Frozen Party!

It came as absolutely no surprise that Riley asked to have a Frozen theme for her birthday party this year...we have been pretty Anna and Elsa obsessed around here lately.  And what could be more perfect to accompany Roo's theme than her new favorite activity, ice skating!  

 

 

 

 

Riley has a good friend, Camryn, whose birthday is a few days before hers and since the two share a lot of friends we opted for a combined party.  It worked out perfectly and we had a ton of little ice skate princesses and few princes too.  

Lucky for us, six year olds are pretty resilient and most of them didn't mind a few bumps and bruises on the ice.  Overall, I think everyone included the 2 birthday girls had a great time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Girl, Riley Roo!!!

Happy 6th birthday to our crazy, sweet, red cowboy boot wearing princess!

My first baby girl, the one who made me a mommy is now 6 and keeps reminding me that she is almost a 1st grader.  It is amazing how seemlessly she has transitioned from from this teeny tiny baby into a beautiful little girl.  It seems to have happened overnight that this little miss who needed us for so many things is now proud to be doing so many things for herself.  We now have this Kindergartener who can read and write, loves to cook and help with laundy.  Each year as I look back on the year before, I am amazed at my Roo and the changes that are unfolding so quickly in her life.  I want so badly to slow down time, but at the same time I am eager for to see what the next year will bring for her.  

At 6 years old I love that Riley sings and dances spontaneously throughout her day, is never too busy for her little sisters and always has room for dessert.  She is good friend and an awesome teammate.  She loves ballet, Girl Scouts and soccer too...or maybe it's just the friends she gets to hang with when she does them.  She is definitely a little social butterfly and the best audience ever for a silly joke and never afraid to show her ornery side.  I love the new sweet grin that has emerged over the past year from all of the teeth she has lost.  I love that she has worked and worked to conquer the monkey bars this year and wears the blisters on her hands like a badge of honor.  I love that she is too cool for princesses, but secretly not.  I love that my little bookworm is now a reader herself and the way that she beams with pride when she shares this new skill with us.  

Riley's favorite color is black, because bats are black and they are her favorite animal.  Her favorite foods are raspberries and enchiladas (in her own words "she is in love with enchiladas"), her favorite school lunch is french toast and she lives for recess and loves history.  She has become a true artist in  drawing rainbows and hearts and she's also a budding photographer. Her favorite dessert is ice cream and she always singing, her current hit is "Happy".  Her favorite movie is a tie between Frozen and Despicable Me 2 and her favorite cartoon is My Little Pony.  She loves being tickled, eating out, chewing gum and sleeping with mama's childhood teddy bear.

For her birthday celebration, our family joined us to spoil our new 6 year old and Roo chose pizza from Parisi and purple confetti cake.  

 

We're pretty obsessed with our Roo, just as we have been from the first moment we laid eyes on her.  I have now doubt that the next year will be filled with amazing things!  Happy Birthday Riley!!!!  We love you sooooo much!  

Florida!

Springtime in Colorado is a completely mixed bag.  Waiting for the temps to rise and the color to return can be kind of agonizing, so it is the perfect time to fast forward to somewhere warm and sunny...like Florida :)

 

 

We took an after Spring break, break and headed down to Marco Island! We could think of nothing more perfect than ditching school and work for a week to play at the beach with our friends!  The Nichols head down to Marco every year around this time and we have been talking about coordinating a trip with them since Riley and James were babies....I'm so glad that we finally did it! 

The girls were in absolute heaven!  There was plenty of swimming, sunshine, sand, more swimming and lots of playing with friends.  We stayed in a condo right on the beach and we all loved getting to look out at the ocean and hear the waves anytime we wanted!  We spent a lot of time out playing in the waves, building sandcastles and looking for seashells. 

We also discovered that humidity is definitely Piper's ideal climate...her head was full of perfectly formed ringlets the entire time.  Too cute!

And this sweet little toothless girl was all smiles, all week.  She could not get enough of the ocean,  a total beach babe! 

 Totally the life, right?!

 

 

 

Dave and Katie Nichols have a beautiful house in Marco and they invited us to spend time hanging in their pool, riding on the boat and having a home away from home for Easter. 

 

 

My little water baby, Piper could have lived in their pool :)  She had her own personal fountains...heaven!

 

 

 

This was our first time being away for Easter, but the girls weren't one bit worried that the Easter Bunny would have a hard time finding them at the beach.  Being down there with the Nichols meant that all the kids were together for egg dying, I think that Riley and James have done Easter eggs almost every year. 

We had our first sunrise service on the beach and followed it up with an egg hunt and brunch at the Nichols.  Oh and the Easter Bunny did find us at our condo and delivered the girls special baskets filled with beachy-themed goodies! 

 

 

 

On a rare day away from the water, we drove to Naples to check out their zoo and we were so glad we did!  It was so much smaller than ours and had things we had never seen been, like honey badgers...Riley's fave.  We decided on the car ride home to nickname our Pipey the Honey badger, after an unfortunate incident with Roo's souvenir. They also had giraffe feeding and camel rides.  Such a fun outing!

 

We were amazed at how well all 3 girls did with the long plane ride and being away from home for 8 days.  It was a perfect family get away and we all came back with big smiles on our faces and lots of happy memories.