After a long afternoon nap it was finally time for a little birthday party. She waited patiently all day for her cake & presents, she was very excited. We celebrated with family all afternoon and enjoyed a lot of time outside with her neighbor friends playing in the water. I still can't believe she's 4 years old. She actually seems & looks older to me today. I know it's silly but she's all of the sudden so grown up. Makes me a bit sad but I'm so proud of the fabulous little girl she's become...

Here she is with her Mulan barbie... THE ONLY thing she asked for & was so happy to receive.

Marin with her Princess cake. Notice the (not intentional) middle finger...

HUGE smile while we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her...

Blowing out all 4 candles...

Last one...

And Marg patiently waiting for her piece of cake which she inhaled!

Now the birthday banner will stay up for Maeve... hopefully she makes her appearance sooner than later! I'm so ready to meet her & the girls (and Gary) are very anxious as well. Hope you all had a great weekend! xoxo

Monday morning we packed up & headed to the Memorial Day parade. (aka birthday parade according to Miss Marin) We thought it would be a fun way to start Marin's birthday morning & we thought right! She was soooo happy to be there & must have told me "Thank You" at least 10 times. She's so sweet.

Marin w/ Daddy...

Waiting for the candy which started out a little slow but it definitely picked up about halfway through the parade. Margaux couldn't get enough of it. In fact, we kept finding her behind the stroller hiding so she could sneed more into her tiny little mouth!

Birthday Girl!

Margaux celebrating with her sister...

Horray for birthdays...

And one more of the two of them...

So much fun & REALLY hot. I'm definitely feeling the heat these days carrying around a heavy ball in front of me! I'll be happy when some cooler air arrives.I feel bad even saying that after waiting for weeks for some nice weather! But we couldn't have asked for a better day for a parade. The girls had tons of fun so it was worth all the sweat & being uncomfortable :)

Surprise! Gary's team hosted a surprise baby shower for him this morning @ work. They were kind enough to invite all of the girls in the family as well. He did go in early this morning & ruined the surprise a bit when he caught them setting up, but he was surprised that we all showed up. It was sooooo nice & the girls were very excited.

They had gifts for Maeve, pretty pink balloons & TONS of PINK treats.

One of the ladies even printed these special wrappers for the mini candy bars. Complete with her June 15th scheduled date printed right on the back of each one. So fun!

Huge cake... Marin especially loved the tiny baby on top. It was cute & delicious.

Marin enjoying cake...

Margaux eating it so fast she barely took a breath....

Marin checking out all of the treats which included...

Strawberry salsa, pink beer dip, pink bagels, pink donuts, pink chocolate covered pretzels, pink cupcakes & even PINK deviled eggs! (Just to name a few.)

It was so nice of them all to plan this for us. I think Gary was very surprised & he said it made it very hard to work all day after a morning party!

As my doctor told me yesterday, we're on cruise control now... just over 2 weeks until her arrival.

We're all so excited to meet her! xoxo

Marin had her last day of school yesterday. I can't believe she's completed a full year of being in school two days a week. It's even harder to think about her going to school FOUR mornings a week in just a few months when 4K begins. She's growing up way too fast. We're so proud of all she's learned this year. She's a smart little cookie & we love her so.

Here she is with her fabulous teacher Mrs. Bottei. We also celebrated her birthday & brought treats since there's no more school next week! It was big day for Miss Marin.

Wearing her birthday crown & birthday shirt. I'm glad she got to wear it because it looks like Monday (her actual birthday) could be a bit warm for a long sleeve shirt!

And with her entire class... they all made t-shirts to wear on the last day of school. So cute!

I also love how Marin is leaning in towards Olivia, her BFF. They are so happy together.

And her birthday treat... 4's for the four year old per her request. They were delicious!

More birthday pictures to come after the weekend. We've got lots planned. Tonight... BOWLING with Olivia & her family. The girls & daddy are pretty excited :) xo

We really didn't think we'd be posting about this anytime soon, but here we are! Pictures of Marin eating... wait for it..... YOGURT!!!!

We're pretty sure she's outgrown her dairy allergy & have been giving her little bits at a time for the past few weeks. A quarter cup of MacNCheese a few weeks ago, cupcakes made with dairy for treats at school, etc. But this yogurt cup was the turning point. She ate about 3/4 of it & hours later still no reaction. We are so happy & so is she!

Enjoying the blueberry yogurt...

It's still going to be an adjustment but she's definitely enjoying MOST of the new flavors she's been introduced to. She doesn't mind the soy milk (I don't either) but certain things like the soy yogurt were just not appealing. The dairy stuff is sooo much better & it shows in her face while she's enjoying it! Another HUGE favorite over the past few weeks is chocolate. Can you imagine living 4 years with out chocolate??!! She's had it & can not get enough of it. Can you blame her? It's all she asks for now after completing a meal. So fun... hopefully soon we'll be able to try an actual glass of milk, but I think we got pretty close with the yogurt. Fingers Crossed..... xoxo

P.S. Here are the yummy cookies that we made for Gary as a treat after the "Big Race" as the girls call it. It was a fun addition to the adorable signs the girls made for him. Still so proud, I don't know how he does it! xoxo

He's done it again & we are SOOOOOO proud of him! It was so sunny & beautiful this morning when we looked out the window. But what we didn't see were the STRONG winds that came along with the sun. A huge negative when running 26.2 miles! Despite the winds, he did fabulous & even finished 8 minutes faster than he did last year! His official chip time was 03:25:41. So fabulous.

Now each of the girls will have a medal to wear around the house...
Still a family of 4... not too much longer! (My face is definitely getting rounder too!)

Exhausted & resting silently... I forgot to mention he's been battling a bad sinus cold all week. Only slept 3 hours last night. Seriously not really his week to be running, but HE DID IT!

We love him soooo much!

And we couldn't be more proud. I wish I could accomplish this but I can't even begin to think about running a half-marathon more or less a FULL marathon. 26.2 miles is WAY to far for this mamma, but it sure is fun to cheer on Gary! xoxo

Definitely photos that both girls would probably hate me for posting if they were just a wee bit older! But... they were just too cute not to share. This is the new obsession here. No more tub time, they'd prefer the shower. Who would have thought a shower could be so much fun. It's nice for us because we can walk right in & wash their hair w/o really getting wet.

Silly Margaux...

Marin definitely hogs the top spot right under the water...
I have yet to decide if I think the bath is easier or the shower. Give me a few weeks. It all started when Marin began taking showers @ the YMCA after her swim lessons. She could stand there all day, which is fine @ the YMCA but not at our house! I can't even imagine what our water bills will be like with three teen girls showering!

For now, all that matters is they have fun & they're clean, right?! xoxo