Family Pictures

Before summer ended, we got some family pictures taken with my friend that is a photographer. We had the date planned for months and unfortunately, Matthew wasn't feeling that great on the day. His eyes look puffy to me and he didn't really give a great smile, but we did get some really cute shots of the other kids and the family pictures turned out pretty good too. So I am happy with them!

On August 19th, our baby girl turned 5. She was so excited to turn 5 and go to kindergarten. Her birthday was on school orientation day, so we spent most of the day doing school stuff, but she enjoyed it so it was OK. That night, I made her birthday dinner request, which was macaroni and cheese and corn. And then she wanted chocolate ice cream for dessert, so we put 5 candles in the ice cream.

Happy Birthday Juliette!

On to her stats, she weighed in at 41 3/4 pounds and was 41 1/4 inches tall.  She is still a peanut at 25% height!  She has been trying for a very long time to get to 40 pounds so she could switch out her car seat for a booster seat, and she finally was big enough!  She is thrilled to be in kindergarten and going to school like a big kid. 

Juliette is a true sweetheart.  She is laid back and friendly.  She is a good listener, good cuddler, and just an easy child for the most part (unless you are trying to get her to clean up).  She likes to play with friends and she likes to play by herself - she just likes to play.  She is often around our house in a costume, dancing or putting on shows, and she loves to color too.  Dora is still her favorite show, although she also likes some of the older shows now too.  She loves being a big sister (or more importantly to her, not being the baby anymore).  She is sweet with Matthew and gets along well with her older siblings.  She is a joy in our lives and I thank God everyday that we were given this beautiful surprise!

Juliette turns 5!

In August, Juliette turned 5. She was very specific about what she wanted to do for her birthday party. She wanted to have a party at our house. I got the great idea of having the Princesses Anna and Elsa (from Frozen) come to the party, but when I told Juliette, she wanted none of it! She said she would meet them in Disney World, but did not want them at our house. She said she wanted to do crafts and have face painting. So, I looked up a face painter to come, but then she told me she did not want a face painter to come, she wanted me to do it! I told her my talents were limited, but she seemed fine with what I told her I could do, so I bought a face painting set, practiced on the kids once before the party, and that was it. She basically just wanted to have a big play date with her friends. I was trying to complicate it, so I stopped and just let her pick the crafts (a princess crown and a snowflake to decorate), the food (cake and ice cream) and the activities (basically, play with her friends). I did make her an Anna cake though, which she loved.

We had told the girls to come in their princess costumes, and we had plenty of extras if someone needed to borrow one or forgot, so Juliette got ready for her party in her new Anna costume (thanks Madgie and Patch).

Abbey went as Elsa

Sisters forever!

It was a gorgeous day, so we decorated the back porch and had the party outside for the most part.

Juliette and her cake.

Face painting.

 

A few shots of my practice day to show the kids what I could do, which wasn't much!  I offered a butterfly...

 Olaf

 Rainbow with a pot of gold on one side and a cloud on the other (this was the popular choice)

 A flower

 Or a puppy dog

We did the crafts

Ben and Caroline were on hand to help (notice Ben's camo face painting I did)

When we were planning it, I kept coming up with cute Frozen games to play, but all she wanted was to play Feed Sven, which we borrowed from a friend who did that at her daughter's party and Juliette was thrilled.

Beautiful Abbey.

After the crafts, game, and face painting, it was off to play!

Our backyard was filled with adorable princesses!

The snowflake decorating craft.  And this was a fun thing for us to do before the party.  Ben and Abbey really got into making all the snowflakes that we would decorate! 

Then it was cake time!

After cake, we still had about 20 minutes left before parents came and all Juliette wanted to do was bring her friends into the basement and play with toys.  So, easy enough birthday girl, go have fun!  After everyone left, Caroline and Aunt Domi stayed around to open presents.

Aunt Domi did some pink camo for Caroline - these two are so silly :)

So many gift opening helpers!

Then we ordered some pizza and put on a movie.

Matthew slept through most of the party, but eventually woke up and had fun celebrating in his own way.

Juliette said it was the best party ever.  It was exactly what she wanted and it was very easy on me and my wallet!  Win-Win!