happy birthday grace!

Grace definitely was ready for her birthday to come this year. Usually we celebrate Jack's birthday and Grace's birthday at the same time, so she was a little jealous when Jack was opening his presents and she had to wait two more days. 

But, I think she would say that it was worth the wait. She got some great, girly gifts this year. I think her favorite was a new pink Nintendo DS to replace the one she lost. She also got some cute clothes, headbands, a garden kit, some American Girl dolls, a fun ruffly bag, and lots of lip gloss.

And of course the day wouldn't be complete without a princess birthday cake!

happy birthday jack!

I am not sure how it is possible that my "baby" is 7 years old! This year we just had a low key dinner and presents at home. Jack got a lot of fun gifts to play with, but I think the highlight was the hamster cage. Of course we had to go to the store and buy some hamsters to go in them :) We ended up with two panda bear hamsters. They are adorable and very popular with all the kids!

2011 spelling bee

Garrett was able to participate in the school's spelling bee this year. He had to be the top in his class, then the top in his grade in order to be in the school bee. The school bee included kids from 2nd grade through 6th grade. I am so proud of him, he made it to the 6th round and took 6th place. 

Round 1-church


Round 2-basket

Round 3-gossip


Round 4-thermos


Round 5-lightning


Round 6-waiver

The bell means that he spelled it wrong. I think he knew as soon as he missed the "i" that he had spelled the wrong word. Great job Garrett!!!

decorating a gingerbread neighborhood

Our little gingerbread neighborhood!

Grace's house, I love what she's done with her yard!

Garrett did a lot of work on the Christmas lights for his house!

Jack helped me with the A-frame and the cute little mod house. He was really more interested in squeezing the frosting straight into his mouth and topping it off with candy!

I bought a kit at Wal-Mart that included everything. It was the perfect thing because everyone got to decorate their own little house. Miraculously there was very little arguing for the 15 minutes or so that it took to decorate. A Christmas miracle!

I love how the kids have such looks of concentration in every picture. It couldn't get one where they were smiling. They wanted every detail to be perfect!

deck the halls

We added a couple of blow up decorations this year and the kids just love them. It seems like nearly every house in our neighborhood has at least one of them in their yard. It is so hard to get a good picture of the lights in the dark. It looks a lot brighter and fun in person. I would say we have successfully decked our halls for 2010!

and grace too!

Grace wanted to wait until Friday to wear her new clothes so she could wear them on her birthday to school. Never mind the green socks, she dresses herself most of the time!

jack's new clothes

Aunt Maggie always gets the kids a cute new outfit for their birthday! We love it!

it's party time!

We had our annual Peter Piper Pizza party for the kids on Wednesday. Grace was able to bring her little friend from the neighborhood, Audra. I think everyone had a great time playing and eating pizza. Grace and Jack opened presents just before we left, and I think it is safe to say that everything was loved! Another successful birthday in the books.