Calling all Princesses: Sage is turning 3!

No doubt the Disney cruise last November was a turning point in Sage's life. It was princess heaven and Sage was mesmerized by all the princesses on board! For Christmas we made sure Santa arrived with a chest full of dress up stuff. Since then a favorite play date activity is seeing how many princess dresses the girls can change in and out of in two hours in addition to how many necklaces, bracelets and rings they can stack on. And of course there is always the final touch of picking out the right shoes. After a few months of this, there was no question as to what Sage's birthday theme would be this year. Finally the day arrived. There were eight princesses, a few siblings and lots of pink! Here are a few shots from Sage's special day...turning 3!

The arrival of the guests. I think everyone would agree that Anne got the award for best dressed princess, although they were all darn cute.



Next it was time for the moms to test their wand making abilities. Here Eden and Taylor are showing off their results.



Then we moved on to the Kiss the Frog game. Each princess got to test their skills at kissing a frog blindfolded (see Sage and Issabella below). With the exception of a couple scared princesses (see Madeline clinging to mommy) who wanted nothing to do with kissing a frog, the girls loved putting on some lipstick and testing out their smacking abilities. Once they completed this task they were awarded with beautiful tiaras that nobody seemed to enjoy wearing. Lesson learned: Don't waste the money on the tiaras with the combs...



Cupcake time. Since I've proven (with the exception of last years Elmo cupcakes) to have absolutely no creativity or talent when it comes to making cool cakes, I had to find cool cupcake holders. I think the girls really enjoyed eating their cupcakes out of these cool princess cupcake holders as you can see from the smiles on Sage, Melia, and Gretchen's faces:



Present time. Nothing beats a bunch of little girls all sitting super close to watch the presents get opened. These princesses definitely all earned their goodie bags. I think when the boys were this age, I'd just cringe when it came time for the birthday child to open their presents knowing my boys would be screaming as they handed over their gift!



And finally attempting a group shot. Special thanks to Jen for getting some laughs out of the girls and to Sommer and Rachel for snapping a bunch of these shots since my camera was out of commission. What a fun morning!!!

May 15th...the official day!

The kids birthdays are never a day long in our home. There's the actual party with friends, then there is the official day when we have our family party and then many times there is a day when we celebrate with extended family who we happen to be visiting or are visiting us close to the date. Any excuse to extend the cake eating right?





Here are a couple photos from Grandma and Grandpa's visit while we were in Hawaii. Sage LOVES this tea set. I can't even begin to count how many tea parties we've had in the past couple weeks! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

My Princess turns three!

Unlike last year (where I neglected to have any shots taken of Sage for her 2 year birthday), this year I made an appointment at the Picture People for Sage to get her birthday photos taken. They are never as good as having a professional take them but they get the job done pretty painlessly. These are some of the proofs since I'm too lazy to scan in the actual copies we purchased (and they are already framed). Can hardly believe our baby girl is three!!!

Here are three things that come to mind when I think of Sage: Besides dad, she is the only one in the family that can curl her tongue. To get her to dance, all daddy has to say is "shake your money maker" and no matter what she's doing, she'll stop, turn around, and shake her bootie. And finally the word Cocoa. I'd say this word is by far the most often used word in her vocabulary (next to Mom). She LOVES cocoa (her word for chocolate milk) and spends the first couple hours of each morning lounged in our bed requesting (or should I say yelling) down to me to bring cocoa up to her. Gotta love being the slave to a now three year old!!! Will it ever end? I hope not because I LOVE this age. Sage brings so much joy to our family. I love that she loves hanging out with her brothers and I love how much they adore her. I love that she always tells me how much she misses her dad when he's at work. I love everything about her. We are blessed!

The Good: 15 years and counting!!!

April 30th marked our 15 year wedding anniversary! We had planned on going somewhere new but Jack's buddy Tedd decided to celebrate his 40th birthday in Hawaii the week before our anniversary. We love Hawaii so decided to kill two birds with one stone. Jack got in his guy time, then I arrived and got to spend some time with Tedd and Kristina, and then we got to have our own time. It worked out perfect!

We love all the islands in Hawaii but Oahu is by far our favorite. It has a taste of every island on it and it seems like every time we go we still find ourselves seeing things we've never seen before which is surprising since Jack lived there for four years.

Here are some of the highlights:

Waking up to this view every morning: I'll admit I'm a room snob. If I'm on vacation I want a room that reminds me I'm on vacation. Whenever we go to Oahu, we usually divide our time between the north shore and the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. So after joining Jack at Turtle Bay, we headed down to our favorite hotel that we love to stay at in Waikiki. I think this room view explains why...



Having breakfast prepared for ME every morning: I'm not a breakfast person but if someone else is doing the cooking, I become one!!!



Snorkeling: The first time I ever snorkeled was actually in Hawaii while we were on our honeymoon. I don't remember having particularly fond memories of that experience but within a couple years, I grew to LOVE it. Good snorkeling has become a prerequisite for selecting vacation spots for us. We also love to get input from the locals about places off the beaten path. Jack got me an underwater camcorder that was able to capture some great footage on this trip. Here are a couple of the still shots. You'll notice the photo of the shark, yes a shark that happened to be resting under a rock that we were walking and snorkeling by in 4 ft. of water. I guess there is a reason they call this place Sharks Cove. Thankfully, a kind man offered to use my camera and take a couple shots for us. I wasn't about to get up close and personal with this creature...




Snow cones: What's not to love about snow cones covered in sweetened condensed milk sitting on a ball of ice cream? So good that we'll drive from one side of the island to the other just to get these delicious $3 snow cones!!!



Watching Jack test out his new boogie board: Ok, actually what is nice about this is that I get to relax on the beach while he does his thing. This way he is having fun and so am I...





The beach: Of all the places we've been Hawaii's sand is actually not my favorite but we found this great beach located in amongst some houses in this quaint neighborhood. It has the finest sand we've ever seen in all of Hawaii along with some great snorkeling.



The unpoppable pink raft: Ok, so as we're leaving the beach Jack finds this fully inflated pink raft sticking out of a trash can. Jack grabs it and we throw it in the back of the jeep. This raft was poked, bent, prodded, stepped on, rested on, etc. Even the plug thing wouldn't stay plugged. I was certain we'd be lucky to get a day out of it. But no, it was the raft that kept floating. I even deflated it and stuffed it in my suitcase at the end of the trip. Be on the look out for future photos that include this pink beauty!



Turtle Beach: Every time we are on Oahu, we go to this beach and every time we go, there are plenty of turtles basking in the sun and swimming just off shore. This time was no different. Jack also got some great video footage while swimming alongside them.



The Screamer boat ride: Ok, so it wasn't exactly the "roller coaster on water" that we expected. Nor were there many screams but it was still a fun boat ride that offered fabulous shots of Diamond Head and Waikiki from the water.



Spending time with Tedd and Kristina and some other friends of Jack's from college: We haven't seen Tedd and Kristina for many, many years but how fun it was for Jack to reunite with Tedd at his 40th birthday bash in Hawaii. If only we could all be so lucky to have 75 of our closest friends come staggered over the course of 6 weeks to spend our birthday with us. Tedd, you sure know how to throw a party. Not to mention that Kristina is due in 6 weeks. Thanks for the great time!



Happy Anniversary Jack. I love you!!!



(Thank you Mom for kindly flying up to watch the kids for the week. I don't know what we'd do without you and your desire to come help out anytime.)