birthday party

 

Julia's birthday party this weekend was lots of fun.  When she came home that morning (after spending the night with Nana while we were at the youth auction party), she saw the balloons on the mailbox and got really excited.  She kept running around the house looking at all the balloons and everything and saying, "for me!?!"  We had a Toy Story theme day - she wore her Jessie shirt, and we made sugar free alien cupcakes and had other Toy Story decorations.  It was also Poppy's birthday, so we had fun with the birthday flag.  We enjoyed having so much playtime with some of her friends from church - Charlotte, Patrick, Josh and Sam (and their parents) - as well as grandparents and Uncle Todd and the Martins.  Uncle Will and Aunt Stacey came soon after the party, enticing us back to the cupcakes.  We hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

 

 

  

   

my favorite things

Julia's preschool class has begun doing a show and share time this semester.  Julia's turn coincided with her class birthday party yesterday.  She was to take three items in the yellow 'my favorite things' bag, one of which should be a book.  She wasn't into choosing the items much, but we gave her some options and the final three were, her stuffed Toy Story alien, her harmonica from kindermusic class, and a book from kindermusic that has lots of motions, 'Cookies!'  When I asked her about it after school, she said she played her harmonica, so I asked what her friends thought of everything and what they said and she replied "they all clapped.'

birthday morning

 

Julia had another happy birthday breakfast like last year - except this year she helped make the muffins, special milk-wheat-egg-free ones for daddy's special diet.   She still loves rocket pajamas, just like last year, and chose these last night.  This year we gave her some presents from us after breakfast - books, a very hungry caterpillar floor puzzle, dollar doll clothes for baby doll "Woody" so he can dress like a boy, and Toy Story dinner plates/bowl/cup/fork/spoon.  When Nana came to pick up Daddy to drive him to hospital visiting, she brought some presents, including a cool puzzle set from Grandma Young.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Todd!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Todd!
My mommy said she wore this dress and probably terrorized you in it, but I promise I won't do the same.
Love, Julia

Birthday Party Fun with Presents

Julia had a great time opening her presents and playing with her new books and toys and listening to her singing birthday cards, and most of all spending time with some of her favorite people.

I hung up some of her recent artwork from school as decoration. She thought it was neat to point it out and tell us about it, but only until she opened the first present and card.

The tea set she's playing with came from the Anderson's in Cullman when we had the baby shower before Julia was born. This was the first time we had let her play with it, now that she fascinated with tea parties and because it's breakable and has such small pieces.

She loved pushing the baby doll in the stroller from Grammie and Poppy, and enjoyed Poppy pushing it while saying 'vroom!' even more. The picnic basket that sings from Martin and Andrea might be her new favorite toy, she had to carry it with her in the car Monday on the way to school, and has played with it in the car ever since. We think school must have a puzzle like the one Will and Stacey gave her with pet sounds, because when she works it she often says, "Animal Puzzle just like School, from Will and Stacey." Her favorite book from the last two days has been her new one from Nana and Pa - Madeline. She's still trying to figure out how to get the accessories to stick to her new Minnie Mouse from Maw Maw, but she loves naming the accessories and getting us to put them on Minnie. And she of course loves the Little People pink princess castle from Uncle Todd. I've put it in our bedroom for now so she can play with it while I dry my hair.

I also made Julia thank you notes to color. I found clipart that matched her presents and changed it to black and white as best I could. And she colored them and named the people and the presents. Maybe she sort of got the idea of a thank you note. I should have taken a picture of one after she colored it, but didn't think of it.

Julia really had a wonderful birthday party day. She has been singing 'happy birthday' ever since.

Birthday Party Fun with Cake

We had a tea party/heart theme for Julia's 2nd birthday. We held the party at Nana & Pa von Herrmann's - it was closer and easier for everyone to come there than to come to Tuscaloosa.

Nana made the cake - strawberry cake with buttercream icing. Julia got to 'help' with the icing. We used a few teacups for decoration from some of Julia's grandmas - we didn't think to ask ahead and get all of them, but we had one from Grammie, Nana, Grandma Betty (that cup not in the picture - whoops), Grandma Young, and we had Grandma Young's grandma Julia's teapot for the flowers.

Julia took her nap late that day and didn't wake up until after almost everybody had arrived, so she was still pretty sleepy/shy during the singing and cake and ice cream eating. Her favorite things were the strawberry 'special nilk' and the m&ms we had in a demitasse cup for her to eat. She also enjoyed the crown - she wore it the whole time - the whole party and also while we went to dinner at Jason's Deli with Uncle Will and Aunt Stacey, Grammie, Poppy, Uncle Todd, Nana, Pa and Mommy and Daddy.

Happy Birthday Breakfast

Julia seemed to enjoy the extra attention this morning with her birthday breakfast, complete with tiara and candles.

And yes, she is wearing 'boy' pajamas. She enjoys pointing out rockets in her picture books and stories so much that I got her fleece 'rocket jammies' at Christmas. She loved those so much and was begging to wear them this week even though it is so hot, so I had to search for and buy some cooler weather jammies with rockets. She loves the 'daddy aliens' and 'robots' and 'rockets' on them which she enjoys pointing out and labeling to us, and she has requested every night that she wear 'rocket jammies.'

yay, daddy!

We has fun recently for Peter's birthday (At least I did putting those walnuts on his buttersctoch pudding pie, and Julia had fun eating the pie once she finally decided to try it. We heard "pi-ee! pi-ee!" for days).

Besides all the terrific cold and threats (and actual sightings north of here) of snow and ice in Alabama this year, we did have a couple of warm days in January where we got to play outside. Julia still enjoys the swing playing with the big bouncy balls.

Julia certainly loves her daddy. We often hear, "Dance, with me, Daddy!" when she turns on my clock radio by pushing the snooze button. If he's not dancing, he's requested to "chase me" or "tickle!"