Dear Julianna,

Dear Julianna,

    You are a very special girl!!!  You have a lot of passion and determination! You and your sister are very best friends and play very well together. You don't eat much this year, so I can't really say what foods you like?  As long as it has loads of sugar in it, you will eat it! You are super enthusiastic!!!  I LOVE that about you! Your teacher says you are one of the best at sharing!  You always make sure Marielle is comfortable. The other day when we were loading up in the car you took off into the house for a blanket for Marielle!!!  You play by yourself very well too. You love to play with strawberry shortcake figures and my little ponies. You make them talk and almost always have them in a very straight line (a little OCD I have to admit). You are taking so well these days, but you swear that you are FOUR when anyone asks (not good for theme parks).  I couldn't be more proud of the young lady you are becoming! Finally potty trained too!!!  I LOVE YOU!!!

                                                Love,
                                                Your Mama

Happy Birthday JULIANNA!!!

Since December Julianna has been asking for a strawberry shortcake birthday party.

Well she got it!

I had so much fun with this party!

I let her invite 3 kids from her class, and I invited three of my gal pals that have boys, who are Julianna's friends for my social benefit ;). It turned out to be 14 kids from 6 invites... yikes!!! (Brothers and Sisters)

Julianna taking a swing at the cutest strawberry pinata!

All the kids loved the fabric covered party hats! The girls got strawberry glasses.

I think the kids liked the mini ice cream cones more then the cake!

They had strawberry ice cream, no less!

Buckets were used to pick up candy from the pinata.

Of course it was pouring down rain and we had to cancel the bounce castle and I had to scramble for last minute games. "Pin the leaf on the strawberry!"

Since it was a "Berry Brunch" I had a yummy assortment of breakfast staples and strawberry OJ and milk!

A waffle bar!!!!!!

The whip wasn't out yet, but believe me it was there! Yogurt parfaits in mini cups were also a big hit!

Strawberry bubbles!!!

Julianna had the best day ever!

We had a great time too, since it was a nice size group of

"berry" good friends and "berry" good food!!!

EASTER!!!

Look who's 40!!!

I knew I wanted to throw Juan a birthday party, but he was NOT having it!!! Surprises are not his thing either so I had to recruit his best friend Rob!

Rob was kind enough to help and flew in just in time to celebrate! We did a "Burgers and Beer"party! It was so perfect for Juan!

The tag on the cupcakes had a priceless picture of a Juan as a preteen!

St Patty's Day!

I have a really fun mommies group that like to do regular girls night outs. Since St patty's day was on Saturday this year, I invited everyone over for a potluck girls night out. The food was sooooooo yummy and the company was great! It was fun to see the green dishes the girls came up with! No dyes either!

All fun healthy green food!

Texas day!!!

The girls had Texas day at school. They played all kinds of texas themed games, including roping a rebar "baby animal"!

I am not sure what they are doing in this picture, but it sure looks funny!

Ye ha ... you sure make cute cowgirls!

pinky sweet!

Ahhh Valentines! How I love this day! This year I decided to sign up to host the party for J's class. I got each kid a heart shaped mylar balloon from the dollar store, and hung one from each of their chairs. Then I had them make a "cupid's crunch" which was popcorn and chex mix and then they added pink and red candies. The kids really did love it and It was worth all the running around I did!

This is Juli putting her hands together for prayer... so sweet!

I made the cute little cupcakes in the corner, and forgot to take pictures... ugh!

This was a 5K with a Valentine theme!

My little cuttie pie!

This was a terrarium Annelise helped me make for her theacher. She is on a diet, so I thought this would be a gift she could enjoy?

This was my NIGHTMARE last weekend Marielle is allergic to the antibiotic she was on.

Austin Zoo.

I was told not to expect much. It was just a great way to spend some time with the kids!

DISNEY!!! I love this place!!!! This was Ann's 3rd time going!!! (I KNOW ...SPOILED!) I swear I had only been 3 times my whole life before the 3 times with her! Crazy! We have just had oppurtunities to tag along with Juan twice and my sister once.

A picture I never want to forget!

This drawing I recently came accross when I was cleaning out her artwork. I would ask Ann what we could toss? She insisted on keeping this one and so I took a good look at it and asked what was in the sunglasses?

She says "oh that is the reflection of the bucket"...

ME: "reflection?!?!? Where did you learn about refection? "

Ann : "The Jonah and the Whale audio book"

and then she quotes the book "Jonah saw his reflection in the eye of the Whale."

My mouth was dropped open! She had to be four when she did that! I think she is going to be a talented artist like my Mom and Juan's Brother and Sister.