My Fierce Five Year Old

My Dear Girl,

A few weeks ago, you told your Nana that you couldn't wait to turn five because then you were going to be a handful.  {Meaning, showing your age would take all five fingers.}  Little did you know that you already are a handful.  You are feisty and spirited and quick to respond.  You are loyal and passionate and creative.  Your love for drawing and writing has grown leaps and bounds over the past year, and I am so proud of how much you have learned.  

Your sister looks up to you so much, and nothing brings my heart nearer to explosion than when the two of you are playing sweetly together.  Your latest thing with her is to crawl into the big chair in her room and read her stories before bed.  I have no doubt that she will always look up to you, and I hope that you always take the responsibility of leading and guiding her seriously.

Oh Olivia, we love you so very much.  We love listening to you sing and we love watching you dance.  And, while there are days where hearing you say, "Pretend you were my..." for the 100th time is more than we can take, we are always amazed by your imagination.  

Keep blossoming and growing and changing into the strong, brave, beautiful young girl you are becoming. 

Love Always,

Your Mommy

Favorite color:  pink

Favorite toy:  Pirate Fairy doll

Favorite Stuffed Animal:  Ellie the Elephant

Favorite Thing to Sleep With:  Pillow Pet Dream Light {Unicorn}

Favorite Fruit: Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries

Favorite Cereal:  Cheerios

Favorite Breakfast:  Toast with butter & sprinkles {cinnamon sugar}

Favorite Lunch:  Quesadilla

Favorite Dessert:  Ice cream sandwich or Cool Whip

Favorite Drink:  Sprite {which she has had maybe 5 times in her life}

Favorite Animal:  Elephants, horses, and unicorns

Favorite Song:  Weightless by Natasha Bedingfield

Favorite Book:  The Ballerina Princess

Favorite Game:  Guess Who

Favorite TV Show:  My Little Pony

Favorite Movies:  The Pirate Fairy, Secret of the Wings, and Frozen

Favorite Thing to do Outside:  Swing on the swings

Best Friends:  Kendall and Brooke

What She Wants To Be When She Grows Up:  A unicorn or horse trainer

As is customary, I made a birthday slideshow for Olivia.  If  you've got an extra 15 minutes and love seeing {even more} pictures of her, this is the video for you!

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Olivia was very specific in her requests for her birthday celebrations.  She wanted to have a friend party and a family party, and at her family party, she wanted Nana to make spaghetti.  A girl wants spaghetti, a girl gets spaghetti!  Especially when she turns five!

Our house was in full-on party prep mode for her neighborhood party on Saturday, so Nana happily offered up her house for dinner.  We brought the ice cream cake!!

➹ A five year old attitude! ➹

➹ Her birthday table! ➹

I love this series of pictures of Olivia opening her card from her Poppy.  He gave her a gift card for a date with him to the movie theatre {with popcorn and an icee too}!  She was so excited, and she told him that she wanted to see the Pirate Fairy movie which she has seen 5 times already! 

Sydney got Olivia a Tinkerbell music box that Olivia has been wanting for forever.  She had no idea she was getting it and was so pleased with Sydney's choice of a gift.  

➹ Smooshy faced hug! ➹

I think she had a great night - she loved the art box we gave her, the Pirate Fairy doll my mom gave her, the watercolor set from her great Aunt Linda,  and she is excited to go to her Storybook Ballet dance camp this summer thanks to her Grandma and Poppa!  She is one lucky girl to be loved by so many, that is for sure!

➹ Is there anything better than a DQ ice cream cake? ➹

Birthday and Easter Celebrations at School

This last week {mostly weekend} was crazy with Olivia's birthday, her party, and Easter all happening within a few days of each other.  Her birthday celebration at school was the same day as her class Easter egg hunt, so it was a full day for her there.  Last year, we took in donuts for birthday, but she wanted to do something different this year.  Cupcakes are too messy and cookies aren't her thing, so we opted for one of her all time favorite treats -- Cake Pops from Starbucks!  And, I have to say, they were the perfect treat!

Their Easter egg hunt was a success and Olivia's favorite thing inside the eggs was the little yellow chick that I had filled our donated eggs with!  

If You See It In Your iPhone, It Must Be So

Olivia turns FIVE a week from today.  Crazy, right?  I've been working on her video slide show for the last week or so {even though I am nowhere near being done}, thus the radio silence from this here blog.  I figured it was about time to throw some pictures up detailing the trivial things we've been up to for the last couple of weeks.  Try not to get too excited.  ;)

➸➸ We did American Idol on the PS3.  David sang Knockin' on Heaven's Door and a week later as we drove home from Nana and Poppy's house, Olivia started singing,  Knock knock knockin' on Evan's knock... in tune and everything!  So, naturally, David had to play her the song so she could get the lyrics right too.

➸➸  We met some creatures.  Sydney cracks me up with all of these little animals.

➸➸ We made some messes.  My new favorite {or not so favorite} phrase is Sydney was here.

➸➸ We shopped at Trader Joe's.  I'm still ticked off at them for discontinuing my favorite chicken meatballs.  Can we sign a petition or something to bring them back?!

➸➸  We got a little attitude.  {Or maybe a lot.}

➸➸  We had game night!!  We love Thursday nights/Friday mornings around here.  Kindergarten is going to be a rude awakening for us.  If it weren't for the above look, I'd seriously consider homeschool just so we could start our mornings at 9:30.

➸➸ We swam.  And the girls channeled their inner Tinkerbell and Periwinkle and "touched" their wings so they would sparkle.  Sometimes they can be so sweet with each other.

➸➸  We tried on new helmets.  And, brought one home. {Any guesses on which one she chose?}

➸➸  We passed out invitations for her neighborhood birthday party.  

➸➸  We got ice cream.  Boy oh boy, these girls are loved rotten by their Poppy {and their Nana too}.  Olivia has a new smile she is working through.  Sydney is doing her best to mimic it.  

➸➸  We ate some healthy foods to counteract all that sugar!

Oooohh weee, I feel better now that you all know what we've been up to.  Don't you?

Chi-Town Whoa Now

At the end of March, I was able to escape my duties as Mom and throw on my BFF/baby shower party hostess hat for a weekend in Chicago.  And, let me just say, there's no better person in the world to visit than a 34 week pregnant woman!  All she wanted to do was sleep in, lay around and watch tv, and eat.  HELLO, my kind of vacation!

I had so much fun just hanging out with Michele.  She is such a kind, funny, all-around amazing girl. The time flew by way too fast.

I was able to take a few maternity pictures for her and her husband.  They were perfect models!  {So much easier taking pictures of cooperative adults as opposed to my two girls.  Our session was over in like 10 minutes and I had tons of cute pictures to choose from!}

Michele's baby shower was at Giordano's in one of the suburbs and the food was out of this world.  Seriously most delicious pizza ever.  Everyone had a blast and I'm so glad the party was a success.  No one deserves it more than Michele.

I can't wait to meet that sweet little baby boy next month!!!