Kelly (4 yrs.) & Molly (18 months)

Last week, I got the girls professional pictures taken at Sears.....with Erica (who I highly recommend)!!! Anyway, one hour before the pictures.....Molly got a fat lip!!! Right now, it seems like she always has bumps, bruises, fat lips, scratches, skinned knees, etc.......so we still got the pictures taken. So, here are my favorites........

Kelly Marie - 4 years old!!!

My accessories girl!

Molly Ann - 18 months old

A close up of her lovely fat lip!

(Molly was as cooperative with getting her pictures taken)

We also got a cousins picture.....since Ben & Daniel were in town for Kelly's birthday party.
(Molly (18 months), Daniel (2.5 yrs.), Kelly (4 yrs.), & Ben (4.5 yrs.)

Shrek

Kelly saw her first movie in the theater this afternoon. We got free tickets from State Farm for Customer Appreciation Day. We had a lot of fun! I took Kelly and Helena with me......and we met up with Sophia, Claire, Caden, and Cambrie. Yep....that is six - 4 year olds!!!! This was the 4th fun thing we have done this week ---- I'm tired!!! (So is Kelly...since she fell asleep at 6:30pm tonight!) What an amazing birthday week for Kelly!

Helena, Kelly, and Sophia with their kid popcorn packs that we got FREE too!!!!

Birthday tradition

We continued our family birthday tradition by going to Happy Joe's on the kids "real" birthdays! We now have four pictures of Kelly with a clown sundae on her birthday. Happy 4th Birthday Kelly!!!!

A good combination......

BIRTHDAYS and BEST FRIENDS!!!

Today is Kelly's "real" birthday! We celebrated by going to Jumpin Janes with her best friend, Sophia! They had soooooo much fun together! We were there almost 5 HOURS!!! We got there at 10am when they opened and left at 2:45pm. They were tired 4 year old girls!

Singing to the birthday girl
Best Friends!!!!
They are only one month apart in age (Sophia was 4 yrs. old on 5/8). They are in the same preschool class next year too!

Molly enjoyed her birthday cupcake too!

The three girls riding the merry-go-round!

Sophia and Kelly ready to RACE down the slide

Best Friends!!!

They LOVED playing air hockey! I love Kelly's smile in this picture.

Sophia LOVED playing air hockey too!

Kelly enjoying her sucker....the girls each got suckers and rings with their tickets.

What a great birthday for Kelly Marie!

CINDERELLA

Kelly, Grandma Peggy, and I went to the Cinderella Play today at the Fireside theater in Fort Atkinson, WI. It was so much fun....for all 3 of us! It was amazing to see the joy on Kelly's face throughout the play and especially after....when she got to meet Cinderella and Prince Charming. These will be memories that we will all cherish forever. They even mentioned Kelly's name and how old she was before the play started....and Kelly got a candle in her ice cream at lunch too!

Kelly & Grandma Peggy
Kelly enjoying her first kiddie cocktail at lunch.

A BIG hug for Cinderella!

Talking to Cinderella & Prince Charming!

Kelly was saving her smiles for this picture......she ran out and didn't get a picture with Mommy! After this picture, she said to Cinderella "You are BEAUTIFUL!!!!" My heart just melted....along with Cinderella & Prince Charmings too!

My sleeping Cinderella.....5 minutes after we got into the car! You can see her picture in the window that she got from Prince Charming!

Kelly's 4th birthday party!

We celebrated Kelly's 4th birthday on Saturday with a party at our house! We woke up to a yucky, rainy day......but it ended up nice and the kids all got to play outside. Everyone came around 10am....all the kids were playing inside and having fun together. We ate lunch and opened presents while it was still raining outside. The rain started to let up and it was HOT outside, so we filled up the pool. After cake and ice cream, the kids had a great time playing outside. The highlight for the kids was the pinata! Kelly REALLY wanted a pinata at her party this year.....and it ended up being really fun for everyone! Kelly had a wonderful day!!!!

The birthday princess!

(This picture is classic Kelly!!!)
Mommy, Daddy, and our 4 YEAR OLD!!!!!

Kelly with her godparents

Kelly was sooooo happy to finally have HER birthday party!!!!

Our family!

Grandma & Papa Murray

Grandma & Papa Mulgrew

Grandma & Papa Snyder

Uncle David

Molly thought Kelly's birthday party was fun too!!!

(Although, she did sleep for 3 hours after lunch)

THE CAKE!!!!

Kelly LOVES Hello Kitty!

Kelly blowing our her "4" candles!

Kelly going down the "water slide!" The kids were pooring buckets of water from the pool down the slide.....and they were "flying" down that slide into the big MUD puddle at the bottom!
They had fun!!!!!!

Kelly blindfolded trying to break the pinata open!

After round ONE of 11 kids (Molly was sleeping)....the blindfold was optional!

CANDY!!!!!!!!

MORE CANDY!!!!!

The pinata was a big success!

Happy 4th Birthday Kelly Marie!!!!!

This is what happens......

...ONE HOUR BEFORE WE HAVE PROFESSIONAL PICTURES SCHEDULED!!!!!!!

Molly gets a nice, big fat lip (courtsey of her sister.....but is was an ACCIDENT!)

Molly saying soooooo big!!!!

