Feb 3rd birthday party

What a beautiful day it turned out to be to celebrate Josie's birthday. It was the same last year, sunny and warm. Shirley and Rich graciously hosted it at their home. We had a huge jumpy which was the highlight of the party. It started at 12:30 and was over by about 3:30 just in time for the Super Bowl.

Josie, Eva & Kaira

Rocco speeds down the slide; view of the huge jumpy; teens having fun with the little ones

Birthday table & game set up in the garage

Two peas in a pod

Face, arm, & leg painting thanks to Kirsten and Lauren (and Tia)

So much for showing spirit. It got wiped off by half time.

 

 

Paige and Josie got to keep playing long after the party since both our families stayed to watch the Superbowl.

Butterfly Birthday Cake

In January our new neighbors Mike, Kathy, Anthony and Adrianna moved in across the street. We stopped by to bring them a meal and Kathy was making this over the top pirate ship birthday cake for Anthony. I casually said maybe she could help me with Josie's cake. Well help me she did. Or I should say I helped her. The cake came out so cute and it was really tasty too. We made the cake a week ahead of time and froze it and we made most of the decorations ahead of time too. The decorations were made out of fondant which I'd never heard of before. My dear friend Bizet who I've know since preschool days even got in on the fun. She was visiting for the weekend and helped with the cake prep. On the morning of the party I went back over to "help" ice the cake and put all the decorations on the cake and on the cake box. Even Mike helped out with cutting out the wings and placing them in the right place.  I was a little worried holding the box on my lap as we drove winding, hilly streets to get to the party. Josie, hope you like it!

 

 Ta da......

Josie did in fact love it.

Santa Barbara bday celebration

Friday Feb 1st we drove to SB. We ate lunch at Gram and Papa's house and then went to watch Katie's basketball game. It was fun to watch her and then we got to shoot some hoops. We had a delicious dinner and a yummy Mexican restaurant then went back to Karen's for cupcakes. After Karen's homemade birthday breakfast we drove back to San Carlos.

 

 

Disney Land 2013

We bit the bullet and ventured to Disney Land. We couldn't pass up the fact that under 3 is free so we planned the trip to celebrate Josie's 3rd birthday. We did have fun and look forward to going back in a few years. We spent a few hours at California Aventure Land and the rest of the day at Disney. Josie had a ball. It was fun to experience it with her. We drove down on a Wednesday, spent Thursday at Disney Land and Friday drove to Santa Barbara to continue the birthday celebrations.

 

 

 

 

  

Josie was a little scared on the roller coaster

 

Waiting for the parade

As soon as the parade was over Josie got in her stroller, asked for blankie and pulled the top down. She fell asleep immediately for about 20 min. 

After a long day Josie had a good night sleep with her Mickey Mouse she brought along on the trip.

 

We loved our big hotel room at the Annabelle hotel about a 10 min walk from the Park entrance. We woke up and Josie took a long bath. We enjoyed our complimentary breakfast in the restaurant. Then we got on the road.

 

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Josie!

Josie loves hearing about when she was born and how tiny she was and all the details about her birth and being a baby. She's such a big girl now that she's three. She initiates going potty again (whew, it was a rough couple months with her backsliding when it came to going potty).  She talks all the time about how big she is. She asked tonight if now she can try wine. Uh no, not until you're 21. She started writing letters for the first time tonight. Well, she's been able to draw an "o" and an "i" but she wanted to write out Oliver and Miller after she opened their families birthday card. She wrote out the letters. She asked me to show her how to draw a V, M and a but sure enough she wrote their names. Some letters were upside down and they were all over the place but I was impressed. She said she's almost ready to get her library card since she can almost write her name. She can do the JOIE pretty easily but her S has a few extra curves. She now has a "credit card" for her regicaster (a.k.a. cash register). Our sweet little thing is such a blessing and we love her to pieces.

Here's a recent "puppet show" she put on for me.