Continuing with the Fancy

I'll just pick up where I left off...this (above) is how Bella went to bed the night of her birthday party. She put on as many of her new birthday gifts as she could to wear to bed.
Below is the next night. Notice a pattern? She likes those accessories!
We had planned to go to the zoo as family (per tradition) on her actual birthday, but Lucy wasn't feeling well enough. We weren't about to leave her behind, so we did what we could to make the day fun anyway.
We started at the doughnut shop- yum! Then we walked over to a nail salon that has special pedicure chairs for little girls. We left with 20 purple toes! Bella's big toes even had a special Halloween design on them.

Poor Luc! She did liven up quite a bit after a while and decided to get her toes done too!
The FIVE year old's toes:

And sweet little 2 year old toes:

While Lucy was having a much needed long afternoon nap, Bella and I baked her cake. Then she got to decorate it. She did not take the role of decorating lightly! I think Fancy Nancy would be proud.

After Bella's soccer practice that evening, she chose to eat at "Tin Stars," her favorite restaurant. Finally, Bella got to open her gifts. Brian thought to get a little something for Lucy too. Good idea, Daddy!
Bella's main gift from our family was (so shocking, I know) a Fancy Nancy doll. I think she liked it! :)

Happy Birthday to our wonderful, sweet, beautiful, fancy 5 year old!

Fancy Five!

Bella loves Fancy Nancy books, so we decided to have a "fancy" birthday party. Fancy Nancy likes to speak in French, say things like "ooh la la", and dress up in all kinds of fancy accessories. I had help from former French teacher Momo with making the little signs!
Did you know that the Eiffel Tower has a big flower poof, and giant butterflies on it?
We had more kids than ever her birthday party since she invited all of the girls from her class and all of the girls on her soccer team. Most of those girls are Fancy Nancy fans too, and some even came dressed like Nancy! For those that wanted to add to their fanciness, we had the "Get Fancy" table.

We wouldn't dare leave out Bella's boy friends (I'll keep those two words separate for Brian's sake), so we had some fancy options for them too. Everett was quite the willing participant!
And so were Bella's cousins Tyler and Noah. They even wore the stick on mustaches while eating ice cream...talent!
Bella's cousins Jack and Andrew even came a little fancy, which I'm sure was completely their idea. :) I loved it!
Bella's cousins Taylor and Bailey painted the girls' fingernails in sparkly polish and offered stick on earrings. What would we do without these older, helpful cousins?
Lucy was showing me her nails! :)
Papa even came up with a fancy, firework-like candle for Bella's cake. She really was more impressed with that than she looks in this picture!
And, wow, she is growing up!

Good Job Daddy (and his helpers)!

When I found out that I was going to be out of town for school pictures, I might have panicked just a little bit. I know it doesn't REALLY matter what school pictures look like, but I want them to reflect what the girls look like on a day to day basis right now. For Lucy, that means pigtails.

The problem was that Brian doesn't do pigtails. He has pretty well mastered the ponytail, but that's where it stops. He kept avoiding my attempts to give him a lesson in pigtails before I left, so I wasn't sure what picture day hair would be.

As you can see, we had pigtails!!! And Bella has freshly combed hair with a matching bow. These are my favorite school pictures ever!

While a big thank you goes out to Brian for being the Mom and the Dad while I was gone, a big thank you goes out to Bella's and Lucy's teachers for doing their hair. Bella's teacher had an extra bow of her daughter's in her purse, and Lucy's teacher nailed the pigtails. Apparently a desperate dad face at 9:00 am on school picture day goes a long way! :)

An Evening Out

On birthdays in our little family of four, we always let the birthday girl (or boy- Brian!) pick where to go out to dinner. For my birthday, the choice was more about where the girls would be happy to eat and maybe, just maybe, allow for a somewhat peaceful dining experience!
We went to Olive Garden, and I took along my camera hoping to be able to walk around afterward at Utica and take some pictures of the girls. Bella fell asleep on the way there, and kept right on sleeping. Lucy was having fun being the center of attention for a while- can you tell?


This was Bella...she loves her accessories lately! She even insists on putting a headband on every night after her bath.
Dinner went pretty well, although it only took about 30 seconds after we sat down for a finger to get smashed in between chairs. That sent me flying back outside with a very sad 2 year old, but she got over if fast, and all was well after that!
The girls were looking down at something on the ground so I told them to keep their chins up while I took the picture. They really listened to that!
Bella kept finding places she wanted to pose for her picture. One time, it was in front of a trash can; another time, in front of the doors of Miss Jackson's. Below, Ann Taylor is in the background. She kept it well rounded.
And Lucy kept on keeping her chin up! What a pose!
Bella insisted on a picture with this statue.
Time to go home and have some cake!

The Kicking Daisies and the Dancing Princesses

Bella had her first soccer game this weekend. She knows most of the little girls on her team, the Kicking Daisies, already. She is having fun just being around her friends! This was the day her cleats arrived in the mail. She was so excited and left them on for quite a while!
Pretty cute! This is coming from the mom that never wanted to play soccer myself because I thought those socks were just too ugly. I was wrong- even those are cute on Bella. However, it was a little hard to put her in RED...on a Saturday...when OSU was playing. Is that why we lost?
Bella wasn't as aggressive as some of the girls, but that's okay with me. She scored one goal, and that was great! The woman yelling in the background is the coach for the other team. She liked to yell A LOT.
I didn't realize that holding hands would be part of the game, but it sure was. I'm liking soccer more and more now. Brian is the assistant coach and his job is mostly to coral the 3 little girls that aren't on the field. He's pretty good at that! The coach is a fraternity brother of Brian's. They don't yell AT ALL. :)

***
Lucy has started ballet this year. Bella is still doing ballet too, and loving it. They both ask me all week when they get to go to ballet class again. Lucy was a little bit timid at first- she wanted to sit right next to me. (These pictures are from my phone, so not the best quality.)
Then, she got closer to the rest of the girls and really started getting the hang of it!
At one point, she even started dancing WITH the teacher, facing the rest of the class. I should have taken a picture of that before I went to put her back in her spot!
Finally, at the end of each class, these little 2 year olds each get to put on the princess crown and do some dancing in front of the class. Lucy loved it so much she wanted to take another turn! :)

First Day of Preschool

Bella and Lucy started preschool last Friday. This is Bella's 4th year there and Lucy's 2nd year. We LOVE our preschool, and it is so sad to think this is Bella's last year there. Next year, the girls won't be at the same school, or even start on the same day. Yes, they matched from head to toe. I need to soak up things like that while I can (am while they allow me to!). :)

I didn't even ask for them to turn around for the picture above- they just did! Lucy was pretty proud of her "pack pack" that was just like Bella's!

We dropped off Lucy first, then Bella, and I walked back by Lucy's class to check on her. She usually doesn't "catch" me doing this, but this time she did. I was afraid that could be bad, but she just smiled and waved and then we blew kisses. I miss them while they are at school, but I love knowing that they love being there.

It's Those Faces Again...

I don't know where this comes from, but it certainly is entertaining!