I guess her 18 month pictures will have to wait a little while!!!

Getting ready......

Today was cleaning day for Kelly's birthday party! Kelly was all into helping out.....she was EXCITED to clean the toilets!!!!! She is sooooooooo ready for her birthday party to be here....only a few more days!

(This was my 4th attempt to get a picture......I took 6 pictures, hoping one would turn out with my camera that doesn't have a working screen!)

5 YEARS

Brian and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary this past weekend in Wisconsin Dells! (Our anniversary is this Friday 6/11....but we are having Kelly's 4th birthday party on Saturday 6/12). We dropped the girls off at Grandma and Papa Mulgrew's on Saturday morning. They had a great time! Kelly didn't miss us at all...she loved having a sleepover at Grandma and Papa's house and got to play with some of her cousins on Saturday and Sunday too. This was Molly's first night away from Mommy and Daddy.....and she did great during the days....but woke up twice during the night (which she rarely does at home). Back to our trip....we got to the Dells around 11:30am and went to the downtown area and walked around the shops and found an AMAZING place for lunch! I highly recommend the High Rock Cafe, if you are in the area. We sat at a table upstairs that overlooked the entire Downtown Dells shopping area. The food was amazing, the price was good, and the atmosphere was amazing! After a few hours downtown, we checked into our hotel. It was raining by that point, so we spent a few hours just doing normal things - reading the paper, playing on the computer, watching TV, etc. - WITHOUT GETTING INTERRUPTED! It was great! I LOVE my girls...but it was nice to read the paper in ONE sitting! Since the weather was yucky we decided to go to the hottub....which was relaxing! We then ordered calzones and got them delivered to our room! It was supposed to stop raining in the evening, so we got tickets to the Tommy Bartlett Show at 8:30pm. The weather was a little cold (we were covered up with beach towels, since I didn't think we needed warm clothes for a one day trip), but it didn't rain and the show was great! After the show....another trip to the hot tub!!! On Sunday, we rode the Original Wisconsin Ducks....the weather was perfect, and it was a fun ride! We finished our trip with a few hours at the Tanger Outlets.....where we finished Kelly's birthday present and had lunch. It was a wonderful, short weekend. I look forward to another trip in 5 years!!!

A postcard of the Ducks we rode on Sunday.

(The one down side of our trip was our camera broke! The screen doesn't work....but the camera still takes pictures....you just can't see what you're taking! We bought a disposable camera....but we haven't gotten them developed yet.)

We are researching cameras now....if anyone has any suggestions....please send them my way. We want a point and shoot, not an SLR, with a large screen, and minimal delay. It needs to be small to fit in my purse, diaper bag, etc. I need to get one soon....since Kelly's birthday party is THIS WEEKEND!

Molly Ann - 18 months

Molly had her 18 month doctor appointment this morning (she was 18 months yesterday). Everything looked good! When I asked the doctor about her eating and drinking.....he said just to keep trying!!!!! As most of you know, Molly does not like sippy cups (and she only gets her one bottle a day before bedtime), and she has a "select" few foods that she eats. Hopefully, she grows out of this eating craziness soon!

Weight: 25.2 lbs. (70%)

Height:33.5 inches (95%)

Head:47 cm (70%)

To compare.....Kelly was 27.4 lbs. & 32 inchs at 18 months.

First trip to the pool - 2010

We spent the afternoon at the Dyersville Pool today.....Kelly and Isabella had a blast! Molly warmed up a little bit....but we still have a long way to go with Molly and large bodies of water (river, pools, lakes). We've decided that by the END of our 7 day vacation on the lake this summer....she might start to like the water! So here's how today went....

Kelly is a pool rat! She LOVES the water and doesn't EVER want to get out!!!!!
She loved every aspect of the pool today......floating in her tube, jumping in, playing under the mushroom, playing in the jumping waters, and EXPECIALLY THE WATER SLIDE!!!

Kelly and Isabella hanging out in their tubes.

Molly, on the other hand, cried when I took her in the water. I have scratches all over my chest and back from her death grip holding onto me. We walked into the water and before it even touched her toes, she CRIED! We stayed in for about 10 minutes before I decided this wasn't going to work the best today!!!! Molly was happy watching Kelly and Isabella from the comfort of her towel while munching on goldfish!

Back to Isabella and Kelly.....they were sitting like this every hour when they cleared the pool.....waiting to get back in!!!!!!!

Molly was ok just walking on the pool deck!

So, I called Grandma and Papa Snyder to see if they wanted to sit at the park with Molly for 30 minutes so I could take Kelly down the water slide (because she wasn't tall enough to go by herself). Molly enjoyed playing at the park with Grandma and Grandpa.

After about 2.5 hours I finally got Molly to sit with me on the edge of the pool......and she started splashing with her feet.....

....and her hands too!!!!!

" YEAH!!! This water isn't so bad after all!!!!"

We have a long way to go, but baby steps happened today! Molly sat on the edge of the pool in the deep end for almost 2 hours as Kelly was able to go down the water slide by herself as long as I caught her at the bottom. Molly was ok just sitting and watching her big sister and cousin....clapping for them everytime! Between the 12 times I went down the slide with Kelly and the 30+ times she went down by herself.....we had a sleeping daughter at 6:15pm!