When Our Princess Turned Four

Let's take a ride back to November of last year, when Lillie had a royal birthday party to celebrate turning four. With Adele being so young, we thought it would be easier to have a small celebration outside of the house and have (what we thought would be) less work to do. It was a huge success, and by the end of the day Lillie couldn't be happier. We invited two of her best buds to come with us downtown to a special salon to get princess makeovers, complete with and up-do and manicure. Quinn wanted to get in on the action the entire time, even holding his hands out when it came time to do the nails. 

After getting all princess-fied, we headed over the the Rainforest Cafe where it was mostly a fun time, except for the all-too-real-sounding fake thunderstorm that came every 30 minutes inside the rainforest. One of her poor friends got so scared I had to take her outside every time the thunder came around!

But when it came time for cake, all was right in the world again! Lillie requested a strawberry lemon cake in the shape of a princess. Yep, Lillie is a girl that knows what she wants. So I made this lemon cake (my mom said it reminded her of my grandma's lemon cake) with a buttercream icing. The strawberries didn't exactly make it in to the mix, but Lillie didn't miss them.  Of course we had to make Cinderella, because Cinderella is her favorite princess. Thanks to Grandma Susan for giving her all the cute characters you see in the background. I can't wait to see what she picks for her birthday this year!

Adele at 12 Months

Adele, at one year you:

love giving kisses

squeal like crazy

have four teeth

stand on your own (mostly when you don't notice you are doing it)

suck your thumb when stressed and are tired

point to the sky at the sound of an airplane

smile so big that your eyes disappear

have been sleeping through the night for ten months

prefer to bear crawl rather than normal crawl

can say "mama," "dada," and "this"

can sign "more" and "all done"

have found that peaches are your favorite food

figured out how to put mom and dad's hands together for patty cake

love to play with the toy kitchen

want to be where your big brother and sister are, and play with what they have

are an amazing little girl that brings light to our lives everyday

The Girls

Poor Adele, she doesn't have many photos posted on here yet. We've taken a ton, but haven't put them up yet (we're trying hard not to let that whole the-third-baby-has-no-photos syndrome take over). I was able to catch a moment of the girls hanging out together and snap a few shots. Lillie loves holding Adele...she's been a little sick since this shot and does not like that we won't let her get near to her little sister.

Lillie also loves being silly for the camera. Here are a couple of shots that pretty much sum up her personality these days: sweet with a super silly twist. I can't believe she'll be four in a couple of weeks!

Quinn's School Bus Party

Quinn's second birthday party was a school bus theme, one of his most favorite things in the world these days. We invited a few friends to the park near our house and had a picnic with all the kids and parents. The cake was a yellow school bus, complete with mini-chocolate doughnut wheels, JuJu Be lights, and Tic Tac headlights! I used what is becoming my go-to yellow cake recipe, and simple buttercream icing.

1. He was so excited to eat his cake!   

It was very windy that day, so the candle never actually stayed lit. But that didn't hold Quinn back.

Quinn loooooved his cake so much, he sat patiently at the table and ate no less than three pieces! Everyone else had gone back to playing, but nothing could tear Quinn away from his cake and ice cream.

Happy birthday to our sweet, sweet boy.

An Apple a Day

Apple picking is becoming a tradition, and we love it! With four people filling bags this year, we came home with A LOT of apples. We made apple pie, apple oatmeal, sautéed apples, apple pancakes, and apple sauce. Whew, I think it took over a month to get through all of them! This year Lillie really got into finding perfect apples to fill her bag.

And Quinn just wanted to eat the apples!

There were some breaks for running around and hugging, of course.

See you next year, apple trees!

Fashionably Late

Adele Grace Sullivan is here! And no, she was not late in joining us, I am just very late in posting about it! She was born on August 19 (a week early), and shares a name with two of her great-grandmothers. And of those great-grandmothers, she shares a birthday with one. Our sweet little girl has been welcomed into the family by all and big brother and big sister love hugging and kissing on her! Now that she's two months and some change, we're getting our groove back, so start checking the blog more often!

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

Yes, there is always a lot going on here in Chicago, but tonight the theme is magic. Here's a glimpse into our evening and the fabulous show Lillie performed in the middle of our kitchen.