Happy Birthday Kendall!

Kendall- 7 years old

Kendall had her birthday party this year at Sunshine Glaze art studio in Southlake.  It was a fairly small, low-key party, but all the kids seemed to enjoy it and it was definitely right up Kendall's alley.  The girls all painted a heart shaped jewelry box and Judson painted a cute little dog.  Kendall got to pick out the paint colors and then they all worked quietly on painting their boxes for the first half of the party.  After they finished painting, they had cake and fruit kabobs and Kendall opened her presents.  Mimi made a heart shaped birthday cake for Kendall, which was what she requested since her party was on Valentine's Day.  Some of the things she received were a Barbie bubble mermaid, a Justice gift card, some scented markers, a BFF magnetic necklace, a princess pop up game, a big owl beanie boo, and a trip to the American Girl Store from our family.  The party guests all put their thumbprint on a plate and the girls who work at the studio turned it into an adorable keepsake that she now has displayed in her room.  It was a fun time celebrating 7 years of our sweet Kendall!

hard at work painting their boxes

One girl was late because her Mom had a flat tire, but had finally arrived when we took this picture.  Two other guests didn't make it because their Mom had the time written down wrong.

Scott helped Judson paint his little dog.

The girls were all so quiet and focused while they painted.

I got elected to be Kendall's "holder" so she could paint all the surfaces of her box.

Kendall chose some really pretty colors.  They always look brighter once they fire the pieces in the kiln.

Visiting before cake time!

Mimi made Kendall a heart shaped cake with lots of bright colors just like she wanted.  It was delicious!

"Happy Birthday to You!"

Make a wish Kendall!

Loving her chocolate cake

Giving Daddy a sweet hug

Friend pile-up!

 

She was so surprised by one of her presents from Libby- BFF magnetic necklaces

Sweet friends hooking their necklaces together

Kendall with her big Beanie Boo from Mimi and Poppi

Our family with the birthday girl

Kendal and Mimi

To Kendall on Your 7th Birthday

Precious Kendall,
Happy 7th Birthday sweet daughter!  When I think of you, some of the words that come to mind are full of life, joyous, giggly and silly, cuddly, sweet, sensitive, tender-hearted, and kind.  You love to dance, sing along with KLTY in the car, play with Avery or friends, read books (especially to me or with me), draw people and dresses, watch shows and movies, play games on the iPad, swim, jump on the trampoline (especially with Daddy), and play rough games with Daddy.  You and Judson have started playing together sometimes- usually superheroes.  You even made up your own superhero character named Wonderlight for when the two of you play together.  You still love junk food like pizza and chicken nuggets, but you are beginning to like more and more foods and eat almost all the same things as the rest of us at dinner.  Some of your favorite meals at home lately have become poppyseed chicken and steak.  This year you have ROCKED 1st grade!  You made straight A's and you became a very good reader.  Now you are able to read chapter books easily.  Your favorite ones are Rainbow Magic Fairies, Magic Treehouse and the Whatever After series.  You have also turned into a very good writer.  So good, in fact, that Mrs. Ethridge took your writing journal to a meeting to show it off!  Although you really missed Libby being in your class this year, you developed lots of new friendships, including Lexi who lives across the street. When I am up at the school kids are always saying "Hi" to you and it seems that you are very well liked by your classmates.  Another accomplishment for you at school this year was being selected as one of the class representatives for the school-wide spelling bee.  I was so proud of you for getting up in front of everyone and giving it your best against all those older kids!  A few other accomplishments or milestones for your 7th year included losing a couple more teeth (you've lost 8 total), learning how to tie, working on riding a bike without training wheels, playing chords and two hands simultaneously on the piano, and improving your tumbling skills a lot.  When you first started at United Cheer you couldn't do a very good cartwheel yet, and now you can do great cartwheels, handstands, back rolls, handstand fall to bridge, and you're very close on your back bend kick over and front limber. We are so proud of the way you are growing up and exhibiting your kind heart and sweet spirit, like when you gave your birthday money to help pay for a little Kenyan girl's hospital bills.  Most of all, you are learning more every day about who God is and what it means to follow and serve Him.  We love you so much and we are looking forward to see what happens in year #8!

