4 Years and 3 Months

This post is long overdue. So here we go, in order of how blogger uploaded my pictures.

Violet is three months old today. Crazy. She has grown so much so quickly and while it has only been three months, in a way it feels like we've had her forever. I had a Girls Night Out with some friends last week, leaving Brad home alone with both girls for the first time. And actually, this picture was taken as I was getting ready to go, I hadn't even left yet. Overall everything went well and the only real meltdown came mostly from Violet's disdain of all things binky or bottle. But I think the night out was good for all of us, except maybe for M who cried as I left "I want to go to the party with the girls too!"

Our biggest event this month was M's fourth birthday. It was a week long celebration and we partied hard! It started that weekend with Nana and Pop showing up with presents of Princess activity books and a new princess dress. The picture below was taken on her actual birthday when she got to open more presents including more Disney princess dolls and an Alvin and the Chipmunks CD from mom and dad, and another new dress and matching purse from Grandma and Grandpa. We celebrated the actual day with a mini cake and ice cream and dinner at M's favorite restaurant, McDonalds.

Violet was most excited about the ice cream.

Later that week we headed to the park to try out one of M's new gifts, a kite. This picture was taken Feb 13, the weather here is awesome. Morgan is well known for her undying love of princesses and anything girly. So you would think her requested kite would fall into one of these categories, not so much ...

That's right. Our little princess just had to have the Batman kite.

City Center, the newest casino on the strip, recently opened so we took advantage of the long weekend and great weather to check it out. This is in front of the cascading waterfall wall at the main entrance. City Center literally has it all, hotel, casino, condos, a tram, and the coolest parking garage entrance ever! One cool thing about it is that one of the hotels (they have a few) is non-smoking and non-gaming, aiming for the family crowd. It was all done up for Chinese New Year and is a pretty cool place.

These next two pictures are from M's recent preschool field trip to the library and grocery store. They had a private story time and tour of the children's section of the library, but I think the kids loved the store the best. At every stop on the tour they were given a snack or treat and all of the employees came out to say hi. And they were each given a reusable shopping bag full of healthy treats on their way out. This is M and some of her friends waiting outside of the store.

I just love this picture of her. She looks so grown up! And her expression is awesome.
Morgan loves to "read" to Violet, who seems to enjoy it all as well. Here they are enjoying their newest book from Aunt Cori.

Just for fun.

This is Morgan in her dress and matching purse from Grandma and Grandpa. I said "Look cute." and this is the pose she struck.

M's favorite part of the birthday celebration was her very first birthday party with friends. Of course, my camera died as I took the first picture, so my friend grabbed her camera and I haven't gotten the pictures from her yet. But just imagine, 11 4 and 5-year-olds all wearing Mickey Mouse ears running around and you probably get the idea. The kids were actually all really well behaved and had fun decorating their Mickey ears, playing games, eating cupcakes, then playing with bubbles outside. And Morgan made a haul in the gift department. I believe she now owns the entire toy section of Target.

I was kind of stressing over the party, hoping it would go well (which I think it did), but I'll tell ya, I am soooooo glad that Morgan's party is already over this year because today she went to a friends birthday party that included a petting zoo and pony rides in their backyard. How would you even start to follow that up?