15!

15.

Really?

Birthdays are a big deal to me, what a great opportunity to celebrate the people I love most! :) I always try to make them special & encourage the girls to take advantage of the one day a year that it's all about them! :) They always get to decide what they want to do most on their birthday. And since Ryann's birthday fell on her favorite night at dance (Tuesday, Senior Ensemble!), she wanted to dance! So we had to celebrate her birthday in two parts... :)

Part 1: First up for Ryann on her actual birthday was her favorite cheese blintzes at Broadway Deli. Since I want her to get her driver's license at least as much as she does, she got to spend the next part of her Big Day at the DMV getting her learner's permit!! So exciting!

A little Yo Yogurt, then straight to dance, and home at 10:00 pm!

We had to wait 'til the next day to finish up the family festivities!

Part 2: Birthday Dinner at Tsing Tao House (chinese is Ryann's favorite, especially Sesame Chicken...)

Madi & Skye both got a tiny bit of the stomach flu and felt too sick to come to dinner. :( So after a quick but yummy dinner, we were back home for Ryann's requested Italian Cream Cake (she lit the candles herself!) and presents, including a Mommy & Me massage. Yaay! :)

I love you my Beautiful Birthday Girl!!

Double Birthdays, Family Style

I love so much that we have family in town!

I think my girls are so, so lucky to have the stability that comes from relationships with extended family.

And I also happen to really love our extended family. :)

So I take every opportunity to get everyone together.

This spring has been crazybusy, so we did a combined family celebration for Skylar's & Ryann's birthdays.

I am never happier than when I'm surrounded by family.

Add some yummy food, new games & my favorite homemade carrot cake and that's as good as it gets. :)

Slumber Party!!

March 26th, 2011

Skye's 1st Slumber Party!

Boriello Brothers Pizza

Just Dance

Little London's Black Forest cake

Disney's "Princess Protection Program"

sleeping bags in the basement

cinnamon rolls

Happy Birthday my beautiful, beautiful baby...

Skylar's 9th Birthday!

My brand-new 9-year-old's special day was full of wonderful things like crepes, balloons, sisters, laughter, love, chinese food & birthday cake, along with some slightly more unusual things like macaroni & cheese pizza, talking lizards, Steven Tyler & fake nails...

It was a fun, happy, silly day - perfect for my fun, happy silly girl.

Skylar is my lucky, lucky Spring Break Baby, which means she always gets to sleep in on her birthday and never, ever has to go to school! :) This year, I blew up a bunch of helium balloons and tied them to the top of her bunk bed while she was still sleeping, so that was the first thing she saw when she woke up. :)

Then it was downstairs for some homemade crepes (courtesy of Ryann). We kept the festivities rolling with a trip to Cici's for a pizza lunch including the infamous Macaroni & Cheese pizza, followed by Rango at the movie theater. Ryann & Madi were invited to Haley's sleepover so Skye opened her presents from them in the car in between. She was beyond thrilled to get some fake nails from Madi, which Ryann put on for her right then & there. :)

Since we celebrated during the day with Ryann & Madi, Skye got a special treat of chinese dinner with just Mom, Dad & Bayli. She ordered her favorite Sesame Chicken, then it was home for presents & cake!

She was so expressive & excited about every single gift. Precious. Her favorites were definitely the Wii, Uno Attack & a gift card to her favorite - Old Navy. :) The German chocolate cake was extra delicious, followed by a fun few rounds of Uno Attack, some Wii playing, and after Bayli was asleep, American Idol, just the two of us. Skye thought it was so funny that everyone sang Happy Birthday to Steven Tyler on her birthday! :)

It was a full day of celebrations - so, so fun to get to spend the day with my sweet, sweet girl.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

Invites

12 seemed like such a big number.

I had the cutest idea to make a collage of pictures of my birthday girl over the last 12 years...

Madi was just the cutest baby!

I had so much fun looking through all of her old pictures to find a few of my favorites, and letting my neglected scrapbooker loose.

I love the results.

And love this beautiful girl.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

Birthday Party

Slumber Party!!

the cutest invites, dancers, school friends, homemade Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes (the Birthday Girl's request), Boriello Brothers pizza, super cute presents, dancing in the basement, crazy amounts of noise, very, very little sleeping, one fun night

one happy, brand-new 12-year-old girl :)

Mad's Birthday, Family Style

Birthday Season is in full swing at our house!

Sunday, we had the whole family over to celebrate Madi's Big Day.

My favorite 12-year-old picked the menu -

pizza, soda & lemon cake.

My sweet Momma happily offered to make the cake & it was as delicious as a non-chocolate dessert can hope to be. :)

It disappeared pretty fast.

The best part was just having everyone together.

Love this fun family of ours

& so grateful to be able to spend days like this together...

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

One more party to go, then your sisters get a turn...

Happy Birthday Madi!!

It's so hard to believe that it's been 12 years since that crazy, rushed car ride to the hospital.

Ryann in her carseat in the front, Mike running red lights, my mom & my doula crammed in the back with me, in my face saying "Don't push!" - like I had any control over that anymore. :) My baby girl was on her way. And all I could think was "my baby's almost here!!"

My Madi arrived in an observation room before the Dr. did.

