Loving our Leprechaun

 If you were to ask Katelee what the best holiday of the year is, without hesitation, she would say, St. Patrick's Day.  Of course, this Irish celebration coincides with her birthday, so it is incredibly important to the entire world!!Katelee had a fun time celebrating her big #8!!  She took a few friends to Airborne to jump to their hearts delights...

Harrison was a big fan, as well as Miss Brenna

Grant claimed to be bored, but I would beg to differ.  

He may have been scared of the wild girls, which is more credible.  After the jumping, we came back to the house for pizza and cupcakes.  

A week later, was St Patrick's Day, so decked out in green

, 

we had her birthday dinner and cake 

and ice cream.  We had been working on her present for sometime and were anxious to give it to her.  Grant was involved in the secrecy and was so cute as we prepared everything.  We moved him over to the smaller bedroom in the basement, painted the guest queen bed headboard as a family, rearranged furniture all weekend, and while she was at school, we transformed the basement big bedroom into...

It still needs a few things, but to say she was excited would be an understatement. We opened the door, didn't have to explain a thing.  Although she didn't suspect one bit what her present was, the minute the door swung open, she knew it was all hers!  Katelee flung herself onto the bed and just squealed!!! She has been asking and asking for a year at least when she would get her own room.  In my mind, I had always imagined my girls wanting to share a room, giggling to each other at night, confiding their deep thoughts, just filling their time with love and laughter.  Well, enter Brenna into the equation (ok, and Katelee too) and that just wasn't happening.  So, we hung the signs love and laugh in her room as a little encouragement.  Katelee already invited Brenna down to have a sleepover.  Maybe the space apart will encourage the bonding I envisioned!  I don't really blame Katelee, Brenna can be super scary!!

It was pretty much the best birthday ever!  Katelee is full of animation!  She feels to the extreme-crazy hyper to end of the world sad in the blink of an eye.  She has the best giggle, loves to try new adventures (like diving lessons)

 and is so much fun!  We rely on her  a lot and she is a special part of our family!!!

Other exciting happenings as of late: Katelee (here with her friend Courtney) had her Grammarasorous play)which was stellar

It is birthday party season in full bloom.  There is a party to attend every time we turn around, but the kids love it and I am grateful they have good friends.  This is Brenna after going to Kate's fun party.  Ollie the Octopus, from preschool, also got to attend.  He apparently didn't want his face painted (glad about that, it would be a little hard to explain!).  Brenna's new thing to make people laugh is to talk about her Grandpa.  We were riding home from Katelee's birthday party with friends in the car and for one second it was quiet, so Brenna burst out with "My grandpa's name is DONALD!"  (which is true, although my dad goes by Scott".  That one liner got her loads of laughs and has since brought many a giggles to friends of all ages around here.  

 Last weekend we went to see the Lego Americana exhibit at the mall...  talk about some master builders.  Grant must have been inspired because he asked his teacher if he could build his science biome out of legos.  She thought it was clever and he has created quite the forest.  We love legos...except when I step on them unexpectedly, then I hold back the cursing.  I was so frightened to have a baby with kids that love legos, but as far as I know, only one lego head has been ingested, and it came out fully intact :)  ha!