Birthday Weekend.

We had such a fun weekend celebrating Gracie's 4th Birthday. She loved every minute of the celebration and was a little confused about why it wasn't her Birthday anymore when she woke up on Tuesday.

We started the celebrating in Lincoln on Saturday. It was Gramma Lea's Birthday party but she was happy to share the cake and attention with Gracie.

Poor Lauren, she didn't want to have her picture taken and it probably didn't help that Maggie and Gracie
were both laughing hysterically. Maggie is holding Lucy, the youngest Pitlor cousin.

Sunday after church and a little rest, it was time for Gracie's Birthday Party. For a couple of weeks leading up to her Birthday, when I asked her what she wanted all she could come up with was "a party".  All of my cousins happened to be in town on Sunday, so it was a perfect excuse to get together and celebrate. We started the party at the BIG slides downtown and then went to Spaghetti Works for dinner.

The cheering section!

We kind of took over the slides. I labeled all the people in this picture for fun, but it's really hard to see.....several more are missing....Aunt Debbie, Mom, Dennis and all the kids! There was lots of laughter. 

When did they all get big enough to have a kids table??

The balloon lady stopped into the party room and was a hit!

All the cousins with their balloons (except Tucker, he was chasing down the balloon lady to
replace his popped sword!)

We got home pretty late on Sunday night and the partying continued on Monday. She took ice cream to school for her Birthday treats and was excited because they got to sing and eat it outside!

Daddy came to school for lunch. She was SO excited to have him there. He got to sit in a little chair and have his sandwich with all the kids. I'm sure he was a hit!

Elsie sent her flowers for her Birthday. Gracie was really excited about the flowers but she may have been more excited that
the "Flower Bringer Man" had come to the house to deliver them for HER!

Her best friend Lauren called to say Happy Birthday and they chattered on the phone like teenagers :)

Grandma & Pops came to help us celebrate. Gracie requested meatloaf, gravy, mac & cheese, cottage cheese & carrot sticks for dinner and an ice cream cake with Elsa on in for dessert.

 

 

 All in all it was an awesome celebration for a little girl and I think she loved every minute of it!

Dear Gracie Tato....

Dear Gracie,
Today you turn 4! Who can believe that? You seem so grown up all of the sudden. Last week you read me a whole book, you ask for help less and less and you are more sure of yourself then ever. You are the happiest kid I know, you don't seem to let anything bother you. You have the biggest smile and the sparkeliest blue eyes, they likely get you out of trouble occasionally.

Kids flock to you, you're a good friend and you seem to really enjoy the kids at school. You LOVE to irritate your sister and you're very good at it, but you also love to sneak in to her room and ask her to snuggle you. You spent more then your fair share of your threes in time out...you're usually pretty okay with your punishment and when it's over you return to what you were doing without a second thought.

You're a bit of a home body, you like to have your things and be around familiar people and places. You HATE to be the center of attention and are very introverted when strangers are around. You enjoy church but always have a little hesitation when it's time to leave my side. We tried gymnastics this year, it didn't go so well. You're really excited about playing soccer this spring and even more excited that Daddy is going to be your coach. You ride Jude occasionally and really want us to let her run fast.

Your favorite toys are all baby dolls, you love to play pretend with them. Your favorite place to play is outside, you'll stay out there as long as we'll let you. You love the play ground, riding your bike, sidewalk chalk or just swinging with your babies. You always have a pencil or pen and a piece of paper close, if I had to guess, I'd say you'll be quiet the artist. You like to pick out your own clothes and choose a dress almost every day. You really like shoes, especially if they are sparkly.

You are still a very picky eater. You're favorites are mac & cheese, cottage cheese, meatloaf, bologna and peanut butter & honey sandwiches. You still drink tons of milk and I'm not sure you'd survive without "brown raisins" (chocolate covered raisins). Getting you to eat a vegetable is a real victory. You've been known to go to bed in the middle of supper or miss out on ice cream for refusing to eat even one green bean.

Gracie, you have so much personality and spunk. Some days you can drive me to the end of my sanity, but I wouldn't give up our time together at home for anything. I dread the day you start school, I can't imagine my days without my little shadow. I love you like crazy and I couldn't be more proud of you. I can't wait to see what 4 brings, but I hope it brings it a little more slowly....I feel like I was just telling you Happy 3rd Birthday.

