1st Day of School!!

Today was a big day at our house... Brynn started school! Well, sort of like school. It's only 30 minutes a week but I'll bring her to school and she'll meet with her teacher and a few other kids to practice speech... working on their sounds, playing games and having fun!

She's been so excited and every time I mention school, she packs her backpack, lunchbox and gets all dressed up - notice her necklace and bracelet! Too cute.

Here she is walking up to school this morning!

Today was a little busy at the school - I guess some of the rooms were closed so there were more kids together than usual. I think it was a little overwhelming at first because she was a little shy and not wanting to go in alone. This little girl, Julia, came over and took Brynn's hand to help her out which was so sweet. After a little coaxing, she went on in and ended up doing really well! In fact, Brynn made a statement... Julia's Mom told me as they were driving out, that she wants to bring her backpack next week just like Brynn!

She did it!!

We Love You Pop Pop!

It's so hard for me to believe that it's been 2 months already since my Dad passed away. They seem like the fastest and longest 2 months of my life. This summer has been so crazy...
We all miss him so much and there's not a second that goes by that I don't think of him. To honor Pop Pop today, the girls and I went to the library to get a library card like Pop Pop always had! Brynn has been wanting to check out books for a while so today was a special day.

The letter of the day today was "L"... so they each had a chance to "dress" the llama! Brynn really had a great time today - participating in everything, dancing and having fun. Brooklyn, on the other hand, was a little terror - wanting to attack every baby in sight. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I may have to look into Toddler Bootcamp soon.

Bubble time - this was the only thing that made Brooklyn happy today.

Miss Brynn with her new library card and books! Yay - we had fun. I know we made Pop Pop smile today. He was happy to see the girls following in his wonderful footprints! XOXO

Growing Up...

Sometimes it seems like you blink your eyes and they turn into a little girl overnight! They lose that "baby look" all of a sudden, it's weird. Her hair is getting really long now and she just looks so big to me. She's starting to play together with Brynn a lot better these days. Play dates are another story - like today... She pretends she wants to share and starts to hand it to her friends, but as soon as they reach to take it - she grabs it right back and goes running. Oh boy. We had a morning full of temper tantrums... can you believe that after looking at this smiley face?!?!?! Don't let her fool you!!

Brynn loves to be comfy these days. So her favorite clothes are either jammies or Mommy's shirts! As soon as her friends left today, she changed into my shirt and cuddled up on the couch with her "Baby Jaguar".

Graffiti Day in our Backyard

Every once in a while we make our block walls into one big chalkboard! It's fun, adds some color and the girls (& I) have fun doing it!

It just makes me happy looking out the back window and seeing our pictures instead of a plain, boring block wall! 

It's PARTY Day!!!

It's finally here!! Animal Zoo Party Day and ALL Party Animals are WELCOME!!

We had yummy cupcakes for dessert and cute little goody boxes for all of our friends...

The snacks were all animal themed so we had a lion cheeseball...

Watermelon Porcupine, animal crackers

and Tiger Tails of course!

Brynn was so excited once her friends started to arrive. She gave everyone hugs but everytime I went to take a picture either someone walked in front of me or all I got was the back of her hair! It was very cute though...

Brooklyn was all into the hugs as well

All the kids really played together nicely. We had a couple informal games for them to play. Here Riley is "feeding" the animals beanbags (on right)

Finnegan is practicing his skills ringing the alligator!

They had a lot of fun with the masks!

Time for lunch!

We had pizza and salad - nice and easy!

Now presents!

Brynn LOVED opening presents this year! She couldn't wait to get the next one, and the next one! Check out Brooklyn in the background! She had the perfect seat - food and entertainment!

Cupcake time! We're minus 2 kids here but overall this is a great pic! I completely forgot to put Brooklyn's dress back on after lunch, sorry girl!

Cupcakes - YUM!

Happy Birthday Brynn!!! She had a great day (week actually!) and she is still telling everyone about her animal party. Even yesterday, she was telling the girl at the UPS store all about it!! Too cute.

"Happy Birthday to Me"

Happy Birthday Brynn!

Happy Birthday Brynn!!! She's been waiting for this day for a long time... she kept saying, "2 more weeks til my party!" - and she started months ago!

She was so happy that she even woke up at 3:40am that morning and wanted to stay up for the day! You remember when you were little and couldn't sleep the night before your birthday or Christmas?!?!? That was Brynn :)

This is how she wakes up - perfect hair! Yes, I'm jealous! :)

That day the girls and I went to an indoor playground and played with our neighbor and her kids. Brynn was all decked out in her tutu and birthday ribbon! She wasn't shy about letting everyone know it was her birthday.

 

While Brooklyn was napping, she couldn't wait to get her hands on some presents. She had spotted them in the garage and wanted to open them earlier in the week. The first present was a giant puzzle from Grammy! She loved it and had no problem putting it together. I think she takes after Grammy with her puzzle skills - this girl is good!

Next one...

Fruit to cut!!! This was a hit!

and cookies to bake!

Right away she went to the oven to bake the cookies - glad she remembered her hot pad! We have one small issue... Mommy has tried to cook the pan 3 times now - oops. Daddy's looking into a play oven for the girls so they can put their cookie sheets in there instead!

Later that day we skyped with Nana & Papa and Brynn opened their gifts. What's in this one?!?

A new quilt for her bed made by Nana! She took that so fast and took off for her room - haha!

Then we swam...

and watered the grass!

Time for roller coaster - whee!!

This is a girl you don't want to mess with!

She loves the roller coaster and prefers to go down with her hands in the air or blowing kisses to everyone while she's supposed to be holding on so we really have to watch her! Such a goof.

Time for cake! I had made Brynn a monkey cake so we made her close her eyes until we were ready!

Surprise!! She was so happy when she saw it!

Time to make a wish! We hope ALL your wishes come true... you've already done that for us. Happy 3rd Birthday Brynn, we love you lots!

Mommy's Monkey Cake! I was proud of myself for my very first attempt at making a "fancy" cake :)