whew!  illness has worked its way through our family this past week– first allie with a stomach bug, then mikey and me with a head cold/allergy combo (fun!), then we shared the head cold with allie, and now lauren with a fever and general malaise.  amazingly, phil has remained mostly healthy in spite of all of us.  usually, he’s always the one to be sick with his sleep-deprived, suppressed immune system.  but now that i said it… thankfully, we’re all about better and looking forward to fun days ahead.  two birthdays down, three left to go!  and phil’s vacation is two weeks away!  woo! before i recap my birthday, i…

so my dear girl turned three years old last week.  phil and i decided to throw her a cupcake party to celebrate.  we intentionally kept the guest list small because we knew allie would feel the most comfortable and would enjoy herself the most that way.  it ended up being a super small party due to illness, only two of the four little girls were able to come.  still, no reason not to go all out, right? the invitation:      the decorated patio: the kids’ table: the apron (one for each girl to wear during one of the activities and then to take home): the treat bags: i woke up…

lately, allie has been cracking us up with her dramatic flair.  she doesn’t mean to be funny with what she says, but sometimes phil and i can’t help but look at each other after she tells us something and bust out laughing.  i’m sure she doesn’t appreciate this when she’s being serious, but really, how could you not laugh with these little gems: allie begins crying in the bathroom.  phil goes over to ask what’s wrong.  allie says, “mikey hurt me and now i’m…  i’m… [big sob]  damaged.”  (note: mikey was nowhere in the vicinity at the time). lately, allie’s taken to calling me “mama”.  so phil asked her, “how…

ok, before i get to allie’s birthday party pics, i first wanted to post some pics from my dad’s 70th birthday party.  hard to believe he’s now 70!    i think age has definitely mellowed him out and given him some wisdom.  as he says, he’s trying to use his remaining years (praying he has many left!) focusing on the things that really matter.  we love that grandpa makes keeping his promises a priority and makes sure to spend time with his grandkids often (loving on my kids- definitely the quickest way to my heart!). anyway, we had a great time celebrating together.  here are some pics of the fam.…

my precious allie-girl turned 3 years old today!  her party is this coming saturday, so we kept it pretty low key today.  we offered to take her out to dinner and then go swimming this evening, but she asked if we could just stay home.  i think she was pretty tired from an extra-long playdate this afternoon at a friend’s house.  so phil took her to pick up some of the kids’ favorite teriyaki beef and chicken, and then to the video store to let her pick out a movie to watch tonight.  she chose “over the hedge” and “madagascar 2”.  we let the kids watch the first one while…