Radhika's 2nd birthday party!

Last Saturday we went to Radhika's 2nd birthday party. There was a lot of little girl playing going on...and it was adorable. In fact, they were so busy playing with each other that they kept each other busy for the entire party. They played with stuffed animals.And they played with babies and bags and strollers and went to both "the beach" (according to Scarlett), and "Mami," or Miami (according to Radha). They took turns carrying the bag. They took turns pushing their babies. And then Alex came to the party and they ALL played with babies and bags and strollers and anything else girly that they could get their hands on. And while they were sitting there on the couch talking about babies and bags and strollers and "the beach" and "Mami," I couldn't help but think that one day they'd be sitting here talking about boys...and just how icky those boys are. (I'm not getting too far ahead of myself just yet.) But the girls weren't the only ones doing all the playing. Holden and Noah were playing too. Noah is exactly one week older than Holden. And I'm sure by the time Radhika turns three, Holden and Noah will be running around together playing with trucks...and tormenting the three girls which will probably initiate the girls' conversation about just how icky boys are. And here is Auntie Joyce with Holden. Please notice her "Gwen-belly." She is due with baby Gwenyth any day now, and we can't wait! Even Scarlett is excited. And if you ask Scarlett what kind of baby is in Auntie Joyce's belly, she'll reply "a pink baby!" And she's right. Kind of. Holden has been waiting very patiently for Gwen to get here. Yay birthday parties! And yay new babies!

Alexandra's birthday party!

Oh man, we have gone to some cool birthday parties these past 2 weekends. This past Saturday we went to Alexandra's 2nd birthday party. It was a carnival themed party. Scarlett was very excited to go to the party because she knew Radhika and Alex would be there. (Although Alex was so busy I didn't get any pictures of her. This was a huge party!) She is starting to really recognize the difference between her little girl friends and boy friends (with the exception of Carson, of course, who is her best friend regardless of the fact that he does not seem to be interested in "princess girls"). Check out all the fun stuff at Alex's party...
Sno-cones. They could have just ended right there. Sno-cones people. Sno-cones. How cool?!But no...they had a moon bounce. Like a giant one. Scarlett was in heaven.She and Radhika bounced next to each other...and then sat next to each other...for quite some time. Seriously. The moms had to drag them out of there.Scarlett ran around barefoot for the rest of the party. Ahh, my little party girl. She and Rada were so cute together! Then Scarlett got a little crazy with the carnival top hats. Hey...at least it's not a lampshade.
The girls were trying to get us moms into the hat action.They tried very hard.We also had a pretty big first at Alex's party. Scarlett got her face painted! She sat so still and loved every second of it! She's such a girl. I thought she would smear the paint off in a matter of seconds but she was very careful not to ruin her "make-up." Come on...just look at her face in this picture. She is so proud of her star!
A little too proud maybe.Scarlett was not ready for the party to end. On the car ride home she decided to do back-up shrieking for Cypress Hill's "Jump Around." (And I came really close to crashing the car while trying to get her "singing" on video.)


Happy birthday Alex! We had a blast!

Carson's rockstar birthday party

Carson had just about the coolest birthday party we've ever seen this past Saturday. He had live entertainment, musical instruments, and a ton of fun toddler friends there to help him celebrate. We went as "all out" as you can go - without embarrassing ourselves. (Unless...maybe we did embarrass ourselves.) Joe dressed like a rockstar. Holden wore his ACDC-esque "Lock up your daughters" t-shirt. Scarlett was supposed to be wearing a homemade Carson rock concert t-shirt...but finishing that project didn't quite work out in the hour we had before we left for the party. And we got Carson the Playskool Dance Cam as a present, so he can work on his awesome music video dance skills. There should be a ton of awesomely adorable photos immediately following these typed words, but alas, I FORGOT MY CAMERA'S MEMORY CARD. This has happened to me before. I charge the camera battery, remember to bring the camera, open it up and turn it on only to see the dreaded words "No Memory Card" across the camera's LCD screen. What it should say is "you idiot. you left the memory card in the computer again. stop doing that. dummy." I'm sending you over to Carson's website to see all the fun that went on. I'm also stealing this picture from Carson's website because I think Val is the only one who can convince Joe to actually take a family photo. Thanks Val!

