Addie's Birthday Chapel

I'm about to play some serious catch up.

Over the past 2 weeks, we've had Addie's birthday chapel, prepared for her birthday party, traveled to Augusta and attended a wedding and had a tea party birthday there, driven home and made final preparations for Addie's party, and had her party. Then I drove to Atlanta late Monday night, and my aunt and I flew to NYC Tuesday morning, where we saw Wicked and I'm certain we trekked up and down at least 50 flights of subway stairs, and came home Wednesday night.

My picture count: 975. That's a lot of editing/deleting/saving/posting!

I'm wiped out...and a wonderfully blessed exhausted mess!

But since we really didn't get to celebrate my birthday in the midst of all of this, Paul is taking me to Birmingham tomorrow for the night to eat a yummy birthday dinner, see a movie, and sleep in late! I.am.so.excited!

So back to the purpose of this post! Since we traveled to Augusta on her birthday weekend, we did Addie's birthday chapel at school the Friday before. This is a special time where the birthday kiddos get to come up on stage and everyone sings happy birthday to them!

They always start chapel with lots of singing and dancing! i love this one where addie realized i was taking a picture of her!

Addie was a tad nervous to say the least! I wasn't exactly sure she was going to make it up there when i dropped her off that morning. BUT, after several reminders that when she is afraid, she must trust in God and that God is always with us and that ms gail would be up there with her too, i hoped everything would be ok.

And as you can tell, she.ate.it.up!

She got to say her name...

...and tell how old she was/would be!

but the sweetest moment was when ms. gail asked her what special person was there. and after she said mommy, ms. gail asked her if she wanted to say anything to mommy. and without hesitation, she said, i love you!

...and i near about melted!

happy birthday chapel to our sweet big 4 year old! we love you too!

here's the video from the morning. i edited it to just show her part (and not show me filming the ceiling!), but i had to leave in a few other places so you could see her waving at everyone she knew! Please excuse the shaky craziness and loud camera clicks. i'm not use to taking pictures and videoing at the same time! ;0)

needless to say...more to come!

Our Big Girl

I always get a little sentimental around our girl's birthdays. maybe that's why i love planning their parties...it keeps me super busy!

Today, our Addie Marie turns 4. There's always something about each birthday: it seems like such a huge jump, like she's growing up before our very eyes...because really, she is.

She's turned into the most wonderful helper. She loves her sisters and has resorted to telling them that she loves them so much, even when they aren't nice to her because God loves us that way. She loves to be the first in their room to greet them in the morning and get them a kashi bar as soon as they're out of bed. Her caring heart has come out in so many precious ways.

She loves gymnastics, and her new nickname is "addie marie flipadoodle wamsted".  There is absolutely no piece of furniture in our house that hasn't been flipped onto or jumped off of! She started ballet this year and loves to twirl and twist and skip. She loves to read, and animals or science continue to be her favorite topics. And she is reading! She's got word families and a few sight words down and has moved onto full fledged sounding out words! We end each day right now with a puzzle. She's not afraid to get dirty and would stay outside for hours at a time. She loves science. In fact, her birthday party was a science party. We erupted her volcano and mixed colors; made snow and exploded things. 

Her imaginary friends: Tutu, Allison, Mickens and Mr Fitts accompany many of our adventures. She reads to them and plays with them, always making sure to instruct them in what they should do. They even run races. Mr. Fitts has yet to win. Her imagination is wilder than I sure every imagined it would be, chasing alligators or giants or jaguars. She looks for clues and solves mysteries and loves to go to the grocery store for us...in her crazy coop that she can hardly fit in anymore!

And let me tell you, this kid loves to talk. Her vocabulary shocks us on a daily basis with words like fascinating and cumulonimbus. She can talk about at least 5 different topics without taking a breath. She notices the birds in the sky and the machines on the side of the road. She tells us about school and her friends. She.loves.life!

But one of my favorite things about our Addie is when she looks up at me and says: I love you so much Mommy!

Addieboo, we love you so much too precious girl. You are an amazing daughter and a sweet big sister! God blessed our family immensely when He gave you to us! 

Happy Birthday Addieboo! 

Click here to see a slideshow of our big girl!

Our Addieboo

Flashback Friday Thursday

I'm attempting to put together a little slideshow for Addie's upcoming birthday.

And I ran across this: July, 2010.

But after a rather intense afternoon of the girls waking up early and me realizing I have entirely too much to do between now and Sunday, I was called into the living room to this:

And there's just not much else that could be more important than seeing Addie sitting in my socks in between her little sisters who are hovered over her listening to her read a book to them.


every.sacred.second.

Every.Last.Drop.

the littles have just started eating cereal with milk. yes, they ate it dry with a sippy of milk for a looooooong time before i was brave enough willing to clean up huge messes. anne perry's milk typically ends up all over the table, or her...

but audrey kate has found a new way to get...

every.last.drop!

well...

...maybe not as much is going in her mouth as i thought!

but she sure does enjoy it!

My Little Helper

I must apologize for the lack of blogging. I've been working hard on preparing for Addie's 4th birthday party, which is over 2 weeks away. but...i have 2 weddings i am second shooting and another our family will travel to attend and be out of town for the 3 days right before her party.

needless to say, the prep for a "science party" requires a pretty hefty "to do" list; and if you know me, you know there's plenty i'll add to that!

i co-hosted a baby shower for a dear friend, and one of the other hosts had made a bunting for baby boy. i'd been eying them on p1nterest, and that was the push i needed to make my own.

i'd cut the pieces, had a friend help me create the letters which i then traced and cut from the fabric, and it was time to sew. so out came the sewing machine...and my little helper.

when you sew a two sided piece, it means you sew the wrong sides together and then turn each piece. that's about 20 flags that have to be sewn and turned and then pressed.

and turning was a perfect job for my eager little helper. she skipped her rest time and sat sweetly next to me as i was sewing (complete with her mismatched sock).

as each piece came off the sewing machine, she took out the pin and then turned the piece.

she was so proud of her work,

and she stuck with it far longer than i would have guessed.

and i loved every minute of it!