Mariana's Party

We finally had Mariana's birthday party last night. She chose to have girls her own age over for a girly party, and I was actually brave enough to make the cake myself! Here it is after the first round of decorating (my part)...

Then it was Mariana's turn to add some flair

 

The girls started out with Hello Kitty coloring pages

Then the scavenger hunt (they had a fun list of items including a bug and a strand of orange hair ;) )

Then musical chairs

A little dinner together

Freeze dance

Time for the candles and cake

And finally, the gifts

They all had a great time, and not pictured was a crazy game Austin played with them called "Dancing Fever." It was so funny. We had girls running around with high pitched screams and squeals resounding! So glad Daddy could come to her party. He was originally scheduled to be out of town, but his trip was moved up a day, so he returned just in time! Happy birthday, sweet Mariana. We love you, and you are growing into such a beautiful little lady!

Teething baby

Anastasia was just not happy anywhere but in my arms, and I really needed to wipe the table down. So I started to do it with her in tow. As soon as we came to Stephen's booster, she lunged for it. So I figured, why not? She loved it...and the wet rag too (I made a clean one for her to play with and chew on!). This kept her happy for so long I even managed to sweep the floors! Who knew?

My girls

I am not sure what it is, but my girls do. not. crawl. I videoed Anastasia reaching for a toy (which she had been trying to get for about 5 minutes) to show what my girls do during floor time. They sit and play. If they want something they try to reach it, stretch, scoot. But absolutely no tummy flops or hands and knees. If they cannot reach the toy they either give up or scream until help comes. People look at me like I am crazy when I describe this, but it is what it is. It is hilarious to see this pattern play itself out for a 4th time. Must be something in the genes I guess. Here's to walking!

Soccer Saturday

It is that time of year again! Mariana is taking dance this year, but Allia really enjoys soccer and chose that again. They had their first practice and game this week. She played well, and her team won 4-0. I only managed one action shot which turned out pretty blurry and then a sweaty, happy girl on the way home. Fun times....6 more weeks of soccer fun to go!

Our day together

Yesterday we did lots of little things while Daddy was home. We planted a few trees after the girls and I ran at the park (we are getting ready for a 5K)...

We did some shopping and bought this guy a new bicycle helmet that actually fits...he has the "Bourg" head for sure!

And I couldn't resist buying him a mini basketball since the one that came with his goal popped. He loves it of course!

We also had Gloria's soccer (see below), a picnic lunch at the park, a movie during naptime and dinner out. Thanks be to God (and my hubby)  for a wonderful day! :)

First Day of Hot Shots

Gloria started a Hot Shots soccer class today which happens to have three of her friends in it. She was sooo excited to finally participate since watching both of her sisters for years! She was so cute, smiling and giggling the whole time. She knows how to have fun...she also played really well too, as did her buddies!

Thankfully I was able to watch the whole class even though Anastasia was napping. Austin had the day off today because that was my request for my birthday (which was actually yesterday, but they had a deadline at work). We had such a wonderful day together....what a great birthday gift!

First Tooth (finally!)

Anastasia cut her first tooth today. Yay! It was the bottom left, and you can almost see in this picture, although there is not a lot to see at this point. I had to stick my finger in there to make sure it was really through. She and Allia are our slower teethers at 8 1/2 months. Everyone else had their first at 6 months!

Happy Birthday, Mariana!

One year old

 

 Seven years old! Wow!

Lego set from Manah and Pawpaw (she has really been wanting one of these "pink lego boxes")

And a mini Josefina American Girl Doll from us. She was sooo excited! Austin recently read the Josefina books to her.

You are such a sweet girl with a tender heart and a creative spirit. We sure love you so much and are so glad you have a redheaded buddy in the family now! God bless you, sweet Mariana!

The Good Life

Having 4 sisters can be nice sometimes....
This little guy got into ants about halfway down the street. So in the 20 seconds it took him to run to me, they ate up his whole ankle. It was awful. It is now swollen and purple with little white ant poison bubbles all over. So this is what his sisters did with him right after it happened. They took orders for snacks, drinks, books to be read, etc. This lasted all of 10 mintues, though, and then he decided he would just rather get up and play! So sweet.

Learning fun

The children love to draw on this dry erase board, so I decided to let Gloria practice her letter of the week here. She liked it so much, she covered the whole board with C's! Here she is just getting started...it was completely covered in the end!

Such cuteness

Anastasia is just so cute lately that we just can't help telling her all day long. I just love this age!

Here she is in one of my favorite outfits from the other girls. I just love seeing them again on a new sweet girl. Doesn't she look precious?

And I snuck up on her to catch a little baby babble

Happy 9th Birthday, Allia!

Her last year of single digits! I can hardly believe she is nine already. Here she is on her second birthday (always my favorite photos...the 2 year olds are too cute!), and today opening her gifts after a breakfast of French Toast. We love you sweet girl!

She received a big girl (IronMan...technically IronWoman) watch that she can wear swimming or pretty much anywhere else. As you can see, she was very happy. :)

Allia's Birthday Party

We had Allia's birthday party yesterday afternoon at the park. You know your friends love you when they come to a park party in the 102 degree heat. Crazy! Austin did balloon pets/hats/swords, the children did an awesome job of busting the pinata, and of course there was a water balloon fight to cool off! Much water was drunk by all and much fun had as well!

School time activities

Gloria is studying the letter B this week. I didn't like the craft for this week, so I broke out these beads for her to sort and string. She did awesome, sorting first by color, then shape. What a great little organizer.

And this guy does so much better when we do school outside. This morning, I filled up his water gun and let him shoot the plants, house...pretty much anything but people. :)

FIRSTS

We have had several firsts the last few days!

FIRST FLOOR PLAY
Anastasia's first time to have floor play with her siblings in her room, with her toys. She really enjoyed it (can you tell?), and I think it has been almost a year since the older children have seen all the baby toys! They enjoyed it too!

FIRST GLASSES
Allia got her first pair of glasses today. Doesn't she look cute? On the way home, she said, "Momma, I can read that sign!" She was so excited it was almost sad! Then she said, "Hey, Mariana, let's play I Spy. I think I can Spy now!" And she was so grown up picking them. She was almost too practical (after Daddy's prep speech), choosing some frames that were comfortable (very flexible) but bronze colored. I pointed out these exact same frames in purple, and she was really happy to have them instead!

FIRST DANCE CLASS
And Mariana's first day of dance class at Miss Suzanne's. She has been waiting anxiously for her turn (Allia and Gloria have both taken a class there aside from the usual summer camp). She was exhausted tonight!

8 Months Old

Our little aggie girl is 8 months old. She is continuing to improve with sleep these days, which is great! She is very talkative and vocal now and sitting up really well. She is very social and loves to see and try to talk to other children. She is dying to walk, but probably won't for a few more months. :) She just wants to keep up with the big kids. Hopefully maybe we will see some teeth this month? We sure love our sweet growing girl!

 (For my reference in the future, she is taking 3 naps now, usually two around 30/40 minutes and one longer 1 to 1 1/2 hours. She is putting herself to sleep, in the swing, about 90% of the time for naps. At night she goes down around 7:30 and is up around 6/6:30)

Neighborly fun

Last night we had a slip and slide party with some of the neighbors including twin boys visiting their aunt from Venezuela. The children all had such a great time, and we shared a pizza picnic in one of the driveways. We have really enjoyed having the boys visiting this week, since it has provided a great opportunity for our girls to try out their Spanish without the intimidation of trying to talk to an adult. It is amazing when they are trying to orchestrate a game, how inspired they become to communicate. The boys are trying to become fluent in English, so it is great for all!