Princess Lila's Royal Birthday Party

When it came time to choose a theme for Lila's birthday party this year, there was really no debate.  It simply had to be a princess party.  The girl loves dolls, princesses, getting her hair and makeup done and putting on fancy dresses and high heels.  Can we say girlie girl?  I love it.

Her Aunt Lyndsie designed and baked her a delicious dark chocolate cake, complete with a gold crown and sparkly 3.  So fun!

The party started out low key with a little coloring while we waited for all the princesses to arrive.

The menu for our Royal Celebration included Jasmine's Jelly Sandwiches (PB&J), Ariel's Under-the-Sea Treats (goldfish), Fairy God-Mother Magic Wands (white chocolated covered pretzels with red sugar), Snow White's Candied Apples and assorted royal candies (left over Easter candy!).

All princesses must have sparkly eye shadow and pink lips, so little Sleeping Beauty got right in line!

Gigi did a fantastic job!

While the girls were getting all fancy, the boys were busy sword fighting.

We had five fierce knights attend the party.  A few even wore their own costumes.  Very cool.

Meanwhile, back in the princess room, all the little girlies were buzzing about.  They had fun tutus and dresses to choose from, as well as high heels and purses.  Aunt Maria and Gigi were their esteemed make-up artists and before we knew it they were ready for the Princess Parade to begin.

We called all the guests in to watch the parade...

Knight Jackson escorting Princess Lila!

Knight Jackson escorting Princess Madison...Knight J was in high demand!

Princesses and Knights galore.

Knight Cowen held his own with Knight Jackson!

"Hmmm...these candied apples do look good."

Cake time!

Lila was so excited that she blew out her candles before everyone had a chance to sing!

We re-lit the candles and everyone sang to her...then she blew them out for real:)

Eye on the prize.  She had her sights set on a Princess Aurora cupcake.

After we loaded the kids up on plenty of sugar, we turned them loose in the backyard.  How many kids can fit on a trampoline?  I'm pretty sure we went over the safety limit...

and Lila Lou loved every single second of it!

She has her daddy wrapped around her finger so much that he even wore her "birthday princess" crown on his head in order to make sure it didn't get broken on the trampoline:)

While the wilder kids were having the time of their lives on the tramp, the littler ones were enjoying the playground.  We let the kids just play and enjoy the fabulous weather for a little while...



and then we rounded them all up for present time.  The kids sat in a circle and passed "Princess Bear" around while the music played.  When the music stopped, the guest holding the bear got to give Lila the present that they brought her.  They all did great and it was a slower-paced gift opening than just the normal free-for-all that usually includes lots of flying tissue paper...cards being tossed around...and makes me a little crazy!



Lila was so happy that her friend Chloe finally made it to her party.  Such a precious Snow White.

She got all kinds of fun gifts, including this mini-princess CD player with three miniature disks.



She was so thankful for all of her thoughtful gifts, but this one was definitely at the top of her list.  Wedding Ken and Barbie!  Her brother picked them out for her and was so excited to give them to his baby sister.  He was such a good helper all day...he helped us set-up for the party, tried to plant flowers, cleaned off the outside patio table, helped make the coolers, moved furniture with me and then helped her open each gift, too.  He even missed his first game of the season to be at her party.  And you know this kid loves him some Cubs baseball--a lot! She's one lucky little girl to have a brother who loves her so much.

She was really happy to have Memaw and Poppi at her birthday celebration...

along with her Boom and Gigi, too.

And the party would not have been complete without her very favorite cousin.

These two have a blast together.  Sawyer was loving tramp time, too, and we were all so glad that he and his parents stayed and hung out after the party was over.

Jackson had Adam running routes...

and throwing passes...and even talked Boom into joining the fun. 

Then he got Hayley to be his receiver and was so happy when she caught this pass!

We were tired from our long-day, so we just ordered pizza and ate at home.  Lila had to have been hungry, but she insisted on opening wedding Ken and Barbie first.  Think she liked them?!

Thank you so very much to everyone who helped us celebrate our precious little girl.  When she laid down to go to sleep last night she said, "Mommy, I really had fun with all the little boys and girls today. And I'm so glad Jackson came to my party."  It made me so happy to hear that and we loved getting to spoil her just a tad on such a special day.

Opening Day!

The countdown has been going on for over 70 days (no joke!) and today it's finally here.  The Rangers' Opening Day has arrived!  This little guy is doubly excited because it is also coinciding with his opening day for the Cubs, too.  Now that's one heckuva big day.  His head might pop off by the end of the day.



He wore a Chicago Cubs shirt to school today, but noted it's also for the Rangers since they share the same colors.  In other news...notice anything new about his smile?  Take a closer look--he's short quite a few teeth!  He lost one of his big front ones the other day and so it was time for him to get his other front fake tooth taken out.  Little did we know that the permanent tooth underneath the fake one had already started to come in.  Guess it was time!  He's been under the weather for most of the week, so it was good to see a smile on his face and get him back to school today.  He made it just in time for Fun Friday at school and won't have to miss his first baseball game either.  Take that, strep throat!  You can't hold #32 down for long.   Let's Go Cubs!



