The Super-Girl Princess is almost 4!

Can you believe it?!  Rachel is going to be four in a little over a week.  I can't.  Four sounds so old, and if you ask her she just might tell you she is old enough to babysit Joel.  So I guess four is pretty mature.

Rachel has been into being a Super-girl princess complete with a super power.  "Rachel Super-Girl Princess with the power to potty-train.  I have no idea why that is her super power, but I hope it sticks around for a couple years.  Then she can be in charge of potty training Joel.  In fact if you want she can potty train the little people in your life too for a small fee.

She has a very creative imagination, so pretend play with her is a blast.  You never know what will happen, who you will get to be, or what song she will come up with.  Rachel loves to learn, especially things in the area of science.  She is constantly exploring life around her and asking why and how.  I love teaching her and learning with her.

Rachel is a blessing to our family.  She and I have grown a lot together in our parent/child adventure.  Because she is always thinking and exploring, she keeps me on my toes.  I never know what she will come up with next.  When I look back over my four years with her I am a much calmer, more forgiving, more playful, slower to anger mommy.  I take more time to enjoy her.  I don't just love her I genuinely like her!

Monster Birthday

  Our Little Monster turned one a couple of weeks ago.  We celebrated with the grandparents and some monster themed fun.

Fun to be (almost) One Photos

Last weekend we took Joel's 1 year old photos.  We went to Capital Park because we got such nice backgrounds for Rachel's 1 year photos, but with the drought the flowers were few and far between.  Plus Joel got tired and cranky.  The best pictures we got that morning were of Rachel.  We were able to get some nice ones of Joel later in our front yard.  Also note that this year no one is dressed is white or black for the photo shoot.  It only took 3 years of Brian mentioning how difficult it is to take pictures with those colors for me to get the message.

A Very Hungry Party

We had a Very Hungry Caterpillar play date party to celebrate Rachel's 3rd birthday.  I love the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and I had a great time decorating for this party.  We had caterpillars lining the walkway, a giant caterpillar made from balloons (we forgot to take a picture of this before taking it down), and a birthday banner.  The food was things the caterpillar ate.  We served  apples, pears, plums, watermelon, salami, cheese, and pickles.  Since we were having cheese and salami I also included crackers.  Like in previous years I made cupcakes for Rachel's birthday.  I think cupcakes are a great way to go for kid's parties because they don't require cutting and serving.  I made the caterpillars for the cupcakes using  m&ms for the body and chocolate frosting for the antennae.  It was super easy and super cute.

Since the party was a big play date I didn't plan any games.  Planning and executing organized games is not one of my strengths. We did have lots of fun toys to play with.  Rachel's friends could run around inside or outside.  Outside we had all her backyard toys including chalk, slide, sand table, and water table.  Inside her kitchen, play doh, and dress up box were big hits.  I love seeing how she has blossomed over the years.  She is so sweet and good at sharing her toys and taking turns especially when given gentle reminders to make sure her friend has a turn.  She really enjoys playing with her friends.

 

By the time the party was over and we cleaned up I think we all felt like Joel.  We all had a lot of fun and felt blessed by all our friends who came over to help up celebrate our special little girl.

Almost 3 Photo Shoot

We had grand plans to do Rachel's 3rd birthday photo shoot at Capital Park, but the weather had other plans.  It rained almost all day.  In between showers we dashed down the street to the park instead.  We got some cute photos and a little play time in before the sky opened up again.  Here are some of our favorites:

Say, "Cheese"

How do you make a strong-willed, independent active toddler smile for the camera?  In short, you don't.  No amount of asking, coaxing, pleading, or silly faces are enough to make this toddler give in and smile.  So what is a parent to do?  Resign oneself to accepting pleasant looking faces and try to catch a natural smile while playing.  We took 97 pictures for Rachel's 2nd birthday photo shoot and got a good amount of decent ones, but only a few in focus ones with a smile.  If Rachel is smiling she is usually running, hopping, dancing, twirling, etc.  The photos were all taken by Brian (except of course for the one he is in).  He is an excellent photographer and very patient.  He gave me instructions for no more black and white outfits next year.  The two extremes are harder to shoot than colors.  Maybe next year I will branch out from black white and red next year; although, I did have every intention of using blue this year.  That has been the color scheme of choice for both of Rachel's birthdays.

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

From Life with the Bjorks

Now about Rachel's outfit.  I bought and made it the day before we took the photos.  Had I been paying attention to the calender I would have started sooner because shopping at multiple stores, designing and sewing the applique, and turning a basic white t-shirt into a cute girly shirt is quite the arduous process especially with a toddler in tow.  Once again I must mention how awesome Pinterest is for inspiration.  Thanks to Pinterest I got the chubby puppy pattern from nothingbutcountry.com and the t-shirt directions from blog.birdsparty.com.

RachelBug Turns 1

Last week Rachel turned one. To honor this momentous occasion we had a lady bug themed birthday party. When we started planning the party we thought it would just include both sets of grandparents, but we were honored to have other family members share the special day with us. As you can see I had lots of fun making decorations and food. Rachel and her 2 1/2 year old cousin provided the entertainment. What is more fun than watching and playing with little ones?

Rachel has grown and changed so much in this past year, and I love being her mommy. Here are 10 interesting (at least in my opinion) facts about Rachel:
1. She wears 6-9 month clothes
2. She weighs 18 lbs 1 oz with her cloth diaper on
3. She is 29 inches tall
4. She can walk
5. She has yet to come down with a cold or any illness
6. She still sports a toothless grin
7. She loves peekaboo, books, and going upside down
8. Her favorite animal is a dog
9. She loves fruit
10. She signs more independently and will imitate the signs for dog, please, and milk

Picture Perfect

Since Rachel's 1st birthday is this week I thought we needed to get some photos of her, so yesterday we packed up a couple of outfits and the camera and headed over to Capital Park. Here are some of our favorites: