Turning Four: The Party

As we started gearing up for Josie's fourth birthday August 11th, we kind of just assumed she would want to have a pool party like we did for her second and third birthdays. After trying to convince us that a party in St. Thomas, Montreal or a Water Park would be better ideas, Josie finally settled on a pool party after all. (Ha, who knew she'd actually have her own opinions this time around?!)  This year we reserved the pool in Mt. Adams and it was our favorite of the three spots we've had so far.  (I'm not kidding Cincy folks, renting these pools costs a sliver of the price you think it would be - look into it & help out the CRC.)

Here are some photos from the party! Every year when we get everyone to celebrate a birthday, I always have this moment where I just take a deep breath and look around at everyone - the people that are a part of our family's life - and I just feel so overwhelmingly grateful. This year was special because we added Josie's new school friends to the ever-growing circle of families we know and love.

It was an absolutely beautiful day on August 6th when we had her party.  The theme she picked was "You Are My Sunshine" - the song she always refers to as her song that I've been singing to her (even off-key) since she was just a newborn.  Lots of people call her Sunshine, so this theme couldn't be more fitting.  She quickly ran with the idea - complete with all orange and yellow snacks, decorations and a sunshine cake.

Our Josie over the years...

Scenes from the pool:

  

The birthday cake:

(BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG enormous thank you to Teresa for making this super fabulous sun cake with pull-apart cupcake rays that took Josie's four year old wish from vision to reality. It was perfect and delicious and you are so generous! THANK YOU!)

It was a long, fun day of partying...and it was only the first part of what would be a week-long birthday celebration (and what will be a week of blog posts about all of them to get caught up).

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET JOSIE! 

You are most definitely our little ray of sunshine!

The Toucan Story

Josie got this window cling for free at a local toystore. It was put together on cardboard but didnt include a picture of the finished product. A very eager Josie took it all apart and scattered the pieces across the counter. Lou and I had a little panic attack because we knew she would expect us to know how to recreate the toucan out of a sticky pile of random shapes. We had no idea. It was close to bedtime, so under his breath Lou told me just to help him stick it up there quickly, hoping she would be happy with however it turned out. We tried our best but had no clue what was what. She seemed content and, crisis averted, we started prepping for bed. A few minutes later we noticed her over by the window making adjustments and wouldn't you know that little lady had a perfect toucan in seconds. (Wow Josie, once again your memory has floored us!)

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Quick update (Get your umbrella)

I started back to work full time today. School starts for Josie this week. My job teaching online classes for UC is getting ready to end after a long two years, so massively epic amounts of grading right now. New nanny started last week. I have a gazillion photos from the last month (including Josie's birthday) just waiting for me to have some free time to get them here on the blog. Life is good, but life is insane at the moment.  This is a BIG transition week for us, but we expect things to get back to normal soon.  When it rains, it pours!

Happy #1 Jack!

We love you Baby Jack and are so sad to be missing your big day! Smash some cake for us (and then stop growing up so fast). We love you Jackpot! Xxxoooo!

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Back to School Night

Tonight we had back to school night. Last night we had parents night. Sunday is the school picnic and pool party! We are all so excited for school to start, obvious here by Josie's enormous pout because she was "just very very disappointed that I have to leave right now."

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You got that right...

Thanks for the absolutely perfect onesie grandma!

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Our Big Baby Bea

When I go back and look at all the videos of Josie, the ones of her just being a little baby bring me the biggest smiles. So, here's sweet Beatrice at five months old. Right now, feeling so big but I know I will look back at this in the not to distance future and be amazed at how small she was. Ahh - perspective. Enjoy!



The crazy thing is that I took this next video back in June when Roly was just 3 months old (and Josie was still 3 for that matter). At the time, this video didn't seem like much, but already it feels like a distant memory and I'm so glad I have these little moments in time to return to now and again.

Sister Snap

So Josie picked out these outfits this morning then says this afternoon "mommy, you HAVE to take a picture of us doing THIS." And so I did and it is easily one of my favorite sister snapshots so far.

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Four Best Friends

Here is Miss Josephine with her three best friends from school - Lucia, Mia & Hazel. Today we got the girls together at Essencha Tea House for a fancy tea party. The girls are just so sweet together and it is unbelievable how much they have all grown and changed since they all met this time last year. Their moms are also super fabulous too. (Bonus!) Crazy that school is starting already, but it is infintely easier this year than it was last August when we didn't know how well this whole full-time preschool thing would go. I love these little girls and their families. And the fact that she is growing up alongside such little sweeties makes that whole "she is growing up" thing so much easier.

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Nature Camp

(can you tell I am playing blog catch-up?!)

Josie absolutely loved Nature Camp at Ault Park. It was a full week of very hot half-days and she did great. I am not sure what she liked more - the camp or the fact that she had five of her girlfriends in her group. This is a quick pic I snapped of her group on the first day and all of her stuff from the week that she piled up on Friday. Oh and get this...her camp counselor was a former student from my teaching days in Milford!
And, too funny not to share...when I asked her what the best things were about camp she said holding hands with Lucia and Te on the hike, getting to keep her daisy nametag to bring home and the best part of the whole week was having a turn tobe the line leader. How cute is that?!

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Pig and Whale

With all the birthday excitement, the middle of August just sort of hit me today. There is a lot more going on right now that I'll blog more about later in the week. Things have been so unbelievably hectic and WHOA - Josie starts back to school in just one week. Anyway, the realization that summer is coming to a close is beginning to set in and I'm feeling a bit of a rush to enjoy what's left of it with my wee ones.  On Wednesday, the three of us girls headed to "the pig and the whale" park and spent quite some time there. Josie is getting so independent that it was hard to even keep track of her, and Bea just hung out (literally) in the Moby wrap.  We had popcorn, hid under a big pine tree for shade, raced around chasing each other and smiled a lot.  Every time we go to Lunken, she tries something new that was too big or too intimidating the time before. Maybe it's the fact that she's four now, but she just ran up and tackled things that were too much just a few weeks ago. She swung from the monkey bars and dropped down by herself and then tackled the zip-line! I am so proud of our big girl.  (And Josie - four seems pretty good so far. That's enough growing up for awhile. Ok?)

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