Love is in the Air

We never make a huge deal of Valentine's Day at our house, but it is always fun to give and receive cards and treats and participate in the kids' parties.  Judson had a little party with a Valentine exchange and goodies, and he brought home this adorable gift for Scott and I.  They always think of the cutest, sweetest things at SCP.

Avery and Kendall both had parties at school that I helped to organize.  Kendall's was a lunch time party, so we had pizza, fruit, and cupcakes.  The kids exchanged their Valentines and we played Bingo with prizes.  Avery's party was right before school let out, so we just had treats.  One of the room moms was able to get a Groupon for a party pack from Bahama Bucks.  So the kids got to choose from 3 or 4 different flavors of snow cones and I made fruit kabobs as well.  They exchanged Valentines and then we went outside to play a "Headbands" type game where they had to ask questions to find out which character they were and then find their match.  It was kinda crazy, but fun!

Kendall at her desk enjoying some treats

Kendall with her friend and neighbor Lexi

Love this sweet girl! So glad she's one of my Valentines!

Avery enjoying her snow cone

Avery's 3rd grade class

My oldest Valentine.  Love her bunches!

Avery with her friends Adelyn and Ella 

chatting and enjoying snow cones with her classmates

girlfriends!

Fantastic February

With Valentine's Day and Kendall's birthday, February is always a fun, busy month in our house, but this year it was even more so with little events like Avery getting braces, a new nephew/cousin entering the world, and snow days.

enjoying some trampoline time with neighbor friends on one of the warmer days

At the beginning of the month Avery got braces.  Our friend and referral, Dr. Ridder, is treating her.  They live on the other side of our neighborhood and his office is just down the street.

Cutie pie!  She is growing up so fast.

When the weather is nice enough, Judson and I like to get out and enjoy some time at the park.  I caught him in a rare moment of being still and pensive.

On February 17th Griffin Cabrero arrived!  It was a school day for all 3 kids and they were so excited when I told them the news after school and showed them this picture.  The girls just gushed over how cute and sweet he is.

Avery got to enjoy a special lunch at school with Mimi and Poppi on Grandparents Day.

A quick picture with friends before heading home on a snow day. School let out early on this day because it started snowing so heavily and the road conditions were getting bad really quickly.

Ringing in 2015

This year we decided to have a family fondue party on New Year's Eve to help us ring in 2015.  I found a recipe for chocolate-peanut butter fondue that turned out to be super yummy and prepared a bunch of fruit, marshmallows, pound cake pieces, graham crackers, etc to use for dipping.  The kids took their baths and got all comfy and we dipped until we were stuffed.  The kids loved it so much that we decided to make it a new family tradition.  Another tradition we began this year which was an idea I stole from a college friend was to start a "Blessings" jar.  The kids and I picked up some supplies at Hobby Lobby and I made us a cute little jar with a bow.  The idea is to write down blessings from God that we receive during the year and then read them on the following New Year's Eve.  That will be a neat thing to do at our fondue party next year.

Here are a few other random photos from January.

Judson won an IHOP gift card when we played Bingo in Red River, so we went there for pancakes (his favorite) one morning.  Every time someone would win a round of Bingo he would say, "Which one you wanna pick- Coffee?" and hold up the IHOP card with the coffee mug on it.  He likes to get the silver dollar pancakes and have a different type of syrup on each one.

One of Judson's Christmas gifts was a giraffe Stuffie, but he really wanted a lion one, so we exchanged it.  He was so happy to finally have the one he wanted.

This was right after I took him to get a haircut one day.  His hair was kinda gelled and spiky and I thought he looked so handsome and cool, especially with his Batman sunglasses on.

Santa came!

When we arrived back home from Red River, the kids had some presents waiting for them just as Santa had promised.  Judson's present was a Bat-bot, which is a a robot that Batman can ride in. It comes with a remote control and also talks and shoots little disks.  Kendall's gift from Santa was a new bike.  It has training wheels but is plenty big for her to ride once she learns to do it without them.  Avery's gift from Santa was a fuzzy papsan-type chair.  All three of them loved what Santa left!

Avery immediately cuddled up in her chair with her dragon Stuffie

pretending to wake up from a nap in her chair

Kendall was really excited to have a big girl bike

Judson's Bat-bot

He immediately started playing with it and thought it was super-cool that it moves and talks

Thanks Santa!