cinderella

When I say our Love Bug is obsessed with princesses, it is the understatement of the year.  If she could, she would wear princess dresses every. single. day.

So when MeMe and Big Daddy gave her money for her birthday, I knew her money would go to a new princess dress.  We hit the jackpot today while at Target...they finally had Cinderella dresses in stock.  They haven't had them for months...so when I walked by the aisle and saw them hanging, we snatched one up immediately!  She also bought a new crown, matching gloves, necklace and a purse.  When I gave it to her, she hugged it and said "oh, I love it!".  Of course, she is wearing it now.

We had a pretty great day.  The Mayor had speech, school and then Cubbies at church.  Love Bug and I spent the day watching princess movies and dressing up in princess dresses.

Tomorrow is a school day for both kids and Love Bug's class is having pajama day.  Should be a great day!

third celebration of three

Today, D and I showed up in Love Bug's classroom with a cookie cake to celebrate her birthday with her class.  She was so excited and surprised when we walked in.  They put a birthday crown on her, let her decorate the felt Birthday Board (which says "Happy Birthday", has balloons, a cake and 3 candles), sang to her and then we all ate cake.  After the cookie cake, she went outside for recess and I drove around for a few minutes before it was time to come back for carpool.

The kids and I spent the afternoon outside playing with our new bubble machine.  It was one of the gifts from Aunt Nat and Uncle Tom and I can tell it will be a huge hit here this summer.  It is an awesome bubble machine...it was kicking out hundreds of bubbles at a time.  The kids thought it was the best thing ever.  After we played, we ran up to Publix for a few items for Taco Tuesday dinner.

We are now cuddled up watching "Cinderella"...guess who chose that one...and then we are headed upstairs for bed.  Love Bug skipped her nap today to play and we have one very tired three year old on our hands.

her teacher decorated her in stickers and put one on her nose

begin sung to by her classmates in front of the felt board 

being showered in bubbles

she's three

Today my peanut turned 3.  It's weird to think of where we are right now in our lives.  For years, D and I were just the married couple and then for several years we were the married couple trying to get pregnant.  When you spend 5 years trying to conceive, your mind just focuses on baby mode. And then you start to have kids and you really are in baby mode, and then you have another kid and baby mode starts all over again.  D and I have spent about 10 years focusing on and living in baby mode.  And now we are done.  I mean really done.  There is nothing baby about a 5 year old and a 3 year old. Today was a huge milestone into being in full-blown big kid mode.

Aunt Nat, Uncle Tom, Trey and Luke left last night after The Mayor and Love Bug were in bed and MeMe and Big Daddy left around 10 this morning.  Me and the kids hung out while D was out training (his next race is in 3 weeks!)...I had every intention of taking the kids to church, but with Daylight Savings Time happening last night, we majorly overslept.  Once D got home, we spent a couple of hours playing in the castle bounce house and being outside.  The weather was amazing and I am so happy we enjoyed the beauty of the day since rain is supposed to be here tomorrow.  Ugh.

After a couple of hours of playing, we went out to dinner to celebrate Love Bug's birthday.  She chose hotdogs for dinner...so we loaded up and went to Five Guys Burger & Fries for dinner.  She got her hotdog, The Mayor had a grilled cheese and D and I had burgers.  Such a low-key easy dinner for our sweet girl...I know we will not always fare so easy on her choice for birthday dinner.  After dinner, we hit the new frozen yogurt place behind our house.  It was a great way to celebrate the day of our girl.

Miss Love Bug is sweet and sassy and everything I knew our princess loving, curly-haired, blue-eyed girl would be.  I mean, we really didn't stand a chance when you look at her gene pool.  She loves passionately, is already emotional and speaks her mind.  Her strong will is without a doubt going to cause some friction in this household over the next several years but I hope she never loses it.  It will take her far and help her hold strong to her convictions and beliefs.  Right now, our girl shows strong skills as being a leader and I like that.  I still look at her and just can't believe she is mine.  She has completed this family in the most perfect way and we could not be more blessed to call her our daughter.  We love you so much Miss Love Bug.

newborn Love Bug

Love Bug at 6 months

Love Bug at 1 year old

Love Bug at 2 years old

our 3 year old princess

the day before three

Tomorrow is her official birthday, but today was the celebration.  And of course, the theme is Princess. Duh.  Absolutely no other theme would do.

Love Bug was beyond thrilled for her birthday.  She was ecstatic when I told her I rented a pink castle bouncy house and when she walked past me yesterday while I was decorating her castle cake, she said "is that my castle cake?".  I told her it was and she said "Oh, thank you mom.  I love it!"  Melted my heart and totally made the carpal tunnel brewing in my hand from piping the icing worth it.

The kids woke up happy...not only because of the party but due to the house full of family.  MeMe, Big Daddy, Uncle Tom, Aunt Nat, Trey and Luke were all here when those munchkins woke up.  So the party really started the second they popped out of bed.  Seriously, the way they were running around, the kids were almost too tired once the official party did start.  But don't worry, they managed to push through and find energy to jump, play and eat with their buddies.

Love Bug loved having a princess outfit on, a castle to jump in, pink balloons everywhere and lots of sweet friends to play with.  Alli and Emma were especially sweet taking care of Love Bug.  They pushed her on the swings, held her hand, sat by her while she ate, cuddled with her and just took care of her.  It was precious to watch and made my heart happy to see these young friendships blossom.

