Marin's Paw Patrol Party Happy 4th Birthday!

Our poor Christmas baby has to wait a few months for her birthday party. Bless her. She actually doesn't seem to mind. So it works. This year she requested a Paw Patrol party (puppy dog theme). We had it at the park and it was a beautiful day!!! She had a great time!

 Cake Time!

 The girls love pinatas. But I could not find a dog theme one anywhere. So good ol' Pinterest gave me this Punch Board idea. Marin loved so it worked. But I ordered small little puppy dogs and the kids got to punch a color and pull out their puppy. It was easy to make and easy to set up and the kids had fun. I'll take it. 

 I was really afraid that they would take one punch and the board would crumble. But they all were actually so gentle, Too gentle. I had to help them punch it. 

 We borrow my friend's Polaroid camera and take "magic" pictures with the kids with some kind of photo prop. They are really fun. But I made a puppy dog photo prop for the magic pictures. This is Zuma if you are wondering. 

Hollis insisted on wearing the birthday girl shirt. She LOVES clothes and there is absolutely no point in arguing with her about them.
Plus I don't care what she wears....

The birthday girl wore her Paw Patrol shirt of course! 

This is Mrs. Lori, our friend Emma's mom. I can not even begin to say how thankful I am for them! We love them this family a lot! 

 Present Time! 

Happy 4 year and 4 month birthday, sweet girl! We love you! 

Sea World

We needed a little family trip with Burke home for a whole week!!! We all miss him tons so it was good to get away and have him all to ourselves. It was supposed to be in the 70s but it was actually in the 50s. A little too cold for this wimp but we still had fun and plan on going back later once it's hotter.

Planning the trip to "Water Land" 

She was having fun, I promise. 

About to watch our first show....

The fam

 The girls second favorite part of the trip....the Elmo Rocks show. They never watch Sesame Street at home btw. There favorite part of the trip was .....the hotel. :o)

 And then the rides....carousels, and roller coasters, and ferris wheels....

 Her first roller coaster ride!

 The last show...belugas and dolphins and divers and "funny guy". 

Teddy Tennis

The girls have started tennis lessons. We started last year doing a sport in the spring...you know get them moving and playing before it gets painfully hot here. Last year, Marin did soccer. It wasn't so much a hit. So this year we are doing tennis. It is a cute little program called Teddy Tennis. It is so, so cute and the girls love it! I have more video than pictures so I will try and get those uploaded today.

Hollis did so great with this part! Swinging to hit the balloon! This was a good "success" for her! 

And this one just hit the ball over the net several times. We all were pretty impressed! 

A little bit of March

March is flying by and again I have fallen behind on the old blog. Argh. But here are a few pictures from our days lately....

I helped host a baby shower for Marin's Bible school teacher. It was a tea party theme.
They loved celebrating 'Baby Charlotte".

I don't think I added this to Hollis' birthday post but this was her invitation.

Some days we don't get out of our pajamas.
Even to run errands.
But notice Hollis' pants. This is her signature style.
Every single time she wears pants, she pushes up like that?!?! 

 Marin has really gotten interested in drawing and art. Almost every day she will do her drawings and if we pull out the paint she wants me to cut a hole in the plate so she can hold it like "real artists" do. 

 We are getting read for a puppy dog birthday party for our Christmas baby! 

Bless her she has to wait a few...cough cough...months for her party but she doesn't seem to mind. 

 This will be the Polaroid camera photo booth for the party. :o) 

Here is Marin's Paw Patrol invitation! I did add a Paw Patrol tag to the photo booth puppy. ;o)

We have had a lot of rain.
A lot of RAIN.
So we live in messes like these all over the house. But this is two puppies in their dog beds.
They play puppy a LOT! 

We are ready for spring! 

 I'm sad that these pictures didn't turn out better. I have gotten in a really bad habit of only using my phone to take pictures. It's just so darn easy to upload pictures to Facebook for family. But anywho....this girl LOVES her Daddy. Every day she tells me "I'm Daddy's sweet baby." Yes, you are Hollis. Yes, you are. LOVES HIM. 

This was a school activity actually, It's called directed drawing. I walk through very basic steps to drawing a picture...a bunny...and Marin copied the steps on her own paper. She used water color, pastels, and a marker. Cute, cute! 

 We finally got a sunny day to be outside. Of course, there was a layer of pollen every where and our poor allergy stricken family all has to come in and immediately take baths afterwards. But it was worth the time playing in the sand and water! They still love this thing! 

We have great neighbors. One of our favorites is the Burton family....Mr. Harold, Mrs. Jane and puppy dog Esther! We love when we catch Esther out for a walk, Here they are watching her walk by.