Hannah's 5th & Josh's 31st Birthdays!!!

Josh and Hannah had quite a week (or more) of birthday celebrations!  We are blessed to have lots of family and friends to celebrate with!!!

A little before Hannah's birthday, Grandma Jody took Hannah shopping in Indy for her back-to-school wardrobe, backpack, and Halloween costume!  We had a yummy lunch at The Cheesecake Factory!

On Hannah's actual birthday, Grandma Teresa and I took the kids over to Champaign to meet Papa Ed at Monical's and to go ride the carousel at the mall.  

Grandma and Grandpa got Hannah a toy violin.  She has been asking for a violin for a few years now; she was so excited!

Hannah has been asking for quite awhile for me to make her a castle cake.  I did my best!  She really wanted it to be pink and blue.  I added a little purple.  She's a girl who knows what she wants!

Josh and I got Hannah a pin lanyard for DisneyWorld, a charm necklace for Marie Grace, some clothes, and a princess game.

Our family celebrated at home the night of her birthday.  I told her we could go out anywhere she wanted or I could make anything she wanted.  She chose homemade broccoli cheese soup.  Sounds good to me!

The next day, we invited a few of her girlfriends over for a little tea party.  I think anyone who has planned a "little" party knows it ends up being about as much work as a big party!  It was her first friends party, and the girls had lots of fun.  We had lots of cute tea party food, decorated jewelry boxes, made necklaces, etc.

 Grandma Teresa and Aunt Emily came over to help me out.  I'm glad they did!

 Lily, Violet, Brenna, Hannah, Jillian, Lily

 She got some cute presents!

 The next day, we celebrated with my family at my parents' house.  

 Hannah got some more cute presents!

 Grandma Teresa made Hannah a dress for her and Marie Grace for Disney World!!

 A few days later, we had Josh's dad's side over to our house to celebrate.  

Hannah got two umbrellas for her birthday!  She's so excited about both of them!

For Josh's birthday, Jessica Pittman and I surprised the boys by meeting each other at the Illini game!  It was Jon's birthday weekend too.  It was really fun to catch up with them.  It had been waaaay too long!  It was miserably hot, so we only lasted through the first half, but we went to Kamakura and talked for hours!

 The next day, we went to Josh's moms for another celebration.  

 Hannah got her Sofia backpack for preschool, and Josh got a snow cone maker!

That is A LOT of birthday celebrating.  I'm always exhausted when that week is over!!!!!!!

CASA Royal Ball

Our local CASA has a Royal Ball every year as a fundraiser for their organization.  Hannah got to go last year with a friend, but I had never been.  It was a really fun mommy daughter date.  Hannah looked so beautiful in her Rapunzel wedding dress!  I'm so thankful to have a daughter to do fun girly things with!

Tracking down all of the princesses for pictures was almost like Disney World!

The whole evening was such fun!  We got to do crafts, meet princesses, eat dinner, see magicians, get make-up done, etc., etc.  The closing show was such a sweet memory.  I was thinking to myself, "This is about as close to DisneyWorld as you're going to get in central Illinois."  And right as I was thinking that, the man next to me said to his wife, "This was the cheapest trip to DisneyWorld that we've ever taken!"  My thoughts exactly.  I had so much fun with my sweet little princess!  

2, 3, 4, 5, 7

In July, my best friend Jennifer and her three kids came to our house for a long overdue visit.  We had a lot of fun catching up and keeping our five children entertained.  The current ages of our kids are 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7!  We packed as much frugal fun into our time as we could.  We:

• Met at the $1 movie in Savoy and saw Ice Age 3 
• Went to the indoor park in Champaign and had a picnic (it was pouring rain!)
• Let the kids play in the mud at home while we made their individual pizzas
• Watched a Barbie movie
• Went to the Catlin Library program
• Went to Winter Park for playgroup, played in the spray park, and had a picnic
• Got $.49 ice cream cones at McDonald's
• Rode bikes, and Hannah's princess car was a big hit
• Watched another Barbie movie after the movie we got at the library got a thumbs down from the kids
• Went swimming at the Sanders

 

Gender Reveal

Our family went to our very first gender reveal party last week for Josh's brother, Jordan and Courtney.  They found out right along with the rest of us what they were having.  When we got to the party, we all had to choose a pink or blue necklace to say what we thought.  Jacob and I went with blue because that's what Courtney thought, and I wasn't betting against mommy intuiton!  Hannah was convinced it was a girl because "they already have a boy."  Josh was also rooting for a girl because he thinks Jordan needs to experience that.

 Courtney says, "It's blue; I knew it!"

 It was very blue!

Boy Cousins!  On the left is Courtney's sister's son, Casen.  Then there is Jacob, Landon, and the 3rd Downing boy in Courtney's belly!  There are no granddaughters yet in Courtney's family, and Hannah is the only one in the Downing family so far!  I said we're just building our starting line-up!