Let's Hear it for 7!

Last week my little guy, Noah, turned a whole 7 years old! 

So essentially that means that we have been parents for 7 years now...what the whaaaat? I swear I was just in labor with this kid. Not that I will ever forget the labor and deliveries of any of my children (at least I hope I don't!) but this little dude's seems the most memorable just because it was my first birthing experience.

From the first contraction until he was in my arms was all of 3 hours. 3 hours and two pushes and he was out a minute before midnight. I guess he reeeeally wanted his birth date!

7 is a pretty cool age so far. We love the young man you are becoming. You are an amazing reader, you can literally pick up any book and read it with ease...this amazes me still because, hello, how did you even learn to read? Every night you read a chapter from your Bible, I think it is so awesome and totally something you want to do on your own. Your goal is to finish the whole book. You love school and you are really good at math too. You are a rule follower...unless you are at home, haha. You love trying new sports and you love being active and outside. You love to draw and write and you already wrote and illustrated your very first book called, The Lonely Cheese. We will keep it forever!

You are a great big brother. All of your siblings look up to you and will do whatever crazy idea you come up with. They adore you through and through. Oliver, even though he is only 17 months old, will try his hand at wrestling you any time he sees you laying on the floor. It is soooo cute. And you are always so gentle with him.

You are exactly how God wanted you to be. We love you so much and are glad he placed you in our care. I hope this year is your best yet. We will love you forever, Noah Bear!!!

XOXO,

Eloise's First Day of Preschool!

Oh My Heck. Is it truly possible that my little Eloise started Preschool last week? Yup, she did. She really did. 

Waaaaaaaaaaah! (that is totally me crying and not her...she did awesome. Clif and I expected a few tears from her but nope, she was a total rockstar).

At morning drop off she ran out of the car and up to her teachers without even batting an eye. She only looked back because I was yelling out to her so I could blow here a kiss. Her sweet teachers had her turn around and she lifted up her cute little hand and waved back to me her classic little Ellie wave, a wave like the Queen of England would do, all fingers stuck together with palm slightly bent. :-)

Our traditional First Day of School measurements were taken. This child grew an inch and a half since her birthday in July, seriously, not even two months ago! No wonder all her tops and bottoms have been too short.

Ever since her big brother and sister started school she has been so excited to go to school too. She picked out her own backpack back in August and every morning since big kid school started she would put it on to walk down to the bus stop with Noah and Penny. Let me tell you, I almost put her on the bus more than once because of it, haha!

 {Tree Pose--look ma no hands!}

 {mosquito bite gone wild...are any of your kids allergic to mosquito bite? Ellie gets crazy swollen!}

Oh, Ellie Bellie. You are my third child to head off to school and leave me. I hope you keep loving school, learning, singing, and playing with your new friends. Now it's just me and Oliver a few days a week. How weird is that? I am sad my older three aren't with me every day but I am excited to get some precious one on one time with my baby.  So far it's been so fun to see his personality when he is by himself :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

The One Where They Go to Full Day School

Oh me, oh my! Last week school officially started for my two oldest littles.  I still cannot believe it. I have two kids in full day school now, what the heck happened to my babies who used to play with me all day long?!? 

Noah started first grade and, as we do at the beginning of each school year, we measured him from top to bottom. Since the end of school last June (in just 3 months time) he grew over an inch, gained a few pounds and grew a shoe size! I'm sure it won't be long before he is taller than me, sigh.

Just look at that face! So grown up...he is definitely not the little baby I used to rock to sleep re-telling my memorized version of Goodnight Moon. He's lost 6 teeth since last being in school and is finally growing the front four in, poor kid couldn't eat corn off the cob all summer!

When he got off the bus, we were all so darn excited to see him...8 hours is a long time! We surprised him by spraying him with silly string and popped a bunch of giant party poppers to celebrate the end of his first official day of full day school.  I asked him what his favorite parts of his day were and like the boy he is he said, lunch and recess, ha!

Penny started her first day of kindergarten the day after Noah.  In Chicago, they always have the kindergarteners start the day after the big kids so they can acclimate to school without so much chaos.

This girl was so excited to be riding the bus to school that for a week before school started she would tell us how very excited she was! And on the actual first day of school she woke us up at 5:30 in the morning to tell us that this, indeed, was the day she would get to ride the bus for the very first time!

