St. Louis: Hanging with the Family

Right before we left.  I hid away some of theirbday presents, plus new packs of crayons etc. for the car ride. 
They were so excited to get in the car.  However, they weren't so excited by the 5th hour.  Or the 9th.

We got in late Friday night so this is the first time they hung out with the cousins-
helping grandpa make banana split pancakes!

Hello Kitty Bingo, of course.

Blanket fort.

Colin taught G how to make rainbows.  

Sweet Baby Anna!
 I was totally reminded of Elia, as she wore a lot of her old
clothes and has the same coloring and cute chubby cheeks!

Ryan graduated from SLUH!  Looking good there Ry.

Deep conversation while they took Elmo out.

Grandpa reading

Filling the bird feeder

Happy Birthday Ice Cream at Oberweiss

Always always helping!  This was right before G accidentally swung
the hose right overElia's head and got water all over Elia!

St. Louis: Baby Brendan

That sweet baby boy continues to melt our hearts. I got to babysit him one night, and the girls got to see him everyday!

I gave him a bath the night I babysat!

G as usual could not get enough of him!

Sorry I cant flip this one- so cute!

Always, always helping!

St. Louis: My 30th Birthday

I celebrated my 30th year of life with my St. Louis Family, and it was so much fun. We rented a 12 passenger van and headed to Fast Eddies for the night. All my sisters were there and a few high school friends. No kids. It was AWESOME!

All the sisters in front of the van.

My HS BFF

The 30 year old twinnies!

Gianna's Birthday

We celebrated G's birthday similarly to Elia's.  Waffles with a candle and we opened presents before Daddy went to work. 

Then we spent a leisurely morning at the splash park.  I think Elia might have had a drink or two of that water because she got sick later that night.

Anyway, after Chris came home, we headed over to Five Guys.  Ever since Gianna saw the sign for the 5 guys opening in Carrollton, she has been planning to go there for her 5th birthday. 

Waiting in line at 5 Guys.  This is literally seconds before Elia got sick on the floor.

Once home this evening, we watched a cartoon before bed.  Elia got very sick again, so we spent the rest of G's birthday awake time cleaning up after her.  Say a prayer this is just a quick bug and that G (or anyone else here)doesn't get it!
Her life so far: 1st 3 years, 4th year, and 5th year:

Almost 4.  May 2011

4 years, 3 months.  Always helping in the kitchen!

4 and a half at the zoo.

4 years, 9 months.  Getting ready for V-Day

Exactly 5 years old!  These are her new accessories from Grandma.  I cannot get over how old she looks!  She was so excited to dress up!

Elia's Birthday

Sunday morning we had waffles and sausage for her birthday.

Can't believe she is 3!

Some of her presents were of course Hello Kitty themed!

Papa gpt her Hulk hands!

We took her to Fuzzy's for her birthday dinner. 

And ice cream when we got home!

Here goes for this year's timeline!  If you want to see last years, click here.

Just turned 2.  Like a fish!

2 years, 3 months.  Daddy's girl!

2 and a half.  Imitating the gorilla!

2 years, 9 months.  Can't believe I cut off that gorgeous hair!

And of course, exactly 3 years old!!!

Baby Brendan's Visit

Aunt Shanny came in town for the Hello Kitty birthday party.  She flew in Wednesday and out Saturday morning.  She brought the best present- Baby Brendan!  Gianna, as usual, was completely enthralled.  And asked 8 jabazillion questions.  She learned a lot about nursing, changing diapers, bathing, and how to play sweetly with a baby.  Elia was pretty cute with him too.  After watching me feed him a little bottle, she said can I milk him now?

She lost interest way sooner than G.

Always, always helping!

Dave Matthews

For my birthday, Chris took me to see Dave Matthews, my fave.  I think this is my 10th or 11th concert.  Last time I saw him I was literally 9 months pregnant with Elia, and since nothing is that much fun when you are that pregnant, this year was way super fun!

I will be 30 in a week!  Chris still takes a pic like he is 18!

Hello Kitty Party

This year I kept the girl's birthday party really small. Last year I think I invited anyone who had ever met the girls, plus all of my friends since we were celebrating my birthday. My house was sort of trashed after last year and so I decided to just keep it simple. We only had cupcakes, ice cream, and games. The girls had a blast though!

I found Hello Kitty stickers and backed them with pink or white construction paper with a toothpick in between.

Ice cream bubbles! I thought these would be perfect for favors since we were having real ice cream too!

Shan and I used different colored table cloths to decorate.  Definitely a pinterest idea!

Before kiddos ravaged the cupcakes and ice cream!

I love this picture of these 2nd cousins.  Also love little Xavier getting into mischief behind them by standing on the table.

Instead of buying a pin the tail game I just bought a Hello Kitty poster and made bows out of thick ribbon.

And of course, the pinata!

 

A great time was had by all!

Hello Kitty Pinata

This thing literally took Shanny and I hours to complete.  It was gorgeous!  The cheapest pinata I could find was $19.99.  I figured I could make one for less than that. 

I bought this off amazon for a little over $4.  I could not find this balloon at any party store or Target/Walmart.  All hello kitty mylar balloons were either round or included her body.

This is after 3 layers of paper mache.  I used the ads sent to me in the mail cut up in strips and the paste is just equal parts water and flour.  So this step was free!

Plan A was to actually paint the pinata white and then paint on the features.  Its a long story, but I accidentally ran over the pinata with my car.  Here she is stuffed, duct taped and pull strings strung at the bottom.  White duct tape was $3.

After I popped the balloon I kept it so I could trace where to put the nose eyes and bow.  I started with the pink bow.

I ended up using 5 packs of tissue paper, which cost around $7 total.

Chris had to pose as Hello Kitty of course!

So all in all, it cost me $14 to make this pinata!  Not bad!  That doesn't include stuffing it though- I probably spent another $10 on little trinkets and candy.