Build-a-bear

Especially since I know our carefree "mommy-daughter" days are likely coming to an end for a while pretty soon, I've been wanting to do some special activities with Anna in these last few weeks before Kate arrives. (Does that sound like I think our life is going to end when Kate gets here?? I don't mean it that way at all...I just know that things will definitely get more complicated for a while...:-) ). Yesterday we went to Build-a-Bear so that Anna could make a bear for her to give Kate when she's born. We of course also made something for Anna--she picked out a beautiful white seal as her "friend". Above you can see her putting the stuff in Kate's bear (dubbed by Anna as "Care Bear"), and then giving him a hug.

After Anna finished stuffing the animals, she went and gave them a bath. She thought that was the greatest! We followed up our animal-building morning with a lunchtime trip to Chick-fil-a and the Great American Cookie Company (a special treat!), and a visit to the Easter bunny. We had a great day...

Country cousins

Anna and I went on a little adventure last week during Spring Break, and went to Caldwell (Grammie's hometown--to the land that she was raised on) to meet up with my family. Anna had a blast in the country with her cousins!

She and Natalie seem to have struck up a special bond during these last few visits (her birthday and the trip to the country). I think they're finally old enough to really "play together", instead of just play beside each other.

Ok, I'll admit...my sister and I are raising a bunch of city girls! Their idea of "roughing it"--eating Cheetos out of the back of Grammie and Bucko's car.

Anna did have her first experience with crossing a barbed wire fence. Mommy was WAY too big to get over or under the fence, so Aunt Kel helped her across and did the rest of the hike with her. Thanks Aunt Kel and Bucko for taking her the rest of the way (and thanks Grammie for staying back with me!)...

Taking a dip

While the weather is certainly warming up here in Houston, we're still not quite to "pool season" yet. But, the heated hot tub seemed to satiate the need to swim for Anna and her cousins last weekend. Forgive the photo quality--everyone was having way too much fun to stop and look at the camera...

Thanks again to Grammie and Bucko, and Kel, Syd, and Nat, for coming to visit us last weekend...we had a great time!

Jump around

Ok, we have one last birthday wish and posting for Anna...yesterday was Anna's 3rd birthday party at a local "bounce place" called Jump N Jungle. We had a blast! We had originally planned her party for her favorite park, but the weather in Houston yesterday was terrible (rain + 40 degrees...that's FREEZING), so made a last minute reschedule to a drier, warmer option.

This place ended up being a great alternative! They took care of all of the real-time logistics like setting up the room, getting pizza and drinks for the kids, serving cake, etc...a big relief given that I'm about 13 months pregnant.

And, the kids seemed to have a blast! The pictures aren't the best...turns out taking pictures of a crew of 3 year olds jumping and bouncing around in close range requires significantly greater photojournalistic skills than I possess. Oh well...these may be blurry, but they capture some of the joy!

We attempted to take a "group photo" of all of Anna's friends, but had some lack of cooperation from the party attendees. Oh well...this was as close to a quorum as we could get...

An evening in the rainforest

Last Saturday, after our full day of birthday celebrations, we decided to conclude the day with a trip to the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston to celebrate Anna's birthday. We had attempted to go the night before on her actual birthday, but she had a bit of a tummyache so we decided to wait for her to feel better.

She had such a blast! She loved all of the animals, and is still talking about the "dancing gorilla", the "butterfly...she's so cute!", and the mama and baby elephants. While the Rainforest Cafe admittedly has a bit of a "theme park" quality to it, it was just perfect for a birthday celebration. Its amazing how much more fun places like this are when you see them through the eyes of a child!

They even brought Anna a birthday sundae and sang her a Happy Birthday song. They had talked about asking her to get on the table and act like a gorilla (great...that'll be a fun habit to break at home...), but I think they saw her slight timidness and decided a song and candle were probably celebration enough! Happy Birthday, our little monkey!

Birthday-palooza

Anna had a fun-filled Saturday yesterday making her rounds on the birthday party circuit. She started the morning with an indoor pool party for her friend Ava. Mommy opted to not exhibit her now whale-sized tummy by getting in the pool, but stayed on the sidelines for photo ops of Anna and Daddy. Anna loved spending some time swimming and then having a yummy lunch with the birthday girl, Ava!

After the pool party, we headed to a "jumping" party for her friend Kara. Anna has definitely turned over a new leaf when it comes to these bounce houses! We went to a party at this same place a few months ago and Anna spent most of the time being held by Mommy and watching the other ones jump. Well...she decided her days of being a wallflower were over, and we basically had to pry her from the jump area when it was time to go have pizza, cake, and ice cream with her friends. She's growing up!

We then finished off the day with a family birthday celebration for Anna at the Rainforest Cafe...pics from that coming soon...

Happy Birthday, sweet Anna!

Happy Birthday to our little doodlebug!! Anna had a fun day today, starting with a birthday serenade and presents at home this morning, a trip to the donut shop on the way to school, and then a fun school day with her friends. We had thought about keeping her home today, but Fridays are the most fun school day filled with Tumblebus, show & tell, and her school birthday party. So, she was pretty insistent on going today!

Above, she parties at school with friends, a birthday hat, cupcakes, and ice cream--what could be better? Below, she shows her favorite birthday present (a magic wand with Sleeping Beauty--her favorite princess--on it) to her favorite Christmas present (Monkey). If only I had known that the $4 plastic wand was going to be the hit of the birthday...could've saved us a lot of money!

We love you Anna Banana! We can't believe its been three years since you first blessed our lives...

First braids

Last Friday was "Go Texan Day", so I decided to take this as a good opportunity to attempt to braid Anna's hair. Between her hair's general shortness and thinness, and Anna's wiggliness while I fix her hair, I've never tried braids before. But, she was excited about looking like a "cowgirl", so was pretty patient with the braiding adventure! You'll have to forgive the crookedness...we'll work on straightening them in future iterations...