Tea Time!

Riley adores having tea parties, so we decided to have the ultimate tea party for her 5th birthday.  Gigi, Grandma and I took Riley and 6 of her little girl friends to afternoon tea at the Brown Palace on Saturday. 

 

The Brown Palace has always been a special place for our family and we have celebrated many holidays and special occasions there so we figured that it was the perfect place to mark this very big milestone.  The girls were all dressed in their prettiest dresses and came with their best manners for a very elegant tea party.

 

They sipped vanilla tea and nibbled on scones with Devonshire cream, tea sandwiches and lots of scrumptious mini desserts.

 

 

 

The girls loved the musicians that played during the tea and they got to check out the harp and get up close to the piano too. 

The piano player played "Happy Birthday to You" as they brought out a little cake for Riley Roo.

 

 

After all the sweets and treats, we let the little girls loose on the hotel.  It was a sort of like Eloise at the Plaza, they had waited very patiently to able to go check out all of the floors that they could see from below and there is just something too irresistible about a hotel when your kid.

 

Riley had so much fun celebrating her birthday with her very own, very girly tea party and we loved having all over her sweet little girlfriends there with us!

 

 

 

 

5 Years Old!

Little Miss Nelson is 5 years old today!  How did that happen?  5 feels major to me...she is now a whole hand and there are absolutely no traces of baby left in her, she has truly become a little girl.  It is amazing to me to see the changes that have taken place over the past year and every day that goes by we are falling more and more in love with our Riley and the person that has become. 

There are so many things that make the little person that we love so much, but what I want to remember most about Riley as she turns 5 is that she sweet but also still ornery,  silly with the most infectious giggle, a singer and dancer and joke teller too.  She is a kind and thoughtful friend and a sweet and patient big sister. 

 She is happiest when she is outside in snow or sunshine, has never met a playground that she didn't like and always has energy for a game of tag or hide and seek.  She is my helper whenever I need her and it melts me when she smiles and says "I'd be glad to Mama!"  Riley is a fabulous little chef and has started to try lots of new foods, but still loves pasta more than anything and always has room for something sweet, especially chocolate.  She still loves her books, spends a lot of time in dress-up clothes and her favorite color is almost always purple but sometimes it's pink. 

 Kite flying

 

 She is so proud that she can do the monkey bars and keep herself going on the swings all by herself!

 

 

I am not quite sure how we got to be so lucky to have this fabulous little girl as ours, but we are thankful everyday for the joy and the smiles that she brings to our life.  We love you Riley Roo and can't wait to see all of the places that you will go and things you will do as a 5 year old!   

XOXOXOXOXO

Happy Birthday to Roo!

Today we celebrated a big milestone for our Riley Roo, she is 5 years old...a whole hand!!! 

As Little Miss kept reminding us throughout her special day...."When it's your birthday, you get to choose" , so her first choice of the day was homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  A pretty good way to start off I think!  After that it was dance class and school where she got to wear a special birthday crown that she absolutely loved!

Riley will have a party with her friends on Saturday, so tonight's birthday celebration was all about family.  In keeping with the theme of the day, the birthday girl chose the menu,  pizza and spaghetti and birthday hats were mandatory at the table.

And her last official birthday decision for the year....presents before cake!

And for our special girl, we had a purple swirl confetti cake with hot pink frosting and sprinkles! A fabulous end to a fabulous day of celebrating our favorite 5 year old!

 Happy 5th Birthday sweet girl!  We love you sooooo much!



Happy Easter!

We have been drenched in cold and snow with no sign of Spring in Colorado, but lucky for us the Easter Bunny came and the weather was perfect for our Easter celebration!  Riley did a fabulous job of dying eggs in preparation for the bunny to come and we of course left some carrots and water out for him on Saturday night.

 

 

On Easter morning, we were all up early to get ready for church and of coarse to check out the baskets full of goodies that the Easter Bunny had left.  Piper was pretty happy to see that the bunny didn't eat all of the carrots that we had put on the plate...they made a pretty delicious snack.

 

 

 

 

Gigi and Pop hosted our traditional family Easter lunch this year so we spent the afternoon eating lots of yummy food and enjoying the awesome weather.  As always there was egg hunting to be done and Riley and Piper got to head to the Urban's backyard to dash for treats!  This was Piper's first time getting in on the action and it took her no time at all to figure out how it works and Riley was all to happy to help her out with the candy that she couldn't eat herself. 

 

 My failed attempt at a sister shot...this was as good as it got.  Oh well, at least I got one out of 2 actually looking

 We had such a fun day playing with the girls and catching up with family and friends.  The girls wound down the day by reading with Pop and hanging upside down (the effects of a sugary day for our Roo).

Happy Easter!