Scarlett's 2nd birthday party

Saturday was Scarlett's 2nd birthday party. It was a blast! We were petrified it was going to rain because those crazy meteorologists couldn't make up their minds. Thankfully, the rain that was supposed to start one hour into the party never started. At all. All that worry for nothing. (Thanks weathermen!)
We had the party at Aunt Nachie and Uncle Keg's house (Stephanie and Craig), this way, if I randomly decided to have a baby the party could have gone on in my absence.
But no baby.
This party had a bit of everything!

We had bubbles...
And more bubbles...

Sidewalk chalk...Even golf...There was definitely running...Maybe a little walking...But definitely running...And cake...yes, cake...And of course, friends...like the bestest of all friends, Carson.Haila... Erin...And Josie, Javier, Kyle, Alexandra, Radhika, and Amaya. And tons of cousins, aunts, uncles, Godparents, and adult friends.
Thank you to everyone who helped Scarlett celebrate! This was a very important birthday party for us because it's the last one we'll have for Scarlett that won't almost immediately be followed or preceded by a certain baby boy's birthday and birthday party. Scarlett was so excited about this party, and really knew what a party was this time around. She had been talking about it for weeks! Last year, I made a joke that Scarlett will be talking about her 1st birthday party until we have her 2nd birthday party. But I wasn't serious. Now, however, I can guarantee that Scarlett will be talking about this party until she turns 3. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day so special for Bubsy.

Josie turns 3!

Sunday we went to Josie's third birthday party. (To see last year's party, click here.) It was so much fun! Scarlett gets the whole "party" thing now. In fact, after Josie's party, Scarlett has talked almost non-stop about her party which is coming up in about 2 weeks. When I told her that Joe had school last night she started crying because she wanted to play with him at "her party." I reassured her that his class was not 13 days long and that he'd be out in plenty of time to attend the party. What a relief.
Here are some photos from Josie's big day. Scarlett waits patiently for the cake.

And sings "happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday."Miss Josie blowing out the candles.

Good stuff!

Scarlett putting on her "pretty" all by herself. I couldn't have done it any better.

Then came the presents. We got Josie a Play-Doh kitchen set. It sat wrapped on our table for about 3 hours and I'm seriously surprised that the present was still wrapped when we got it to Josie's. Scarlett likes presents. She kept pointing to it and reminding me that it was Josie's present from Scarlett. Scarlett wanted to help Josie open her presents which got to be a little troublesome. We actually witnessed Scarlett throw herself on the floor for the first time while having a fit. I was so proud. She had really good form. Josie got a big girl bike. She very kindly let Scarlett sit on it. Scarlett made sure that she put on Josie's new helmet too before getting on.

I told Scarlett that she should say thank you to Josie for letting her sit on the brand new bike, to which Scarlett replied "thank you for my bike Josie!" Sigh.

We had a lot of fun! Same time next year Josie!

Radhika turns 1!

Last Sunday, we all went to Radhika's first birthday party. There were so many people there that her parents, Jessica and Banhu, had to rent a whole hall to hold everyone! It was a lot of fun. There was tons of room to run around and play...and fight over balloons.

Scarlett's Godparents, Auntie Joyce and Uncle Dan were there too. Radhika is their niece.And you know who else was there? Balloons...tons of them. The party even had its own DJ! When cake cutting time came around, a special drummer came onto the stage. Everyone stared at him.Including Scarlett.
Then everyone watched Radhika take her first mouthful of cake.
MMMMmmmmm...

Yay Radhika! Happy birthday!