She was beautiful & perfect and I was completely thrilled.

Just like I am today.

So happy to be the momma to this beautiful, talented, loving, funny, big-hearted, sweet, affectionate, passionate girl of mine.

A big part of her birthday was also a gift to me, when we got to spend the afternoon together, just the two of us.

At noon, I picked her up from a sleepover (BFF Lauren has her birthday the day before Madi's!), then we went to Red Robin for a fun birthday lunch. Mad had been talking all week long about getting a chocolate milkshake. :) So that was the first thing on the agenda. She also made me order her burger (like always!) - meat, cheese & bun. I had a Gardenburger and so much fun listening to my most favorite 12-year-old.

After lunch, we both went out for pedicures.

So much fun!

Mad made me laugh because she is so crazyticklish that she got the giggles. :)

It was such a fun way to start the birthday celebrations!

After that, we came back home and Madi just hung out and watched Harry Potter 6 with me while I cooked her favorite dinner - Chicken Roll-Ups.

We waited for her daddy to come over, then did presents.

She was super thrilled to get a new cell phone with a touch screen.

Ryann made her a birthday message out of homemade sugar cookies & also some super cute flowers for her hair. Skye gave her the most thoughtful, beautiful birthday card that I've ever seen. Bay helped her open every single present.

After presents, Grandma & Grandpa came over for Madi's favorite dinner.

She didn't want a cake this year, what she really wanted was "Grandma Dew's Lemon Meringue Pie". My Mom is the sweetest, so of course, she happily obliged. :)

What a fun, fun day with my new 12-year-old girl and family.

A perfect day to be thankful for the presence of this sweet girl in our lives...

Happy 12th Birthday Mad!

Love you so much Baby Girl!!

Three!

Wow, I can't believe it's been three years already.

My sweet baby girl has changed so, so much.

We already had her big party, but it was so much fun to spend the whole day of her actual birthday with all the things she loves - pancakes, sisters, cousins, puzzles, mom, Bitty Baby, ravioli, The Laurie Berkner Band, presents & a big family dinner at Red Robin with Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Eric, Aunt Erika, Alex, Sarah & baby Levi. :)

Birthday Party

Bay's birthday party this year was extra special!

Bayli's little cousin Sarah is almost exactly one year younger than she is, so we were especially excited to have Sarah here this year for both girls' birthdays & Thanksgiving.

How could we not have a combined party for our two cutest littlest cousins??

Sarah turned 2 on November 20th, just two days before Bayli's 3rd birthday, so we had the most fun family party that night for both girls.

Since Bay is an official Big Girl now, I let her pick all her favorites - we ended up with a Dora party with pizza & punch. I tried to sneak in something kinda healthy and made a homemade carrot cake with Dora & Diego (but of course, the kids much preferred Erika's fun & colorful M&M cake...).

Here I am with my beautiful Birthday Girl!

And since I was making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving when I went into labor, Bay will always get a pumpkin pie on her birthday... :)

Bayli insisted on wearing a summer dress for her party, but being newly potty-trained, it didn't last too long before she was on to the next party dress... I love the pics of her not looking at the camera - she wasn't in the mood for pictures.

super cute Birthday Girls, Dora, pizza, cake, presents...

but the best part of the whole night...

spending it with family.

Happy 70th Birthday Momma! (Surprise!)

The beautiful Birthday Girl and me.

She's beautiful inside and out.

This year has been full of surprises.

This one was really special to me.

My Mom turned 70 on Mother's Day and I thought what better gift than to spend it with her both of her children and lots of family and friends who love her.

So I called my brother

& started planning the most fun party ever.

I love my Mom so much and really wanted her to have one night where she could see just how much she is loved by so many.

I hope I pulled it off...

Like any great party, we had lots and lots of chocolate...

(thanks to my wonderful friend Ashli and her amazing family!)

including a Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake...

Skye was our lookout and waited by the door for a long, long time...

Surprise!!

The Guests:

And one last surprise...

Not only are E&E expecting, but it's a boy!!

(This is also when Eric and Erika found out the baby's gender - look at Erika's face - "so, what is it?")

Congrats!

So, so, so fun!

And now I'm done with surprises... :)

More Catching Up...

Okay, life has really been crazy and as a result my much-loved blog has suffered much neglect. Since my scrapbooking took the first hit long, long ago and the kids' cute calendars went next, my blog is my last place to keep track of everything I consider worth remembering...

Here are a few blog-worthy moments that have yet to be recorded:

Skye's precious sidewalk chalk drawing of us & self-portrait

March 31, 2010

(I'm so lucky to be her mom)

Elementary Spring Concert

April 6, 2010

(I love, love, love these concerts and they never fail to make me cry.

All those little voices. So, so precious.)

Ryann's 14th Birthday!!!

April 26th, 2010

(We celebrated twice - with indian and chinese food, Betty, Alice in Wonderland, Grandma and Grandpa, and Ryann's favorite - cupcakes!!)

2nd Grade Immigration Day

April 30, 2010

(The kids spent the day at Ellis Island, took their citizenship tests and became American citizens by the end of the day)

Thanks to my sweet girls for so much fun and so many fun memories!

I'm so lucky.