Happy 4th Birthday Gracie Tato! You are one special little lady!
Love, Mommy

 

Green?

On Monday night I told Gracie we were going to have I find something green to wear to her party at school on St Patty's Day....she quickly returned ready.....


....how does she think of this stuff?? She wasn't thrilled when I told her I thought that would be distracting. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my little girls in green, but I assure you it was apparel not repurposed toys!

Busy Busy Saturday

The weather today has been PERFECT! We spent as much time outside as possible. It's going to be one of those nights when we have to scrub the tub after we scrub the kids.

We started the day with Gracie's first soccer practice of the year....


Maggie and Arnie spent some time in the barn....apparently it was "No Saddle Saturday".....Maggie was a little nervous to try it but did great and really enjoyed it.


Then there was LOTS of riding on our two wheeled horses....


Gracie decided she was ready for a bigger bike, so we put the training wheels back on Maggie's old bike....and off she went. (Don't worry, we quickly added a helmet.)


....and what day would be complete without a little baby roping! (Poor Reagan!)


On another note, I showed the girls this picture this week when I found it and Maggie wondered where Gracie and Ben were? (I was about 4 and Uncle Jeff was probably about 23)

Baby steps....

It's official.....well at least as official as it can be at this point....





...this is where we will build our new house. There are a zillion baby steps between now and then, but we've taken the first couple. The papers are signed, the land is ours and yesterday we had our first meeting with the architect. I'm a bit terrified of the process but really like the architects and they seem to know how to make all my BIG dreams work on paper...I guess we'll see. We keep telling Maggie we hope to move before she's 12.....really, I hope to move before she's 10, but let's not get ahead of ourselves :)



Maggie took off looking for the perfect spot for a barn, she thought the 2nd hill was perfect.....


....she wasn't too impressed when I told her we already had one....apparently Jude has higher standards then that!

Cinderella....

We've spent the better part of the last three days traveling to and from Lincoln for high school girls basketball games. The Lady Panthers were supposed to get beat (like really beat) on Thursday in their first round game, so we thought that would be our only trip to Lincoln, but much to our surprise, they won....then on Friday, they won again....unfortunately last night in the championship game the winning came to an end, but for girls who had a losing record and barely made it into the tournament, a second place finish was awesome! Boys basketball has ALWAYS been a big deal in Norfolk, but to watch all the little girls in the stands get to see the big girls that they know and love be so successful was very cool. It's likely these tournament victories will still be the talk of the town when our girls are old enough to play high school basketball....."Remember that year the Panthers beat the Bunnies in the first round????" It has one 6 year old out on the driveway shooting baskets today so she can be a Panther some day!

A few pictures from last week....


Gracie had some "work" to do before we headed for Lincoln.


Wednesday night we went to Omaha to Celebrate Grandma OB's 88th Birthday! (Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the Birthday girl!)


Thursday before the game we went to have lunch with Grandma Lea and Papa. As always, there was plenty there to keep the girls busy. This time the magnifine glasses were a big hit!





Gracie and I spent Thursday night in Omaha, so she and Grandpa did some serious engineering.


Go Panthers!!!!





The weather today has been perfect. The girls will need a good scrubbing and will sleep great. We all needed a little fresh air!





The official countdown to 4 has begun....

A few pictures...

The last couple of weeks have been a little chaotic around here, but I think things are settling down now....or at least changing to a new kind of chaos.

Here are a few pictures I missed....

Last Sunday Arnie and Maggie went to Lincoln for the Husker game. They had a great time (but unfortunately didn't catch a Husker win).


This is BY FAR the closest Maggie has ever been willing to get to Herbie :)





Gracie is always ready for her get away....


I sent Gracie to get her socks on and here is what I came back too.....


Thursday was 80's day to Maggie's school. She and Arnie came up with the idea of wearing shorts over pants, they were pretty proud of themselves.



The next 2 weeks are filled with all the usual plus lots of District and State Basketball games. It'll be crazy, but lots of fun! Go Panthers!

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