Julia's Family Birthday Celebration

Since Troy won't be with us next week in North Carolina when we celebrate Julia's real birthday, we had a small get-together this evening. Kat and Ross came down for the festivities, too. After supper, Julia opened presents . . . most of which were wrapped in princess paper.

Evelyn gave Julia a Sleeping Beauty play set complete with the prince and a horse and carriage. Julia couldn't wait to play with her new dollies, and she convinced Kat to join her.
And then it was time for cupcakes! Per the birthday girl's request, she had chocolate cake with pink frosting. Can you tell that Julia is excited about her birthday treats?
Even though she had asked for chocolate cake, Julia only ate the frosting. Silly girl!

Flower Girl Dresses

Evelyn's and Julia's flower girl dresses arrived this morning. Evelyn was so excited after school when she saw the box, she just had to try it on. Not wanting to be left out, Julia had to put on her dress, too. After I took this picture, the girls practiced dropping flowers in the living room.

Julia the Fortune-Teller

Julia was spot-on when it came to predicting a couple of her activities today.

As we drove to the library this morning, I asked Julia what she thought story time would be about today. I reminded her that last week the focus was on bunnies and rabbits, so what did she think the theme would be today? "Ducks!" came her reply from the back seat. Imagine my surprise when we walked into the children's room to discover that today's story time was all about . . . ducks. Julia was so excited that she was right!

After story time, I needed to get a few things from the local mall. I hadn't told Julia that we needed to run errands, including a lunch break at McDonald's. As we drove down the interstate, Julia asked, "Can we have lunch at Old McDonald's?" Well, yes, as a matter of fact, that sounded like a good idea. (How did she know?)

For the rest of the day, I kept waiting for Julia to make one more spot-on prediction, but it didn't happen. However, Julia did impress me with her clairvoyance early in the day.

Play Doh Play

It's been awhile since Julia has played with Play Doh, so when I suggested getting the box of Play Doh out, she couldn't wait. She spent the first 30 minutes cutting . . . . . . and she spent at least another 30 minutes making all sorts of other creations. Fun stuff!

Belated April 5th Picture

With our resident photographer - aka Troy - in Florida yesterday, we couldn't have our April 5th picture taken until today. Here we are, on the deck behind our house, with one of the backyard trees in bloom:

2010:

2009:

2008:

Morning Prep

Here's the spread on the kitchen island this morning, and it pretty much sums up what is going on in the house:

Breakfast - donuts for the girls, cereal for me, juice for everyone, canned food for Rosie

Evelyn's lunch - mostly made, except for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich; Troy usually makes her sandwich in the morning, but he is out of town, so I had to be the sandwich artist today

Julia's teddy bear - he wandered down the stairs to join us for the morning routine

First Aid supplies - Evelyn had two large blisters pop while playing at the park yesterday, so we needed to dress the wounds before she went to school. I also hoped a dose of ibuprofen would help with the pain, as one of the boo-boos is pretty bad.

Cherry Blossoms 2011

One look at these pictures, and you know where we girls went this afternoon . . . Washington, D. C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We headed downtown with Kat, who took this awesome picture of Evelyn, the family tree-climber. I think the girls could have hung out at the water's edge all afternoon, watching the boats and ducks navigate the Tidal Basin waters. They seemed to be mesmerized by the gentle waves. After walking around for awhile, we stopped near the National Park's Cherry Blossom Festival "headquarters" to enjoy a sweet treat. Miss Chocoholic only wanted to eat the chocolate shell of her Dove ice cream bar, and I had to eat the vanilla ice cream. After noshing their snacks, the girls ran around for a bit. Julia is still an elusive subject when it comes to taking her picture, but I was able to capture this sweet smile (with Evelyn running around in the background).