Party Party Party

 Dear Penelope,

Yesterday we celebrated your 3rd birthday on 12.13.14.  You had a great party and enjoyed every minute with friends and family. This year you requested a princess party - Daddy was thrilled!  NOT!  Instead of focusing on only the girly girl aspects of being a princess we remembered that every prince and princess needs a noble steed.  You made out with some great presents and happy memories.  Thank's to all who came to make your birthday extra special.

We all love you Penelope!

With all my love,

Mommy

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes and Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella frosting were served to our royal guests.

Noble steeds were adopted and used as weapons?!?  And crowns were decorated. 

Princess Party Video

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

"Hey Mom!  I love the rain but it'd be nice if my rain jacket wasn't covered in hearts!"

Colin, you may need your own rain jacket but this is just plain sweet.

Lets take a walk in the rain.  Why not?

Birthday Pie

Dear Penelope,

After a nap you perked up a bit.  We had homemade pizza for dinner then sang Happy Birthday and ate Nutella cream pie.  Yum!

The pie was delicious!  I'm glad you're feeling better Penny Pie!  

With all my love,

Mommy

 

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Quack Quack

You had your first face painting last weekend at Edo's party.  You're hooked!

Dear Penelope,

Today marks 3 years since you decided to bless us with your presence.  3 years ago at 3:00pm I wrote off December 10th as your birthday.  Never in my wildest dreams did I expect you to prove me wrong.  3 years ago I had my first contraction at 5pm and you were born at 7:36pm.  Best.surprise.ever.  What a way to make an entrance!

Happy 3rd Birthday Penelope!

I was hoping to take a cute picture of you today but you're sick.  :(  All you want to do is lie on the couch.  So that's what you're doing.

You're 3 years old today!  Can you taste the excitement?

Love you baby big girl!  Feel better soon!

With all my love,

 Mommy

Poster

Dear Michela,

This is a giant poster hanging in your classroom.  The whole class worked on it together and I'm willing to bet you were one of the first kids to work on it.  You also seem to be the only one who signed their name.  Boy did you sign your name.  :)  It's huge!  I love it!

Thanks for making me smile.

With all my love,

Mommy

By the way - Happy Half Birthday!  :)

Christmas Time

Quillinan Trio,

After a fun filled Thanksgiving we went to the Crest Family Tree Farm to cut down our first Christmas tree.  It was a bit of a drive but worth it for the fun adventure.  I did question some of your tree choices.  I guess some people like Charlie Brown type trees.  I like my Christmas tree with a few more branches though.  So after walking along a dirt path we found the perfect tree - not too tall, not too wide & just the right amount of branches.

We picked the best day to cut down a Christmas tree.  It was a beautiful day with clear skies.  The next day started a raining trend.  We would have been covered in mud.  Daddy and I are thinking cutting our tree at Crest Family Farms may be a new family tradition.  

With all my love,

Mommy

Fall Fun

You can't tell but leaves were falling from the tree.

So much fun!

Pure Joy!

We tried taking family pictures in the backyard the other day.  Unfortunately, the sun wasn't cooperating.

I sure love my love bugs! 

Best picture of the morning.

When we found a good spot for pictures you guys were ready to be silly.  Leaves needed to be thrown.  Maybe we'll try again this weekend.  :) 

Halloween Fun

Quillinan Trio,

Halloween week is over.  It was fun dressing up but I'm ready to move on to the next holiday.

Last Monday we went to preschool for a Halloween party and some trick or treating. You three had fun but it was pure chaos.

Pilot (Teacher Tanya), Minnie Mouse (Teacher Beth), Evil Princess (Paige), Princess Anna, & Queen Elsa 

Colin playing with Simon

Make a scary face.  We tried to get all the kids together to take a group picture.  However, several moms crowded in front to take pictures so this is the best I got.  Not very organized.

Your first French braid.  My first time French braiding someone's hair.  (Patting myself on the back)

Teacher Tanya gave out these goodies at the end of the day.  I must say that I'm rather fond of the look.

Thursday we enjoyed trick or treating at Papa's office.  I'm glad they pulled through with another balloonist this year because that's all you talked about that morning.  "This year I want a ___ balloon! Last year I had a butterfly balloon."  So of course that's the first thing you wanted to do when we arrived.  :)  I tried to talk you into getting your face painted but you turned me down.  You girls were very good about making sure the candy you took didn't have peanuts.  You would pull a piece of candy out of the bucket and ask me if it was okay.  I'm very proud.

I failed to get a picture of just the 3 of you together this year. This is the best we got.

I think you the the prize for the best costume this year, Colin.  Simple and oh so cute.

It's hard getting a picture of all 5 kids smiling.  I think this is pretty good, at least you're all looking in the same vicinity as the camera.

It was a rainy Halloween this year.  Luckily, it wasn't raining when it was time to trick or treat.  Though I secretly wished it was so we could call it a night and go home.  ;)  Hey, we did our trick or treating the night before at Papa's office!  Anyway, we went to Emmaline's house for a Halloween party.  You guys played around while Emmie tried to act like the boss and regulate who played with what and when.  We ate soup and bread for dinner then headed out to the streets of Campbell.   Trick or treating in a neighborhood makes it a little more challenging to get peanut free treats.  So we just went door to door and graciously accepted what ever candy the person put in your bucket.  After you went to bed I pulled out all the candy with peanuts.  I may or may not have tossed it - you'll never know.  ;)

Ready to go!

So excited!

Little old man crossing

We had a fun Halloween.

With all my love,

Mommy

Parallel Universe

Dear Michela & Penelope,

Today is going to be a great day.  After breakfast, Michela promptly asked to wash the dishes by herself.  Let me say it again, you asked to wash dishes.  Who am I to turn down such a request?  Of course, Penelope didn't want to miss out on the fun so you two argued about who was going to wash dishes.  Hey, I'm okay with any volunteer dish water lets work this out.  You can wash dishes together!  Michela scrubs; Penelope rinses and puts on the drying rack; I stand back and supervise.  It's a win win win!  Pretty good start to my day if I do say so myself.

Lets see how long this lasts.  Thank you for being so helpful this morning.

With all my love,

Mommy

Scrub

Rinse

Look at how much fun you're having washing dishes.

Climbing, climbing, climbing

This picture has nothing to do with the topic of this letter.  It just cracks me up.  :)

Dear Colin,

You are a climber.  I turn my back for a second and you're either pushing buttons or climbing on something.

This is the safest climbing spot.  In the kitchen to look out the front window.

Waiting for Daddy.

At least the step stool is supposed to be for climbing!  This is one reason why the bathroom door needs to be closed.

"The alarm clock is intriguing, Mom!" Next you'll be finding away to climb on top of the dresser.

This one makes me the most nervous.  To prevent this I pushed the chair closer to the closet door.  You try to climb up the arm of the chair but know that you can't reach the dresser for support.  So you flop back down on the chair and cry out of frustration.

I love you little climber!

With all my love,

Mommy