birthday festivities

Jilly was just a teeny tiny bit excited for her birthday this year (asking me every 4 seconds how many days were left.)  So it was extra fun to finally celebrate our sweet girl.  They had her birthday celebration at preschool a couple days early because her birthday was on a day off.  I got to go to her class and they sang and let her blow out candles.  We brought cupcakes (which all fell over in the car and looked horrendous, luckily four-year-olds don't care what cupcakes look like.)

On her actual birthday Gigi and Leslie came for a visit.  We had birthday pancakes and opened a few presents.  Jilly had been asking for the new Cinderella dress for months and it was really fun to get her something she was so excited about, though for some reason she says it was from just Bryan, which I guess is fine since he financed it ;)  She also got the Cinderella glass slippers and a new outfit with a matching outfit for her new doll.

We went to the Aquarium and saw a really fun dolphin show, which we'd missed the other two times we went.  And of course we went to Shake Shack for lunch.  The birthday girl got her very own burger and she was all smiles.

That afternoon we decorated her cake and finished some last-minute party prep for her Fancy Nancy party.  

This was such a fun party to plan and absolutely perfect for our Fancy Jilly.  We decorated butterfly place mats, read a Fancy Nancy book, then the girls each got to make a pen with a plume and decorate a notebook.  Bryan played some games with them while my mom and I got dinner all ready.   They did a fancy relay where they had to run and choose 5 accessories to wear then pose for a picture, it was so cute!  For dinner we had chick-fil-A nuggets (thanks to Mattie who won a free chicken nugget tray at Jilly's preschool spirit night.) We also had french fries and grapes on frilly toothpicks.  Jilly opened presents and then we had cake and read more Fancy Nancy books (I had checked out 6 from the library) til the parents came back.  

I was super tired by the end of the night but Jilly loved her party and everyone had fun so it was a success.  We're lucky to have such a fabulous five year old to celebrate!

Five on Friday

ONE |  We had to get new tires and I was totally dreading it but I finally bit the bullet and went one morning.  The girls happily watched Curious George, then Daniel Tiger, then part of Sesame Street and I read a third of The Martian.  So it ended up being not a terrible morning at all.

TWO | We went on a field trip with Jilly's class to a fire station.  Jilly loved it and Mattie was terrified of everything and did not let me put her down the entire time.

THREE | I'm slowly updating our "mud room" (really just a little area off the kitchen but it will do the trick.)  We painted a chalk wall last week and while I loathe the chalk dust that is always everywhere I do love watching the girls decorate the wall all day long.

FOUR | It's been a busy week around here.  I watched a little girl Monday morning, a little boy Tuesday morning, two boys Thursday morning and then two girls Thursday afternoon.  We always love having friends over and I especially loved how sweet Jilly was playing with cute little Julia.  

FIVE | This fall has been so long and delightful.  This week we were still in the 60s and the girls loved playing in our huge leaf pile.  Then we got a big rainstorm yesterday, which turned out to be very fun when we put on boots to go out and jump in puddles.

FIVE on Friday

Today my Jilly-girl is FIVE!  

 She's sweet and helpful and creative and sensitive and obedient and generally a delight to be around.  

I love that she loves decorating and celebrating holidays as much as me, and I love that she loves to go on adventures with her dad.   And I really love how well she takes care of her sister.

She always puts her shoes away as soon as we come in the door and usually doesn't complain when I ask her to help with chores but she always hates to have her hair brushed.

She's still the girliest girl I know- loves dress up, rainbows, glitter, jewelry, ballet, princesses, and anything fancy.

We are so, so, so lucky to have her in our family

Seven on Sunday

ONE | Maryland showed off with spectacular weather this week.  It was in the 70s most of the week and Jilly kept saying "we have to play outside because the winter is coming!"  Truth.

^see that green grass? Just a couple days later it was completely covered with leaves again.

TWO | These girlies... they've had their fair share of nasty fights this week, but they can also be the best of friends.

THREE | Do you want to know what happens when you let a two-year-old hold the "stickers" on the way home from the post office?  Hopefully this will be enough postage to get her water bottle where it needs to go.

FOUR | A friend gave us some daffodil bulbs and when I went out to plant them I realized we didn't have a garden shovel.  So I grabbed our ice cream scoop, which worked perfectly.  And we ate worm-flavored ice cream later that night. 

FIVE | Bryan had a birthday!  He's not as into birthday celebrations as I am but he puts up with my excitement.  We had waffles for breakfast, delivered treats to him at work, and went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It was fun to spoil our favorite guy.

SIX | We made a quick trip to Lowe's on Saturday morning and I was kind of dying over what my girls were wearing (and they were dying over all the Christmas decorations!)  Also, there were girl scouts selling cookies which made us all very, very happy.

SEVEN | This is how Sunday afternoons should be spent- doing crafts by the cozy fire.

Halloween 2015

This week was full of Halloween festivities which meant that for me it was a week of constant curling and braiding hair.  The girls loved any and every chance to dress up and we now have a ridiculous amount of candy (that I am all too quick to scarf down along with my girls.)

  

Last Saturday was our ward Fall Festival.  Primary was in charge so I was at the church Friday night from 4 til 11pm setting up.  Luckily the party was a huge success so I suppose it was worth all those hours (probably not, but we won't dwell on that.)  For weeks Mattie told everyone she was going to be Minnie Mouse but at the last minute she insisted on wearing her Elsa dress from last year (that is way too small, but whatever.)  Jilly loved wearing her Rainbow Fairy costume.  I told Bryan he was in charge of decorating our car and was totally annoyed when he was throwing something together at the last minute, but I have to admit he nailed it.  We bought this skull last year and to make it less scary named it Ken so Jilly calls him Ken the Bonehead and he's practically a member of the family.

Jilly's preschool party was on Wednesday.  On Monday when I picked her up from school she said that she couldn't wear her fairy costume because her costume was supposed to be a surprise and she had already told her teachers she was going to be a Rainbow Fairy.  So I let her choose from our dress up and she came up with Rapunzel.  It was a fun little party and Rapunzel was perfect for our long-hair lover.

A few random scary things- Jilly loves to try on accessories and have me take a picture while we're shopping.  This mask was totally creepy on her.  Then I was cleaning our bathroom and noticed there was some space at the back of the vanity behind the drawer and I found a tupperware with someone's denture floating in a mystery liquid.  Seriously creepy and gross. 

On Friday the mall right by our house was doing Trick-or-Treating so we dressed the girls up again and went over with our neighbors.  We are so, so lucky to have these cute girls next door.  

After the trick-or-treating we had our Halloween dinner with homemade corndogs, bone cheetos, banana ghosts, carrot sticks, and grape witch's brew.  The girls loved having a fun candle-lit dinner.  After dinner Bryan and I carved pumpkins while the girls painted theirs.  

^ my favorite little buns

And Saturday was finally the big day!  We spent the day doing usual Saturday stuff- a trip to Lowe's (where we saw this enormous pirate minion), going for runs, and yard work.  Katie and Neal came up that evening and we had pizza, took the girls trick-or-treating then had a fire in our fire pit in the backyard.  

Whew, we had lots of fun, but holiday weeks are busy!