Happy 5th Birthday, Mariana!

(And happy birthday to me too)
Then


Halfway


Now


We opened gifts and had cake for breakfast, did some gardening (which I really enjoy!), ate out Chinese for lunch, played with her gifts and did a little more gardening in the afternoon and went to evening mass. All in all a nice birthday. Mariana was excited about her tea set which we used for our breakfast drinks.

Allia worked SO hard making this paper doll for Mariana. I accidentally threw it away when I was cleaning for the party yesterday, so my morning started with a little dumpster diving to retrieve the doll from our trash bin. ;-p




We love you so much sweet girl. You are an amazing blessing. Some things I love about Mariana...
*Such a tender heart for anyone who is sad or upset
*Such a sweet big sister, especially to Stephen, you are SO good at making him smile and laugh
*You enjoy life...even when the rest of us are trying to rush through it ;-)
WE LOVE YOU!!!

A Tea Party Birthday

Mariana's Tea Party Birthday was this evening. Allia had one when she turned 5, and she got a porcelain tea set. Now it is Mariana's turn...

Can you see the excitement in her face getting ready for the party?










The waiter presents the meal

To crawl or not to crawl?

Will Stephen be our first crawler? It is starting to look that way! (None of the girls ever crawled, but they all walked between 10 and 11 months...and they definitely didn't do this rocking on their hands and knees thing!)

4th Tooth!

Yay! Hopefully we can have a break from teething now and get some sleep! Sweet Stephen...his gum kept bleeding and then scabbing over. I thought that tooth would never make it through. Then after daily mass last night, it was there! Austin confessed to letting him gnaw on the pew during mass...ewwww! My germ freak husband did that?!?! I cannot believe it...but it worked! ;-p

Birthday tricks

We also celebrated Pawpaw's birthday this weekend since it is later this month. Austin, Allia, Mariana and myself found a little "treat" on our morning walk Saturday and brought it home as a birthday surprise for Pawpaw.


This crawfish was out displaying his might on the sidewalk. He looked like he was directing traffic with his claws...pretty funny. Austin captured him and carried him home!


Then we made a cake for Pawpaw, but we didn't have the right number candles, so Austin "rounded up" to 100! So silly!

Happy Birthday, Allia!

My first baby girl...
Then


Halfway


Now...7 years old!


Some things I love about Allia:
*You are SO much like Daddy...a social butterfly, musically talented, very talkative!
*You are always a friend...young, old, big, small, you will make a friend and play with almost anyone as long as they are not mean to you. :-)
*Such an awesome big sister...helpful and sweet, you are so good at taking care of everyone, especially when someone has an ouchie (always the right there with a band aid, ointment and the "cold bear")
*Super reader...you take advantage of any spare moment to read in the recliner, and you read so many wonderful, complex books!
What a wonderful girl! We thank God for you.

A birthday party for our Allia

We celebrated Allia's birthday on the vigil of her real birthday with some girly dress up fun.

She can blow up balloons now...wow!


Stephen thinks blowing up balloons is hilarious...he was laughing like crazy!