Birthday Celebrations!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!

Wednesday, March 11th was Lauren's 5th Birthday! It was the coldest day of March so far with a high of 11 (how appropriate) although it never felt that warm thanks to the wind.

We had a simple family celebration . . .

the boys helped me bake/decorate her cake (she picked white cake with pink frosting) It's tradition that the birthday girl gets to pick the meal . . . whatever she wants. With the sky the limit here is what we ate. Yum :)

A special card fit for a princess

Daddy helped her assemble the crown . . . :) she's daddy's little girl.

Lauren loves Fancy Nancy and for her birthday Jonathan picked out a Fancy Nancy trunk full of dress-up stuff. She loves it! Here she is getting ready for mom to light the candles on her cake; with five candles it's going to get pretty bright so she's wearing the sunglasses too.

"PINKALICIOUS" PLAYGROUP

I opted not to throw a kid party for Lauren this year, but I did host our playgroup here on Friday the 13th. In honor of her birthday we had a "Pinkalicious Playgroup" and baked/decorated pink cupcakes just like in the book. We also read the books Pinkalicious and Purplicious. It was a fun morning and Lauren really enjoyed celebrating with her friends.

I was so busy with the girls that I spaced taking pictures, still I snapped a few once I remembered (at the end!).

Here's my very own "Pinkalicious"

Here are all of the girls (and Landon) wearing their "pinkalicious" aprons! Aren't they cute?
And while I missed the girls decorating . . . the aftermath was still waiting for me when they were gone :) Good times!

February

Okay, so it's been over a month since I last posted, but February was the longest month EVER! It started with a fever (Landon), a dental appointment (mine), then vomiting (Jonathan) and a few days later (Lauren on Jon at church!), then colds (everyone but me), sore throats (everyone except Lauren), the Croup (Jonathan and Landon), an ear infection (Jonathan) and an appendectomy (Jon-the day before my birthday!). Seriously, everyday there was at least one sick person in my house and more often than not a couple. Like I said, February was a LOOOOOOOONG month. Still, we survived it and have a few pictures to show for it . . . but I'll warn you they are totally random.

Our first picture highlights one of Jayden's special talents :)

The big kids were so proud of her.

Painting helped us get through the long days/weeks of being stuck at home (because of our sick germs) and inside (it was soooo COLD!).

Next, we have some pictures of my NEW DO . . .

For my birthday I treated myself to a cut and color.

Thanks to a good friend volunteering to take on my four kiddos I was able to keep my hair appointment (scheduled on my birthday) despite Jon being laid up. As you can see it is a huge change, but I'm lovin' it. Lauren was so excited when she saw me . . . the first thing she said was "we're twins now!" The hair pictures taken below are courtesy of my sweet Lauren-good pics, Sweetie!

Oh and Happy Birthday to ME!

It was the BIG 3-0! And while it went nothing like I planned (ice-skating with the kids and dinner out with Jon) it was the best birthday ever!

Because of Jon's surgery I let the kids take care of the preparations for my birthday-they were so EXCITED!

A special thanks to Target for the cake (selected by Lauren and Landon), my kids for the cutest/funniest card (picked out ALL by themselves-I pointed them in the right direction and just hoped they ended up with a "birthday" card) my friend Amy for watching the kids last minute so I could keep my much anticipated hair appointment, Paula at CityLooks for doing my hair, and Green Mill for delivering a yummy dinner, and of course Jon for having his emergency appendectomy the day BEFORE my birthday so that he could be home with us to celebrate. :)