Birthday Party FUN!

Whoa....this is going to be long!  I just uploaded nearly 40 pictures! 

We celebrated Gavin's 4th birthday with friends on Saturday and, of course, it was ANGRY BIRD themed.  I cannot take credit for any of these adorable ideas. {Well...except the Pin the Crown on the King Hog game, but that's not even cute!}  I found ideas on Pinterest and Etsy, and have to acknowledge The Party Animal Blog for some free printables.  I bought a huge kit of printables from Etsy but the shop is no long available.  :( 

 

This was a cupcake cake from Sam's Club.  They actually messed up my order though....it was just supposed to be an order of regular cupcakes.  Despite the mess this type of cupcake cake makes when trying to separate the cupcakes, everyone loved how it was decorated, especially Gavin, so I guess it's all ok.  :)  And you know who ate all the extra frosting....ME!

Our Birthday Boy!

 

 We played Pin the Crown on the King Hog.  Jarrod had the great idea to use Gavin's hat to cover their eyes.  It was really cute!

 Then we had a 'board' competition.  Jarrod built a board for everyone and they threw as many birds as needed to get all the pigs down.  The kids loved that!

Gavin had a hard time waiting his turn since I didn't let him go first for both games, but he survived!

We also had a pinata.  It was so funny....no one could bust it open.  Even Jarrod tried, but we ended up with a hole at the top that we just poured the candy out of.

As soon as I mentioned presents, the kids were on it!  I didn't even have time to get into the living room with my camera and Gavin already had the first present open.  He got a lot of neat gifts and the other kids loved watching him open them up. 

For the first time in a LONG time, Riley let me just pass her off and Amy was my 'baby-sitter' for the afternoon.  Thanks for being my baby-holder, Amy!

It's cake time!

Mmmm....cupcakes sure are yummy!

And all of this was the day BEFORE his birthday....so more celebrating to come!

Me and My Girl

Yesterday, I chaperoned a field trip with Gavin's class to a 'farm.'  {I say 'farm' because it really wasn't a working farm at all.  They'd been learning about farms this month, and they took a trip to one of the preschooler's grandparents' house.  They had a big barn and lots of property with horses, donkeys, a duck pond, and dogs/cats.} 


So, I dropped Gavin off at school, ran a quick errand, and then came back and waited for them to be ready so I could follow the school van to the farm.  While we were waiting, I nursed Riley in the car and then let her play with the steering wheel.  And of course, took some pictures! 

9 Months!

Holy cow!  Really?  I mean, really?!?!  NINE months?  Wowzers.

It makes me so sad to think about how quickly she's growing up.  Sometimes I just sit and watch her after she's fallen asleep on me and look at how big she is, all stretched out, no longer fitting on me like the tiny newborn we brought home not that long ago? Talk about making a mama emotional! 

I'm not sure how much Riley weighs right now...I'm guessing somewhere around 18.5lbs.  I do know that she's taller than our kitchen garbage can, and that when she pulls herself up to it, she's able to bite on the lid.  Gross!  But that's what we're into these days...EVERYTHING!  Riley is such a handful.  She's in Shirley's water bowl more times than I can count, and even took the bowl out of the stand a few days ago and dumped it on the carpet.  She also now drinks the water off her hands after playing in it!  Yum.  Other favorite things to put in her mouth these days are the potting soil from our houseplant, any shoe she can find (including those still on our feet!), paper, the little plastic covers where the bolts are on the toilet...yeah...basically anything she finds that is gross goes in her mouth.  

Sleep...well, we've talked about that.  I know it could be much worse, but it could also be much better.  We'll get there.  She's eating one real meal a day (dinner) and then lunch occasionally.  I've been bad about being consistent with lunch. We've been working on eating Puffs, and she's finally not gagging, so I think we'll start introducing table food sometime soon.  She's still wearing size 3 diapers and is wearing 9-12 month clothes.  And she has 5 (almost 6) teeth!  {Which has made nursing a bit more uncomfortable, but still doable.}

She's crawling 'normally' most of the time now, but still drags her one foot sometimes, especially on the tile floor.  I'm amazed at how much she's cruising now.  We even got an old push-toy out of the attic and she's all over the place with it!  Riley is totally happy in the bathtub, or standing on the side and watching Gavin take a bath.  I'm excited to get her in swim lessons soon.  She loves the water.  Every now and then, she'll do something that looks like she's waving, she kisses on demand, and still attempts to clap (but it looks more like 'roll it up' from Pat-a-cake.)  She's amazing.

 

Riley LOVES bugging her big brother.  It's just the beginning, I know, but I'm so tired of hearing, "No, Riley.  You can't have that.  Riley, NO!  Mom, Riley's bothering me.  She's taking my Angry Bird.  Riley, stop!" Over and over and over and over again.  It's nonstop!  We've had a lot of conversations lately about sharing with Riley, being thankful he has a sister, yada yada.  All clearly over the head of an almost-four year old.  Ugh.  

We got her a new convertible carseat (thanks, Aunt Rosi!) and will be putting it in the car soon.  I've been stalling because I like the option of taking the whole seat out if she falls asleep, but lately, she's not staying asleep once the car is off anyway.  I guess it's time.  

And just for fun...this is what these photo shoots really look like these days...

 

Happy 3/4 year, baby girl!