Green day & birthday chapel

March was green month...no biggie, right? Unless of course your day to celebrate your birthday at Chapel falls on green day when you'd prefer to wear pink. Cupcake is an excellent problem solver so she managed to wear green, wear pink, AND her birthday grown and STILL look beautiful. Oh how I love this precious sweetie!

Here we are at home...you know the drill: snap a color day picture, let Cutie Pie jump in for her color day pic:

Then we got to school and Cupcake got a birthday crown to wear to chapel!

Cupcake's teachers are so sweet and understanding of Cutie Pie's desire to be in school. They invited her to sit with the class for her sissy's birthday chapel: 

They get to go on stage for their birthday and everyone sings to them: 

And then they get to pick a prize out of the birthday bag:

For your birthday week at school, you get to provide a treat for snack time. The standard is cupcakes, donuts, cookies....but when I asked cupcake what she would like she was specific: "How about something healthier. Could we do an apple cinnamon muffin? But could you make it pretty?" 

How do you say no to that? I was so proud that my girl actually WANTED a healthier treat. Additionally, one of her teachers is gluten free and doesn't get to enjoy the birthday treats so I took it a step further and made Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins....with a touch of pretty on top. My Cupcake was thrilled, I was proud of her choices....a win/win kind of day. 

As they sing at school, "God's blessings to you," birthday girl! 

A special birthday

 Remember these two precious babies?

Well here they are 4 years later....

I feel like I've blinked. Joshua is growing into an amazing little boy. He is thoughtful, fun, energetic, creative, and loves to be with friends. It is so dear that after all these years these two are still very special friends. Joshua wanted to celebrate his birthday at Sea World this year and invited one friend....our Cupcake to join the fun. How could we turn down the offer? We had an awesome weekend with our friends. I managed to get a few pictures on my phone but hold even sweeter memories in my heart.

Happy Birthday, Joshua! Thanks for sharing your special weekend with us!

School party

The school Valentine's party was on a Wednesday which meant Cutie Pie and I would get to start the day in chapel with Cupcake. This was also the day before I got sick with strep...so we were all still festive and excited about Valentine's day. 

Here's Cupcake ready for school in her shirt from Nana: 

They do a great job with the Chapel service each week. Here they are hearing the bible story for the week: 

Normally Cutie Pie sits with me in the pews. We watch the kids come in, we watch all of chapel, we watch the kids go out, and then we head home. With each passing week though Cutie Pie wants more and more to be with the kids. On this special day, Cupcake's sweet teachers invited her to do just that....come be with the kids. They are the sweetest teachers!

The lighting is terrible with the sun coming in but....it took Cutie Pie all of 2 minutes to realize that she was being invited up to make a bee-line for a lap where the action is. She was so happy to be part of school!

Valentine's prep

As soon as Daddy's birthday was behind us it was time to focus on Valentine's Day and the coming parties!

Cupcake was very excited to make her own Valentines for her friends at school. Of course glitter was a necessity. She worked diligently making sure no two were exactly alike but all were sufficiently sparkly. I was so proud of her work. 

Here's the lot of them with lollipops attached!

One of cupcake's teachers is gluten free. So I had to go to a old time favorite for their Valentine's treat. If my brother was closer, he'd have gotten a batch of these peanut butter balls. Like cupcake, I enjoy a little "pizzazz" so my V-day balls had pink, red, and white sprinkles. 

Someone else wanted in on the festivities....though PINK eye is not what I would have chosen. 

Poor baby had sad goopy eyes almost all week leading up to Valentine's day. It looked like it was going to be behind us in time for the big day....but it transferred to Mommy...via strep throat. So the girls got lots of hugs and snuggles from Daddy on Valentine's day while Mommy hugged and snuggled the pillow while trying not to swallow. 

The last of a decade

Someone recently had a birthday.
It was someone's last in this decade.
I think he makes 29 look good, don't you?

We had a fun day celebrating Dad. We picked him up from work for a little lunch out. It was quick, simple, but we were together...and we sang in public. Then we came home and prepared his favorite dinner, made from scratch brownies, and homemade ice cream. We were so excited to honor the most amazing father, husband, and not-29-year old we know.

Happy Birthday Captain Crack. We're so proud to call you ours.

Red Day

Red was a perfect color choice for this month's color day at school, don't you agree? 

Of course Cutie Pie knows the drill and want to be just like big sissy. She joined in the red too: 

But a sister picture wasn't enough. She wanted her very own red day picture too: 

Then big hugs...because they really do love each other. 

Red day was so cute! I can't believe we have only a few colors left until summer. 

Busy, busy, busy

Someone around here is busy, busy, busy. 

Since learning to walk, she has really started to show another side of her personality. She's busy!

Cutie Pie likes to multitask, likes to unpack bags and boxes, likes to make instruments out of all kinds of things, likes to play dress up, likes to climb, likes to play chase (really you chase her), and likes to have snacks. 

Here is one example where she is playing princess dress up while shopping with her shopping cart basket, while eating a carrot. (I told you about multitasking, right?)

She's on the move to find some stuff to put in her basket....

On another night I let her play with my farmers market bag. Hmm...girl loves to shop. Watch out, Daddy :)