Happy 7th Birthday Anabelle!!!

Well, this year, Anabelle wanted a big gift, so we decided to offer her a choice. She could have the big gift and a little party or a big party. It was a hard decision for her, but after a few days she decided to go with the big gift (I was secretly happy her decision!). The big gift she wanted was an American Girl Doll. Yes...we have entered the world of American Girl Dolls...Oh my!!! Anabelle also decided against getting one of the standard historical dolls and wanted a 'Just Like You' doll. I didn't tell her it arrived before her birthday so there would be some surprise to it. I was expecting more of an enthusiastic reaction when she opened it & was worried it was going to sit in the corner of her room with all of her other dolls. Thankfully, she has played with it a lot and even puts it to bed at night.

Here's one American Girl Doll you can't resist!

As for the little party...I suggested we take two friends bowling. It was a lot of fun and the girls were VERY excited. My ears are still ringing from the squeals and high pitched giggles. I can't imagine how crazy it would have been if she chose to have a big party! You can see the excitement written all over Anabelle's face!

Here are Elise and Sadie having a great time. Thankfully, we had a lane with bumpers and a ramp to make for a more successful bowling experience! However, Sadie usually preferred to push the ball herself. When that happened we had a good two minutes to wait before the next turn. I didn't know a ball could roll that slow :0). Here's Elise giving it a good roll. There were a few times she threw it so hard I was worried she may have left a dent in the floor!

Bye Bye Binkies

Well, last week Sadie collected all of her binkies to give to the Binky Fairy. She placed them all in her special monkey box (that Aunt Jeanne gave her) and left them on the front porch for the Binky Fairy to take. She was such a big girl about it! She was also very excited to find lollipop binkies in their place the following morning. It's so strange to be binky free after 7 years! I'm very proud of my big girl :0).

Halloween

This year we had a Pumpkin Fairy, a Beautiful Witch, and a Cowgirl! It was a great night for trick or treating and the girls got LOTS of candy. When we got back home, we gave them 30 minutes to eat whatever they wanted. I knew they were on sugar overload at bedtime when I saw Elise do somersaults on the way to brush her teeth, a few handstands on her way to get her jammies, and a few backbends between her room and the laundry basket. Phew! It was like the Dow's on fast forward :0)!

Here's Sadie and Danny on their way back. Sadie needed a ride after all of that walking!
Here are the girls and their carved pumpkins before we headed out on Halloween night.

Sadie turns 3!

Sadie originally wanted to be a ballerina fairy mermaid princess for her birthday, but I got her to agree on a fairy. Then when we were talking about her birthday party, we thought it would be fun to do a Pumpkin Fairy party and it turned out great!














The kids used their fairy magic to blow the clouds away from the sun! We also played musical pumpkins and went on a pumpkin hunt. The grumpy troll hid them in the backyard. Here's the one Sadie found!














We played pumpkin games with the parachute, too! The fairies and their friends went for a ride in the magical pumpkin and even got stuck inside! It was a good thing that they had their magic with them so they could use it to escape!

Here are Sadie's special friends.

Sadie requested a princess cake with a crown on top and here it is!