The Carnival Came to Town (Lauren's Birthday Part IV)

Yep, in house, birthday's drag on FOREVER! This Saturday was the actual party day for Lauren. As we did last year we had a joint party with Lauren's best friend ever, Caroline. (Their birthdays are a week apart.) Together with Caroline's very talented mother, Elizabeth, we celebrated carnival style. We had face painting, the lolly pop game, pin the tail on the donkey, ball toss, go fishing, a bouncy house,a mini roller coaster and yummy junky carnival food, all set to the sounds of carnival music. I think the kids had a blast. Take a look!



The Food

More Food




Treat bags and lolly pop game

Face Painting


Bouncy House and Lil' roller coaster

Pin the Tail on the donkey and Ball Toss

Gone Fishing

Best Buds Ready to Partahy!

Face Painting in action

Let the Games Begin!

Sweet Lola Belle

Just the Three of Us.

HEBuddy Came too!

The Roller Coaster!

Jumping!

Close up of the cakes and Cupcakes

The Food again!

Liz and I with the girls cakes.

Girls with there cakes!

More girls with cakes.

Make a wish!

More Bouncing!

The end of a long day and we are.....pooped!

Before and After Shots

We have been doing a bit of touching up to the house. Meaning new window treatments, paint, new rug......new bedroom stuff. We have focused on the family room, our bedroom and kitchen nook. While none are quite complete yet, I thought I would show the progress we have made so far.

The Before (Sorry these are so dark)

After

This is the living room. That window treatment is not new,but we put the rug that use to be in the family room in here. Looks better in here than it did in the other room.

No pictures of the master bedroom yet. I was going to take a picture, but didn't want to make the bed! We still have a few things to get for the family room. We would like some kind of art for above the TV and have an ottoman on order. In the kitchen nook we need a huge piece of art for the naked wall. In a bedroom we are looking for a bench to go at the end of the bed and I would like some vases to go on top of the thing that holds the TV. Once, we have gotten these projects complete, we would like to get window treatments for the living room, and a new rug for the entry way and cover the patio. But all that takes money, so these are goals, but have no time line. Oh and Lola's bedroom furniture is on order, I post pictures of that for sure when it gets here.

Easter and Birthdays (Lauren's Birthday part 1)

The Wednesday before Easter we had a fun playgroup Easter Egg hunt. The kids loved it and there were tons of eggs for everyone to find!

The Starting Line

For Easter, we met the rest of the family up at the ranch. We all had a great time. It was a little cold, but we still managed to fish at the "basshole" and the "crapfish" pond. Lauren caught her first fish. I caught nothing. It was a pretty relaxed weekend, with lots of cousin fun. We also celebrated Lauren and Will's birthday. He are some picture highlights!

The Hunt

The Girl Cousins

I guess to be a successful Egg hunter you must wear camo!

The Candy that I errr I mean Lauren can't stop eating.

PaPa and his littlest girl.

Happy Birthday Lauren & Will, Happy Birthday to You!

Cute Glasses Will

The Coloring of the Eggs

Lauren apparently is not a fan of boiled eggs.

Look What the Easter Bunny brought.

Here are a few of little Miss Thing playing with all the cool stuff she got from the Aunts and Uncles and all the cousins and Mom Mom and Pa Pa.

Littlest Pet Shop

Gone Fishing!

Roller Skates (apparently they work better without pants!)

And as a side note......I am aware that part 1 should have come first. No excuses, just the way it happened.

Lauren's Big Day (Lauren's Birthday Part 3)

So how did we celebrate this sweet girl's 3rd birthday?

First we slept late.

Lauren and I mixed icing for her "cookie cake".

She received birthday phone calls.

Got dressed.

We went to Cheesecake Factory.

Lauren got her ears pierced.

Check out the new bling.

Went to the Disney Store, got a new Minnie.

We ordered the big girl bed.

We opened presents from Mimi, Grandad and Ganan.

Took a nap.

Got dressed again.

Went to Chuck E Cheese with Caroline.

(Lauren took this picture)

Came home, had the cookie cake, opened a present from Caroline.

Had a bath.

Went to bed.

What a great day!