cake smash

grandpa had some words of wisdom for selma. probably something about the sugar myth.  :)

happy birthday selma nadine!

love my grandma joan!

"i wonder what this card says?"

selma trying to "hug" her baby doll while it's still in the package

 our selmie girl turned one!!  her birthday is on 2/25 but we celebrated the weekend before so that no one had to miss out on the fun.  i can't believe our girl is one!  we had a great party at the clubhouse and celebrated our sweet selmie sue. 

another trip around the sun

our sweet greta girl turned four! i was lucky enough to get to observe her birthday celebration at school, just like last year. looking back at the pictures and posts from last year, it is crazy to see how different greta looks. i mean, obviously she's bigger. but she just looks so much more like a KID and less like a toddler. her face and her body have thinned out. where did that baby girl go? it was amazing to watch and see how much she has grown and changed in just one year. she is still our sweet, sensitive girl. but she is also confident and capable and more outgoing and is just turning into such a amazing person.
i like these pictures because you can see how lovely her classroom is....and some of her sweet little friends are in the pictures.
happy birthday greta josephine!

Happy Birthday Selma

Greta and Otto really enjoyed what seems to be a new trend.... Birthday treats.... Selma got cookies from Meg, Birthday Cakes from Holly and Mindy, Cookies from Janet and Stacy and a whole slew of other treats... since she can't quite eat them yet, Greta and Otto are more than happy to take care of them for Selma...

Happy Birthday Selma -

the earth goes around the sun, tra-la....

montessori center room (greta's school) has such a great way of celebrating children's birthdays. we were lucky enough to be able to be in the observation rooms to watch the whole thing. and yes, i cried like a baby. a candle is placed in the middle of the circle (to represent the sun) and then greta stood on the outside of the circle, holding a globe. she walked around "the sun" 3 times, signifying the earth's travels around the sun for each year of her life. after each "trip" around the sun, the teacher would share something about greta that happened during that year. greta did such a great job....she had only seen one other child have a birthday celebration but she knew just what to do. she was careful to begin and end her walk on the month of october, and she did a great job snuffing out the candle. she also enjoyed bringing muffins and strawberries for snack and giving a book to the class as a birthday gift. it was a beautiful celebration for our big 3 year old!!

greta's 3rd birthday

greta's birthday fell on a tuesday this year, so we held her birthday on the following saturday. our house always feels a little cramped when throwing parties, so we thought we'd try having greta's 3rd birthday party at our pool clubhouse. we joined the "east row pool and social club" this summer, which is only about a block or two from our house. having the party here worked out great! the weather was so fantastic, so we were able to eat outside and there was plenty of space for the kids to run around and play. thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate! check out the slideshow for pictures from the party.

Greta's Second Birthday

Greta had an awesome birthday party with all her family. She had been talking about her 'party' for like three weeks before this, but I don't think she really knew what was coming. She thought it was pretty funny that she got all these presents. I'm sure birthday #3 will be a whole new experience as she'll be much more in tune with what's coming her way....

birthday posts coming soon....

our girl is two years old! pictures and posts coming soon....

Greta's Birthday

Holy Cow... somehow Greta is a year old already.  

Today was her birthday party, and it was lots of fun.  Greta had all her family there... grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and others.  She got lots of toys, clothes, books and the other usual fare.    The day started out with Greta sporting her final 'first year onsie'.  

As the guests starting arrivng you can see Greta playing with her usual toys... you can see her straining her neck to say, who are these boys taking over my play area!  Notice Roman with his new shaved head haircut... 

First up was opening presents.  I don't think Greta totally understand that all the presents and new 'stuff' was for her.  This was her basic reaction to all of it... she never did cry, but she had her pre-cry face on for a solid hour :) 

Cake time was next... You can see she ate a bit of it, but she definitely didn't dig in... she's a very dainty gal!  

Since she has egg and dairy allergies she had cake, but it was a homemade, non-dairy, non-egg cake.  It's not actually too bad, but it's also not the best.  She didn't dislike the taste, really just was not interested in cake in general.  She did have some Graeter's Lemon Sorbet (which is non-dairy), and liked that.  

Far and away her favorite gift so far is the Curious George stuffed monkey.  She carried him around, laughing and saying hi to him every so often.  This went on for a solid hour, then it was time for bed, I guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow.  

All in all she was a trooper, and stayed up well past her nap time without too much of a fuss.  Next year will be a whole different story, when she'll understand better what's going on... heck, Christmas will probably be a bit different as well, just a couple months older.  

Hannah's B-day

Hannah is 6 (how'd that happen), and Greta and her buddy, Ellie hung out and played with the 'scraps'.... you know, the empty boxes, and the wrapping paper. Ellie is almost 1 year older than Greta, I think they'll get along just fine for the next few decades...