6.07.2011

{Happy Birthday Riley}


our sweet, sweet riley grace is 9


we love you so very much honey
every day you fill our lives with light and sweetness
we are so very proud to be your mommy and daddy

******************

party with our neighbors





riley is the best gift receiver
she is so gracious and truly appreciates every gift
she makes you feel good when you pick out something for her....like you really hit a home run in the gift department
{favorite gifts: flip flops, gift cards, art easel, american girl book, lip gloss and sparkly powder,and a new outfit}

******************
every year we give the girls an option on their birthday to have a party with friends,
go out of town for the night with us,
or invite two friends out to a special dinner. 
this year riley chose dinner out with friends.


she chose her best friend and her little sister who we do lots of things with
and her restaurant of choice was fridays



these girls had so much fun and
were so polite and well behaved


all of them

we let them sit down at the end of a big table...they thought they were sooooo grown-up
they really acted that way too, which was a bit scary!:)


we totally embarrassed riley (but she kind of knew it was coming) and told the servers it was her birthday
they made her stand up on the chair and shake the salt and pepper shakers as they sang "happy birthday" to her in that special friday's way


she handled it all with such grace and charm
{i was totally having "wedding shower flash forwards" here people
could have been the "spotlight on her" moment
or the balloon tied to her arm
or the scene of all four of them giggling and running to the bathroom fawning all over riley and telling her how brave she was and how cute she looked up there....it was crazy!!:)}

afterwards we went to our favorite cupcake place for some fancy desserts


walking back to the car i saw this totally cool brick wall
i've alwasy wanted to take pictures of the girls in front of one
if i had the slightest idea what i was doing i think these could have really been amazing


they still turned out pretty awesome though right?

it was starting to rain and aubrey kept heading for the street
so we had to cut our photo session short
they loved it though and probably could have stayed there for an hour


love aubrey here!


bloopers and blurry ones can be kind of fun too



oh how i love the sound of happy
giggly girls
it's a good thing huh?

happy, happy birthday sweet riley grace
we love you!
love, mom, dad, janey and aubrey

6.05.2011

{Hi...it's me!}

hi friends!
seems like it has been waaaaaay longer then a week since i last posted.
i guess because so much has been going on

the flurry we call "end of the year mayhem" has come to an end and we are officially on summer vacation after we pick up our report cards tomorrow morning (and then drive straight to Panera...come on...you know me by now right??)
can you hear our very loud yaaaaahhhhhooooosssss ????

so much to write about...
school ending
dance recitals
summer lists
but our pesky little computer is not cooperating

apparently we have a motherboard that has gone kaput
along with some other technological mumbo jumbo
so i have been without a computer since wednesday
a bit scary sounding huh?
at first i was going through some serious  with drawls
but now
honestly
i kind of like the excuse that has kept me off that pesky little thing
(even though i have missed you all dearly!!)

we have a new computer on order and it should be here in a week or so (currently using dave's work laptop, hence the no photo post!)
but in the meantime we will be off to vacation in Fl
yes i said FL
we are all so excited and ready for a little sand between our toes

i promise to wear sunscreen and take lots of pictures
miss you all dearly and
can't wait to catch up with you all soon!

have a happy night
cindy

6.03.2011

{Dance Recital}


this year the girls performed a jazz number together.
there was only one other girl in their class so it was almost like doing a solo act on stage...i was soooooo nervous for them and my stomach was doing flips waiting for their turn!!
but they nailed it and did an amazing job!:)







our good friends paige and kate





we love you girls!