My Visit with Colleen

I have been looking forward to my childhood friend, Colleen, coming to visit since June.  We grew up together and have been friends since 4th grade.  I am so blessed to have stayed such good friends with her all these years and we are enjoying going through this life stage of mommy hood together.  She has two precious kids, Norrie, 2, and Will, almost 1.  Her mom, Noreen also came too, to visit friends.  Colleen and Noreen are currently living in Buffalo, so they were excited for the much warmer weather.

 We spent a lot of time playing watching cartoons and playing inside.  Will was sick for most of the trip, so we took it pretty easy.  

Friday- we had our family pictures taken.  Here is a shot of the girls before we left.  

Saturday- was a chilly day and we spent most of the day indoors to keep warm.  Our friend, Jill and her  two kids, Avery and Greyson, came from Tucson to spend the weekend with Colleen.  We had a full house, but it was so much fun!  The kids all played together and we had a lot of Mexican food and margaritas.  Good times.

 Sunday- was a another cooler day.  I bundled the girls up in sweaters and boots and we headed to church, for service, lunch and playing outside.

The day was fun, but a little chaotic with 9 kids under the age of 7, so Colleen and I enjoyed the end of the day with some wine. 

Monday- we packed up the kids, a lunch and headed to the zoo.  I was worried it would be too crowded, but it was a perfect day to be there.  The weather was incredible and it was a great time being there with all of our friends. 

Tuesday- was their last day here.  Colleen and Noreen packed up and the kids played.  The time went by too quickly, but I know we will see each other again soon.  Hopefully in February.  I also hope to plan a trip to Buffalo in the near future.

Noelle is 6!

I can't even believe that my Noelle is already six!  Where has the time gone?  She is such a joy to our lives.  She is so kind, caring, compassionate, intelligent and beautiful inside and out.  She is always the first to help anyone in need and loves taking care of people and making them smile.  I feel so blessed to be this precious little girl's mommy.  She truly lights up my life!

I absolutely LOVE birthdays!  I try so hard to make the girls' birthdays special and try to honor any special requests that they may have.  So far all of their requests have been doable.

We start the day by waking up to streamers on the door, so they can walk through them first thing.  Noelle decided that she wanted to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room, so I put the streamers on our door.

The birthday girl gets to choose her favorite birthday breakfast and this is the second year in a row that Noelle chose blueberry muffins.  We even sing and she gets to blow out a candle.

 We spent the morning running to a few stores to get ready for her birthday party the next day.  Then she chose where she wanted to go to lunch and of course we went to Chick-fil-a.

We came home for rest time and more cleaning, baking cupcakes and getting the house ready for the party.  She was so excited that her best friend, Alexis, was coming over for a sleepover.  My sister's birthday is also on November 2, so I was going out to celebrate her turning 30, leaving Joe home to supervise the sleep over.  We planned a special movie night and bought Noelle the Tinkerbell movie she has been wanting.  Alexis came over after dinner and the girls had fun watching their movie, eating popcorn and treats, before heading off to bed.  I came home close to 10:00 and they were all sound asleep.

All the girls woke up so excited about the party later in the morning.  Joe went and got donuts and we finished up getting ready for the party.

Noelle requested a Star birthday party, not a rockstar or movie star, just a star like the shape party.  She also wanted everything to be purple.  So I did my best to give her the most fabulous Star party I could come up with.

 All the girls designed star tie-dyed shirts.  

 

 Noelle wanted everyone to get their fingernails painted with sparkly nail polish.

I found some star glasses and put them in the goody bags.

 Noelle with one of her best friends from preschool. 

We recently bought a bounce house from some friend's of my parents and we were excited to use it for the first time.  The kids had a blast! 

 

 Noelle's other request was musical chairs.

When they got out they got a sucker to enjoy. 

  We had pizza, fruit, chips and juice boxes for lunch.

  

 Time for opening presents.

 Her gifts included lots of fancy dresses, skirts, legging, hats, a purse, new jazz shoes, My Little Ponies, art supplies, dolls, a Doodle Bear, a Dream Light, an Easy Bake Oven, some money and some future shopping dates.

 She was so sweet and went and gave everyone hugs and said thank you.

I apparently forgot to get a picture of the purple cupcakes that were displayed into a star, but it was really cute.  I also decorated the windows with star cutouts and made some star garland for the archway.  Noelle and Joleigh used star shaped sponges to decorate paper bags for the girls to take home their goodies, which included their star glasses, star stickers and a glow bracelet.

 

Noelle said "This is the best birthday of my whole life," which made all the hard work worth with it.  I adore her!

 Here are all the super star girls.  We had so much fun celebrating our sweet Noelle.