Lila Goes to the Dentist

A few days ago it was time to take Lila to the dentist for her very first check-up.  The days before we went, we read Dora's goes to the dentist so that she would know just what to expect.  She was all smiles when we got there and couldn't wait to hop up in the big chair.

She was such a brave girl and let the super-sweet dental hygenist clean and floss her teeth.  After all of that, she even did awesome when they took 4 x-rays.  I was so proud of her.

The hygenist kept telling her what a great job she was doing and how she loved that her suglasses matched her outfit so well!  The only stinky part was when the dentist came in and told us that she had a cavity.  Say what?  A cavity?  My kids don't get cavities!  We brush their teeth religiously and they don't have candy all day every day.  I felt like such a failure!  We had to go back a few days later to get the dreaded cavity filled.  She was such a little champ, though, and now her teeth are all better.  She has since shunned those jelly beans she got for Easter and is all about flossing every night, too.  Let's hope our new tactics work.



Easter Sunday

Easter morning started off with a bang!  Thank goodness the Easter Bunny delivered the kids' presents early enough to miss the crazy storm. He left a few different things...

but these bunny glasses were the biggest hit!

A few hours later, we were on the second row of "big church."  It was a small Easter miracle and all three of these kids were quiet the whole time.  They didn't make a peep.  Hallelujah!

Sweet girl with her basket...

and big brother showing her how to be cool.

After lunch at Gigi and Boom's, it was finally time to hunt some eggs.  These three were READY!

On your mark, get set, GO!!

Jackson takes on egg hunting as if he's competing on the Amazing Race.

Maddie is enthusiastic, but still takes time to help out Lila.  She even found a huge egg and ran over to give it to Lila since she'd already gotten one for herself:) 

Lila was a little slower on egg hunting but still got a basket full of fun eggs.

As the kids soon found out, there was confetti in some of them! Oh my, what fun!

All three bunnies were very pleased with their loot.  Lila loved her "golden egg" and J and M had a blast busting confetti over all of our heads.

Lila did not think it was too funny when her brother smashed her over the head, though.  It was a little abrupt, especially since she didn't see it coming at all!

So thankful we got to spend the first half of Easter with these peeps.

They sure do love their Gigi.  They got her with the confetti...



then Jackson got me...



and his Boom Pa, too!

After all that crazy egg business, it was time to come back inside and enjoy the bunny cake we had made the day before.  We all agreed it was very good, but Jackson was probably the biggest fan.  The kid had 3 pieces of cake!

A few hours later we were at Memaw and Poppi's house and the kids were ready to hunt again.

Lila found lots of big eggs...



but none quite as big as this basketball that the Easter bunny left for Jackson!



What, that's all?  No more egg hunts this year?

Confetti eggs saved the day, though!  She got her daddy...

Uncle Scott and Uncle Andrew...

and then Jackson got Memaw so that she would have lots of tiny, pretty pieces of paper in her hair, too!

  

It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed spending it with our family.

Jackson even managed to round up a crew to play him in PIG and got Uncle Scott to throw the football with him, too.  When we left he said, "I didn't get to play any baseball today," and was so bummed out about it.  Good grief, son!  We had two egg hunts, played basketball and football, and that still wasn't enough to wear him out.  He really could double as the energizer bunny.  Quite fitting for Easter Sunday, I suppose.

Mamacita's 33rd birthday!

Well, it happened again!  The 29th of March rolled around and it was time to celebrate the day of my birth.  Although I am so thankful that I get to celebrate, I have to say that for the first time I really do feel older.  Yikes!  Thank goodness there are fun places like Urban Rio to go have dinner at...

and sweet kids that want to both sit by their mommy.  They gave me these uber cool aviator sunglasses and I love them!  I have been mourning my other ones ever since they made a quick exit out of my life and into Lake Texoma...almost 2 years ago.  Needless to say, I was stoked!

My husband really outdid himself this year.  He organized dinner with the fam on Friday night and even brought specialty cupcakes from the Original Cupcakery.  They were really good...and even better with a little gelato from the restaurant:)

The next night we met some good friends at Top Golf.  Jared requested that everyone wear goofy golf attire and there were lots of great outfits.  I must say, I was a little skeptical at first.  But then I got on board and was so glad that we did it.

It was kind of like halloween in March!  Look at my dapper golf partner.  Ha!  You should have seen us walking into Top Golf. 



It was the perfect night to spend with good friends...



and having hilariously dressed golfing buddies made it even better!



Everyone enjoyed the tasty food and drinks...

and I'm pretty sure everyone eventually played golf, too. 

Jenny and Dusty won the MVP award for bringing it the best!  They had to do a stunt to commemorate their award.  Love it. 

Thanks so much to all of you for making the night really, really fun!  I have the best friends. 
Y'all know how to make a girl feel special...even if she is turning 33.