Happy Birthday Caroline

My baby girl turned 4 years old today. I can't believe it! Andy and his dad planned a fishing trip for today, so we took advantage and all headed to Dallas for the weekend. Caroline's birthday festivities began on Saturday. Aunt Jenny ordered her a princess cake for the big party.

The kids had their party hats on and were ready for some fun.

Caroline was so proud while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her. She has really been looking forward to her party. Time to blow out the candles...

She had plenty of help opening her presents.


Kayla was so excited about the present she picked out for Caroline. She decided several months ago that she wanted to get her some roller skates. She and I went to the store and she picked them out herself. Caroline was fine looking at them in the package, but the thought of putting them on was a completely different story.

Things did not get any better when we took her outside.


Sunday was the big day. Caroline has been asking me every day for about 2 months if she was 4 yet. The first thing she told Nanny this morning was the she was 4 years old. She was so excited.

We had a big day planned. Nanny was taking everyone to the American Girl store. I don't think Caroline really understood where we were going, but her sister was very excited. We had to take some pictures before we left for the store.

They are all so cute!

Here is a pic of me with my 2 beautiful girls.

Here is nanny with all of her grandkids (Kayla, Caroline, Caleb, Carter, and Brenner).

And here is the 4 year old. What a big girl!

We had reservations at the Bistro for lunch. The boys were great sports. Steve was umpiring so they got to come with us. Here is nanny with some of her babies ready to go to lunch.

We waited outside for a few minutes until the store opened. Caroline was excited about her birthday lunch. She had on her party dress that matched her babies. She also wore her birthday tiara all day.

Her eyes lit up the minute we walked in the store. She finally realized this is where she could get some things for her babies. She got a Bitty Baby a couple of years ago, and she got Bitty Twins for Christmas. She loves her babies, and she really loves to match her babies.

Everyone took their seats for lunch. The dolls get their own seats with a plate and cup. The kids had a great time giving the dolls a drink.

Even Brenner enjoyed his first American Girl dining experience.

Happy Birthday sweet Caroline!




This should make Aunt Jenny proud. Look at all of those shopping bags!

After lunch and shopping it was time to meet back up with Andy and Papa. They had a great time on their fishing trip, and maybe even more fun just knowing they did not have to go to the American Girl store!


It was a great birthday weekend for Caroline. Thanks Nanny and Papa for everything. I just can't believe that my baby is 4. She is growing up so fast, and in Caroline's words it is "breaking my heart." Just don't get me started on the fact that she will be in full day pre-k in the fall...

Happy Birthday Princess Caroline!!!!!

Mini Vacation - Part 2

So down time in the hotel room did not work out so well. We headed for the pool. The kids love the pool at this hotel. It has all sorts of fun things for the kids. I was concerned at first. When I was telling Caroline that she was going to get to swim at the hotel she looked at me and said "Mommy, it is called Great Wolf Lodge". I knew this was a fun pool, but it was not going to live up to those expectations!

Caroline spent hours on this slide. She would slide down, run around, and do it again. Last year she cried when we had her slide down it. How quickly they grow up.

Kayla also enjoyed the slide. It is small, but it provided plenty of entertainment.

Poor Andy. That is about all I need to say about this photo. He had his fill of pool time. I could not get in the water with the kids because of my ankle. He got to have all of the fun!

Earlier in the afternoon we called to get dinner reservations. The earliest that they could seat us was 8:30. That is normally bedtime for the girls. We took a gamble and made the reservations. We had some time to kill before dinner so we went for a walk around Bricktown.

This is as close as we got to watching the ball game!

It was finally time for dinner. My brother lives in Norman and he met us to eat. Caroline fell asleep in the car (she woke up at 5:45 that morning). It had been a really long day for her.

The kids really enjoyed dinner. They had a great time watching the chef cook at our table. It helped that they were half asleep! They were so well behaved. It was a great night. It was such a fun dining experience.

Caroline amazed me. She ate her entire meal with chopsticks! They were the kind that were rubber banded at the top, but she never used her fork.

We got the girls back to the hotel around 10:30 that night. The day was finally over. It was a good one, but exhausting. There is more fun to come...

Mini Vacation - Part 1

Kayla had State Piano Contest on Saturday in Oklahoma City. We decided to turn it into a little trip. We left in the morning and headed straight to the Omni Science Museum. That is an amazing place. This was our second trip there, so were were looking forward to having some fun.

One of the first things we came to was a ride on a segway. Kayla had a lot of fun with this. Someone is holding onto it and walking with her. Andy was really wanting to try it, but he let the opportunity pass.

Next we went to an exhibit that had several things Caroline could do. Andy and Kayla spent the entire time solving all the brain teaser puzzles. I am terrible at those things so I was glad I could hang out with Caroline.

