Happy Birthday, Sweet Ella

Six years ago, when you were born I became a mom for the first time. You made me a mother and for that I will be forever grateful. Watching you grow from this tiny, tiny six pound one ounce curled up baby to the tall, beautiful girl you are now has been one of my life's biggest blessings. There are so many things I love about you:

I love your little freckles across your nose.
I love watching you in your ballet class. You move with such grace.
I love how much you LOVE school.
I love that you think of others and never leave anyone out.
I love that you say 'thank you' to me at the dinner table for cooking delicious meals.
I love that you still draw pictures about Riley.
I love how you sing country songs in the back of the car.
I love so much about you my sweet girl. It's endless. But I really love that you are all mine. You make me a very proud mama.

Happy 6th birthday, Ella. I can remember my 6th birthday...it goes by way too fast. Enjoy it all.

We love you!

Daddy woke up extra early to get you Mcdonald's for breakfast because you wanted a hash brown. :) So we let you open a few gifts before school.

We dropped off cupcakes to your class and here you are (with your birthday sticker!) posing with your buddy, Zoe

 After school craziness with Mara and Madeline

 Cupcake time!

 But first we had to sing to you. I love what you say at the very end. Be still my heart.

 This face...I must've said something to embarrass you:)

What does the fox say? Sweet sweater!

Madeline picked out a mermaid Barbie and clearly Ella was over the moon.

And as always, our tradition of pumpkin carving continued. Madeline was anxious to get her hands all up in the guts.

 Daddy torturing Ella with the guts that Ella had zero interest in.

Working hard!

 Can you tell it's a headless horseman? The girls picked that design. I think next year, mama will be the sole voter.

She loves it! (Oh and yeah, Ella picked Mcdonald's for dinner that night, too!)

 And we truly tried to get a photo. I guess this is life now, right? Their faces in these pics crack me up!!

PS. Happy National Candy Corn day! 

Ella's Art Party!

As I have mentioned before, October was really busy. I am not really a mom who believes a child needs a party every year of their life. That's why I didn't really plan on having one for Ella (and I didn't want to invite every kid in her class for a giant party! Mean mom here!). I prefer to just make their birthday really special instead. Well, I realized it would be pretty hard to make it special this year because we didn't have time to travel or take her anywhere. Needless to say, we decided to throw together a last minute art party for her! We baked a tie-dye cake, made everything really colorful, and set up canvases and palettes for the kids to create their own work of art. Then we set up a wine, cheese, and crackers stations for us moms;)

The kids had a blast and my friend Jen came up with the idea of letting the kids paint something each year on their birthday. I love it. I am going to make it an annual tradition to see how their artwork grows.

Ella usually does not like to be the center of attention, but for her party, I think she enjoyed it! So happy she had fun with her little besties here!

The paintbrushes were placed in a paint chip color. So cute.

Ryan and his mama Jen working on his NYC taxi masterpiece

 Ella painting a beach scene 

 We played outside with chalk and bubbles and I love all of these smiles!

 And then CAKE time! We couldn't wait to find out if the tie-dye baking process actually worked

 It did work! It was a really cool cake!

 And yummy, too;)

 I didn't paint because I didn't want to waste  a canvas, but Jen and Granny P did!

I mean really, Granny P? Who just whips this up with some kid's paints and dollar store brushes? Only you. So awesome!

Gift opening!

 We welcomed Peggy Pirate into our Lalaloopsy home. 

 These two...love their friendship!

Rocky Brook Orchard

We tried to keep busy while Granny P was here and Saturday was no exception. After Ella's soccer game, we went apple picking! I kept hearing amazing things about Rocky Brook Orchard so we decided to head out there and well...pick apples. It was such an adorable orchard. I can't wait to go back and peach pick. When is peach season anyway?

While we were there, the girls were all smiles. Heck even Sam was all smiles (but that is nothing new really). I loved watching them get so excited about such a simple experience. I hope they can look back at these photos and reminisce about their fun little adventure.

 If only he weren't sitting in a pink wagon...this pic would be even cuter!!

My loves, my world!

After apple picking, we headed to Anthony's Seafood for some yumminess. It's become our go to place for fresh seafood and visiting company;)

That's a really big chair. 

The rest of our day was spent putting together a very impromptu birthday party for Ella. We had lots of planning, baking and pom pom making ahead of us;) To be continued...