We started off George's Birthday with breakfast with Benjamin Bunny and Jemima Puddle Duck at Milwaukee's downtown Watts Tea House.  George, who is normally incredibly shy, surprised us with his excitement.  As we finished our breakfast, in walked Jemima herself.  Benjamin followed.

 Here they come!

 George starts to climb off his chair.  I'm thinking he's going to crawl onto to my lap.  Nope, he wants a closer look.  He walks right up and says hello, like they are all long lost friends.

 We got to hear the story of Benjamin Bunny,

have cookies and stickers,

 and get our picture taken with Benjamin Bunny and Jemima Puddle Duck.

It was a perfect start to the day!

 Before we left in the morning we let George open one present.

He was kind of disappointed it wasn't a sword.

 George asked for a "Wee-Ew" birthday.  A firetruck birthday.  His favorite colors are red and blue.  So, firetrucks, red, and blue it was!

We get 10 helium balloons from our local toy store for the kids' birthdays.  They are always favorites.

 Magnolia waits patiently for her cousins to arrive.

 Uh-oh.  Guests are arriving and the shyness kicks in.

 Not only do we get my sister Mary's family, we got to have my sister Emily's girls come too!

Here are Ellie and Willa with their Uncle George.

 Georgie starts to warm up again.

 The presents helped with that.

 His first baseball mitt and glove from mommy and daddy!

 Papa tells George that his gift is behind the tree.  George runs to find it!

 His first fishing rod!  He's been waiting a long time to go fishing with Papa. 

 Soon these two will go!  George is very excited.

 George wanted a "wee-ew" cake.  We talked about his cake for a long time.  He wanted to help me make it.  I had no idea how to make a "wee-ew" cake but we did it fairly easily.  Cookies for the wheels, mike and ikes for the lights, and some cut up paper straws for the ladder (George's idea!).  I'm so glad my kids are okay with "imperfect" cakes!

 The kids played all day together.  Seven girls and one little boy!

 We picked up fried chicken to go with cold salads.  

 Fun and easy.

 This was a big day for this big boy.  He was beyond tired! 

 It was so nice to share his birthday with family.

 Time to cut the cake! 

 Happy Birthday to you,  Happy Birthday to you!

 Happy Birthday dear Georgie, Happy Birthday to you!

 We love you George!


a few notes:

* I did get around to making George's Easter outfit (the grey with the carrot).  He only wore it once for the breakfast.  Thought he looked mighty cute in it.

* The day before we were at Nana and Papa's and George fell on their driveway hence the big goose egg on his forehead.  

*A few days before his birthday we were driving around town.  There was a very old hunched over man with a long grey beard walking alongside the road.  George yelled from the backseat, "There's Mr. McGregor!"  We've been reading a lot of Beatrix Potter and George is mesmerized and very frightened by Mr. McGregor... clearly missing the moral of the story.  :)

Magnolia June

 Since we have a little one about ready to turn three in this house, I don't want to overlook this growing five, almost five and half, year old.  Miss Magnolia sure has shot up.  While she remains the smallest in her class, she sure looks big to me!  

 This girl lives, breathes, and dreams horses.  She travels everywhere on "four legs."  And, as a result, we have an injury to the head almost everyday.  I tell her there's a reason why we, as humans, only have two legs and horses are built to walk on four. That doesn't stop her.  I swear it could be the next fad for getting in shape.  She looks like a thoroughbred horse, she's so toned.

 She goes to the library every Tuesday at school and every week she chooses a book about horses, zebras, tigers, or deer.  George has downloaded a horse app on the iPad and I find her watching tutorials on grooming, saddling, and riding a horse.  My favorite is when she watches horses run in fields to music.  Oh, how I love this girl!

While I can't seem to find a horse farm close enough to teach one as young as five, we are hoping we can find a place where she can at least go and visit some horses.  Not to mention that her Papa has told her she'll need to stop sucking her thumb before she rides a horse because after all, she'll need that thumb to hold the reins.  We're hoping that will be enough motivation to get her to stop sucking!

I smile every time I walk past Magnolia's room.  It sums her up perfectly.  Soft, feminine, sweet, with a strong passion for horses.

I love her "collection."  Nani started her off with a lot of Schleich animals for her 5th birthday and she has been adding to it ever since.  I laughed when I took this picture because she put her fox on a skate board.

And animals rather than baby dolls usually sleep in the baby crib.

Here are some other things happening with Magnolia:

*She is starting to read.  We've read some board books together but when she sat down with 10 Apples Up On Top, I couldn't believe she could read it!  

