Happy Belated 5th Birthday, Isabella Nicole!

Little did we know that we would start June 18, 2008 much like we did June 18, 2003-at a hospital. In 2003, I went into labor unexpectedly 8 weeks early, and Isabella arrived after only 6 short hours. She spent 6 weeks in the special care nursery until we brought her home on July 31st. This year Isabella was able to admire her birthday sign and decorations in her room and open several presents before we headed to Children's Hospital for Elijah. (Much more on that subject in my next post).

5 years old
June 18, 2008

4 years old

*2007*

3 years old

*2006*

2 years old
*2005*

One year old
*2004*
(If you click on the picture, you can see frosting handprints on Isabella's head!)

June 18, 2004

We celebrated Isabella's actual first birthday in California at my cousin's wedding!
Isabella with GiGi and Great-Grandpa

One day old

June 19, 2003

You would never guess now that Isabella was a 32 week preemie!!!

Birthday Bash

Even though Isabella and Sienna's birthdays are only 8 days apart, I swore that I would never have a joint birthday party for them because I think that every child deserves to have their own special celebration. I felt strongly about that until I figured that it would be fun to have one big party since many of the girls' friends are siblings and they'd come to two parties anyways. I suggested that we have one party and rent a moon bounce, but I assured the girls that they could each choose their own theme and have their own cake. It just so happened that we were able to have the party on June 14th-exactly in the middle of their birthdays.

Knowing how frugal my husband is, I figured that we could save the money on the delivery fee for the moon bounce and he could set it up himself with the help of our nice friend, Mark.Being the handy guys that they are, they had no trouble setting it up.
It was a hot day so the kids had fun running through the sprinkler and then jumping and slipping in the moon bounce.
We were able to squeeze 20 kids (and their parents) into our basement for pizza and cake.
Sienna chose My Little Pony for her party, so she had a pony cake.
Isabella chose a Batman theme since she's friends with lots of boys who are into superheroes. She also likes to watch the Batman cartoon with Mike-much to my chagrin.
The five year old birthday girl!
Isabella and Sienna's friend, Aaron, gave the girls this sprinkler for their birthdays which all the kids loved!
Magic Mike made another appearance at the party.
The good old "broken wand" trick. Works every time!
Our good friend, Lorinda, came to help and couldn't resist taking a turn in the moon bounce.
I thought that I'd give it a try, too!
Isabella loves her new Batman costume!
She admired herself in the mirror!
We enlisted the help of our other neighbors to deflate and roll up the moon bounce. It was a tad bit heavy!
What a busy but fun day!

Last Day of School

Isabella had one last day of school after her graduation.

June 13, 2008

Sarah and Isabella

Last preschool pick-up!

Wiped out!

Looking back...

Very first day of preschool
John and Isabella
September 2006

Isabella and Sarah-September 2006

June 2007

First day of second year of preschool
John, Isabella & Sarah
September 2007

Little Siblings-Lauren, Luke & Sienna
September 2007

We'll have to recreate this picture when these three start preschool this fall. They're all going to the same school, but we're not sure if they'll all be in the same class.

Preschool Graduation

I can hardly believe that Isabella's preschool career is over!!! It's all I could do to keep from sobbing when I walked in to the cafeteria and saw a slide show of all the kids and heard "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor, "The Rainbow Connection", and "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. Boo hoo!!! The teachers put together quite a graduation program! The children from three classes recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang several songs and then each received a diploma before we had refreshments.

Isabella receives her diploma from Miss Monica.

It's appropriate that Isabella was sitting next to her good friend, John.

The whole class with all three teachers.

Mama and the graduate!

Good friends and neighbors-Sarah, John and Isabella

Isabella, Charlotte, Miss Monica, John, Jennie & Jacqui

Isabella and Miss Diann (one of the assistant teachers)

Isabella and Miss Mary (the other assistant teacher)

Charlotte, Isabella and Sarah and the next preschool generation, Lauren and Sienna!

Charlotte, Isabella and Sarah

Sienna's birthday and Special Visitors

I've taken a long and unexpected blogging break, but I'm back! Let's see how long it takes me to catch up on the last month's worth of events.

As I wrote a while ago, we had a mini celebration two days before Sienna's actual birthday since Mike was on a business trip on the real day. On her birthday, Sienna woke up to a special sign in her room and streamers in her doorway.



She "read" her birthday cards and counted out the $3 that she got since she's 3 years old. My grandparents (on my dad's side) always gave us money on our birthdays which corresponded to how old we were, so both my mom and sister have continued this tradition with the girls.

We were happy to have some special visitors help us celebrate Sienna's big day! Marie and Ailish came from Connecticut to spend the day with us!

Isabella loves playing with Ailish, who climbed right into Elijah's bouncy seat!Ailish took some time away from the big girls to visit with Elijah.
She even gave him a hug before she left. Too sweet!
The birthday girl was glad to have an excuse to eat another cupcake.

Make a wish!

Ailish, Elijah, Sienna and Isabella