Happy 3rd Birthday Clare Bear!!

My little tiny baby is THREE!!!  And boy did we celebrate!!  We were incredibly blessed to have my parents, Vanessa and Evan here for the week of Clare's 3rd birthday and she had a week long celebration for sure!

First my mom was insistant that we needed a "family party" since so many of us were together and Clare has not experienced many family parties in her short little life.  So we did an ice cream cake, presents, the whole thing!

 Clare got her first my little ponies!



 And a new bike from daddy and mommy...that we still have yet to master riding

But Elle REALLY loved the bike!!

And even some Princess bedding!!

Grammie and Clare made some treats in her new easy bake oven.



And Clare went to sleep dreaming about all her fun toys in her new princess bed!!

THEN...it was time to get ready for party number 2!  Clare's very first kid party which was a carnival theme!

 Everyone chipped in to help in the preparations!

And we had 3 little stations: balloon animals, face painting and dress up/photo area

 We made yummy clown cupcakes instead of a cake

 And though it was a rainy day and we couldn't be outside

 We still had SO much fun!!!!

 Everyone participated in being a little silly!

 And even playing pin the nose on the clown..though Clare had a hard time not peaking!

 We had yummy carnival food like corn dogs, apples and carmel dip and popcorn.  I mean what kid wouldn't love that for lunch?!?

 And by the end everyone was into wearing their silly faces!



My sweet little 3 year old clown :)

And everyone took home a whole bunch of carnival treats!

It was a super fun day all around!!!

Sweet Googly Eyes :)

This past week has been a complete whirlwind.  To even think about how to document this last week seems like a mountain of an issue...but I will do my best because there is too many great things happening to not celebrate!

Last weekend my parents and Vanessa came to visit with plans of Vanessa's boyfriend Evan to come in at the end of the week.  Since LAST May Evan shared a plan with LD and I to come in early, surprise Vanessa and propose.  Let me just say when Evan originally told us this plan in May and LD realized I would have to keep this secret until October...he told Evan he was taking a big risk by telling me. 

We had a wonderful Monday and part of Tuesday with our family but I knew Evan was flying in on Tuesday evening and I was almost sick with anxiety about his plan working and keeping it from Vanessa.  I also began to tell little lies about a pretend birthday party for my friend Teresa that our family was going to.  The lies just kept going until I had a whole story that I could barely keep straight myself!

On our way to Amelie's a little french bakery where this was all supposed to go down, Vanessa said "Melissa, there are no extra seats in your car..."  Who says this??  Why do we need more seats???  And when I had originally told Vanessa it was Teresa's birthday her quick response was..."Didn't Teresa just have a birthday??"  Teresa's birthday is in January, so how would Vanessa remember this?!? All of these little comments was making me a nervous wreck!  Also, Evan's flight came in to Greenville, SC at 7pm and LD had to pick him up and get him 2 hours to Charlotte while we were waiting by 9pm..there were a lot of things that could go wrong!

Here is a clip of the absolutely perfect proposal! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0nVM5vCXY&feature=share

Though we had met Evan it was the first time LD and I have seen Evan and Vanessa together.  A friend of theirs in Vegas says they have googley eyes and I would agree!  They are cute and definetely in their own little world of love right now :)  I am SO thankful that Evan allowed my parents, LD and I to be a part of their proposal and also spend a week interacting with them as a newly engaged couple.

Now comes the fun part...in a short SIX months our family will head to Vegas for a wedding, and we cannot wait!!!

Congrats Evan and Vanessa!  We love you both!!

While Daddy's away, the girls will play

This past weekend marked a big day for LD.  Seriously, for over a year LD and his best friend Derek have talked about going to the first night game for Michigan football.  As time got closer they didn't make any plans...until the weekend before when LD was searching for tickets...all day!  After a little encouragement (it didn't take much) they decided they were going to make the trip.  Anyone who heard about the game knows it was epic and LD and Derek both came home with hoarse voices raving about their adventure.  I'm sure LD would not be happy that I am not including more details about the day..but seriously, thats all I've got.  I know that had fun :)

But while they were gone the girls and I had some big plans!  We headed to the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina with 2 other moms and kiddos.  We had 5 children under the age of 4...it as an adventure. 

We all loaded up and were ready for some fun!!

They were all so good sticking together...

Me and my girls enjoyed the beautiful day!

Clare and sweet Ayden waiting their turn for a pony ride.

This was Clare's very first pony ride.  Her pony's name was Spooky!

Such great friends....they were so sweet!

Everyone was too tired to walk back to the car, so I gave them a ride.

All were in bed by 7pm and I was short to follow...missing watching even 5 minutes of the big game.

We missed daddy...but us girls had a great weekend!

Getting in the groove

It is so hard to get back into the groove once fall activities start...and I don't even have anyone in school yet!  This month Clare will be three...which is so hard to believe.  We decided to keep her home one more year, but we definetely needed a few activities to look forward to in her week. 

This week we started Community Bible Study, which we truly LOVE.  There are 300 women and 120 kids.  It's Thursday mornings and a huge blessing to me to get some adult coversation in, and Clare and Elle both have such a blast! I knew this year would be difficult for Elle because it is during her morning nap time, but she slept for an hour while we were there and her teachers said she was a joy the entire time...way to go Elle :)  Here are the girls before we left!

Last week Clare had her very first ballet class!  She has been really looking forward to ballet!  A friend of ours gave us a ballerina video and it has become a favorite..plus Clare loves dressing up so that helps too!  Her little class at the Y has to be one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.  15 little girls in their pink leotards and tutu's all ready to dance.  She loves it of course and I'm anxious to see how her little recital pans out in October.

We also signed up for library classes which start after Labor Day.  These girls are busy :)  We are loving having a few structured mornings together!