*She loves school, her teachers, her friends but she continued to cry everyday when I dropped her off.  This left us exasperated.  I talked to her teachers.  I talked to my mom and George's mom.  I talked to friends.  I was at my wits end.  Magnolia said over and over again that she just missed me.  Finally, after trying just about everything, I asked her if she wanted to work towards not crying and earn a reward if she could do it (my mom's suggestion, thanks mom, leave it to you to tell me to use bribery!).  Ha!  The magic solution.  No tears, not even an ounce of trying to hold back.  Turns out, it was just a habit and probably some anxiety about knowing she would cry.  The rewards have been fun for us all.  Lunch out, indoor playground at the mall, parks, little toy at the toyshop, and even doughnuts for lunch!  Phew, glad to be over that one.

*Magnolia is starting to have a streak of independence.   I will honestly say it took me by surprise and took me about a week before I knew what was going on.  One aspect of her new found independence is that she definitely has an opinion about her clothing now.  At least I had 5 1/2 yrs of getting to dress her!  Mostly she just looks for the tightest leggings so she fit her cowgirl boots over them!

*Magnolia has a lot of friends but there's one at school that she just loves the most.  They have been best friends since the first day of school.  We've done play dates with other classmates but it's this particular friend she just connects with the most.  I love her friendships.  :)

*We are nearing the end of Chinese school.  Magnolia has done so well and has picked up some basic words.  If I repeat them back when she tells them to me, she corrects me.  I obviously don't hear the different tones they way she does.  I'm so sad it is the last year of this particular school.  I will be looking for an alternative for the years to come.

*I'm starting to read Magnolia chapter books.  This has been fun for us both.  The first book was a Doreen Cronin book that was signed by her at school.  It was beyond her years so I read one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  She seemed to like that but I think our next one will be the Wind in the Willows...

I'm sure I'll think of more updates but for now I've got to get back to preparing for a busy weekend.  We have George's 3rd Birthday that we are kicking off by having breakfast with Benjamin Bunny and Jemima Puddle Duck!  Then, of course, Easter!  Lots of family, lots of fun.


Be back soon.

Happy Easter!

Spring Happenings

 Look who's riding a bike!  A neighbor handed down this bike to Magnolia and by the end of the day she got it!  No training wheels!  That balance bike must really do the trick!  

 The very same day Magnolia's friend and neighbor learned to ride her bike.  Oh, the fun these two girls will have!

 Warm, warm days.  What a wonderful March it has been.  We lived outside soaking up the sun.  The kids were in heaven.  Here they are coloring on the picnic table with the neighbor girl.

 Nani comes for a visit.  The Chicago Judys bring her up so M & G got to play with their cousins, Cate and Charlotte.  Here George and Nani enjoy the sunshine on our new window seat.

 Magnolia and Nani build an extensive sand castle in our sandboat.

  Then we play with modeling clay and make little chicks and bunnies.

 While we were all having a wonderful time with Nani I got a phone call from the school nurse telling me Magnolia had lice!  Oh my goodness,  thank goodness for Nani who kept Georgie very happy while I tried to rid of it.  I felt like I was walking through quicksand, not even sure how to tackle this.  I had heard nightmares of lice, that it was impossible to get rid of.  I treated Magnolia.  Nani left and I had one day to strip everything and wash before Aunt Alicia and cousins Musa and Isa were to arrive.  George was great by taking the kids out of the house.  I vacuumed everything.  I stripped their bedrooms like we were moving out.  I vacuumed mattresses.  George bagged everything. We washed and washed and washed.  We all treated our hair and so far, no return.  Fingers crossed it doesn't return.  While it was exhausting, I'm just grateful it was nothing serious.  Things could be a lot worse.  In the end, it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Magnolia missed a half of week of school.     

Carefree as can be.

 The biggest nuisance for her was not being able to wear her helmet (hence ride her new bike) until we cleaned it out.

 I actually think she thought it was kind of cool to have bugs in her hair.

 And this one sat in the sandbox all day long,

tongue sticking out,

working very hard on his creation.

 And while the only photos I have from Musa and Isa's trip are all on my phone,  I can say we had a super fun time.  We went to the Art Museum, ate mini donuts, went bowling, visited the Sprecher Root Beer factory and sampled root bear.  It was great to see them!

 With such warm weather we decided to give our back porch a new purpose.  Since we've moved in we've kept our grill and stroller here.  Using everything we already had, we now have this great little space.  I can perfectly see the kids play in the backyard yet be close enough to the kitchen if I'm cooking.  

Happy Spring!