We celebrated Daddy hard on his birthday. It was a school and work day, but the girls and I did everything we could to make his day special and let him know how much we love and appreciate him. 💜
When my plan for dessert is a birthday approved banana cream pie with caramel drizzle and chocolate sauce, but Baker Ella insists her daddy NEEDS a tie-dye cake complete with swirl ice crea, for his birthday (inspired by a recent episode of Kids' Baking Championship on the Food Network)...we roll with it! Doesn't it look good?
Happy 34th birthday to my guy! Isn't it crazy to think that we've spent the last 11 birthdays together? OR that the birthday card I have you on your birthday 11 years ago was what gave you the courage to ask me out? I love that I get to do life by your side.
I hope you always remember 34 was the year of the tie-dye cake, poodle love, taco trucks, stomach aches and sick kiddos, crazy bedtimes...but most importantly a house full of ladies who adore you!
This was moments before Juliet busted out of Joe's arms, climbed onto the table and attacked a cake. #notherfirstrodeo #eyeontheprize
Abby was so excited about her special birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy. She is loving photography!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q55SzbOJj0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLwyz8Kgl8k
Seven: the year getting new clothes for your birthday became very exciting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XIE5UZwk50
Ella was so proud and excited because she helped Nagymama pick this gift out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QOevY_YZQ0
To our precious little girl-
When I look at you and the little girl you are growing into, I remember myself as a seven year old girl. I was still an only child when I turned seven. I loved to play school. I got my very first tape (the My Girl Soundtrack) for my seventh birthday and loved to listen to it in my Walkman. My favorite show was Full House and I had New Kids on the Block sheets on my bed. I played school any chance I got and loved to take walks while pretending I was in the Secret Garden. Playing dolls and house was always my favorite. My best friend's name was Allison and we loved to have lemonade stands in the summer where we would also sell the veggies from her mom's garden. I ALWAYS had a book in my hand and would read everything I could any chance I got. I loved to spend my afternoons and weekends at Nagymama and Nagypapa's house. Seven marked the year I became a big sister and my life changed in one of the best possible ways! You are a lot like me. My sweet girl!
You love life, waking up most days with the sun and chatting from the moment you open your eyes. Few things get you more excited than a good routine. You love structure and order! Where there is none, you create it. Lists, charts and plans are some of your favorite things. You love getting ready and put lots of thought into the outfits and accessories you choose every morning. It's really fun to see you express yourself through your style. You are lovely, beautiful inside and out and always lots of fun.
You love to read your Bible and often remind us of the truth that God is growing in your heart. You ask great questions and love to memorize scripture. I can see a deep desire in your heart to live out what God calls you to. You want to do things right and struggle when you don't, but in that you are learning about God's grace in real ways, life transforming ways. I love knowing that (at just seven) God is who you turn to when you need help and peace in a struggle. I love the way you pray for your friends when they are sick. I'm thankful for the ways you remind us to pray over you. I have no doubt that God is drawing you closer to himself and I'm so so excited for the plans he has for you. Oh how I pray that you would know how deeply God loves you and that you would run to him with your whole heart...for your whole life.
You are a leader, a really good friend and sister. Your little sisters love spending time with you and miss you so much when you are at school. You love to teach them anything they need to know. Right now, that's teaching Ella how to read and teaching Juliet how to walk. You love to teach and want to be a teacher when you grow up. The playroom is set up as your classroom 90% of the time. Your easel in the playroom is currently decorated with Black History Month posters and a weather chart. Playing school and house with your dolls and your sisters is definitely your favorite. When you are not at school (and loving every minute of it), you are at home playing school.
You love to read. I love when we read together. You are reading chapter books, picture books to your sisters (they love curling up and reading with you) and magazines (you especially like the quizzes inside). You continue to grow as an artist and love every art project/craft you can get your hands on. Not only are you enjoying ballet and tap, but this year you have started taking my kids pop class. You're a natural and it's fun to see you let loose through dance.
You loved wearing your new gifts from Mama after opening them on the morning of your birthday.
Your teacher sent me this picture of you on your birthday!
You had a great family birthday dinner. This year, you chose a Taco Night Fiesta! Papa, Uncle Cory, Grandma, Casey, Aunt Cyncy and her friend Liz came to celebrate with you. It was a fun crowd!
Loving your new Shopkins watch from Grandma and Casey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOvToP5X9Wc
You were very excited when you opened your gift from Aunt Cyncy: tickets to see The Sound of Music!
This is Abby's "excited to go play with Papa's gift" face! She couldn't wait to get her hands on that steering wheel and play Mario Kart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e34ad_BPlEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSAHVyuHA14
I love our post birthday tradition of going on a Starbucks date to write thank you notes together. The list is always long and the quality time is sweet. It's a great reminder for both of us of how much we have to be thankful for!
