The Bedtime Routine

 Step One:  Put your jammies on.

Step Two:  Brush your teeth.

Step Three:  Don't forget to floss!

 Step Four:  Sing 3 songs with Mommy and Daddy.  "Twinkle Twinkle" is usually in the mix.

Step Five:  Procrastinate with a little last minute dress up.

Step Six:  Bedtime prayers.

 

Step Seven:  Give your friends a hug goodnight.

Step Eight:  Snuggle up on Daddy's lap for a bedtime story.

Step Nine:  Get a goodnight kiss.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was a young princess named Cinderella.  She was invited to a royal ball.  But she needed a beautiful dress and a crown to wear.  So her fairy godmother came to help.  She waved her magic wand and suddenly the fair princess was dressed in a lovely gown.

 "But I need a horse and carriage to take me to the ball," explained Cinderella.

 So her fairy godmother waved her wand again.

Cinderella could hardly believe her eyes.

There before her was a fine carriage and horse ready to take her to the ball.

Her fairy godmother had even provided a driver for the carriage!

Off they went to the royal ball.

As Cinderella left the carriage to walk into the castle, her driver reminded her that she would have to return before the clock strikes 12.

The princess had a lovely time at the ball, but time passed all too quickly.  It was already time for her to leave.

 On her way out and down the stairs, Cinderella "accidentally" left behind one of her glass slippers.

There was no time to return for it.  The spell was nearly worn off.

 Before long, with Cinderella's help, the young prince/carriage driver found the lost slipper.

 She tried it on her foot and it fit!

Cinderella and the prince lived happily ever after!

Addison's REAL birthday

A few weeks ago I asked Addison who she wanted to invite to her third birthday party.  I really wasn't sure how she would respond.   Though we've only lived here since April, she does have a small handful of friends that I thought she might want to invite.  But no; her response was "Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Fannie, Aunt Martha, and Aunt Gayla."  So I guess we were off the hook and had one more year that she was perfectly happy just to celebrate with family.  I figure there will be enough years that she'll want to invite friends, we might as well wait until it will actually mean something to her.  At this point, besides Mommy and Daddy, the five people she requested ARE her best friends.  We decided it would be easier to have the party at Grandma and Grandpa's house so the older aunts wouldn't have to travel.

 It's party time!!!

A Rapunzel princess crown for the little princess.

 Aunt Gayla had to try out the princess crown!

Addison got an electric keyboard from her aunts.  She enjoyed the sound the power button made more than she did even playing the keys.

Aunt Gayla, Aunt Fannie, and Aunt Martha watching Addison open her presents.

 This girl loves Rapunzel!

 Addison helped Grandpa make her birthday cake.  It's a princess crown with fruit snacks for jewels. :-)

Addison had a ball on her birthday and I love that we finally live close enough to family that we can include them in our celebrations.  Last year we celebrated her birthday just the three of us.  We did a Skype party with a set of grandparents on each of 2 laptops.  We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to celebrate with both sets in person this year!

Happy birthday to our big 3 year old!!!  We love you so much!

Addison's pretend birthday

 We wanted to celebrate Addison's birthday while Grandma and Grandpa were still in town, so we decided to call the day before they left her "pretend" birthday.  Somehow, this not-quite-three-year-old had an incredible understanding of what that really meant.  We started by her favorite, breakfast at Chick-Fil-A.  Grandma Liddick had never been there, so we were excited to be able to share that experience with her.  After giving the pretend birthday girl some time to play in the playplace, we stopped by Gigi's Cupcakes and let Addison pick out her pretend birthday cupcake.  (This required some explanation.  The birthday was pretend... the cupcake was real.)  We went back home and let her blow out her candles and *start* eating her cupcake (it took her 4 sittings to actually eat the whole thing). 

Then she opened her presents.  Miss Addison has definitely hit the princess phase. 

 After a little bit of rest time, we went back out for an early dinner followed by more fun at Snapperz.

She had a fun day.  Even though she was wearing her "I am 3" shirt, when people asked her how old she was she would reply "I'm two.  Wait, am I three yet or am I two?"  I love this age!  :-)

Grandma and Grandpa Liddick

Even though we'd technically already celebrated Christmas 2012 with my parents back in July , we were excited when they suggested returning for a visit the week between Christmas and New Years.  We were expecting some bad weather so they made the drive on Christmas day to beat the storm.  We were happy to have extra mouths to share our big Christmas dinner with.

The storm did indeed come the next morning.  It snowed quite heavily for several hours and was terribly windy.  It would have certainly been a challenge to drive through if they had waited.  Coming from Minnesota for the past six years, I will say it was difficult for us to call it a blizzard even though that was the word that the storm had been given by the locals.

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Just for comparison's sake... Look how deep this snow was...

 And this is how deep it was in Minnesota 2 Christmases ago...

And finally, here's Grandpa reading Addison a bedtime story.  Thank you for coming to visit, Grandma and Grandpa!  We had a fabulous time with you!

The Children's Museum

 One Christmas gift we were SUPER excited about was a family membership to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  So when Grandma and Grandpa Liddick came to town, we knew just what to do!  What a fun day!