My Birthday Girl!

On Saturday, this tiny girl...

 

 

turned 4! 

 

I just can't believe it.  It seems like yesterday I was meeting her for the first time and I was SO in love.

 

 

My little girl.  After growing up with 3 brothers and having two boys I was thrilled to meet this tiny pink peanut.

 

 

 

She has been just as much fun and I knew she would be.  She is all girl, with just the right amount of feistiness.  She is beautiful and funny, sweet and a little sassy, and she makes every day more fun.

 

She said to Nana a couple days before her birthday, "Someone is turning 4 in a couple days and I'll give you one guess!"

 

 

The night before her birthday we had a little party.  Grandma and Grandpa came and brought GG (Marc's Grandma) and Papa and Nana were here.  She absolutely loved being the center of attention.  She played it very cool and acted like she had turned 4 a dozen times.

Pascal was a favorite present...

 



She had been asking for a princess scooter for a LONG time.

 



 

Nathan, always the giver, wanted to help Jilly by pretending to rain on her umbrella.

 

 

She got princess shoes (3 pairs) and had to go put on her dress to see how they looked.

 



Appropriately, Nathan and Papa got the job of putting together the scooter.  Perfect guys for the job.

Nana and Jillian made her cake together.  She opted for pink cake with purple frosting.  Not something the boys have ever chosen.

SHE thought it was fabulous.

It's always entertaining to watch Nathan eat cake...

They could have been twins don't you think?  Wow.

 

My sweet handsome boys.



Here she is in bed after the party while she was still three.  I told her I needed to remember what she looked like when she was still little.  Be still my heart...

 

And here she is at Calvin's tournament the next day as a big four year old!  Doesn't she look older and wiser?  In the car that day she looked down and said, "Mom, even my hands are bigger today!" 

 

 

 Oh, my sweet baby.  I really want you to stay tiny, but I love watching you grow up!  You still suck your thumb and sleep with your taggie and I love that.  But, you have gotten sweeter and funnier with each age and I just love every single day with you.  God knew exactly what he was doing when he put us together because you are the perfect girl for me. 

Happy Birthday, my princess.



A Presidents Weekend to Remember

I have no valid excuse for taking the last 3 months off from blogging.  Not one I can think of anyway.  SO...I'll just dive back in the best I can!

 

This year, at the last minute, we decided we needed to do something special for Presidents Weekend.  We wanted to get out of town and have some FUN.  Where else to do that but a water park?!  We went to Arrowwood in Alexandria.  We had been there two years ago, but Jillian didn't come along that time.  She was SUPER excited to join us this time.  We didn't tell the boys we were going and just picked them up from school and took off.  They were thrilled when they discovered we weren't going home for another weekend of all the same things, but instead were off on an adventure!

 

Jillian had absolutely NO fear. From the moment we walked in she was all over the place. She was a little disappointed that she was too short to go down the BIG slides, but it was okay.

 

"Take my picture under the water, Mom!"

 



Marc and Calvin spent a lot of time shooting hoops!

Nathan coming out of the tube slide.....

...and continuing on the lazy river.

Here he is heading towards the car wash...as he calls it.

Jilly always started out sitting up like she was supposed to, but that slide just whipped her around!  She loved it!

Calvin flyin out of that slide!

 

There were three big slides.  The tube slide that we could go down on single tubes or double tubes, and then two slides you went down without a tube.  The last time we were there I found out the two plunge slides were completely in the dark and I had NO desire to try them.  Therefore I didn't have my kids do it either.  Neither one of them really asked.  This time Nathan wanted to try one and I said, "Nathan, those slides are dark the whole time, "...I'm a bit of a worrier.  Nathan replied, "I don't care!  I love the dark!"  He went right up there and loved it!  So...I had to try it.  Can't let my kids be that much tougher than me.  I didn't love it...at all....but both boys did!  They were crazy!

 

We had such a fun time.  Swimming and playing until we couldn't take it anymore.  Then popcorn and vending machine snacks in the hotel room and a trip to the arcade.  It was an awesome break from the long long winter. 

And a great way to re-enter the blogging world!

An Editorial on the Minnesota Twins

 

The twins should have kept Ben Revere  beacause he’s really fast and can hit really good. And I wish the Twins could have gotten someone better than Alex Meyers for Denard Span.  And I wish they could have  kept the big homerun hitter Jason Kubel. The person that I want them to trade is the manager Ron Gardenhire. They should try to get Jim Leyland. I still like the twins even though they traded some of my favorite players. But at least they still have Joe Mauer.

 

Sincerely; Calvin Bloomquist