Zoey's birthday

We have made it through the holiday and birthday season.

Zoey had several chances to be celebrated.  She got presents at Nana and Papa's.

We went out to dinner at guess where, Red Elephant.

She opened presents from us and other friends and family.

 This picture cracks me up.  Sam wanted to read the beanie baby bear's tag and Zoey said no and made up something.  Sam is actually looking at me, but it looks like she is rolling her eyes.  Being a big sister can be tough and she may have felt this way.

Then we had a small party.  It was Doc McStuffin's themed.  There was a check up station. The kids also enjoyed our play structure.  Zoey was in near constant motion and would not pose for me at all.

We pulled out the roller coaster toy.

And of course there was swinging.

Zoey picked out a cake mix and a frosting kit with sprinkles.  She loved it even though I tried to sway her to a different one with less red food coloring.

Happy Birthday to an amazing kid.  We love you!  We also went to the doctor and she is 38 inches tall (73%) and 28.5 lbs (26%).  Sam is now 39th height and 35 weight.  Zoey is taller and heavier than Sam was at 3.

Zoey is impressive!

Zoey has been attending Nana school and is making great progress.  I have been trying to upload a video, but it keeps failing.  So here is a link of Zoey reading sentences.  

http://youtu.be/5IZfJjRIbCY

Also, a couple of cute Zoey stories.

We were waiting on Nick the other day and she called him Nick.  She told me it was his middle name, when I said it was not, she said yes, his name was Daddy Nick Kelling. 

And when Nick asked her if she liked being 3, she said no.  And he asked why not, she said 2 was comfortable.

Valentine's Day and President's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day with PALS.  No good shots of both girls together, but here is one of Sam.

We did a craft with glitter.  Sam was gathering it, so I thought she could throw it up for a picture.  It is still in her hair!

Zoey did a silly head tilt.

We got to join Sally, Scott, Izzy and Charlie at the beach for president's day weekend.  It was a tad chilly, but the big kids loved the water.

The kids played so well.

We also hit the fair on our way home.

 We love the Olympics.  Sam drew this right after Nick watched a parody of Putin discussing that there were only 4 olympic rings and anyone who said differently was an enemy of the state.

Sam's birthday

I am behind again, so I will start the catch up process.

Here is Sam's birthday, after her party.

She got ready quickly and played a bit before school with the magna tiles from my cousin Linda.

A quick picture of the girls.

And just Sam.

I took cupcakes to her school.  They had peace rings on them, which the kids liked, but the hot pink icing from Sam's taste awful.  It was a disappointment.  Even Sam asked me to scrape off the icing.

She was thrilled with the attention.

 She opened presents.  A favorite was the American Girl Doll of the year, Isabelle, from Grammy and Poppi.  We also gave her ear piercing and some earrings.

 Birthday dinner was at Red Elephant.

Sam is also playing flag football and she had a combine to rank kids to be sure teams are pretty equal.  Her friend is also on her team and Nick is the assistant coach.

Zoey's best friend Nick is a big brother and the girls got to hold baby Rowan.

Zoey and I finally made Parksdale, but she had already gotten a cupcake, so we stuck with a milkshake not their famous shortcake.

My Cowgirls!

Sam originally wanted her party at the local pottery place, but they did not do parties, you had to pay a reduced studio fee and then at least $20 for a piece per person.  Since she wanted to invite the whole class, I said she would have to pick somewhere else.  So she picked R&R Ranch in Lithia, where we had been for a party before and gone back for a trail ride.  She was also willing to choose a charity to support in lieu of gifts. This year she chose kidpack (http://www.kidspack.org/), which I also organized as our chairty for the mom's club, which has allowed us to donate food, money and hands on time sorting food.

But on to the party itself.  The place had bunnies and chicks the kids loved.

And there was horse back riding!

Zoey was pretty much the only one willing to ride the miniature horse, so she got to loop about 10 times.

 It was windy.  Nick finally managed to light candles, but Sam blew them out before it was even set down.

We had snacks, including "oats".  Given that a classmate's 2 year old sibling sampled some and returned them, I did not want to put them back in the bag.  So the farm let us feed the goats and pigs.  That was a blast!

We had a great time celebrating an amazing girl!

Happy New Year!

Wow, it is 24 days into the new year and I am finally downloading pictures and updating the blog.  Sam's approaching birthday made me realize how behind I am.  Cannot believe she is less than a week from 6 years old!

The day after Nick's parents left, we went on a beach trip with our good friends the Woods.  I went to High School with Sally and college with Scott.  Scott and I are responsible for introducing each other to our spouses.  So when they come to FL, we jump at the chance to see them.  It was a wonderful trip and the kids played really well, especially Samantha and Isabelle.  The food was fabulous too!  A big thank you to them and Sally's parents for hosting us.

We were one of a select few people who got to spend New Years Eve on a beach.  Lucky us!  The water was a tad cold for me, but the kids had fun.

Sam the mermaid.

There was also a heated pool.

The hot tub was more my temperature.

And had the bonus of a rainbow view!

We ended our trip with a visit to the turtle center.

Not sure what Sam's deal was, but no smile from her :)

Sam also went to another skating party.  There have also been lots of playdates, including oens that introduced her to German and Russian.  We have a diverse mom's club.  We also did a charity drive and event with Kidpack, which provides food for kids to take on the weekends if they depend on school lunches and would have to do without.  It was a great experience other than Zoey getting bumped and falling on the hard floor.

And we squeezed in a trip to legoland.  Zoey was tall enough for the small rides.  Sam was mad she had to sit alone.

They let Sam drive the big kid cars since she was so close to 6.

And Zoey was close enough to 3 that they let her drive the little cars, but she did a horrible job, running into the curb all the time.  Even though she can drive our gator.

She finally got better on straight.  But thank goodness the worker was really patient.  :)

I talked Sam into beetle bounce.  They looked freaked out, but they asked to ride it a second time and swore they had fun.

The line for the big kid cars was too long, so she got one more little kid ride in.  They cut you off if you are 6.

And Zoey got to drive the boat again.

We plan to hit 2 more special events and then decide to renew or not.

So now on to the final details for Sam's party and birthday.  And then to plan Zoey's.  Yikes, holiday/birthday season is crazy.

Happy 2014!