Ellie's 3rd Birthday Party

I'm so sorry I have been behind on my posts. It has been a busy summer filled with long nights. The poor kids have been up for the last 5 nights until almost 10:00! Today I'm hoping they each take a nap to make up for less and much needed sleep.

So here is a post about Miss Ellie's Birthday. I know her birthday was at the beginning of June, but I wanted to share the two special birthday celebrations we had for her! :)

For the actual day of her birthday we spent the weekend at Chevy's parents in Michigan. Nana and Grandpa had a very special cake for Ellie made by Auntie Renee's boyfriend, Nate's, mother. Ellie just loves Strawberry Shortcake and that is what she asked for her b-day. Isn't it such a sweet cake?

Ellie got to keep the doll in the middle.

Here is precious Avielle eating her cupcake!

We had a fun weekend with the family and a fun celebration for Ellie. Thanks Nana, Grandpa, Auntie Renee, Mr. Nate, Auntie Rachelle, and Mr. Matt!

I can't believe my little one is 3! I took her for her 3 year old appointment and she is between 10%-15% in height! I think she is going to be short like her mommy! Ha! The doctor was amazed at her vocabulary and all the songs she sang! She really had a fun time at her appointment and I think she was enjoying just mommy and her time! The 4 shots didn't even affect her!?!

The 2nd party we had towards the end of June at my parent's house for a swim party. Ellie had a second amazing cake made by my friend, Esther. If you want to see her site on Facebook it is called Essie's Sweets. It was truly an amazing cake and the talk of the party!

We did the Strawberry Shortcake theme.

I took my strawberry hanging baskets out of my garden and used them as center pieces.

We did water bottles filled with little treats as their goody bags.

Ellie was so excited about her cake! Here she is in her strawberry outfit.

My mom bought all the cousins matching strawberry outfits. We are missing Katie Mae for the picture!

We served pizza and salad.

Aunt Jamie, Aunt Jenny, and Penny

After dinner we went for a swim! Here is Chevy and Ellie

Me and my sweeties!

For her birthday a group of friends went in on a piano!!!!!

Of coarse lots of hugs at the end! What a great Birthday party!

The Answer!

Here is the answer to why I had this terrified look on my face, from my last post! Good guesses Meeghan, Elizabeth, and Theresa! This slide was super high and Ellie went up to the top and wouldn't come down. Then I went up to get her and it was too hard to go back down the stairs so I took her kicking and screaming to the edge of the slide and then I freaked from looking down the slide. We went and I was terrified! This slide usually has water rushing down it and I can't imagine how fast you would slide!
Here is Anderson going down!

Avi and Anderson just loved it!

Anderson and his neighbor buddy Dylon!

Our neighbor had a fundraiser for Breast Cancer, it is called Alice Mazzola Foundation in honor of his mother. Each year they have a cook out with silent auctions and fun activities for the whole family. He also owns Bella Bouncies and we get to play in all the bouncies.

Daniella and Riley

We had a fun family day together!

What a Face?!

What are these faces about? Make a guess and I will tell soon! :)

Cool Dude!

I just love his pretty eyes and cool dude look!

Annual Trinity Cub's Game!

For the past 3 years we have gone to the annual Trinity Alumni Cub's game. If you are alumni from Trinity you must come next year!!!!!! It is a fun event and it is usually in May. The first year we went Ellie was just born and it was our first outing leaving her with my parents. The next year we went on our anniversary and made a night by staying in Chicago.

Before the annual Trinity Alumni event started, we had a tradition of going to the Cub's game each year with our friends the Domiers. Our first year Bella was 6 months and I was very pregnant with Anderson. This year Vince was unable to come, so Brynn came in his place. Brynn is 3 years old and she did a super job sitting. It was extremely cold at the game. They were giving away free ice cream. That is what Barclay is holding up in the above picture. I don't know how, but Brynn and Ryan ate their ice cream in the freezing cold! Barclay and I preferred the hot chocolate!

Barclay and me (bummed the pic was fuzzy!)

Brynn with her ice cream!

Last Day of School!

This is the three of them, Anderson, Mackenzie, and Avi at their first day of preschool.

This is Anderson and Avielle with their teacher Miss Amy at their last day of preschool.

The girls are showing their pictures.

They have learned and grown so much this year! They can now write their alphabet and they know the sounds of their letters.

Who can forget this sweet stuff. Ellie is just a year behind her brother and sister in school. She could technically go to preschool this year, but having 3 kids in preschool is just crazy financially. Of coarse Ellie and I will be doing activities during the year. She already knows all of her alphabet letters!

Butterflies!

I was inspired to do this fun activity from Ms. Gates, a wonderful teacher who taught 1st grade at NSCA. I taught 2nd grade and she was a real helper and a good friend to me during my first year of teaching. Her class had a lot of fun watching the change from catepillar to butterfly and I wanted my kids to experience it.

My mother purchased the net for the kids for Christmas. She has a funny story about how hers hatched, in the box!

Avi was the most excited about the butterflies!
Here they are in the Chrysalis stage.

We let their wings dry for about a week and then we let them free.

I thought that Avi would have a hard time letting go of the butterflies, but she did really good.

Avi did her hair that day! :)

So beautiful!

We let them go on this picture perfect day! It was sunny and warm. While I was admiring the beauty outside I realized there were a lot of birds flying all around us. I then thought what if one of these birds sees the butterflies and wants a snack! We let all 4 of them go and followed them around for a while and then I decided to get the girls inside before we saw our beautiful butterflies become a snack. Thankfully we didn't see them get eaten!

After I shared this story with a friend she told me that most butterflies only live 10 minutes after they are released! YIKES!