ice cream sundae party...caroline's 4th b'day

just a little excited about her party!

loved holding up 4 fingers :)

the sun was so hot that the bright pink ice cream faded away!!!

caroline and rafe swinging away

some of the girls posed themselves for this shot

pin the cherry on the ice cream cone

making ice cream sundaes

daddy and susanna

lovin her sundae...kept adding and eating candy toppings

her ice cream cone cupcake

yummy!! can you say sugar high??

forester showin' everyone how it's done

the lineup minus a few that had already left

our family

opening presents

hi mommy!

loving the gifts from her generous friends

post-party picture....mommy is T-I-R-E-D!!!!

we had a great weekend celebrating caroline's 4th b'day with her friends in charleston. her actual b'day is this tuesday, april 15. we had a bunch of friends over on saturday for an ice cream sundae party. it was HOT!!!! everybody was sweating like crazy and the ice cream melted fast. the kids played hard, played pin the cherry on the ice cream cone, made and ate ice cream sundaes, ate ice cream cone cupcakes and then we all collapsed when it was over. the b'day girl had an absolute blast and we were blessed by all the friends that came. there will be more caroline b'day posts to come...we have a full week of celebrating ahead!!

pulling up

look at me!

my favorite place...mommy's bathtub!

i'm ready...let's get in

look at that cute little body

teeth!!!

miss priss susanna has been trying to pull up lately and today she was successful several times as documented above...so cute!! except when she loses her balances and ends up bonking her head on something :( oh well, you gotta learn. here are some pixs and a close up pix of her two teeth. she is so adorable i could eat her up!

blessed be the name....

please excuse this video visually...there is nothing to see but my dirty car, part of my leg and my foot driving. but, the best part is hearing caroline sing "blessed be the name of the Lord". i knew she'd stop singing if she saw the camera so i had to be discreet. there is nothing sweeter to me than the sound of her singing :)

the swingset

just a few pieces of wood - all properly labeled!

this is what it looked like before

john and chris in progress

one happy little girl!!!

loving it!!!!

the finished product

a huge thank you to grammie, papa, grandma and grandad for giving caroline a swingset for her b'day that's coming up in a little over a week! we wanted to have it set up for her party so daddy put it together this weekend. thanks to our friend chris for helping john...we couldn't have done it without you! john got everything out, organized and started on saturday and by sunday early evening it was all done. great job, daddy!!!!! and, caroline could not have been more excited. she got back from awana at church and didn't want to stop playing on it. she kept saying "this is the best swingset ever!!". i have a feeling we're going to get lots of use out of it :)

grammie and papa visit....

grammie and caroline "crafting" together

playing on the playground - it was hot!!

sisters

playing with mommy

this is how i found caroline this am - she was TIRED, i had to wake her up for school!!

papa had some business around charleston so they came and stayed with us for a few nights. we love having visitors, especially our family!! mom and i took the kids to the park one afternoon and played and had a picnic while papa worked. they also graciously kept the kids one night so john and i could go on a date. huge blessing! it's so expensive to pay for a sitter for 2 kids and go out so we rarely do it. we had a blast. papa also put up some new black ledge shelves for us in our living room that he made. they look awesome and i can't wait to fill up all the black frames i got for christmas and put them up!!! here are a few pictures...sorry papa, somehow we managed not to get you in any of them :(

we'll be here....

we'll be here at the beginning of may...and by "we" i mean just me and my hubby. i love my kids more than life itself and it's hard for me to be away from them. BUT, i really love being with my husband and can't wait to spend almost 4 whole days together sans kids. well, he will be working part of the time every day, but that's okay. i'll sleep in and watch tv (today show, regis & kelly, the view) until he's done. i think i can handle that :) by they way, this is a picture of the harbor in dana point, california in orange county. i believe it's just south of laguna beach. i don't really care exactly where it is, i just know i'll be there!

and we have teeth.....

i was feeding susanna some pears this morning and randomly checked her gums for teeth...and i felt a little something. sure enough, when i took a closer look, i could see 2 tiny little white marks on the bottom. makes me a little sad b/c i love her gummy smile and this is a step out of babyhood. on the other hand, the kid is going to need some teeth for the future! i tried to take a picture, but it was pointless b/c you can't see anything. caroline was so excited for susanna :) i can't stand to post without a picture so here is random one of caroline and susanna after they got into a bag of chips...they had a blast playing with them!!