An Interview with Quinn...

Below is an interview with Quinn to document her favorites and her likes as she turns seven!

What is your favorite color?          Pink
What is your favorite toy?             American Girl Doll (McKenna)
What is your favorite fruit?            Apples
What is your favorite TV show?    Good Luck Charlie
What is your favorite outfit?           Dresses
What is your favorite game?          Skip-bo
What is your favorite snack?         Little Bites (blueberry muffins)
What is your favorite animal?        Unicorn
What is your favorite song?          Mean by Taylor Swift
What is your favorite book?         The Rainbow Fairies
Who is your best friend?                Annika and Gabby
What is your favorite food?          Chipped Beef on Toast
What is your favorite thing to do outside?       Swim
What is your favorite drink?         Mello Yellow
What is your favorite thing to take to bed?    Blankies
What is your favorite candy?         Jolly Ranchers
What is your favorite holiday?       My Birthday
What is your favorite season?     Summer
What is your favorite movie?       We Bought a Zoo

What do you want to be when you grow up?    An artist
The thing I do the best is...             Art
The coolest person on Earth is...      Mommy
Three words that describe me...     Dramatic, kind, and happy
One food I really do not like is...         Salad
One wish I have is....                      To see a real live dolphin

This is how I sign my name when I am 7....

Check back next year to see if Quinn still has the same likes and favorites!

#7...

Our Plum Squirt turned 7 years old today!  She has been looking forward to her birthday for quite some time, so it goes without saying that when I woke her up this morning, she had an instant smile on her face!

We started the day by going to the grocery store at 6:30 to pick up her birthday treats for her friends at school.  She has been dreaming of bringing donuts for her class, so that is what we did.

She opened some presents after that - apparently before a comb could even get through that hair!

She got new books - imagine that!  I have never seen someone so happy and content to get books for their birthday.

Here is the birthday girl in her birthday girl shirt....

After school, Quinn got to receive her final birthday gift.  Her face says how happy she was about her gift!

She got a new bike and had to take it for a spin.  Don't worry - she has already broken it in by wiping out a few times.

We celebrated her birthday this evening by going out to eat.  The birthday girl had a choice of any restaurant in this city and she chose Jimmy John's - a family favorite! We were thrilled when Grandma Jane asked us if she could join us!

Afterwards, we headed off to Cherry Berry for dessert, rather than having cake or cupcakes - Quinner's choice!

We sang Happy Birthday to Quinn and then she took the celebratory first bite!

Seven years - where did they go?!  So so so so hard to believe that my baby is not a baby anymore!

Happy Birthday Quinner Girl!  We love you more than you will ever, ever know!

Birthday, Birthday...

This past weekend was a weekend of celebration. We had our family to our house to celebrate Sullivan's 4th birthday and Quinn's 7th birthday.  The girls wanted a hot air balloon theme, so I spent countless hours creating the perfect cakes for them.... 

I really enjoy making their cakes for them every year- certainly a labor of love!  After the second cake was done though, I have to admit that I was relieved and happy. I think they turned out pretty well.

Here are both Quinn and Sullivan with their cakes. Sullivan has her traditional Easter Bunny and egg in her picture to signify her Easter birth.  

Blowing out their candles - always so much fun.

What party would be complete without some presents?!

Some of the guests at the party - we were so happy to have so many people that love the girls there to celebrate with us!  The girls are truly lucky.

Judson and Crew helped celebrate with us - we kept them up past their bedtimes, but they were absolute rock stars and were so much fun to be around!

As the night was drawing to a close, the boys found comfort in a familiar lap.  All three of them look so content!

The party was a huge hit!  The girls were spoiled beyond belief and it is always great to get family together!  Hard to believe how my babies are growing - despite my attempts and demands for them to stay little forever!

New Tradition...

GiGi came into town this weekend to see everyone and help celebrate the girls' birthdays.  Last time she was here the girls had a BLAST spending the night at her hotel with her, so it was only natural that the tradition must continue.

It goes without saying that the girls again had a great time sleeping over with GiGi.  They were up with the sun eating breakfast and hanging out.  We met the girls at the hotel in the morning along with Nana to watch them swim in the pool.

Here are the turkeys after they got out of the pool - drying off.  You can barely recognize these sweet, cute babies of mine!

 My cute turbanators...

It looks as though a new tradition has started - spending the night with GiGi when she comes.  We are thrilled that not only GiGi enjoys it, but Quinn and Sullivan do as well. Not many children can say they are able to spend the night with their great-grandmother. The girls are truly blessed.

An Interview with Sullivan....

The following is a short interview with the recent birthday girl, Miss Sullivan, to document her favorites and her opinions at four years old...