We love you, sweet girl! I'm so proud of you. I'm especially thankful that God has given me the joy of being your mommy. I love you like a rocketship...to the moon and back! xoxo, Mommy
Ella loves learning all recipes, but is especially serious about these family recipes Nagymama teaches her. After they made this delicious batch together, Ella went into school the next day and told her whole class that she was going to bake them apple strudel for their next special snack! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qvElB6znVE
I'm always amazed at the special ways God weaves our stories together. After Nagymama left Hungary in 1956 and was reunited with my Nagypapa, they spent some years in Germany. It was not an accident that my four year old dad was sitting on the front stoop of their apartment building as a newly relocated family walked by speaking Hungarian (his native language). My dad ran inside to tell his mom that there was another Hungarian family in their neighborhood and that was the start of a lifelong friendship! A friendship that only grew stronger when they both relocated to New York City. The families grew up together right through my childhood. I have great memories of playing with their grandkids at family BBQ's.
When Mama was here in January, Ilonka and her two daughters came to visit and it was a sweet reunion.
When they met Juliet, they said it was like looking at me when I was a baby. It's always fun to spend time with people who knew me when I was born.
I loved listening to everyone reminisce about years of memories. It was a great afternoon!
After a great couple of weeks, Nagymama came down with a nasty virus. As always, Ollie was the best little buddy as she napped and recovered.
Abby: Nagymama...you are like Bob Ross! You are our Bob Ross!
Ella: Don't stop making big beautiful strokes with your paintbrush. It's what makes a picture extraordinary.
These three spend the afternoon painting beautiful winter landscapes with lots of happy little trees!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guYZDj0iSz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR_Er6hx3mU
Nagymama's art class 1/7/2017
We like to call this one, "Blustery New York Winter Day". (clockwise: Ella, Abby, Nagymama)
They have promised a Florida inspired masterpiece this summer.
After lots of cold days in the house, we were all ready to get out, so we headed to the mall. Nagymama needed a new dress for an event she had coming up and there were a few little ladies who were very willing to be her fashion consultants. They helped her pick out way too many options and led her around Macy's telling her "this was definitely her color" and "I think you need something with sparkle". Then, the girls sat outside of the waiting room and critiqued each option until they picked the perfect one! :)
After our mission was complete, Abby told her daddy that she wanted to show him her favorite store (currently: Justice). As they walked around inside, Abby stopped at the accessory area and told Joe about all the earrings she would love to wear one day when she gets her ears pierced. When Abby turned five, we told her she could get her ears pierced as soon as she thought she was ready. It was her decision. She wasn't ready each time we asked her over the last two years. So, when Joe told her she could do it right then if she wanted to and she said YES, we were all surprised. Nagymama made the memory even sweeter by gifting it to her as an early birthday present. Abby was equal parts excited and hesitant, but she walked up to the counter, picked her earrings, sat bravely in her daddy's lap and got her ears pierced! She didn't even cry!
She feels so grown up and keeps tucking her hair behind her ears. As we were walking through the mall afterward, Ella said, "I can't even handle this. She is getting so big and changing so much. All of her teeth are gone and now she has earrings! My sister is growing so fast!" Ella also informed us that she will not be getting her ears pierced until she is 18.
Juliet reading with Nagymama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upRYPb2Kdms
Thank you, Snapchat, for moments like these!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLfXHY2PHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6jxceYmaPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQ7tKvv60s
Sweet time with Mama at Dance with the Stars Live on her last night in NY. We watched the show on the same stage I graduated on fourteen years ago. It's crazy (and fun) to think about how different life is today! I'm so thankful for all the special memories we made during this visit, but I'd be lying if I pretended I didn't start missing Mama before I even got home that night.
Ella dances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfLW7D0OZu4
My sick little baby girl just needed her mommy.
Elmo or Daniel Tiger must be on the TV.
Another man down. I don't love it when the girls are feeling awful, but I do love these moments when all they want to do is slow down, stay in their jammies all day and curl up in my lap. Oliver is just an added bonus.
Right on cue! Go Girl! (Juliet:16 months old)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFpZ_gTyQLc
Ella took a class trip to a local music school. They played instruments, learned about music notes and sang lots of songs.
Ella and her buddy, Gianna
Juliet loved the field trip too. Especially when she got to play the drums!
Juliet takes first steps (1/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8jzt2dqls
Juliet stands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IuHuQ8v1MQ
Juliet "dresses herself"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8kW8wKPhkU
It's Wacky Wednesday and this girl nailed it!
Snow days have us like...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tchq6GodZtE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmnnoKs9toM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPy2BdiUjXw
Our weekends have been filled with some fun friend birthday parties this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyI2W7sUZt8
She came around the corner (because she can walk very well, but she still refuses to in a consistent way) and had this purse on her shoulder and a bracelet on her wrist! 😍😍😍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTQHKrWZaNQ
Juliet loves her puppy and more specifically loves giving him open mouth kisses. Who would have thought something could be so equally adorable and gross at the same time? 😝
