Birthday party extravaganza

This past weekend was a big one around our house. Cami (our goddaughter) and Fredda (my "little sister" through a big brother, big sister type program) have birthdays 3 days apart, and we hosted parties for both this past weekend. It was lots of fun, but we are still recouperating!

Cami's was actually second, but all of the pics are out of order this week. Avery and Nathan went to Libby Lu with Cami before the party at Little Gym, which she LOVED and looked adorable. I guess there were about 15 kids who came to the party? Plus their parents, and some siblings. A big group! The Little Gym did a great job of making it fun-we didn't even have to decorate. They put up the decorations we brought for us. And cleaned up. Nice.

Here's Cami opening presents. Last year, another little boy blew out Cami's candles, and Cami had asked my mom to make sure that she got to blow them out this year. Mom couldn't be there, but said that I would make sure. Cami blew them two or three times, then the little girl next to her blew them out and the Little Gym people immediately took the cake. Cami looked right at me, so I got her the first piece, put the candles on it, relit them, and sat in front of the little girl who'd blown them out before (to her credit, she was trying to be helpful, but after last year...) Cami blew and blew, and could not get those candles out. Maybe 20 times. They weren't trick candles... Anyway, she got her mom and the two of them tried to blow them out and finally, maybe 12 more times later, got them to go out. It ended up being hilarious, and great for Cami. This is during that, when they still couldn't get them out.

Dancing on the parachute-which, by the way, was all that Elena wanted to do on it because they ride on it in her Little Gym class, and when they finally did get to stand on it, she would have nothing to do with it.
Cami swinging
Elena doing her own thing and not joining the group...she was pretty little to do what they did, but she hasn't wanted to join the group during her class either. Little Gym allows them to explore instead of doing group activities, but mama wants her to learn that there are times to explore and times to join everyone else. We talked about it all the way to class this past Monday, and she got it. She didn't always like it at first, but she did it and loved the activities once we were into them.

Erica and her new boyfriend Mark, who we all love, love, love. Truly. He is by far our favorite ever. He's wonderful to Erica and thinks she's great, and adores Cami and does fun stuff with her and is appropriate and marvelous and wonderful. You can all pray that this works out.
Aunt Avery and Elena playing-Elena is having her first overnight visit at Uncle Nathan and Aunt Avery's house ever this weekend! Kitties galore! We figure it's good practice for when Maeve comes and they stay with Leni, plus there's a concert of two of our favorite people ever on Saturday at 9. Any Katie Herzig or Matthew Perryman Jones fans-World Grotto this weekend.

Cami's toenails that Mark painted for her. He told her to be very still because princesses are poised and proper, and when she went to Libby Lu later in the day, she was very still and quiet and Avery and Nathan didn't know why. They didn't know she was trying to be poised. Very funny.
I wish I'd gotten a back shot of Cami's hair-it was very ornate. She was so proud of it.

Now, the first birthday of the weekend. Fredda turned 14 this week (which makes 11 years I've been her big sister-I am getting so old!). This is the only real shot I got of the night-I mostly stayed in my room (with open, adjoining doors) and went in to bring cake, order pizza, etc. Her friend brought her camera, so they took tons of pictures on their own, posing and doing makeup. We went to bed around 2, and got up at 7:45. I've napped a lot this week.
Now a few from our week. Wednesday last week we went to baby class, played in the fountain, went to market, and then went to another storytime where Phil Bredesen was reading stories and presenting the 500,000 book for Imagination Library. Lots of music and books, and we met some friends for a picnic lunch. A nice day. It was funny to have over 100 little kids, and 20ish men in suits in for the photo op. All the mayors and the governor with random kids on their laps...



On a walk this week, showing mama some rocks.

I've started doing a craft a week (and have them planned until December). I had thought about putting her in Mother's day out, but I'm not ready yet. But, I like having adorable things she's made. If anyone has small children and wants my weekly list with a materials list, email me at aksprinkle@gmail.com and I'll send it to you. Last week was a paper bag painted like an apple with a paper leaf. Here is my daughter, trying to feed it in the high chair instead...

A picture of munchkin eating a cheese puff at Cami's party. She loves these, and has maybe had them 3 times, but knows what the bag looks like.
It is a big cooking week at our house-I'm cooking for 4 fairly large groups or involved things this week. So, when it had been a few minutes and she was quiet, I went to find her. She was sitting on the couch, methodically putting stickers on it. Stickers are her new very favorite thing. I helped her finish them before I got her involved in something else and cleaned it up.