First bike

Laurel's birthday present of note this year was a tinkerbell training bike from us.  Here's a quick shot of her "in action".  She's quite excited!  She'll grown out of this size quickly, but hopefully it will help her learn and move on to the next stage.  She always enjoyed riding her trike down the sidewalk, so now we're growing up.

Vegas 2011

We made it to Vegas again this year to meet up with the Ondercin family.  A smaller group this year, but it was nice to see the few that could make it and have some fun time out of the house.  We stayed for a few nights in the meeting hotel of choice, The Flamingo.  Laurel loves the novelty of staying in a hotel.  She always asks when we'll stay in a hotel - especially one with a pool.  So we spent lots of time at the pool:).  The water is always colder than I'd like, but we go in anyway cuz that's what the child demands, lol!  Audrey loves the water and enjoyed the trip in her own way.  Still being pushed around since we still have no crawling action.  She's starting to show a little zest in her temperment - doesn't like anything taken from her without her ok.  But she travels well, sleeps fine in the pack n play.  She's content with her tray of snacks in her stroller and takes it all in.  We journeyed to the bellaggio fountains and conservatory as always.  Saw the animals where we could.  In honor of our anniversary, Megan stayed with the girls and we went out for dinner.  We detoured for dessert and found the yummies restaurant that had a happy hour dessert/drinks bar.    Anne also moved to the city just this summer and so we met up with her as well.

Happy 4th Birthday, Laurel!

Laurel's 4th was celebrated with a picnic and games a the park.  It was a hot, hot day.  But that was probably the only bummer - everything else was great and the kids had a lot of fun!  We picked a local park that has a playground and picnic benches.  We had aimed for the pavilion, but this particular park didn't allow reservations and I think the person that took over the pavilion showed up at dawn or something!  

  

Laurel's friends - Ryder, Delaney, Lauren, Kalia, Aidan, and cousins Sierra and Amber were there.  So was family and parents.  We made picnic food - chicken and tuna salad, fruit salad, veggies, chips, etc.  The kids played on the playground and we took mini breaks for games.  The party was strawberry shortcake themed - Laurel wore her favorite strawberry dress:).  

I made strawberry cake pops and a cake to look like strawberry shortcake's house.  Overkill to have so much in the end - i even made strawberry shortcake cups with shortcake from scratch, for the adults.  But I enjoyed planning it and making all of the details:).  Laurel was thrilled to have all of her little friends around.  It was a great day!