Happy Birthday to Sophie!

Our sweet Sophie turned 6 today. I truly can't believe it. Thankfully, we've led up to this day with multiple fun outings and a tea party to celebrate. The celebrating began more than a week ago when Grammy came to town and treated us to a girls' outing to see Peter Pan at the threesixty theatre downtown. It was a fantastic show, and I was impressed with Sophie's ability to stay focused through the full 2 hours.

The festivities resumed this past weekend, with Oma coming to town to help us celebrate. We had a tea party at home with some neighborhood friends and new school friends. The girls enjoyed decorating teapot frames, playing musical chairs and making charm bracelets. It was a great chance for me to get to know some of the girls from school and their parents a little better, and see that Sophie has gravitated towards a nice group of girls.


Today, Eric and I had lunch with Sophie at school and brought cupcakes for her class to enjoy outside after lunch. Another little girl in her class shares the same birthday, so her Mom and I split the baking, which was great since we had to provide 48 cupckaes for the combined multiage kindergarten and first grade classes. Here's a shot of the birthday girls.

Our plan for dinner at one of Sophie's favorite restaurants, Garrison's, has been thwarted due to a tornado watch, so we've altered our plan to pizza delivery. We'll try again for dinner tomorrow night. Happy Birthday, Soph!

Finally 4!

Jack's 4th birthday was by far the most anticipated birthday he's had to date, and to his great delight, he had multiple chances to celebrate with classmates, family and friends.

This picture of him with the cake pretty much sums up this past year and the fun-loving little guy that has blessed our family. We have watched his personality continue to develop and he has become quite a character with a great sense of humor. He also has an extraordinary sense of sweetness that really blows my mind at times. While he certainly has his moments, his sweet and lighthearted personality makes me smile about a zillion times a day!

Our morning rides to preschool often consist of Jack and Danny discussing their ages as well as the ages of all of the neighborhood kids, and where they all fall into the so-called ranking system. Danny is about 9 months older than Jack, so while he'll turn 5 in a few short months, Jack gets to enjoy being the same age for at least a little while. Another big highlight of turning 4 is that we officially switched him over to a booster seat, another "coming of age" sign for him!

Grammy and Grandpa Nick came for a visit to help us celebrate, and the weekend kicked of with an all boys hike at Amicalola Falls with Uncle Matt and his boys while my Mom and I took Sophie to see Peter Pan downtown. Jack and Colin are just a few weeks apart and always have fun paling around.
Grammy decorated Jack's chair with streamers, which he loved. It's the little things, right?


For a family birthday celebration on Jack's actual birthday, we headed to the circus with Grammy and Grandpa Nick, Uncle Mike and Uncle Matt's family. Jack's favorite part was likely the big box of popcorn he snacked on throughout, and glancing at his new digital watch (he's been obsessed with telling time for months) to announce the time as it changed from minute to minute. We returned home to celebrate with pizza, ice cream and cake (yes, the infamous "salmonella" chocolate family recipe!).



This was my first attempt at writing on a cake, and though it certainly looks a little sad, it was still delicious!


The following day we capped the weekend off with a party at Chuck E Cheese's with a small group of neighborhood friends. It got off to an exciting start when Sophie's nose started gushing blood as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. Just a few minutes later, Jack allowed his excitement to get the better of him and wasn't able to make it to the bathroom in time. Thankfully, we had a back-up outfit in the car and all was well again!

Despite my initial hesitation about Chuck E Cheese's, we were pleasantly surprised with our experience, and the kids had a great time. Jack had never been, which made it especially fun for him. A special highlight was that his friend, Lindy, who recently moved to Dallas, Texas, was back for a visit this weekend and was able to help him celebrate!




I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I can't believe how fast time is going and that our little man is 4! Happy Birthday Jack Attack!!!

Easier Said Than Done

While I have yet to post anything about Christmas or other blog worthy events that have happened since my last post, I'm feeling desperate to at least catch myself up since the New Year began. The truth is, January has not been all that exciting for us, unless you count 2 bouts of influenza separated by a week trapped in the house from the snow and ice that paralyzed Atlanta.

Now that we are all up and running again, it's time to make up for lost time and have some fun!

Awhile back, I purchased some discounted tickets from Groupon for ice skate rentals and skating time at The Rink, which is on the edge of Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Prior to closing the deal, I had discussed the idea with Eric as a fun family outing, at which point he asked, "When was the last time you skated?". Good point. Nonetheless, I decided it would be an adventure and sealed the deal, and then invited The King family to join us. Olivia is too young to skate, and Susana is carrying baby #3, so Bryant and Sophie King joined us on the ice.

Walking in the skates on the regular floor to get to the ice proved to not be a problem for the kids (or me!), but once we actually got on the ice, it was another story altogether. It was quite a challenge even for us adults to get a good feel for the ice and find our rhythm. But trying to verbally explain the technique to a 3, 4 and 5 year old proved to be virtually impossible.

Here's Jack, all confident that he'd be able to rock it on skates before actually giving it a try...


Jack decided to call it quits after his first lap around, and Sophie persistently held onto the wall around the rink while her feet repeatedly took turns slipping out from under her, resulting in her falling, with me doing everything in my power to not go down with her. All this in about 25 minutes tops.

Here's what happened when one of us relinquished our duty to try and capture the moment on film...


Thankfully, it wasn't all for naught as we were graced with the first 65 degree day of the year, which allowed us to enjoy a nice lunch outside, followed by a walk to the playground on the other side of the park.

All in all, it was a very FUN day!!