Johanna's Second Birthday Party

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Johanna! She is such a blessing to our family and spending some time centered around her was definitely fitting! Her current love is Minnie Mouse so a Minnie themed party definitely seemed appropriate. I had a great time making and finding so many things for the party and Johanna was wearing an ADORABLE dress from my mom. What a great day we had! Happy Birthday once again, Jo-Bear!

Cousin Luke might just be the most adorable 9 month old!

The older kids really wanted a pinata, but I hate spending $20 on them! So...I made this one from a diaper box and a roll of crepe paper. Total cost? About $1.50. :)

Another pic of the pinata.

I also made the party hats. They were made from fabric, ribbon, yarn and foam...
and were SO cute on the kiddos. They were fairly easy to make too!

I had these adorable bags made from a seller on etsy. The girls were Minnie and the boys

looked like this. They were so cute and inexpensive!

Pink polka-dot cupcakes with cupcake toppers.

The birthday girl with Grandma.

Do you think Joshua likes his hat?

Abigail and Bebe being goofy!

Cousin Sylvie. :)

Jos checking out her new book that she loves!

And another fun toy!

Check out these new shoes from Sue and Dani...she sure thought she was hot stuff!

Cupcake time!

Daddy's girl and a great pic of her adorable, hand-made-by-Grandma, dress!

Johanna's Birthday...Part 1

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With Johanna's "big" party planned for Sunday, the 20th, we decided to have a little fun the night of her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with our family. The older kids love to go there, play games, get pictures taken and get prizes. Johanna likes to run around, but isn't always crazy about the rides. It took her awhile, but she finally warmed up to a couple of the rides. :) It was a fun night letting our 2 YEAR OLD (!!!) run crazy. There can't just be pictures of Johanna...I have to slip in this one of Abby too!

This is the face she gave me when we put her on the clock ride. She sits in a seat and it just goes around twice...she wasn't so sure about it.

Bob the Builder was much more fun for her!

She really liked sitting on this one...even if it wasn't moving!

Skee-ball is always a favorite...even when Jos was continuously

throwing the ball in the next lane!

Henry's favorite...the water gun game!

This is more Johanna's style...pushing the button trying to punch ducks over. :)

Happy Second Birthday, Johanna!

(yes, that's a Chuck E Cheese birthday sticker on her dress. we do birthdays in style here)

Happy 2nd Birthday to Miss Johanna Mathilda! This little girl is just that now...a little girl. Very little baby left in this one, except for those two fingers she still insists on sucking! We are blessed each day by Johanna and what she brings to our lives. A few years ago when Henry and Abigail were being extremely spunky one day my mom looked at me and said, "Would you rather that they were boring?" Of course not! When Johanna is spunky, difficult, a stinker, sassy, mouthy or all of the above, I remind myself of that...at least she isn't boring. She's far from it. She's crazy, funny (I mean, she really is hilarious!), smart, loving, independent, caring, nurturing and loves to snuggle. And she's definitely NOT boring. Happy Birthday, Johanna. We love you so much.

Happy First Birthday, Mila!

On March 12th we all went to Chicago to celebrate Mila's FIRST birthday! What a fun day we had! We spent a few hours at Joel and Kelly's place eating great food, playing with bubbles (the theme of the party) and just celebrating Mila. Rebecca and Brad had a hotel for the night so we went to their hotel for pizza and swimming in the pool before we headed back to Michigan. What a fun day celebrating Mila and spending time with family!

2 months...then 12:08 am

I love a good challenge. And I'm competitive. Colin and I rarely argue, but when we do it's often during a game of mini-golf, Mario Kart or anything else where one of us gets the chance to trash-talk the other. :) I told Colin that I wasn't going to buy one stitch of children's clothing for all of January and February. If you know me, you know that I hardly go two weeks without buying something for one of the kids, much less two MONTHS! Colin didn't think I could do it...so I HAD to do it. I had to "win" by showing him I could do it. He really won because I didn't spend any money for two months, but we'll still consider me the clear winner. It wasn't too difficult, but there were times. In early January there are tons of sales as the winter stuff gets moved out. Usually I buy ahead for next year. I bought nothing. Abigail has holes in a bunch of leggings and decided to start wearing jeans. Normally I'd buy a few new pairs of leggings and jeans. Instead, my mom mended a few pairs of the leggings and we washed the jeans she has more often. The kids really, really needed new socks. A great friend gave us some that she was going to donate. I realized that my first thought was often just to go buy a replacement or something I thought I "needed." If nothing else, the two months reminded me not to impulse buy, but to see if there are other solutions and/or give it a little time to see if what I think I "need" is really necessary.

That being said...at 12:08 am on March 1 I purchased this awesome bathing suit and swim cap from Gymboree. It came yesterday and Johanna couldn't wait to try it on. She then left it on for about two hours. It's so fricken cute on her...it was definitely a great first off-the-wagon purchase. This girl is ready for Florida!

Abigail Learning to Sew

My mom has been getting some serious use out of her old Singer lately. She's been whipping out adorable pillowcase dresses for the girls and doing some mending for me as well. Abigail still gets picked up by Grandma Rita every Friday and gets to spend some time with her. For the past two weeks they have been sewing. My mom took her to the fabric store and let her pick out any fabric she wanted to make a pillowcase. It should be noted that my mom tried to persuade her to get something pink or flowery or really, anything cute, but Abigail had her mind made up the minute she saw something with dolphins on it! They went home and my mom patiently taught Abigail how to sew a pillowcase, complete with nice finished edges and everything! What I really admire about my mom is that she is so incredibly patient. It would be so easy to just say "I'll just do it, you watch" or just let her practice on scrap fabric. My mom doesn't do that though, she takes time and lets Abby do everything by herself. The end result is not only a great (slightly gaudy) pillowcase, but also self-confidence for Abby as well as a new memory for Grandma and Abigail. Thanks for teaching her, Mom!