We were lucky that Penny was assigned the same kindergarten teacher that Noah had last year, she is truly one of the best teacher's, so sweet and loving. She gave Penny a huge hug on orientation day telling her how excited she was to see her name on her class list and that literally made Penny's day, month, and year! :-)

She loved every bit of school.  I knew she would. She came home and immediately started pulling books off the shelf to play school with Ellie and Oliver.  She made them sit on the floor while she sat on a little chair and read them books holding them up like a teacher would do. She cracks me up.

This week Eloise starts her first year of preschool...eek! I am excited for her yet slightly nervous as she is such a tender sweet soul. She will hug us for days my sweet baby. So the first day might be a challenge for her. Wish us luck and send us lots of prayers!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Five Years Big.

Today my little girlie girl, Penelope, turns a whole year older.  Sigh. Where did the time go.  Was it really 5 years ago that we welcomed her into this world? That I held her tiny little 6 lb 9 oz body and ooh-ed and ahh-ed at her beautiful and sweet little face, never wanting to let her our of my sight.

This little girl, how I love her so. She is such a good kid. She loves, loves, loves all things princess, pink, and purple. She is currently trying to grow her hair to be long like Rapunzel's...the sign of a true princess is in their hair you know.  She asks daily for me to measure her hair to see if it grew any longer while she was sleeping. She loves brushing it and braiding it and definitely loves her headbands.

She is the best big AND little sister around.  She loves playing anything and everything with her big brother.  And drawing and writing things our for her little sister, she is just like a little teacher. She loves to take care of her little brother too, I think she will make a great babysitter when she is older, she makes sure he is watched if he is on the stairs, she sings to him while I change his diaper so he doesn't squirm and try to escape, and she loves to play peek-a-boo with him and get him giggling so hard.

Five.  I still can't believe it. What is it about your children's birthdays? I love them because I get to celebrate the birth of my babies, reliving how they came into this world. And I love that I get to enjoy a whole new year of experiences with them.  It is so much fun to watch them grow and learn new things.  But dang, birthdays are so bittersweet too aren't they? It makes me sad all at the same time as it's another year bigger and sassier, and closer to driving a car, and having a boyfriend, and not wanting to give me a hug and a kiss. Geesh.

Oh little Miss P. How I love you so. We love you so. You were the perfect addition to our family 5 years ago. What a joy these last 4 years have been.  I feel blessed each and every day that God put you in our care. You truly were sent from above.

I cannot wait to see what this year unfolds for you...starting full day Kindergarten, riding the bus, lunches at school.  It's a big world out there and I know you are going to rock it! We love you so, so very much!! 

XOXO,

Happy 3rd Birthday Eloise!!

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Last week my little lady Eloise turned a big 3 years old. It still seems a bit unreal that she is 3!  3??? I know the math is right but it just doesn't seem possible that she has been a part of our family for three years already.

{Enjoying her birthday crown that big sister made for her!}

This little girl is such a light in our lives.  She is a hugger and a kisser and just loves with all her heart.

Literally, every day (and multiple times a day at that) she says this to us...

"I love dah, I love momma, I love No-No, I love Peh-ie, I love Ah-bur, I love E!"

Translation...I love Dad, I love Mom, I love Noah, I love Penny, I love Oliver, I love Olivia (our doggie whom we all call "E" thanks to Noah's toddler-ese back in the day!)

She loves to play with her babies and she will play for hours on end. She has the most elaborate baby set-ups I've ever seen.  Feeding schedules, diaper changes, clothing changes, bedtime routines, she has it all down pat and takes it all so seriously, what a good momma she will make one day!

And yet at the other end of the spectrum she is my one child that I like to call my "hot mess". She loves to get down and dirty and do the craziest things like go full body diving into a pool just filled with freezing water straight from the hose. She will roll around in dirt and sand and wash her hair in it if she has her way. If there were dirty finger nail and toe nail awards they would go to her hands down. She cracks us up every day this child of mine.

She definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer and we love her so much for that! What a blessing from above she is!!

Oh Eloise, how we love you so much! You are now THREE!!! You have learned so much in three short years and I am excited to see what you will continue to learn each and every day. What a fun year you have ahead of you starting preschool this fall!  What will I do with myself without my Ellie Bellie to keep me company at home?

Thank you God for sharing this little soul with us! We are so thankful she is a part of our family!

XOXO,

Oliver's First Birthday Invitation--Free Printable

I wanted to share the invitation I made for Oliver's First Birthday party (seen here) with y'all today.  I created it over at Picmonkey, I just love that site and all their photo editing options! 

