Happy 4th Birthday!

We celebrated Addie's 4th birthday multiple times in May! Lucky Girl. I made a promise to myself at Addie's 3rd birthday that this year I would NOT have her party at my house. Not that her party last year wasn't wonderful but having a party at your house is a LOT of work. Clean the house, organize the activities, make everything look pretty, have plenty of food, etc.... So this year we had Addie's party at one of the jumpy house places and it was a huge success. I didn't have to clean my house...or organize activities....or make anything look pretty.

We had a monkey theme for her invitations, shirt, party favors, etc. Of course I had these really cute monkey and banana mylar balloons that I left at home so they never made it to the party...oh well. Do you think Addie ever missed them...nope she sure didn't.


This place had an indoor trampoline, foam pit and huge jumpy house. They also organized the activities for the kids and it was wonderful!

Addie's sister Sadie enjoyed the ball pit!

In the picture above Cole is having a blast getting lost in the foam pit.

They encouraged the adults to get involved too. I saw all the kids being bounced on the trampoline by one of the volunteers....he would have them lay flat on their backs with their hands across their chest and he would bounce them straight up and catch them....looked like fun so naturally when he asked if any of the adults wanted to try it....I was eagerly waiting for my turn! I have a video of it which I can't get to upload unfortunately. Out of all the kids and myself...I was the only one that screamed when he bounced me up! It felt like I was going over the top of a roller coaster...I loved it!

Addie and her friend Caitlyn! These two can get into some trouble!

Uncle Rod and Granddad tried out the foam pit and trampoline too!

Although you can't exactly see her excitement in these pictures...she was really excited to be able to put her own hand print on the wall! This is something only the birthday girl gets to do. They did the paint to match her shirt...pink and green dots!

We celebrated with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant! They always bring a free dessert to the birthday girl. I think Addie likes wearing the sombrero more than anything though.

Is this hat not the most hilarious thing! It is HUGE. I went by to bring her classmates cupcakes to celebrate Addie's birthday and she had this hat on! Ha!

These cupcakes had the brightest neon icing I have ever seen. I am sure these children's parents are still cursing me for giving their kids these cupcakes. There was not a clean shirt in the place once they were done.

Guess what color Addie's icing was......

After cupcakes I let Addie play hookie from school for the rest of the day and we went to Monkey Joes! She bounced and bounced and bounced for hours on end. The picture above was taken after we left and it does not do her rosy cheeks justice. She drank 2 16 oz bottles of water while we were in there and then sucked down 2 juice boxes in the car on the way home. Needless to say she slept really well that night!

Addie woke up early one morning to find some presents in the kitchen for her! I wish I looked this pretty at 6am.

Later that day we dressed up and went to a puppet show with YaYa, Granddad and Aunt Winnie! Addie loved it and was able to make her own puppet afterwards!

I would say Addie's 4th birthday was 100% successfull!

Trio of Celebrations!

Mother's day weekend we celebrated Addie's Ballet Recital, Mother's Day and YaYas birthday! Addie was excited about her recital but equally excited to be done with ballet. Ballet was quite a commitment for both Addie and for her chauffeur, me! We started in August and practiced one night a week until her recital. In September (yes...one month in) Addie decided ballet wasn't for her but I was determined to not let her quit something. She ended up really enjoying it and was glad she did not quit. She also loved that her friend Kenz was there with her! These pictures are not the clearest but you get the point.

This recital was truly amazing and so well organized. This dance program is so large they had to split all the classes up into 4 recitals and each recital was about 2 hours long. Each class did a tap number and a ballet number. Every class had a different costume...and they all looked wonderful! The lights on the stage were coordinated with the costume that each close wore...it was amazing!

I love how all of them are doing something completely different. Hilarious!

Kenz is standing to the left of Addie.

The picture below shows Addie thinking "Is that Granddad taking my picture?"

"Yes...I think it is granddad but I am not quite sure"

"Oh Yes...that is definitely granddad taking my picture!"

Addie was a little overwhelmed afterwards because sooo many people came to see her in her recital. She wasn't quite sure what to do with herself so she decided to hide in YaYa's skirt!

Here are the people that came to see Addie:

Grandmomma Lowry and YaYa

Me of course with Addie

Sara, David, Sadie, Mimi and Pop (you can see Addie is still overwhelmed in the picture above)

Aunt Winne in the pic above and Auntie Caroline in the pic below

YaYa and Granddad

Grandmomma Lowry

Uncle Rod and Aunt Winnie

Addie quickly overcame her shyness when a few presents showed up.....

Addie LOVES Ariel so I surprised her with an Ariel themed day!

Of course the cake place wrote the wrong thing on the cake....It was supposed to say "Congratulations Addie and Happy Birthday YaYa" but instead they wrote "Happy Birthday Addie and YaYa"...oh well....it still tasted good and Addie loved it!

Addie dressed herself after the recital....in a 4th of July dress....

Everything above happened on the Saturday before Mother's day! It was wonderful that Susan and I could celebrate with our Mom. Addie celebrated with me and Dad was able to celebrate with his mom too! Of course we are equally excited to have a new mom in the mix...Aunt Winnie is already a mom to Baby of course but she is also due in October! I can't wait to be an Aunt! I call him "Little Earl"! We think it is a boy but won't know for sure until the week of May 23rd!

On Sunday we headed over to Kat Kat and Cole's for our first day of sprinkler summer fun! It was awesome! What a great Mother's Day weekend this was!