Time with Daddy

Then it was little sister's turn for a UCLA football date with Daddy.

Dressed up and ready to go!

They were sent off with one simple request: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WERE THEY TO BUY ANY STUFFED ANIMALS OF ANY KIND.

I thought I made myself pretty clear.  One day I will show you what the girls' beds look like.

Phil sent me this pic after they got to the game:

YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!


Half an hour later came this pic with the following text:

Can we go now?


Then ten minutes after that:

IS IT TIME TO GO YET?!?!?


Ha ha.

The Day She Turned Five

Like I said in the last post, we celebrated Lauren's fifth birthday a week before her actual birthday.  That's not to say we didn't do a little somethin' somethin' on her actual day, though.

So this is what she looked like on the actual day she turned five.  Not too much different than the week before, if you ask me.  She picked out what she wanted to wear on her big day.  Even though we stayed home for most of it.

This is what she looked like when she spotted her daddy once he came home from work.  Standing next to the table with her birthday cake and presents. (Quick aside- wherever Lauren is, her pillow is sure to be underfoot. Unless it's under her head.)

First a hug for her favorite guy in the whole wide world.  While eyeing her cake and presents.

I have no idea why he chose this as her birthday cake.  Other than it being the perfect size for the six of us.

This is when her daddy asked her how old she is now.

This is her watching her daddy's silly antics.

This is her enduring us singing to her.

And blow!

Last one!

Well, at least he picked pink icing for the writing.  Still, I'm a bit...  ???

Fielding requests for certain parts of her birthday bird cake.

One last look before...

it was time to dive in.

And because she only turns five once, we let her and her sibs have cake before dinner.  Dinner that night was at Chuck E. Cheese.  Her choice.


Happy birthday, my little love. 

Lauren turns 5!

Ahhhh!  So much to catch up on!  It's amazing how much fun can be packed into a summer when one isn't in the midst of moving or growing a baby or nursing a baby or some combination of the three.  It's been great, but uh, I could also use a teeny, tiny little break from all the fun-having to sleep for the next several weeks and it would all be even so much better...

Just sayin.

But fun waits for no man so onward we must go!

So last month, this girl went and turned into a five-year-old.

WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

*Ahem.  Excuse me.  Change is not my forte.*

And because she insisted on acknowledging her birthday instead of being content staying as a four-year-old, we brought her here.

She was excited.  I'm told birthdays can do that to a girl.  ;)

This lunch was all things sweet and girly.  She invited her big sister to come.  And the boys got to stay at a friend's house for the afternoon.  All were happy with this arrangement.

I brought the girls a little party favor to look through/work on while they ate.

She was in heaven.

The restaurant also had a party favor for them, too!

Seriously. Girl heaven.

A very lovely lunch for the four of us.  Six if you count their dolls.

Then out came her cake!

I guess that makes it official.  She's officially five now.  Actually, we took her out a week before her birthday because Phil had that day off.  So she was still four then.  But this all happened a month ago, so she really is officially five now.  Following me?

Either way, I'm not sure I'm into this whole Lauren-growing-up thing.

Because I would hang on to her little baby-ness and hug her and squeeze her and love her forever if I could.  I will love her forever but she may not let me hug her and squeeze her forever much longer.

And to that, I say, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

But.  I'm willing to celebrate her turning five if it makes her this happy.  I guess.

And don't even get me started on how big and sweet and lovely my Allie-baby is now.  I just cannot even go there.

Daddy brought along a special birthday surprise for Lauren, too.  The whole set of Sugar Rush racers from Wreck It Ralph.

It was the perfect birthday lunch for this girl and her sister.

We even wore our matching mother-daughter-daughter pink shoes special for the occasion!

Happy, happy birthday darling daughter of mine.  You are completely precious to us and we thank God everyday for you.  Like I tell each of the kids, even when you're a hundred, you'll still always be my baby.  Love you, sweet girl.

Preschool Mom's Day

So earlier this month, Lauren's preschool had a special mom's day.  With a little juggling around, I was able to go with no other kids tagging along.  Lauren began referring to it as our special mommy date as soon as she heard that it would just be the two of us.

Happy to grab these little one-on-one times which so often are few and far between.

Our school date involved coloring with scented markers.  As all proper school dates should.

It also included story time.

And a puppet show!

She was equal parts riveted.

And silly.

And it ended with lunch- which is always a good thing in my book.

Love my girl and love that it got to be just us two this time.

Her Half Birthday

Sometime back in September or October, Lauren's teacher noticed that she has a summer birthday and so asked me if I'd like to bring in treats on an alternate day during the school year.  She suggested doing perhaps a half-birthday celebration.  I readily agreed since that would put it in mid-January, well before birthday season kicks me into high gear in the spring.  I figured that the window after Christmas and before our rapid-fire birthdays would give me enough time and sanity to pull something special together for Lauren.

And it was all good in the hood.

So good in fact, that I completely forgot ALL about it.  So her mid-January date came and went without any ado whatsoever.

Mother of the year, right here.

So I sheepishly asked for another date and got the very next preschool day.  Which was a Friday.

So I scrambled a bit and made these for her birthday treats.  Potted flower cups, also known as dirt cups.

In seemingly unrelated news, January was also "community month" and the preschoolers were learning about different jobs people do.

And look who volunteered to come in and talk about his job?  (Never mind that it was February 1st and not technically "community month" any longer.)

There was first a little discussion about what a doctor does.

And sharing their vast knowledge about going to the doctor's office.

Then it was time to suit up because with a wave of his hand, Dr. Phil had magically turned their classroom into an operating room.

Because poor Mr. Bear is hurt and needs help fast!

Better check to make sure the stethoscope is working properly.

Good thing big brother was there to assist.  Whew, looks like Mr. Bear is going to make a full recovery.

They decided their teacher had several owies that needed bandaging up.

Testing out the gas mask.

Aw, I think he had just as much fun as they did.  Even though he was up the entire previous night at work and was running on fumes by this point.

Then it was time.

She was just a teensy bit excited.

She dove right in but others weren't sure their moms would like them eating dirt.  Even the teacher initially thought I had brought real potted flowers for each kid to take home.  A couple of the boys asked the teacher to wash the dirt off so they could eat the gummy worm.  They weren't going to let a little thing like dirt keep them from the gummy goodness.

They caught on soon enough though and we were saved from being that family who brought in dirt for birthday treats.

Overall, I think she had a marvelous not-exactly-half-birthday celebration.

Love this girl.