All birthday, all the time

On Thursday, we celebrated with Ellie's friends at school and we got to tell stories from each of her years so far.

Then we went to soccer after school and we even got to bounce in the inflatables afterward!

Then we celebrated Ellie at home on Friday night. (No, we didn't clone her for her birthday.  Ben was able to print out a life-size Ellie at work!)

She got a scooter from us and so many other wonderful presents!

The best present is always the chance to "hold" Miss Mia.

There's a cookie under all those sprinkles!  And, how cute is she? 

Way too many mini-cupcakes!

Minnesota Fun

Family celebration!

SNOW!

 

Riding some rides with cousins Emily and Jake and Aunt Joni and Uncle Dick.

Making knackerbrod.  Ellie is really good at rolling out dough.

Party of Five

Five kids in Ellie's pre-K have February birthdays so we had a group birthday party at the inflatables!

Here are the birthday kids - TJ, Ellie, Celia, ZuZu, and Diana.

Fan Fest 2013

Ellie's photography at the aquarium (well, 5% of it)

SFO & Monterey Adventure

Nommy and Poppy picked us up and we went straight to Monterey where the adjoining hotel rooms were a big hit.

Of course, we were really there to visit the aquarium (hello kelp forest!).

There were A LOT of jellyfish.

On Monday, we hit Yerba Buena -- carousel, park, and ice skating. 

We also took our first ever cable car ride.  So cool!

 We also had lunch at Neiman Marcus with Nommy's friend, Marlene.


Ellie was sad to leave because we did even more fun things, but the good news is we'll be back.

Ice skating adventure

Quinn's first time skating!

Ellie did a great job with the "pusher"

And she even did a pretty good job without the pusher!

Only fell a couple of times - action shot!

Two cute girls at the fountain

Winter wonderland

We don't see it as often as we should, but snow is only an hour away!

Very tall and very small.

Snow snack.

Eventually, Ellie ended up in the backpack.

Our turnaround point.

We ran into our friend, Harper. 

Snow bunnies, or hot cocoa bunnies?

Happy Holidays - photos from our holiday celebrations so far

Festival of Lights (eight crazy nights)!

Who doesn't like a new party dress and a glass of champagne (limonata)?!

So cute in stripes...

A couple of party girls!