eight birthdays later

funny thing about birthdays, they really do happen every year. and every year i find myself wondering, how is it she is another year older?

well she is. caroline turned 8 in march and i still find myself asking where my baby went. 8! it is hard to swallow.

her 8th birthday party was a slumber party that included 2 cousins and 4 friends. 7 girls total may not sound like a lot, but believe me, when you are in thick of it 7 feels like 50! thankfully we had a lot of activities planned to keep them busy. and even with all the activities, they still found plenty of time for screams, messes, and a little chaos.

lb wearing the birthday shirt that her grandma made

yummy cake time! it was a cookie cake since

the birthday girl is not a fan of icing.

one of the party games... donuts on a string

we opted to not invest much in party favors. 

rather we had a face painter come over the 

next morning. it was a total hit with the girls.

Caroline at the age of 8:

• is in the 2nd grade
• loves to read A-Z mystery books
• is a katy perry fan and quickly becoming a kelly clarkson fan
• loves accessories
• loves to get pedicures
• loves to dance in the kitchen while we are cooking dinner
• goes to bed at 8:30 and wakes up at 6:30
• favorite food is ribs
• weighs 55 lbs
• wears a size 3.5 shoe
• is a super helpful, super sweet, big sister to hadley
• has lost a total of 10 teeth 
• is amazing at gymnastics
• makes me nervous with the flips she likes to do
• favorite tv show is austin and ally
• loves chewy candy like swedish fish, skittles, & gummie worms
• gets more toppings than yogurt at yogli mogli
• is very funny and has a great sense of humor
• does not like any of her clothes too tight
• likes ankle socks
• is obviously a pretty particular kid
• has a lot of friends
• is always the teachers pet
• plays with barbies and american girls
• plays hide and seek with her little sister
• favorite color is anything but pink

happy 8th birthday to the world's most amazing caroline!

thanks for always being such an involved, positive role model for your baby sister.

year one

we celebrated hadley's first birthday last sunday. 

HER FIRST BIRTHDAY!

time is strange like that. in the moment of hadley's many sicknesses and reflux episodes, time seemed to stand still. celebrating her first birthday made me realize that time has actually flown by. 

what a year it has been though.

a reminder of where we started a year ago

hadley has gone from a crier to a spitter to a smiler to a teether to a crawler to a stander to a giggler to a walker to a chuckler to a runner to a player in such a short time. this girl makes everyone in the house smile.

 in the shirt her grandma made for her

my attempt at getting both girls in one picture... it pretty much always turns out this way

the birthday sign that caroline and i made

in the front yard watching her family arrive

eating lunch

attempting a bite of icing from her dairy free cupcake. of course she cried and wanted nothing to do with it. she gets that from caroline... the no icing thing. not from me!

and trying out her birthday present from aunt melissa

her grandma gave her a really cute pink rocking chair. i hope to get a picture soon of her in it. her nana gave her a target gift card, which was spent on diapers, wipes, a ball, and some bubbles. her aunt molly gave her a cute toy. her big sister gave her some bath toys. hadley is a lucky one.

year seven

from caroline's 7th birthday party, which was a slumber party. she had so much fun with her cousins and friends.

sporting her "7" shirt made by grandma of course

a little front yard golf with dad waiting for the party to begin

the party room. a little decorating by both me and sweet cheeks! wonder if you can guess which picks were hers and which were mine?
the pretty seven year old. i can't believe she is SEVEN!
dinner time

(please do your absolute best to ignore the husband's shop in the backyard in this picture... keep focus on those pretty smiles instead)

the silly girls during root beer float time, which was caroline's request since she isn't a cake eater

so much fun. and such well behaved girls!

my girl wants to party all the time

what a fun 6th birthday sweet cheeks had.

for her party, we took her and 4 of her friends (2 of which were her cousins, cailyn and ellis) to the american girl cafe. of course all the girls brought their girls along with them. what fun was had!

here we are with 4 of the 5 girls loaded in our car on our way to the cafe. look at all those smiles! they were so excited.

the girls (sans 1 cousin) in front of the cafe right when we arrived

we had some time in between shopping the store and our dinner reservation, so we walked around sephora a bit. the girls enjoyed it since they got to put lip gloss and perfume on. lip gloss makes everything fun when you are 6! they were pretty cute walking around the store in a single-file line looking at everything.

in order- ellis (cousin), hayden, cailyn (cousin), birthday girl sweet cheeks, and catherine

the girls giving their girls "tea," which was really water.

the birthday girl and julie
making a wish
please note sweet cheek's adorable birthday shirt that her sweet grandma made for her. i think this is the third year now that grandma has made her a birthday shirt. they make for great keepsakes too. i plan to have her do the same for the baby. it's a great tradition now.

a bunch of silly girls
it was such a fun time and i know sweet cheeks really enjoyed spending it with her cousins and friends.

it's my party.. part 1

we started celebrating sweet cheek's 5th birthday with a build-a-bear friend party last weekend. she had so much fun with all 8 of her friends. after the bear making (though she really made a rabbit which she named poppy- cute, right), we headed to the mall food court for some cupcakes and a carousel ride. she really had such a great time.

here she is in her birthday outfit before we headed to the party. sweet cheek's talented grandma made it for her. i found it on etsy but shhhh, don't tell. i had my mom make it instead! she is that good.
sweet cheek's headband is from target. her tutu is crew cuts.



the kids doing a big stretch before the bear making begins
sweet cheeks and her cousin waiting for their animals to be stuffed
what a beautiful, happy face. i think she smiled the entire day!
all the kids and their new "friends"
cupcake time in the food court. they were delicious!
and don't ask me why, but sweet cheeks wanted to rake once we got home. i must admit, she is pretty good at it!
we ended up giving her a kid sized broom, mop, and rake for her birthday. it felt so wrong yet so right.

more pictures to come from her actual birthday.
seriously, 5 already! i am still adjusting to the sound of that.