gracie's birthday party round 2

miss gracie was born on a friday the 13. i tried to not be to superstitious, but that day turned out pretty crappy (other than the miracle of her birth of course). there were complications & we were very stressed out about her health for weeks on end after she was born. now, you would never know it. this year, we got to celebrate her birthday on the beach. we had a "bee-buu" as she calls it (blue's clues) birthday party themed birthday for her. thank goodness i had everything left over from ben's 2nd birthday! worked out pretty well.
ben celebrated by trying his first sip of root beer (which he loved, thanks brad).

here's ever so cheerful ben. he was a bit moody on vacation. poor guy. he had a middle ear infection & testicular torsion and wanted to be big like his older cousin, so i guess those are all reasons to be a bit of a grump. he's now acting like his old self & i am much relieved. he does have a dr. appointment next week just to be looked over


miss gracie cuddling up to great great uncle paul, or "papy paul", to read a book. he & dee are our babysitters whenever we need one, but gracie really bonded with him over vacation.


we had a pinata, &

the kiddos had a blast trying to tear it apart. gracie enjoyed every bit of taffy from it. man, does she have a sweet tooth!

here's a video of her enjoying her cake. sorry i don't know how to edit out my laughing & other stuff.


daddio has been working hard on the big birthday present this week & it is complete! the kiddos love it!

they have decorated the inside of the fort with chalk all over the place. we started to stop them, but then realized we let them color on our house & this is their house so no bother.
i think they spent a good 4 hours playing on it yesterday. thank you daddio for the patience to put it together for us. we love you!