How cute is my nephew? I mean, seriously, this kid is too much!
family fun
happy birthday, grace!
Gracie finally, FINALLY got her birthday party yesterday. Her party was canceled by Hurricane Irene (Remember that? It was a long time ago… its been a long month.)
We had pizza, made ice cream sundaes, and had a moonbounce!
This is our rainbow cake. It was pretty cool.
If you think that it looks like its about to fall over, you’d be right. Seconds after this picture was taken, that whole side flipped off and landed on the counter. Cake making is not one of my gifts. I really should have known better – but the directions looked really easy. I need to just accept this shortcoming and move on with my life.
Happy birthday, Gracie girl.
Don’t grow up too quick.
touch-a-truck
Like most boys, Colin has the Truck Gene. The gene that has teeny tiny babies making noises like “VrrrrOOOOMMM!” and gives them the ability to tell the difference between a bulldozer and a crane before they can differentiate between yellow and green. So Touch-A-Truck was a thrill, to say the least.
Born to be WILD!
fun with dinosaurs
We had to celebrate Colin being well somehow… what better way than DINOSAURS at The Academy of Natural Sciences (one of our favorite places to take the kids in Philadelphia)!!
RAWRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
We went digging for fossils…
Met all sorts of interesting creatures…
And generally had fun together…
And of course, no trip to Philly is complete without a stop at a food truck!
Barbie Charm School
Last week my girls went to Charm School courtesy of Barbie. They were so so super excited. We had scheduled it for a few weeks ago, but it got canceled thanks to a little rainstorm called Hurricane Irene. Meanwhile, Grace was asking every 5 minutes since we had to cancel it when we were going to have it. She was dying – DYING – to see what was in the huge box marked Barbie Princess Charm School
We turned our playdate in to a Charm School party!! The girls set the table for their friends with the adorable pink and orange plates and napkins we picked out.
We had these cute placemats to guide them. My girls set the table every night, but they still struggle with where to put the silverware.
Before we served our cupcakes (because one simply cannot have a princess party without cupcakes, according to Gracie) and pink lemonade (because princesses ONLY drink pink drinks, according to Gracie), we had a lesson in manners.
We practiced asking for things politely “Would you please pass the strawberries, Ellie?” “Yes, Gracie, I would love to!” “Why, thank you!” “You are so very welcome!”
If only every dinnertime could be so pink and polite.
Gracie was the official hostess, so she poured the pink lemonade.
Ellie was the big girl at the party (being in third grade now) so she read off the manners checklist and made sure we covered everything.
After the party, I opened the last surprise in the box…. BARBIES!!
We can’t wait to see Barbie Princess Charm School
We love Barbie movies and I’m sure this one will be no different. We’ll have to watch it wearing our tiaras. We passed on the Charm School placemats to Ellie’s brownie troop – they’re working on their etiquette badge this month and are learning table manners and how to set the table. Perfect!
disclosure: we were provided with supplies for the party from One2One network. As always, all opinions are my own.
baltimore grand prix
On Friday we went down to Baltimore to see the Baltimore Grand Prix. It was so exciting – we’ve had tickets for like nine months, so this has been a long time coming.
Our gorgeous hotel was right on the race track:
Luckily we could see the action from our room, since Colin got sick again on Friday night and spent the whole time in our room 🙁 He still had a BLAST on Saturday, though, cheering for the cars through the window.
It was amazing.
We even got to meet some drivers! Colin was in awe. AWE!!
with #9 Anders Krohn - notice Colin cannot take his eyes off him!
The girls were cheering hard for Danica, yelling “Girl Power!!!”
We had to leave on Saturday, so we didn’t get to see any actual races, but it was so much fun while we were there! I hope we can go back next year… when we’re not sick. We’ll definitely stay at the Hilton Baltimore again – it was gorgeous and it was SO fun staying inside the race track!!
First Day of School!!!
yesterday i fell in love with a boy
His name is Marcus and he is my newest nephew. Isn’t he handsome?
In mere seconds, he captured our hearts…
We wore him out…
t-minus 7 days
School starts one week from today. I’m having mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m ready to kick them out the door… but on the other hand, where did summer go? My kids are panicking. They’ve been home exactly 6 days the entire month of August, so they’re feeling a little pressed for time to do everything they wanted to this summer.
I’m feeling panicked that we still need haircuts, new shoes, school supplies, and all the other back-to-school essentials. I was sitting last night making my to-do list and taking deep breaths as I looked at how much we have to do this week. Oh well. I guess it wouldn’t be back to school if it wasn’t insane, right?
This weekend, my sister and I headed into NYC with just the girls for a little girl’s getaway. We had so much fun – they loved Times Square. We could have spent all day there. Then we headed to the Harry Potter Exhibit, which was so cool. Sorry for the horrible cell phone picture – they don’t allow cameras into the exhibit, so we just got a quick phone picture on the way out!
Then we headed to the American Girl Store, so Grace could fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a real American Girl doll. After much deliberation, she picked out Ruthie. And she has barely put her down since she got her. She wants everyone to know that she wants more American Girl clothes for her birthday, thank you.
It was a fun escape before what is sure to be an exhausting week before school! I feel like we’re starting really early, though. When do your kids start?
i need a vacation
We’ve had too much vacation. Since August 1st – in numbers –
9: number of states we’ve been to. BY CAR.
1,500: approximate number of miles driven
2: number of family reunions attended
50: number of family members visited with
6: number of times we ate fast food while driving.
5: number of different beds we slept in
3: number of times we watched Cars
13: numbers of hours my kids slept last night
We’re a little exhausted to say the least. We’re taking it easy this week. (Well, when we’re not going to blogging events and working like crazy.)
Until tomorrow, when the girls and I are going up to New York City with Nicole for a girls weekend! We’re so excited. American Girl Store and Harry Potter Exhibit, here we come!!