The Big First Birthday

M. turned a year old this past weekend. She had a great time at her party and thanks her grandpas and grandmas for coming to help her celebrate.

M. wasn't sure what to make of her cake. It was a bit to messy for her dainty self, but once we cut a bit off for her, she got going!
M. had some help unwrapping her gifts from her older siblings (probably the last time she will let them help her!)

M. thanks everyone for her fabulous presents! Her favorite at this moment seems to be her guitar and she likes her new crayons, too. She and K. have been spending some time coloring together.
We had our one year check-up yesterday and all is well! She is great and continues to be our biggest child to date. She is in the 75th percentile for height and the 90th for weight. She actually hasn't gained any weight since December, but she

has grown two inches. She may turn out long and lean like the other two after all! We are really enjoying this stage, as she continues to learn new words (she can say, "mama; dada; baba; papa for Patrick; dup for cup; and bye-bye") Looks like we have another talker on our hands, too-imagine that! Thanks again to all those who helped us celebrate!

Newest Happenings

Well, M. is now fully ambulatory! She has been walking, quite well I might add, for the better part of the past two weeks. She looks so funny tottering along after P. and K. She has also started saying a few more words. We are pretty sure she calls P. "Pappa". She has also started saying "mama" regularly (thank God!)
K. has been enrolled in preschool for next year and I have a feeling I will spend the rest of this school year and the entire summer telling her how many days until she starts. She is more than excited to get to go to a school of her own and I have no doubt that she is ready to go! She also starts another round of gymnastics next week. She loves gymnastics and is ready to show you her "tricks" anytime.

P. will start soccer again this spring. The season starts earlier this year (or maybe it just seems earlier) and he has decided to stay on the team from the neighborhood. It will be fun to see how the team's skills have changed since the fall. He has also been having fun recreating the Ice Planet Hoth rebel base in the snow (alas, it is all gone now, but it is about 50 degrees today and that means outside play time so it makes up for the snow being gone). He wanted me to post the pics of his battle, so enjoy those! He also started his Horizon's gifted classes three weeks ago and he loves them! He goes every Friday to these classes instead of being in the regular classroom. He is learning about ecology and has been dazzling us with his newfound knowledge about our planet.

I cannot believe M. will be one next week. Kevin and I were trying to plan a mini-family vacation trip and looked at our summer and were astounded to discover that most of our weekends are already booked. We are looking forward to the three weddings we will be going to this summer, most especially, my little sister's in July (P and K are in the wedding)! We will be going to a wedding in Cleveland and the highlight of this (for the kids that is) will be the Indians' game we are going to the night before the wedding. I am tremendously excited to be going to Napa Valley and San Fransisco this summer for a week with my mom and my sisters. I know the guys love their fishing trips, but I don't think those stinky trips with mosquitos hold a candle to the trip we are planning! ( Keep an eye out for these future posts!)
Enjoy the new photos and I hope to update with pics from M.'s party shortly after we celebrate it and not a month later.