Ariel comes to our house!

On the day after Charlie's family mermaid birthday party, we celebrated with Charlie's toddler friends. "The real Ariel" even came to the party! Charlie was seriously the most excited little girl in the whole world!

Charlie and Ariel in their matching outfits!

Ryan, Kendall, and the 2 Ariels!

Ariel passed out shell necklaces to all of the girls.

Ariel made her rounds to all the kids during lunchtime.

Lining up to go outside for the "Shell Hunt" (kind of like an Easter Egg Hunt)

Ryan found a great shell to put in her bag!

Charlie found a shell too!

Time for games with Ariel.

Jordan, Kennedy, and "Ariel"... Preschool BFF's!

Mermaid dancing!

Michelle and Sydney taking a break from the chaos!

Cake time for the birthday girl!

Abbie - one of Ryan's kindergarten friends.

Celeste loved the chocolate cake and the face painting!

Happy Birthday Charlie Girl! You are getting so big!

Charlie "Ariel" Sandra Grace Turns 4!!!

Our Little Mermaid Charlie celebrated her fourth birthday with her family. She started out in her costume but that only lasted 5 minutes! I didn't even get a picture of it. Before the party we all went to Ryan's soccer game and then headed home for the festivities.
Look at this big girl in the picture... Does someone like having the attention on her, or what?

The family all waited patiently to sing Happy Birthday to Charlie Ariel Sandra Grace

Mommy was a little "off her game" after an intense parent at Ryan's game had issues with my coaching technique! Ahhhhh... I will never let that bother me again.

Look who's turning 4!

What an actress! Has this girl EVER been shy in her entire life? I think not. She loved being sung to!

Watching Charlie open presents was hilarious. To see her genuine excitement with every gift she opened was precious.

"It's just what I always wanted!"

A complete purple ensemble... what could be more perfect for our purple princess?

Cousin Cameron loved the shells. That was his favorite part of the whole party.

Carson modeled her beautiful outfit.

And the dance party begins... a little Ariel music goes a long way. I think they danced to most of the Little Mermaid CD.

Even Michelle got into the dancing action! Whoot! Whoot!

Casey and Nonna watchin' the little ones...

Some gifts got immediate play time... Check out Baby Ariel and the new jammies! Ever since the party, each day 1-2 new toys get to be opened out of their box. It's so cute... each day her excitement for her birthday presents starts all over as she decides what to play with that day. Hmmm... now that I think of it, it may be for selfish reasons that I only let her open 1-2 a day. My heart skips a beat to see that genuine excitement day after day. One birthday just isn't enough.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!

Mighty Mites and Junior Academy Girls

So, the girls are now enrolled in gymnastics! It is so awesome. Charlie is a Mighty Mites (3 and 4 yr olds) and Ryan is in the Junior Academy! Look at the sheer size of this place! It is amazing. I couldn't get very good pics of the girls because the parents sit on the second level on bleachers overlooking the gym floor. It's kind of like playing "Where's Waldo?" because they move around the whole gym throughout their one-hour class so to keep tabs on each of them is impossible.
They are loving it!

Charlie is in this picture in a pink shirt (I think, it's hard to tell...LOL)

Charlie is closest to the line and the green square on the floor.

Ryan is in line (in an aqua shirt) ready to maneuver the long red trampoline.

The Mighty Mites have a special room all to their own that they went to at the end of the class. Charlie loved the maze.

Ryan is in the aqua shirt preparing to get on board the "balance boards"

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Steve and I have been so impressed with this place. Definitely a well oiled machine to have this much going on all at once.

Babysitting Pandy

During the 3rd week of school, Charlie got to be the very first student in her class to be in charge of the class pet for the weekend. Well, I use the word "pet" lightly! Each year, the preschool chooses a stuffed animal that visits each student's home throughout the year. This year it's a Panda Bear and Charlie got to take care of him first! His actual name was "Stillwater" but we nicknamed him "Pandy." It was Charlie's job to show Pandy around town, take pictures, read two stories to Pandy (about Panda Bears of course), and write in a journal all about Pandy's experiences. That's a lot of work for a 3 year old who doesn't have her own camera, can't drive herself around town, or who knows how to write! Hmmm... sounds more like homework for Mommy! LOL! Ahhh... we had a great time with Pandy so Mommy loved it just as much as Char-Char!

We showed Pandy all around the classroom.

We took Pandy to pick up Ryan at Young Adventurers!

Pandy got to see our favorite place in the whole world... the Main St. Seashell Shop

And Pandy even got to go Charlie's favorite restaurant for dinner... Islands!
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I didn't get pictures of the rest of the weekend's adventures because I had to hurry up and take the pictures in to get developed because they had to be in the journal before Monday morning! Geez! Homework is hard work!

Date Night

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I had the most amazing date night. On a week night to boot! We don't get to do stuff like this very often because of his work schedule, but we certainly made up for it all in one night! At the last minute, Steve suggested that we try to get tickets to see my favorite band, The Killers! We checked to see if a babysitter was available and somehow all the pieces came together perfectly. We even got a limo to drive us to the Hollywood Bowl since my regular designated driver wouldn't have slept for the past 24 hours or so! We figured that was a much safer option!

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The girls and the neighbor kids thought that the limo was the coolest thing ever. Charlie loved the stars that twinkled inside!

"Time to get out kids so mommy and daddy can get going!"

"No way Jose! I'm buckled in and I'm not movin'!"

The happiest girl on the planet! They say that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth. I beg to differ... the happiest place on Earth is the Hollywood Bowl seeing the Killers!

Seriously, one of the top 5 nights of my life I think!

THANKS HONEY! YOU TRULY ARE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER!

Game Day

Ryan was so excited for her very first soccer game. She was bouncing off the walls ready to get in there and play hard! The Pink & Black Attack looks pretty pinkalicious if you ask me!

Another fun treat was that we got to play Kendall's team for the first game.

Charlie the Cheerleader was all pink and black too!

Warm ups!

Action!

Charlie showing off her cheerleading style. She picked out this outfit. I realize it's not an actual cheer outfit but Charlie thought so and she loved it... so, really what else matters, right?

Another priceless pose...

Superstar Ryan giving a silly face pose...

So cute, aren't they?

GO PINK & BLACK ATTACK!!!