{morgan's 4th birthday}

My baby turned 4 on Wednesday and we were lucky enough to celebrate with a bunch of her friends, Grandma Andrea, Grandpa Ian and Aunt Debbie. Morgan was very specific about what kind of party she wanted -- she asked to have a garden party with butterflies and flowers. We had hoped to have it outside, but Mother Nature decided not to cooperate (and even dumped a few inches of snow on us). We tried to make the inside of the house look as much like a garden as we could, complete with watering cans filled with flowers and butterflies floating from the lights.

She even picked out her own dress.... We were walking through the store MONTHS ago and she said "Look! I want THAT garden dress for my garden birthday party." It's been KILLING her that she hasn't been able to wear it until now (although I did let her wear it around the house a few times.)

(Please ignore the knocked-over patio chairs. I told you Mother Nature didn't cooperate, and it was REALLY windy!)

The favors were little terra cotta pots, tied with a coordinating ribbon, and filled with a home-made flower sugar cookie, a packet of seeds, a butterfly plant pick, a butterfly sticky note pad and a garden-themed pencil. Each girl also got a flower barrette that I made and a lipgloss and each boy got a little frog and a magnifying lens. I think they turned out really cute, and helped add to the decor. :)

Morgan had 8 friends over, plus her and Gerard, so we had 10 kids for the party. They were all really well behaved and I think they all had fun. (I'm not going to include any pictures of them since I'm not sure if their parents would approve.) We played a few games. First the kids decorated butterflies and then played pin-the-butterfly-on-the-flower with them. Next was a bug scavenger hunt. Aunt Debbie hid 100 little bugs and the kids had to find them and put them in their butterfly nets. I certainly hope they found all 100 bugs, because the last thing I'd want is for a potential home-buyer to be looking at the house and see a giant cockroach! We also had a bean-bag toss into flowerpots (with flower and butterfly beanbags of course). We never got to Flower BINGO because the kids just wanted to play with toys and some of Morgan's new presents.

I have been trying my hand at some more advanced cookie-making, and in addition to the flower cookies for the favors, I made butterfly cookies and butterfly cupcakes. They were a real hit!

Of course everything had to be pink, including the lemonade and the straws.

Happy birthday, beautiful Morgan! I hope your garden party was exactly how you had imagined it!

{birthday pictures....}

....coming soon!



EDITED: I don't know why this picture is fuzzy. Seems to be a problem while uploading... Hopefully I can figure it out before I post all the other pictures!

{no control!}

Seriously? My CONTROL buttons on my computer don't work. How does that happen????

{showings}

Well, the house is all set. Bring on the buyers!

{commotion in the ocean}

Here's a clip from "Go Fish". Gerard recorded the entire 45 minute show, but I figured I'd spare you.... This is Gerard's song and I think they did a great job, despite singing too fast.

{last day of hockey}

I forgot to post pictures and video from Gerard's last day of hockey this year (and possibly EVER, since hockey is not as readily available in Virginia).

{go fish!}

Gerard's 2nd grade music program was a musical called "Go Fish". All the kids were assigned a particular fish, and their costumes could be true to the type of fish, or they could do something funny. There were dogfish that had puppy ears and tails and fins, seahorses dressed up as cowboys/girls riding horses, and of course clownfish....

The wig and clown nose didn't make it to the show.

In this show, the clownfish were the "jokers of the sea" and they had solo speaking parts:

Zo (Chloe): Hey Bo.
Bo (Gerard): Yeah, Zo?
Zo (Chloe): What sits at the bottom of the sea and shakes?
Bo (Gerard): I don't know. What sits at the bottom of the sea and shakes?
Zo (Chloe): A nervous wreck!
HA HA HA HA HA...

Then the clownfish sang and danced (along with the chorus), but they were up in front.

His other speaking part, when the electric eel came out: "He's so long and sleek, he looks like an oil slick!"

They all did a great job, and it was fun to watch. Morgan even sang along to all the songs. :)