I made the invitation using bold circus style stripes with the classic circus colors of red, aqua, and yellow that I designed his party around. Of course, under the "Where" section I put our address...it's ok to leave that stuff off of the inter webs, right?  Riiiight!

If you are throwing a circus party any time soon and would like to use this invitation just click on the picture above for the free blank printable and save it to your desktop.  You can then upload it to Picmonkey or Photoshop or any other photo editing software you are handy with and add in your child's name and all the vital party info in any font of your choosing! I printed all our invitations out over at Vistaprints...the are so easy peasy to work with :-)

I also created these fun labels for Oliver's goodie bags over on Picmonkey too!  You can do so much on that site...LOVE! For these labels, I uploaded them to Avery and printed them off on round Avery labels similar to what I did for Eloise's First Birthday party here.

Okie dokie, hope you are having a swell day!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Oliver's First Birthday: A Circus Party!

As many of you already know, my little guy, Oliver, turned a whole ONE year old in June and we threw him a fun Circus-themed birthday party to celebrate him in style! I'm finally getting his birthday party post up, man, summer just keeps getting busier and busier (ya feel me!) So here is a look at his big day and some of the fun we had!  We had around 50 people come and help us celebrate him (!!) we are so very thankful to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives!

We decided to throw him a Circus Party as Oliver is just such a fun lovin' little dude! The colors were red, aqua blue, and yellow...classic Big Top colors!

With any Big Top Circus lots of stripes were in order!

And we had to have lots of circus-themed food too!  

Cotton candy? Check!  

Hot dogs? Check!

Fresh popped popcorn? Check!

Circus Peanuts? Check!

Animal Cracker?  Check and done!

Don't these foods just scream CIRCUS!

I bought sweet little striped favor bags in circus colors here on Etsy and filled them with animal crackers for the kids' goodie bags.  I made the stickers on my computer to match his invitations...I'll share those with you another day!

We also had a whole table of fun things to play with and also to add to the goodie bag take home fun...self-stick adhesive mustaches (bought here) for everyone (think Strong Man!), cute circus animal face masks (found in the Michaels' Dollar Spot), foam red clown noses (bought here), and giant clown sunglasses.  These were all a huge hit with everyone, adults and kids alike, I'm so glad I went a bit overboard with the decor!

 If you follow me on Instagram you saw Penelope getting a little pre-party cray-cray!

Here's a peek at the table...also included was a super delicious Strawberry Lemonade made with freshly picked strawberries...mmm, so good!

I had to have some red stripey straws...and toy circus animal decor too! ;-)

Here are the other two tables in our screened in porch.  Food...and more food!

I found these awesome and totally coordinating napkins at Ikea...did I ever tell you how much I loved Ikea?

We also offered an amazing Pulled Pork thanks to my awesome sister, Annie! Watermelon slices, coleslaw, macaroni, hotdogs served up in these fun insulated foil bags, chips, and cotton candy in treat cones (template found here).

I had another table set up with freshly popped popcorn...Yum!  I think the popcorn boxes totally made this area a huge hit, the kiddos LOVED them!

I bought store-bought cupcakes (and a smash cake for the little dude) and put them in fun striped cupcake holders.

We were having lots of little ones come to the party so we had a piñata and a bounce house for entertainment as they are always a blast.

I decided to create some cute candy bags for the kids to put their candy in after the piñata was smashed.  I used red striped favor bags and then stamped "Candy 'Stache" on them...get it....mustache = stash!?!?  Har Har!

Oliver just loved hitting the piñata with me! See how proud he looks! And that little round belly of his...gah, so cute!

Noah was the kid that ended up smashing all the candy out of the piñata. I can't believe I actually got a picture of that!

The kids went wild....

It took him a while but Oliver finally got into the actual "smash" part of the cake smash!

I'm so sad that my baby is now ONE, I mean where oh where did this past year go!!  Do y'all remember when he was born (click here to read about it)!  That teeny little 6 lb 10 oz baby is now one, ONE!

I also need to say thank you to all our friends and family, especially my momma and my sister and her husband who timed their travels to Chicago just to be a part of Oliver's party. We are so happy to have such loving people in our lives and to be a part of a his life and to be there for us as we navigate parenthood, cause dang it can be hard! We thank God everyday that He has given us such an amazing and awesome child to care for, he really is the best little boy we could ever ask for!

Thank you so much for stopping by today...I hope this post wasn't picture overkill!  I couldn't help it, this party was just so much fun to plan and there are so many good memories as I look back at all the pictures!

XOXO,