The Adventures of Lucy and the Birthday Girl

It's that time of year when we celebrate our most favorite daughter, Anna! (we can say that you know what I mean). She had 8 friends over for her 8th Birthday! We had a face painter come and surprise all the girls with spectacular "bling" infused face painting! They also took some time to make extra special head bands with homemade paper flowers on top!
Wegmans did the cake with some special props to make the cake shine! Anna and I collaborated on the idea for the cake! Love it! (What I really love is my daughter... so fun to see her grow up and have ideas about how she wants things to go.)

Here are some shots of Anna's friends anad their faces!

















Anna, age 8 Anna's friend




Anna getting her face painted.











It was quite a celebration... but the weekend had more to offer!

Since there was a National Holiday for Anna's birthday this year (President's Day) and all the family was off for the day we did a low frills surprise party for Anna. I had taken her to get her nails done while everyone piled on over to the house for a little celebration! The surprise was great and she enjoyed being with everyone. Time with the cousins and family is always a treat! Gramma and Opa, Aunt Shelley, Aunt Tina and Uncle Alan, the cousins, Uncle Greg and Christina and mommy, daddy and Aidan were in attendance! What a birthday weekend, huh?!




So, if that wasn't enough...
ENTER the family pet... Yes, we did! I know, can you believe it... we got a hamster. Her name is Lucy (I hope it's ok to name your pet after your great grandmother?) She is a long haired rodent (as I like to refer to her) . When we went to get her... the girl at PetSmart looked at us very seriously and asked "Have you ever had any rodents before?" to which Jon replied... "Well, we've had some we didn't want before!" She didn't think that was very funny! At this point, I am shaking... because I just agreed to the responsibility of having a rodent INSIDE my house. I willingly entered into a relationship with a rodent. Can you believe it? Anyhow... here is her story!

**technical difficulties... will try to finish this later!*




















Anna (can you tell she's excited) holding Lucy very carefully!

Daddy, Gramma (the true people to thank for this addition to our family), Anna and Aidan





Our newest family member... Lucy Bisset (aka, LuLu)

Ok, so we're proud!

Anna has been taking horseback riding lessons with her buddy Kessler since the fall. She loves it... you can see the joy on her face and hear it in her voice. She is gaining confidence each ride and Morgan Decker does a fabulous job encouraging her while pushing her to fine tune her skills. I think as each day with our kids comes and goes I learn more and more about who they are, what things excite them, how they react to difficult situations. These lessons have given me a glimpse into something that truly excites this 8 year old girl!
This is the latest video... ok, so we're very proud of her!

And not to be overshadowed... is AIDAN. He got to say the pledge at school today. Here is the practice round at home! Again, proud parents... truly!