprinkles. I think she put half the bottle of sprinkles on her donut! We decided that we would spend the day at her Grandma's house so she could have fun there and play with Abby. So after we got ready we took off.

That evening we had cake after dinner!

And then we went to a Christmas display and saw Santa again.

{She really liked Santa this year}

We had her birthday party the next morning at our house. There were about 30 people who came and our house was CROWDED! But I think everyone had a really good time. I know Grace did!

We set up a bounce house for the kids to play in. I wasn't sure how Grace would like it but she had a great time playing in it. And it was a big hit with the older kids!

{The Bounce House}

{Jumping with Daddy}

{Having fun in the bounce house}

Then it was time for the pinatas!! I had ordered a Dora pinata to go with the Dora theme but when it came in I realized it was only for about 8 kids and had little strings to pull instead of hitting it. I wanted everyone to have a turn so I got another pinata and we had two.

{Taking a swing}

We thought it would be more fun to hit the Dora pinata but that didn't really work out so well. After a few of the big kids took a swing her head was left hanging and the candy was still stuck so we had to hold what was left of Dora and have all the kids pull a string.

{Time for the Dora Pinata}

Then it was time for CAKE!! Grace loves to sing Happy Birthday. She was so excited that everyone was singing to her and she joined in and sang along.

{I think she was singing Happy Birthday!}

{Trying to blow out her candle}

{Yummmm!}
I had bought 36 individual cups of ice cream but we forgot to get them from my Mom's freezer. So we didn't have any ice cream that day but we still have lots in the freezer.

Last came the presents. I think most of them followed her Dora theme. She now has almost everything from the Dora section at Wal-Mart.

{Having a blast}

{More Dora toys!!!}

{Opening presents is hard work}

{What a great day!!}