The "Week of EJ," Part I

And so, the "birthday week" (as I coined it this year) begins.  It's already tricky to try to make her bday special and separate from Christmas since they are so close, but this year we added in school celebrations, neighbor and friend celebrations, some time with her dad and I, and some Mommy and EJ  time.  Let the fun begin!

After taking a nice long bath (hence the bathrobe...hey, it was (almost) her birthday...what girl doesn't want a little pampering? :] ), we colored the vanilla frosting of the cupcakes (in princess liners) to pink and she helped with the sprinkles.

Almost 3...big girl!

"Hooray!  It's my birthday!"

We didn't have EJ's lunchbox before school this day, so Mommy made an old-school brown paper bag a little more festive.  She looks so big to me in these pictures!

Then, I took some time off in the afternoon to bring the cupcakes to her 'school.'  I had such a "mom" moment, finally having a chance to watch her play with all her friends and interact.  It was weird!!  (but precious, of course)

I spy 2 pink boots!
Yes, those are my daughter's.  The shoes come off EVERY SINGLE DAY at school...even the teachers don't understand it - it's like this "code" with all the 20+ kids that they have to run in, then throw their shoes off before they can really start playing.  Pretty fun (except when the socks or shoes come home on the wrong child!  No joke...it happened!)

They were finishing up a snowflake activity as I arrived.

And then the glitter...glitter always...glitter everywhere...glitter int he backpack, which equals glitter in the home. :/

This is the beloved teacher, Ms. Denise, who's been out much of this year. Apparently, EJ and her have a special connection, so she was excited to see her on her big day.  See the next picture below to get an idea of what the other kids think of Ms. Denise....

:)  I brought her tiara  :)

LOVE the smirk

So, here's what amazed me.  All the kids sit down and almost all of them WAIT PATIENTLY until the singing starts. Not one teacher told them to wait...they (again, almost all) sat there, cupcake tempting them, and then all chimed in to sing.  Apparently, where EJ is sitting must be the 'birthday seat' - she knew to go right to it.

Some of EJ's pals...in fact, she named a teddy bear recently after the girl to her right in the red shirt. 

December, Part II

N's 3rd birthday celebration!

Concentrating hard on making her special crown.

New baby "P" (OK, new in the summer :] )

Isn't this little girl cute and stylish?

Birthday girl!

What SWEET smiles!

:)  EJ has a lil' bakers hat on...and Mommy (if you look closely) has a crown on her head! Now I'M the princess! Ha!

More fun in December - baking Christmas cookies with our pal, "T," who we rarely get to see anymore. :(

Check out the red sprinkles!

Proud kiddos!

Silly kiddos!

Cute tummies of kiddos!

Sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles
(I should have taken a picture of my floor! ;] )

And, lastly, yes...that is indeed a cookie under all the green...
...and the only cookie that got green because it was the whole jar!  Oh well!

December, Part I

We kicked off our busy December with one of the first birthday celebrations - a friend from school was having a princess party.  

The princess put makeup on MY princess!  Internally, I gasped..."makeup on my little girl?!"...and then I took a deep breath and just dealt with it (although hoping she wasn't going to suddenly start wanting makeup!)  She looked a little confused about what was happening on her face, eh?  Ha!

Does anyone else love this giggly-smile on her?!

Princess play time around a circle....

Two REALLY excited princesses!

Most of the princesses piled on the couch.
Note my kiddo - top left corner, giving sweet little princess kisses!

This momma had some fun this month, too!  I had a couple of work events that made this a super fun month!

Our HB holiday dinner and team awards (I won 3!!)

Then I got the chance to head to the Rams game, in a suite and bring some friends along! Mary and Katie brought their two little munchins, who were also champs for a loud, closed-stadium game...the little girls' first pro football game!

And STILL - one more fun event for Mommy!  This the day I hit a huge milestone with work, so we took a picture before we headed out to a dinner together to celebrate.  And, although it didn't mean anything to EJ except that we ate out somewhere, it was important to me as a momma to take time to celebrate big, fun events among the 2 of us and start some traditions!

So, I thought we'd both have fun celebrating with some balloons, so as you'll see from the picture below, I got some balloons in honor of my achievement, and then of course got a princess one so the lil' one didn't feel left out.  :)

Dinner, "us," and balloons!

And, so back to the little girl fun!
We headed off with CJ, Mary, "N" and their new addition, "P," for a night at the zoo, where they had the place decked out with Christmas lights EVERYwhere.  It was a pretty cold night to have out with the kiddos, but as you'll see from these pics, they didn't seem to mind too much, huh?

I love that they hold hands in so many pictures!

Some of the lights captured on my camera!

Me 'n' EJ time...self-portrait (excuse me, I'm showing my age...I should have said a "selfy!")

Included this picture just to point out the LONG, skinny legs. She certainly didn't get that feature from me! Is it bad that I'm jealous of my now-3 year old?!  :)

An entire lit-up Santa behind us?!

Check out this cheeseball grin!

Sweet family!

Happy girls!

Cuddly girls!

Our whole crew together with a pretty tree behind us!