Happy 3rd Birthday, Addie!

Addie is 3!!!

I can't believe how grown-up she has become in even the last few months. She has a crazy vocabulary. She knows how to properly use big words like indentation and echolocation. Just this morning she was playing with something and said "careful mommy, these are fragile" and I asked "what does fragile mean, Addie?" and she answered: "Delicate. Fragile means delicate." Um...yeah, wasn't expecting such a good synonym! Coming home from school on a rainy day a few weeks ago Addie said to me "Mommy, my carseat is a little damp"--I don't even know if *I* use the word damp.

She is still an amazing big sister to Cole, though now that he's crawling, she is getting a bit more frustrated with the toy-sharing, but that's okay, she still loves and hugs and kisses on him all the time.

Addie sings pretty much all.day.long. She makes up songs about what she's doing in the minute and she knows the words to everything from nursery rhymes to her favorite Beatles song "Baby you're a rich man." She's also always always dancing--her versions of Irish dancing, ballet, her own interpretive dancing, doing yoga--and instructing everyone else how to do it exactly like she does.

And she just cracks us up. Ever since Dan and I ran the Army 10-mile race last month, Addie has been running daily races in the living room--she always straps on her armband (just like I wore on my training runs) before she runs and then makes us wave the flag that she and Steve made to cheer me on. Last week she shows up in the living room naked except for a pair of socks.
Addie: I'm going to race, okay?
Me: A naked race, huh?
Addie: Yeah, because they let naked people race now.

She's also quite the sassy pants sometimes.

Me: Addie can you please take your cup into the kitchen?
Addie: No, YOU.
Me: Addie, I asked you to put your cup into the kitchen.
Addie: No, you asked yourSELF to put the cup in the kitchen.

Yikes, is she 3 or 13? I'm not sure because she recently said "Well, I'm almost a grownup acuz I have hair on my legs!" :)

Well we had to celebrate Addie BIG to celebrate turning the big THREE, huh?

We started her big celebration by filling her room with balloons so that she would see them when she woke up in the morning. She LOVED it.


After our family hat picture...

Addie got to open some presents!
She LOVES books

That morning, Addie and Cole and I headed to the mall and Addie go to do her first Build-a-Bear! Addie had a blast getting her new bear Coco's heart ready
and giving her a bath.

She then had her favorite meal out--mac and cheese at Noodle "George's" (aka Noodles and Company--we named it Noodle George's exactly a year before at her 2nd birthday!)

After nap, we got her her favorite smoothie. Not a shabby birthday, eh?

Then the New Jersey Silvestro's came down to visit for the big weekend party.

Addie and Julie bonded all weekend!

We had the party at the party room in the apartment complex where I grew up in Va (and even had some of my parties there, too).

Addie wanted a Diego party--for those who don't know, Diego is Dora The Explorer's cousin.

Diego is an animal rescuer, so we set up quite the adventure for the kiddos. First, they had to get across a river by jumping on the turtle's backs.

Then they went under the hanging snakes---ooooh!

Then they dug in the "Quicksand" to rescue the animals.

Then they cleaned off the animals in the rescue center.

Julie wanted to participate.
Cole, too. I think they were content in watching, though :)

Happy birthday cupcake!
Oh yeah, that's good stuff!


Again, not old enough to partake in the big kid fun and eating of cupcakes, but these cousins still know how to have a good time!

After the cupcakes, we went outside because the weather was absolutely phenomenal. I ordered it from Mother Nature herself just for Addie's birthday. You're welcome. :)

Super Addie!

We went home to open some presents....


And had pizza for dinner. Cole dug the breadsticks. And since he has a "little" food in his hair, so then it was--as it always is--a hairwash night for him.

which means...nakey kiddos!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADDIE! We love you SO SO SO much.

Fall Fun and Field Trips :)

The fall came really fast this year--I feel like it was hot and sticky, and then boom, we were in sweaters and the leaves started falling. Was there a transition and I just missed it? Anyway, even with the cooler weather, we try to get out as much as possible since last winter's crazy snow kept us inside so much and we got major cabin fever.

They both enjoy crunching the leaves up so much. Cole also tries to eat the leaves...yum yum!

So we try to keep him elevated in swings and such ;)

We used Addie's water table and made it into a leaf table! Here Addie is making "leaf soup"

Add one baby and stir well.


This fall also brought some field trips!

Addie had her first field trip for school to an apple orchard. Addie listening to instructions from her teacher. She was so proud to wear a name tag.

While we were waiting for our farm guide, Addie started an impromptou ring-a-round-the-rosie game with some girls from her class.



Short kids, big wheel.

Checking out the pig pen

Taking the hay ride out to the orchard

Picking apples low...
...and WAY up high ;) Addie wasn't in the best mood because there were bees around, and even though our farm guide said to just blow on the bees, she would freak out....you know what they say about bees and fear....thankfully no one got stung!

Pumpkin patch picture---both kids were hungry hence the looks--that's Addie's "Oh mom, not another picture" smile

By the way, school is going MUCH better. Addie still gets "emotional" when I drop her off, but is usually fine for the rest of the day, with an odd minute or so of crying during a transition here and there. But overall I would say it's a HUGE success.


We took a family field trip out to Butler's Orchard for their Fall Festival. Addie had fun riding a John Deere trike.

Addie had ice cream and Cole ate a plastic cupWe all took a trip down the big slides. Cole was kind of confused.
But Addie had a blast :)

We played a few games


Then Addie rode (and got stuck up in) a giant tractor

The line for the hayride was always so long so we kept saying "eh, she just went on a hayride for the apple orchard" so we didn't push it. Well, we had been telling Addie that we were going to pick out a pumpkin and didn't realize until we were leaving that the hayride takes you TO the pumpkin patch. Oops. :) As you saw in the Halloween post, we did manage to find some pumpkins to turn into Jack O' Lanterns, I found them at a really cool pumpkin patch also known as "Trader Joe's"--they have other treats there, too ;)

Another fun field trip was to a local firestation with my Rockville Mom's Group. Steve was glad it was on a day he got out early so he could come along--I'm not sure who was more excited ;)




And just a few weeks before Addie's birthday (yes, she turned 3--be patient with me, I'm just a few posts behind ;) she wrote her name! I had written her name on a paper above it so she did have it there in front of her to reference, and it looks more like Hodie than Addie, but I was still very very impressed :)