It was amazing having a house filled with family and friends all here to celebrate our sweet girl's 3rd birthday.  3 years old...I can't believe we are here.  Three is no longer a baby.  She is a full on little girl. It's a great place to be...life with a 5 year old and 3 year old.  There is a lot of freedom that comes with this time in our lives...it is so hard to believe we are way beyond baby phase here.

Tomorrow morning, the family will be gone and it will just be us four...and I am looking forward to celebrating quietly on Love Bug's official birthday.  And seeing what the 3s has in store.  Buckle up...should be a fun ride.

me and my girl

the birthday girl

Aunt Nat and Love Bug

Uncle Tom...such the good sport.  Wearing Love Bug's hairbow and playing with her in the playroom

MeMe and Love Bug

Silly Big Daddy

Daddy helping blow out the candles

sweet Bennett

PopPop and my Walker Bear

jumping fun

the castle

Aidan and The Mayor

sweet girls...Alli, Emma and Love Bug

opening gifts

a brand new Snow White dress!

she loves a magic wand

ruffle dresses!

of course, we had to put one on immediately

our fairy princess

bang your head against the wall

Mondays.  You either love them or hate them.  You either want it to last or you want it to end.  Today was a Monday I wanted to end.

And looking at the silver lining, yes, the kids are healthy so I had that going for me.  But it was a double therapy day for The Mayor (speech and OT) and we are finally getting back into our routine from vacation and the flu so the kids were just antsy and whiny today.  I don't know if being out for both therapies and then lunch was just too much, but this afternoon they just never settled in.

After dinner, we had baths and then snuggled into bed and watched a little movie on Disney.  They both went down easily and are now asleep.  I am looking forward to tomorrow being a new day and both kids finally healthy enough to go to school.  The Mayor is SO excited to be back at school.  He hasn't missed one day all year until our Disney trip and then all of last week because of the flu, so he is really missing his routine.  And an extra bonus...the temperatures are rising to the 60s this week!  Going to be a gorgeous week and weekend.  Perfect since Love Bug turns the big 3 Sunday!  How is that possible?!

silly boy

sassy girl (with powdered sugar on her cute little face)

one step forward...two steps backward

This morning Love Bug and The Mayor both woke up fever free again.  They were in the best moods playing and running around.  I just knew we were past the worst and both were going to school tomorrow.

We even ventured out to run a few quick errands.  We ran to Target to buy Love Bug a new pillow and then went to get The Mayor's haircut.  We were home for lunch and then I put Love Bug down for a nap.  While she was napping, I asked The Mayor if he wanted to get into bed with me (I was so tired and needed a nap).  I told him I would let him watch TV and he cuddled in and rested with me.  After about an hour, I noticed his nose was running more and his cough had picked up.  He got up and went to the bathroom, came out, looked sick and told me he needed to rest.  I touched him and could feel him burning up with fever.  I checked and it was 101.6.  An hour later, it was already over 103.  Two days of no fever and then this relapse.  This flu is never going away.

He feel asleep on the couch at 5:00 while D and I were making dinner.  We woke him up to eat, but he had no appetite again.  He and I cuddled on the couch and he feel asleep again at 6:45, so we woke him up to give him his medicine and then D carried him upstairs.  He fell asleep while I was reading to him. Poor guy.  Who knows what tomorrow holds for us.  Thankfully Love Bug is still fever-free and if she wakes up that way, she is going to school.

showing off his haircut

sweet sleeping boy

another day...another opportunity to dress like a princess

we survived

I am writing this blog from the comfort of my home...which means we survived Disney 2013.  It is by the Grace of God that we made it.  Seriously, because with the fevers, coughs and aches we were all nursing, there is no reason we should have been upright let alone walking around the Happiest Place On Earth for 4 days.

Yesterday morning, we all woke up, showered, packed up the car and headed to Animal Kingdom.  Of course it wouldn't be a Shirley vacation if we didn't enter the park without some drama.  Love Bug tripped, cut her knee and got a nice goose egg on her forehead.  So the first place we went was First Aid.

After she was cleaned up, we headed to the Safari.  The Safari was amazing.  We were in a big truck driving through the African Safari...it took about 20 minutes and we saw tons of animals.  It was early in the morning and still fairly cool so all of the animals were out.  I don't know who liked it more - D and me or the kids.  We left the safari and then hit a gift shop to buy the kids a little treat.  Then we left. It was hard too...it would have been easy to have gotten sucked in and ridden some rides, but I knew it was going to be a long day ahead of us so we loaded up and got on the road.

We hit some nasty rain in North Florida but got to Valdosta safely where we ate a late lunch/early dinner and let some of the storm pass.  Thankfully, there was nothing more than light drizzling the rest of the way. We were home by 8:00 and all of us were so excited to sleep in our own beds.  I know I slept like a rock...I barely remember my head hitting the pillow and didn't wake up until 8 this morning.

This morning I took The Mayor and Love Bug to the pediatrician where The Mayor tested positive for Flu B (shocker) and was told Love Bug was on the mend.  She will definitely be going to preschool Thursday...and if The Mayor can stay fever free, he will too.  The rest of the day was spent napping and watching movies.  Tomorrow will be much the same.  I don't know if the kids need it, but I certainly do.  I am exhausted!

black rhino

pelican

monkeys

giraffe

elephants

lion

pink flamingos

lioness 

ostrich eggs

ostrich

warthog

zebras