Birthday Party

This will be timely last post for August. I make no promises about when the next post will be as we are leaving for FL in a week, will be gone for more than a week and it will likely take me a while to sift through what is bound to be a photo landslide when we return. So this might be it for a few weeks:)
Anyway, on Saturday, we had a little birthday party for Rowan and Kaylee and all of their friends. Since their birthdays are so close, we combined them since most of the guest list would have been the same anyway. It was actually on Rowan's first birthday, so here's the little birthday princess.
She had a lot of fun at the Discovery Stop. It was totally worth every penny to not have the party at our house, especially since it rained all day.

Here's Rowan and her friend Jordan, who just turned 1 a few days before her.

Here's Oliver, Rowan's senior by only 3 1/2 weeks.

Kaylee and Emily had a great time running around.

Here are Henry, Emily and Sophie getting ready to put on a puppet show for us.

Kaylee put a show on as well.

Eventually after lots of playing it was time to adjourn to our little private room for some pizza, cake and ice cream. Jordyn and Henry seemed to like the fare.

Of course, what kid doesn't like pizza? Here's Kaylee eating hers crust first as is usual for her.

Of course, I admire Emma's great gusto in chowing down.

All of Kaylee's friends seemed to enjoy themselves.

Then it was time for cake.

Kaylee really liked when all of her friends sang Happy Birthday to her.

I am not sure if she was clapping for them or for her.

Kaylee was happy to demonstrate her 'blowing out the candle' skills.

She was happy to blow Rowan's candle out as well.

Then everyone enjoyed their cake.

Even Rowan had a few bites before deciding she'd prefer another piece of pizza.

"Sweet, cake! High-five, Vaeh!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about Mommy!" "Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmmmmm"

I decided that trying to open gifts at the Discovery Stop would be too much for both my kids and most likely everyone else's. So we did the opening at home. Rowan woke up from her nap first, so we decided to let her open her gifts away from even her sister's greedy fingers.

Her friends were very generous and she got lots of great loot, but as most 1-year old stories go, she loved the wrapping paper the most!

One of Kaylee's favorite gifts was her new Cinderella dress.

She put it on immediately! You can tell she just hated it right?

And she danced around showing off her new twirly 'pretty Cinderella dancing dress'!

As luck would have it, she even had matching shoes for it.

Then yesterday, we found a thief in our midst. While dragging her birthday balloon around, Rowan managed to knock down our envelope of small bills we've been saving for our Disney trip: tips etc.

First she offered Daddy a $1 pay-off to keep things quiet and let her get away with her crime.

When that didn't work, she upped her offer to $5.

When that didn't work either, she decided to amscray!

And that was August. Wish me luck on our vacation.

Professional Shoot!

OK, we got some professional pictures taken of the girls for their respective 1 and 3 year birthdays. We have a ton of them, these are just some of my favorites:
I love this of Rowan, I have called it: the 'peek-a-boo' shot.
Another great one of the one-year-old. Check out that smile.

Look at that mug.

Does anyone not love that smile?

This is my favorite of Kaylee...I just love that face.

Hats were apparently working for Kaylee that day!

I love this shot, I just wish we went with a dark chair and/or background as I feel she is a bit washed out.

Another good, but washed out one of Kaylee...maybe Di can help me enhance the colors a bit.

The photographer also took what I will call 'stylized' pictures as well. I wasn't sure about them at first, but I really like some of the results.

I think this look might work for her.

Perfect bathroom art.

This was the photographer's favorite.

And this was mine. We ordered it in black and white but the bow in Kaylee's hair and the roses retained their color, it shall be framed and mounted in our upstairs bathroom as soon as possible.

And that's it for today (scroll down I posted twice.) Tomorrow is the girls birthday party, so I shall have more soon I am sure.

Catch up post

Today, we went to a friend's house to have an 'end-of-summer' bash. Kaylee had a great time.There were a lot of outdoor toys to play with, and she made a lot of use of a lot of them.

Even, the giant water slide.

Now mind you, this is a child who takes an hour to get into a pool...with much coaxing and a bathing suit.

Apparently, the way to lure this child to water, is decide, 'gee its only 65 degrees outside, she won't want to go in the water, so I won't even bother to bring her bathing suit.'

Rowan was having a good time with her own posse, friends: Alexis and Ashley.

Of the 25ish pictures I took in this minute, there actually were a few with all 3 girls looking at me!

Alexis didn't mind sharing her ride with Rowan.

Meanwhile, a soaking wet Kaylee played some croquet with Tyler.

I am not sure the official rules were obeyed, but a good time was had.

Last week, we had a tour of the fire station, Kaylee loved exploring the engines. It would make her Bampa proud I am sure.

Speaking of Bampa, I hope he likes this pic, cause I am going to crop it and blow it up and give it to him.