Anya's First Birthday

Saturday we went to Anya's first birthday party. I can't believe she is one already! They had a junebug themed party for her. The food was yummy and Anya was spoiled with LOTS of presents! It was so hot outside, but the kids still had fun running around. Unfortunately, we had to leave while Anya was opening presents because the kids were starting to meltdown. We were able to see Anya open our gift. Macie picked out the same "green baby" that she loves and sleeps with every night. Macie fell asleep before we even got home and we only live 5 minutes away! We missed Anya eating her cake, but we heard that she liked it. Rachel, Eric, and Anya were kind enought to bring us some left over cake the next day. Happy Birthday Anya!

The Birthday Girl

I guess we shouldn't have had the kids facing the sun!
Anya's Grandma and Aunt made this adorable cake for her!

Chatter Box

Macie is quite the chatter box! Her conversation skills and vocabulary amaze me. She almost always uses the correct pronoun and can change and add words to get across the same meaning. For example, if I say, "I don't like pizza", she will say, "I don't like pizza either". If she asks me if two pieces of clothing go together and I say no, she will tell daddy, "Mommy says this isn't an outfit." Crazy! I also noticed that she is adding an extra consonant to a few of her words lately. It sounds so cute and because the way she says words is constantly changing, I thought I would give a few examples.
"papano" is piano
"babana" is banana
"Didego" is Diego
"baboon" is balloon

A Day with the Aunts

Friday was a fun filled day with Aunt Allie and Aunt Annie! Our day started with Gavin's physical therapy. Melissa was thrilled to see how well Gavin is walking and she only stayed about half an hour. Right after she left, Allie and Annie came over. Annie was in town for a long weekend and Allie had the day off from work. Annie brought a donut snack. After eating donuts, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We had 15 tokens left from our last trip and I knew that would be plenty for the kids. We had a great time and practically had the place to ourselves. Before we went, Macie kept talking about going in the hole with Aunt Allie and Aunt Annie. I thought she was talking about the tunnels, but I wasn't sure. She'd never been brave enough to go up there. Well, she was sad that we were either too big or little (Gavin) to go up there with her, but she started up the slide anyway. We were completely shocked (and so was she) that she went up the whole thing! All of a sudden we saw her little pigtails pop out at the top! She started to freak a little bit, but handled it very well! We showed her how to come down. All of us were relieved that we didn't have to go up to get her (even though we nominated Allie!). When I saw her at the top, I got a little teary eyed. My little girl is growing up and becoming more and more independent every day!
The cool thing about going right after they open is that they test all of the games and leave the tickets there. Annie, Macie, and I snatched up a lot of them. The kids ended up with 100 tickets! Macie was able to get some special chap stick that cost all 100 tickets. The aunts pitched in and bought Gavin a soccer ball. Right before we left, Chuck-E came out to do his special dance. I was hoping to get Macie on video dancing with him, but she wouldn't do everything of course. It is so cute to watch her get so excited to see him and boogie down. We had a great time!
Soon it was time for lunch, so we headed to McDonald's for some chicken nuggets and fries. Then, it was time for naps! We were all exhausted! After naps, we got in the kids pool in the backyard. Our final thing of the day was going to dinner at Crazy Buffet for Annie's birthday. It is next week. I can't believe my baby sister is going to be 24! After dinner, the aunts came back over to hang out and chat. What a fun, busy, and exhausting day!

Family Fun

There have been a lot of things going on in the Mitchell Household:

Macie Funny: I forgot to document this in our Memorial Day post and I don't want to forget it! Allie got in the pool with the kids. When she was done, she told Macie she was going to go inside and change her clothes. Macie put her cup and snack down, and as serious as can be, she said, "I'm going to help Aunt Addie put her panties on." She didn't understand why we wouldn't let her help Allie because we all help her. We were all laughing hysterically and she just looked at us with that serious, scrunched up face wondering what was wrong with us!

Sitting at the Big Table: The other day both of the booster seat trays were dirty and I didn't have enough energy to clean them at the moment. I decided to move Gavin over to the big table to see how he would do. Gavin was giddy with excitement to be at the table with us. It was such a neat moment to have all four of us eating at the table together. By the end of the year, we will have one more family member to add! I started snapping a few pictures and of course, Macie wanted in on the action!

"I really get to sit here?"

Towel Head: Daddy wrapped up Macie's hair in a towel. She thought she was hot stuff!

Coloring: Macie LOVES to color and has been asking us for a few days to color. Due to various circumstances, we weren't able to. Last night after dinner, we decided it would be fun for all of us to color. Gavin's only colored once (at the hospital) so I knew we needed to start doing it with him more. He was thrilled that we gave him crayons, but he kept wanting to eat them. Brian would take them away, he would cry, and then we would try again. Overall, it was fun and we plan to do it more often.

Go Gavin Go!