Caroline found plenty of things to do. She did some face painting...

drove a tractor...

She also played in a fire house, played with bubbles, and did a puppet show.

She managed to get Kayla and Andy to take a phone call from her. There are numbered phones all over this one room, and you can call from phone to phone. Caroline loved answering the phone when it would ring.

We packed a sack lunch and took a break to eat. Then there was a little bit more time to play. They had a CSI type exhibit. There was a crime scene in an alley where you had to find the 18 clues. There were witnesses in a diner and you had to listen to their testimony. It was a really cool exhibit, but we did not have time to really do it the right way. There was a lot more to it that we did not even see. One pretty neat thing was the autopsy. They had a body there, and they were projecting images of a live autopsy on the torso. There was a recording playing so it was like you were watching a real autopsy. I thought this was really cool, but I am weird that way!

We had a few more minutes so we headed to the playground. It has this gigantic twisting slide.

The last time we were there Caroline actually rolled down the slide. She came tumbling off of the end of the slide and you could hear her screaming all the way down. Kayla took her up to the top of the slide this time, and Caroline promptly came back down...the stairs. I walked away for a minute and I guess Andy got the girls to go down the slide together. That did not turn out so well either...

I know the picture is blurry, but you can see that Caroline is upside down. Those are her feet sticking up over the edge of the slide.

It was time to head to the piano contest. We loaded up and went to Oklahoma City University. I was shocked, but they were on schedule. Kayla played her piece, and she scored a 1+. That is the highest score she could get. She got a trophy. She was a little upset that the trophy was identical to the one she got last year. She kind of wanted to score just a 1 so she could get a medal instead!

We were really proud of her.

After the contest it was time to check in at the hotel. I was completely worn out. We were hoping to have a little bit of down time in the room before the fun continued...

Ankle

First of all, let me say, this post is kind of gross. It shows my nasty feet, and I hate feet. I thought I would explain my little injury. Tuesday afternoon I was headed out to the backyard to play with Caroline. Right outside the back door we have 2 bricks on the ground. Caroline can't reach the door handle. She can stand on a brick and pull the handle enough to get the door open. When I stepped out my foot partially landed on one of the bricks. It slipped off, my ankle rolled, and I heard a pop. I instantly knew I needed some help. I got the door opened and yelled for Andy. By this time I felt really ill. I thought I was going to pass out before I could get in the house. Andy got me to the couch. I was not feeling any better and I had an extreme pain in my ankle. We headed to urgent care.

It took forever, but we finally got xrays and met with the doctor. She said she did not see a break. However, after I told her how I was feeling she said that with those symptoms 99.9% of the time there is a break. After the bone sets a while it should show up in the xray. I go back in 2 weeks for that.

Meanwhile, I get to wear a lovely little black boot and use a pair of crutches. Did I mention that this is my right foot? That means no driving for me. I guess it is a good thing that Andy is home. He gets to take over all of my carpool duties with the girls. What an adventure!

We tried to take some pictures, but you can't really tell much. If you look hard you can see the swelling. It is starting to bruise.



This is what I have been looking at for the last couple of days (when I am not looking at the TV). Here is my pretty boot. Try not to get too jealous!

Piano Recital

We had a really busy weekend. Kayla had solo rehearsal, munchkin practice, 2 birthday parties, a dance rehearsal, a mother daughter luncheon (fundraiser), and a piano recital over the weekend. It was nuts. I got really frustrated at Kayla's piano teacher. The weekend was pretty much scheduled out to the minute, and then I found out she told us the wrong day for the recital. She sent a note home asking if Sunday would work with our schedule. Then I never heard anything else about it. I had Andy ask her about it when he picked Kayla up from her lesson on Wednesday. Thank goodness he asked. The recital was on Saturday...not Sunday. But it all worked out.




Kayla first played a duet with her teacher. Here is part of the song. About halfway through the song the memory card on my camera was full. While the other kids were playing I was frantically deleting things from my camera before her solo.




Kayla also got to play her solo. She did a good job. I was really proud of her.

I love the high 5 with her friend at the end.

Here is Kayla with my dad and Sue. My mom was also there, but she got away before I could get a picture of her and Kayla. Caroline was with us this year. She was well behaved, but not what I would call still.

This is Kayla's teacher. She is a beautiful pianist and a wonderful teacher. I really feel that Kayla has learned a lot and made good progress in the time she has been taking lessons.



There is a small reception after the performances with cookies and punch.

Kayla will continue piano during the month of May. She will go to Oklahoma City for the State Contest on the 15th. We will finish the month, and then most likely take the summer off. She will really enjoy the break.