Grace's Birthday Weekend

Grace just loves birthdays and has been looking forward to hers ever since Lily turned one. We are so proud of Grace and everything she has accomplished this year. She is a great big sister and loves to teach Lily new things. At 3 years old Grace loves to read, sing songs, and pretend. She is still a picky eater and still has a major sweet tooth - chocolate is a definite weakness for her! She has a memory like an elephant and does not forget a thing (I think she get this from my sister Jen, who she looks a lot like too).

At her well visit she was in the 25th percentile for both her weight: 27 pounds, 3/4 ounces and her length: 35 1/2 inches.

Grace started her birthday celebration at school on Friday by bringing cupcakes to share with her friends. On Friday night I took Grace to see a Cinderella play. She was a little scared of the stepsisters(they were after all men dressed like woman), but I think she enjoyed the singing and dancing.
On Saturday morning Brooks had to work so the girls and I went to the park per Grace's request. She had fun swinging and playing with some of the big kids.

Lily had fun too!

On Saturday night, we went to Kevin and Christina's house to watch the Gamecocks. During half time we had a mini birthday party and everyone sang to Grace (which was the highlight of the night since the game was not so great). She was very serious about blowing out her candle all by herself.

Lily and Christina

Kevin helped Grace open up her presents.

On Sunday we went downtown to for the Christmas parade. The cold weather definitely made it feel like the Christmas season for me!

All bundled up!

We were excited to see Santa at the end of the parade.

Grace is afraid of most characters (especially the Chick-Fil-A cow), but she LOVES Santa Claus!

We drove by the battery on the way home and saw this beautiful sunset from the car.

Wish we could make it downtown more often!

Sunday night we decorated the tree. Grace enjoyed looking at all the ornaments and lights.
We are looking forward to her birthday party at the Children's Museum this Saturday!

Happy Thanksgiving

We are thankful for so many things! My parents arrived on Wednesday and we celebrated Thanksgiving in Columbia with lots of family, friends and delicious food (Thanks to Mimi and everyone else that helped prepare the food!). Hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Two big reasons to be thankful...

Mimi, Grace and Nana

Elizabeth loves her cousin Lily! Maybe a little too much :)....

We predict they will be BFF's one day.

Coloring Turkeys

Grace had lots of fun playing with her second cousin Sloan.

She just loves the big girls.

They had a blast pretending to be lots of different animals.

Here is Grace the monkey...

Two Little Turkeys

The turkey cupcakes were a hit with the kids.

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

We really enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home for Brooks' birthday. Saturday morning Lily woke up with a fever and was a little fussy, so Brooks took Grace out for a daddy/daughter breakfast date. That afternoon while the girls napped, we also took a nap. Brooks says that he should get a nap every year for his birthday and I totally agree!
Lily seemed to feel better that night, so we went out to dinner as a family and the girls did really well. After dinner we went to the Towne Centre to see the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Grace was a little nervous about actually seeing Santa, but really wanted to tell him what she wanted: A Dopey doll and a Baby Doll. I had to hold her, but she managed to tell Santa that she wanted a Dopey. We will have to visit him again before Christmas or write a letter to let him know about the Baby Doll....
Lily loved listening to the Christmas music.Happy Birthday Brooks!!! We love you and appreciate all you do for us! Hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend. Oh yeah - Brooks also had to rescue Lily on Sunday. I took her to Target while Grace was napping and accidentally locked the keys in the car along with her. Not only was I panicked that my one-year was locked in the car, but my cell phone would not work. I stopped a girl in the parking lot and left Brooks a message about our situation. While the nice girl tried to get in touch with AAA, I ran inside to use the phone and of course they weren't working. Luckily I finally got in touch with Brooks and he was already on the way! I think the whole situation was much harder on me than Lily, but I will definitely be paranoid every time I close the doors on our new mini van!

Grace's Dance

Parent Watch

Grace has really been enjoying her tap/ballet class that she takes at school. On Monday, we were invited to watch her dance practice. This of course was the same Monday that my school was getting observed for our Palmetto's Finest visit, so I had to get special permission to leave. I felt a little guilty for skipping out during the day, but I wouldn't have missed this for anything! She did a great job dancing and I was just so proud when she answered a question for her teacher. About half way through the performance Grace's tooth started to hurt - She just so happened to get one of her pre-molars that same day and her gums were bleeding (poor thing)! We have a great video of her, but I can seem to get it on the blog. I will keep trying...

Our Little Shirley Temple

When we took Grace up to get something for her tooth, guess who walked in the door? Lily was so surprised and excited to see us. I know she was confused when I didn't takes her with me.

Gorgeous Gamecocks

I wonder if all the Gamecock gear we wore on Saturday had anything to do with the big win? Even if it didn't, I had fun dressing them up...

Birthday Fun

We were invited to two birthday celebrations over the weekend. On Saturday night we celebrated Kevin's birthday. We had lots of fun eating oysters and hanging out with great friends. Grace helped Kevin open his present and had a great time despite the fact that there were no cupcakes at Kevin's party.

On Sunday we went to Addie's birthday party. This was Grace's first birthday party for a friend from school. She had so much fun seeing her friends outside of school and it great to watch her interact with them.

Ellie and Grace are BF's at school...

Grace was happy to hear that this

birthday party did indeed have cupcakes!