Daddy's Girls

Last year on Lilli's birthday I started doing a birthday interview.  It's 20 simple questions to ask on their birthdays to see how their interests change over the years.  As we ate our doughnuts Saturday morning this is what we talked about What is your: 1. favorite color? Pink and purple 2. favorite toy? Molly, teddy and blankie 3. favorite fruit? Apples 4. favorite show? Wild Kratts 5. Favorite lunch? Peanut butter and jelly, goldfish and oranges 6. Favorite outfit? Daddy's Girl shirt 7. Favorite game? Dora video game (I never see her play this but maybe she does in her room)  8. Favorite snack? Goldfish 9. Favorite song? Wild Kratt theme song 10. Favorite animal? Guinea pig 11. Favorite book? Berenstein bear 12. Best friend? Gregory ( it was mama last year... She's growing up, sigh)  13. Favorite cereal? Cheerios (she must eat this at school because I never buy it anymore)  14.  Favorite thing to do outside? Swing and slide 15. Favorite drink? Milk 16. F...

This is always a very sad time for Matt and his family because another hunting season is over. They really love spending every weekend at the camp hunting and hanging out together so it's hard when it has to end.   He sent me 3 pictures from the blinds this weekend.  There's nothing sweeter than knowing that he took these pictures because I wanted them even though I'm sure he had to hear about it from everyone else.  :) It will take him a few weeks to adjust to not having this to do on the weekends but me and the girls are sure looking forward to it. 

Last Sunday we had Lilli's birthday party at Gators and Friends (can you tell she's an animal lover?). We decided to have it a week early because all of her cousins were in town.  It had a Wild Kratts theme.  For those of you that don't know, Wild Kratts is a PBS show that features both animation and live shots.  The two brother, Chris and Martin Kratt teach about a different animal in each episode and usually have to save the animal from a situation.  They do this by getting the animals "creature power" (speed for a cheetah, lions strength, etc) with their creature power suits.  So, since this was to be a Wild Kratts party, Lilli decided each kid needed a Creature Power Suit to wear at the party.  No one told me I was going to have to get creative when I had kids but it worked out.  In their Creature Power Suits The party was a lot of fun and I think they had a good time feeding the animals   Holding the baby gator And of course eatin...

Each year on Lilli's birthday Yaya brings her flowers and a card from "Granna." We lost my Mom 5 months before Lilli's first birthday so the first time she did it I was so surprised and very touched.  She's done it every year since so I'm not sure why it caught me by surprise today.  I guess in years past I'd thought about it leading up to the day but it hadn't crossed my mind this year.  It means so much to me, not only that she thinks to do it, but that she is making sure Lilli (am me) never forget that she's still here for all of these events.  Thank you Yaya. 

I started posting today at 7:45 am.  It is now 7:00 pm and we've just about wrapped up the celebration.  We met Yaya and Matt (it's the last weekend of hunting season so he came from the camp) at Trejo's in Blanchard at 11:00 for lunch.  Lilli got her gifts from Yaya and Cap'n and the waiters sang to her.  She loved it when they did it 2 years ago but not do much this year.   Katie didn't like it either.  So funny because she did the same thing on Hailey's birthday do now I'm sure it's the singing that scares her.  Our next stop was the Jubilee Zoo.  She always loves feeding the animals and the pony ride and she, Katie and I went on the hay ride to feed the big animals while Daddy and Yaya watched.  At 4:00 Aubrey and Sophie got here for our afternoon play date and to stay for dinner and ice cream cake.  The girls play so well together and always seem to have fun. We really should do it more often.   She'd now exhausted and I'm sure...

It's 7:45 in the morning and so far we have cuddled on the couch to watch a movie, had doughnuts for breakfast and opened and now playing with her present (paint that only works on special paper so she can do pictures in the living room). I'm letting her decide everything we do today so there is petting zoo and lots of eating in our future. :) I can't believe she's 4! More posts frm all the celebrations coming soon. 

Cap'n built a rope swing for the kids at the beginning of hunting season and everyone had a great time playing on it Saturday afternoon. He knew the kids would love it when he put it up but I'm not sure he would have guessed how much the big kids loved it too. 

All the "city folk" we had at the camp over the weekend sure loved being in the country.  Everyone there was from Baton Rouge, Austin and Dallas so riding four wheelers and shooting tin cans is something that happens once a year when they're visiting us.  It's funny because I didn't grow up around any of this either but I don't even think about anymore.  My aunt Janice went on her first ever four wheeler ride and even my Nana hopped on one.  She told me yesterday she feels 10 years younger after the weekend because she can't remember the last time she had so much fun.  I'm pretty sure Daniel had the best time because after spending the morning with the boys in the duck blind, Matt put him on and told him his only rules are to not drive too fast and keep the house in site (and you can go a looong way and still do that). Pretty sure a 10 year old boy couldn't ask for anything more fun. 

Our "Baton Rouge family" (what Lilli calls my side) came to the deer camp for the weekend.  It was a mini family reunion. My whole immediate family plus Nana, Janice, Kelly, Adam, Andrew, Holman, Brandi and chance were there.  It was so nice to relax and catch up with each other. Of course as usual there was lots of food and wine but mostly lots of laughter.  Jen spent hours painting their faces.  The kids all had so much fun together.  They are all at the age where they are playing well with each other.  The big cousins had a lot of fun together Saturday night too. :)