Chloe turns 4!

I can't believe Chloe is 4. She is such a big girl to me. She is talking all the time and discovering everything around her. She is so smart - and I am not just saying that because I am her mom. She is also the best little side kick. I love going out together. She just makes the dreary errands more fun and is quite the conversationalist. For her 4th Bday we actually invited friends instead of just having our cousins. Our family is so close and so large, it is overwhelming adding friends into the bunch, but so much more fun! We kept it low key, well, I did. Kevin did most of the part planning. He organized a little Dora adventure where the last destination was "Ice Cream Island." It was here we had cake and ice cream for them. It was a Hit! I got princess cakes from Safeway and Chloe LOVED them. She is so into princesses right now. It is so funny how quickly kids can grab hold onto an "icon" and LOVE them like crazy. Kevin arranged for Cinderella to make an appearance at the party - by far, this was the best part. All the kids were talking about it FOREVER before and after the party. All in all, it was a great party. We love you Chloe!

Dora Adventure: "Big Scary Garage- looking for shapes and colors," Blanket Valley- gathering eggs for the chicken... swiper tried to steal them away," and "Ice Cream Island- cake and ice cream!" Way to go Kevin! This was a great game.

Pink and Blue - a must at any party with girls AND boys... Cinderella is actually Charlie's favorite princess. Chloe loves Sleeping Beauty.

Okay, I just had to include the crown shots of my other two princesses... don't mind the runny nose!

All the kids gathered awaiting the arrival of Cinderella

Chloe was TERRIFIED of her. I wasn't too surprised. Two months earlier she wouldn't have anything to do with Santa Claus. All her friends and cousins were excited and in complete awe. After everyone left, Cinderella spent some one on one time with Chloe and by the end, they were friends. Adorable. Thanks Dawn!

This Week...

This week my girls were up to....

Chloe discovered how to get out of eating her dinner. She just fidgets around the table and whines and cries enough that I don't even notice she has discarded her chewed up food on the base of the table. If only she had a dog...

While making Valentine goodies, Charlie discovered the food coloring sitting on the counter and had a little fun.

Chantelle has started climbing up the stairs. As a result, she is finally crying from self-inflicted pain as opposed to pain imposed by her older sisters.

Chantelle also has discovered the joy of rice cereal. I have totally slacked in this department. At her 6 month appt the doctor told me to start feeding her solids- that very day! Whoops!

I love these little munchkins. They are so much fun-- even if they do drive me a little bonkers sometimes.

Three little angels

The girls are all playing together now... sort of. How cute are they all going to be?!

Visitors

Ron and the family stayed at our place when they came out for the party for two reasons: 1) they arrived before the party and would have ruined the surprise if they went to my parents, and 2) they brought their new puppy! My mom does not do animals. Because they just adopted the puppy and were still training him, they brought him with them. The girls LOVED having the dog, especially Chloe. They ended up staying for 2 weeks because Ron ended up going up north to work for a week. It was a great time to hang out and play with girl cousins. It literally was a party every night. All 5 girls started sleeping in Chloe's & Charlie's room, but by the end of the first week- Ron's girls couldn't take my restless and noisy girls! I can't say I blame them!

We had a lot of rain while they were here, so of course we had to make forts! I remember doing this countless times as a child in this very room and always trying to find ways to keep the blankets from sagging and falling down. I apparently haven't learned anything in my old age!

Of all the activities, of course we had to go to the zoo. This is always a favorite!

I wish I had taken more pictures. Oh well.... next time! Thanks for staying with us Ron and Annie! We love you guys!

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

My mom’s 60th birthday was on January 18th. In December, Shannon and I started talking about doing a surprise party for her. I told Shannon, that if we did one we would HAVE to pretend we are planning one and let mom in on it—our excuse being that if we didn’t say anything mom would know we were planning a surprise party or we had forgotten. The plan was to bring it up casually at Christmas and “start” planning something w/ mom. When Christmas came around, MOM brought it up. Perfect. So on Christmas, mom and I started planning her birthday party for the week after her birthday.

In the mean time, Shannon and I organized the whole party with the help of all the siblings. It was great and a LOT of work. Dad ended up taking mom to SF Friday night and all day Saturday. That night they had plans to go to dinner with our neighbors of 30 years- the Keeneys. They helped us out big time in fooling mom. IT was great. The night of the party they were at the Keeneys having appetizers when Shannon called from their house saying that she came over to drop something off and found the kitchen was flooded from a broken pipe—a perfect way to get them to the house. It worked! Mom had NO clue!

Walking in...later she said she was TOTALLY shocked and had no idea. But when she walked into the laundry room from the garage she could smell chocolate.... hmmmm :)

All the Gkids had a blast. My mom made all the Gdaughters matching skirts for Christmas. They wore them that night just for her! We couldn't tell any of the kids about the party until the day of in fear they would spill the beans to Gma!
Macaroni Grill.... yummm

Welcoming all the guests

Tired Kevin - He was on daddy duty all night. Actually, most of the dads were on duty that night ;)

The Hurleys and Andrus's

When my mom and I were "planning" her party, she really wanted to play games. We decided on a bunko tournament. It was the perfect party game and everyone had a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Gma!

As a gift from all of us kids, we made a digital scrapbook that included photos from our childhood to adulthood that featured Gma of course.

Who's Who?

So I got a little bored tonight. I have SOO many posts to write, but have lacked ANY and ALL motivation to blog as well as complete anything else in my life right now. These are baby pictures of all 3 of my girls with two of mine mixed in. Can you tell who is who? I guess now that I see all of them next to some of my baby pictures I can admit they DO look like me...even Chloe does a little!

Christmas Day

I loved Christmas. Loved it. Chloe actually got it this year. It was great. As usual, the girls woke up right about 7am. Chloe ran down stairs and I called down to her "to get back up here!" I had to take pictures!! Growing up, my parents would let us "open" our stockings in the morning while we waited for everyone else to wake up. Then we would all come down the stairs together. This tradtion must be passed on. Santa left a few goodies in the stockings, including some goodies-- Charlie's main and only focus.
It was so fun to watch the girls open their presents and start playing with their new toys. After a little play time we all got showered and dressed to have breakfast with my parents and spend the day with my side of the family. All the girls got new outfits they got to wear. So darn cute!