Bella's Birthday

Bella celebrated her 4th birthday this past weekend.
Her cousins were the first to arrive. Bella wanted a rainbow themed birthday. Everyone dressed in their favorite color. Bella wore all the colors :)

After creating a personalized bracelet, the kids colored a rainbow sheet. I had premade the coloring sheet with all the kids who attended the party and the rainbow. Bella points out herself.

We lined up outside for a Skittle race. Each player had two cups one on each side of the yard. The goal was to get all your Skittles from one cup to the other using just a spoon.

Quite entertaining to say the least.

At first Bella thought she was going to be the wiser one and just ditched the rules by picking up the first cup, taking it over to the second cup, and dumping the Skittles in. We made her go back and use the spoon only :)

We played Musical Freeze Colors next. When the music stopped, the kids had to get onto a color. Then I shouted out a color. That person on the lucky color received a sticker- they all received stickers.

Bella loved the dancing part of this game.

Pinata time!

This time Bella was my dainty hitter and Victoria knocked it home.

After numerous times by all trying to break the pinata, and seeing that the kids were starting to get hot and bored, Renae and I ripped the pinata and dumped the candy out. When in doubt, dump it out.

We headed inside for pizza and cupcakes.

Happy birthday my little angel.

Misc. Pics

Victoria and Bella have been taking gymnastics one day a week at eagles Gymnastics and love it! They've learned many new things, including how to do a somersault on the balance beam. I'm very proud of Victoria on mastering the bridge (a move where you lay on your back and put your hands over your head backwards on the floor and use your feet and arms to push your torso up to form a "bridge".)

The girl's were playing dress up and decided that they wanted to get married to Daddy, so... They took turns being the Justice of Peace and the bride.

We had a small get together with Jer's roommates from college, Stephen and his wife Jessica, and Mike and his wife Amy. All of our kids are roughly the same age and played nicely together.

Family Tree

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on painting a Family Tree on Victoria and Bella's bedroom wall. I think it turned out pretty good.

Rain Forrest Cafe

We went to the Rain Forrest Cafe this past weekend. It was really fun. The kids enjoyed sitting next to a giant fish tank and named their favorite fish. Victoria was so happy that she was dancing. Bella enjoyed watching the apes come on every so often and trying to copy them as they swung at their chests and made funny sounds. It was very entertaining. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed an Oktoberfest beer :)

Kindergarten Logic

Victoria- I want a boyfriend.
Mom- What? Why do you want a boyfriend?
Victoria- Because my friend has a boyfriend.
Mom- Well, if your friend had a pet alligator, would you want one too?
Victoria- No, but I would want a monkey.

What's been happening lately...

Victoria has gotten really good at her drawing lately. She will copy what she sees, including all the little details- a great skill to have. Here she drew her toy doll Gretel.

Just downloaded some pictures from this month to my computer. Here's a sampling. When Victoria goes to school, Bella and I will sometimes play outside (in the morning before it's too hot.) She enjoys the monkey swing, or maybe just acting like a monkey.

We had a ton of rain this month. Bella loved playing with her new umbrella.


I had posted previously about my "Diva Night Party." Here I am getting ready. It was really nice of Jer to take the girls to Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dick's house to play with their cousins while I leisurely got ready. I painted my toenails a glittery metallic magenta and finished reading a neat thriller called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Carol and Dick got a new mattress and gave us their old one (very nice.) So we set our old mattress in the dining room and let the girls jump to their hearts content. They showed us some of their new gymnastic moves. (They're taking gymnastics on Wednesdays now.)

Cousins playing with Grandma Carol's shoes.

I took some pictures of Victoria for Grandma Carol's picture frame. The last one she has was of Victoria at the beginning of the last school year- she looks so different now, especially with her bangs pulled back.

Diva For the Night

Last Saturday my friends Chris and Joni threw an awesome "Diva Party." I got all dolled up (even bought a hot pink boa- FYI- those things are very hot and shed profusely), got to try some yummy martinis, dished with the girlies, and was even able to get some dancing in. FUN!