What is your favorite color?          Orange
What is your favorite toy?             Olivia the Pig
What is your favorite fruit?            Pomegranate
What is your favorite TV show?    Sofia the First
What is your favorite outfit?           Pajamas
What is your favorite game?          Stack the States (iPad app)
What is your favorite snack?         Fruit snacks
What is your favorite animal?        Monkey
What is your favorite song?          I May Never March in the Infantry
What is your favorite book?         Strawberry Shortcake
Who is your best friend?                Aubrey
What is your favorite food?          Chicken Nuggets
What is your favorite thing to do outside?       Swing
What is your favorite drink?         Water
What is your favorite thing to take to bed?    Blankies
What is your favorite candy?         Gum
What is your favorite holiday?       Christmas
What is your favorite season?     Spring
What is your favorite movie?       Disney's Brave

What do you want to be when you grow up?    Tattoo artist
The thing I do the best is...             Swimming lessons
The coolest person on Earth is...      Mommy
Three words that describe me...     Happy, Hungry, and Loving
One food I really do not like is...         Soup
One wish I have is....                      To go on the snow hill

This is how I sign my name when I am 4....

Check back next year to see how Sullivan Grace's answers change (or stay the same)....!

SGP's Big Day....

Sullivan Grace LOVED celebrating her 4th birthday. One could have predicted that she would enjoy it though.  For a couple of weeks leading up to her birthday, she asked daily (and sometimes more frequently than that) if it was her birthday tomorrow. So when the 11th of April came along, and the answer was "Yes, your birthday IS tomorrow!" one can imagine Sullivan's excitement!

She started the morning off opening some presents before anyone could even get the sleep out of there eyes. She got a Lalaloopsy doll, a funky looking doll that she has been talking about for some time now! (Yes, the clock in the background is correct.... 7:00 a.m. and opening presents already!)

Sullivan asked to pick out her clothes for her birthday, which given her lackadaisical disposition, scared me a bit.  I can't lie.  But overall, she did a pretty good job picking out her outfit.

This is the face of a very proud and happy four year old...

She opened a few more presents after supper....

...and got some pretty good gifts.  She got a Lalaloopsy puzzle, Lalaloopsy coloring books with new marks and crayons, and an arts and crafts kit from Quinn.  DO you see a theme?  It was a Lalaloopsy inspired birthday this year.

We enjoyed cupcakes for her birthday, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of her blowing out her candles because I was too busy taking video.  By the time I got around to taking a picture, she was tired of her cupcake and was on to the next thing...

To watch Sullivan as happy and content as she was on her birthday is to watch pure innocence.  She was as proud as a peacock to announce to random strangers and those she knows... "I am FOUR today!  It's MY birthday!!"  

And with the terrible weather that ripped through here, Sullivan's birthday (April 12) marked the third day in a row without school.  A record breaking, unprecedented event in our school district.  I can't remember a time, even in the history of my school career, that we had three school days off in a row because of the weather.  Who would have thought?!

On this Day in History....

What happened on this 102nd day of the year, April 12th, in history?!

* 1871 -  The Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

* 1877 - A catcher's mask was used in a baseball game for the first time by James Alexander Tyng. 

* 1934 - Highest velocity wind ever recorded on Mt. Washington, NH at 231 mph.

*1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63.

*1981 - The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, on its first test flight.

*1992 - Euro Disney, a 4 billion dollar theme park, opens outside of Paris, France.

*1999 - President Bill Clinton will  found in contempt of court for giving "intentionally false" testimony in a lawsuit about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

But the most important event in history that occurred on April 12th?!!?

*2009 - Sullivan Grace was born!  She was born in the evening, 5:01 p.m., on Easter Sunday.  She was absolutely perfect!

2013 - Sullivan Grace turned 4 years old.  She was extremely proud of her birthday and let EVERYONE know she was four years old today!

(More to come on her birthday festivities in the coming days....)

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!  Hope you had a great birthday!

Hee...Hee....Hee!

Can you hear the sound of Mother Nature laughing?!  She is laughing quite loud!

The view from our front window was frozen with a layer of very thick ice.  We couldn't even see out our window to check out the conditions.

Not only did the weather turn cold this week, but it dropped a load of ice and snow on us.  Power lines are down around the city and thousands of trees have fallen too.  Driving around town, it looks as though a tornado has ravaged the city.  

School has been called off both yesterday and today.  Tomorrow has yet to be determined.  It will depend on if the city can restore power to the remaining 21,000 people without electricity today and clear the 6 inches of snow that fell last night.  

Sullivan and Quinn are loving the weather.  They like that they can go outside and shovel and check out the big icicles. They don't care that it is April and that the flowers are supposed to be blooming and the grass turning green.  

Sullivan will spend her birthday this year among the snow and ice.  Hard to believe that an April 12th baby would ever come across that scenario.  Let's hope Mother Nature has dumped all that she has to dump and that spring finally arrives... and stays!  Quinn doesn't need to spend her birthday with the snow and ice too!