Kinard Family Chronicles: It's Birthday Season!

It's "Birthday Season" in our house! The girls threw Daddy a fabulous Princess themed party for his 35th birthday, Hailey is counting down the minutes until her 5th birthday party and Lainey has been busy planning her birthday bash! We're in celebration mode here and it's been fantastic!

Daddy's 35th Birthday

All dressed up for Daddy's 35th birthday!

Daddy had to travel on his birthday, so the girls sent him a special singing birthday message!

Sweet Avery, 8 months old, on Daddy's birthday.

Hailey and "Princess Avery."

Ariel, the Birthday Elf, came to wish Daddy a Happy Birthday. Ariel showed up a week ago, to keep an eye on Hailey and make sure she's being a good girl!

Daddy's surprises, complete with and Ariel birthday cake!

Poor Daddy will always have to share his birthday cake with his first born.

The "Birthday Fairies" ready to throw Daddy a party!

Waiting for Daddy to come home!

He's here!!

Daddy and his girls.

Leading Daddy inside to his party! (I think he's peaking!!!)

Surprise!

Opening his card from Hailey.

Lainey was very proud of her coloring on Daddy's card.

Daddy loved his card from Grandma and Grandpa!

Avery loved the party hats!

Birthday Season Fun!

The birthday girls!

Hailey a cupcake bow, cupcake shirt or cupcake dress every day this week!

Reading some birthday themed books in the snuggle room.

Hailey was SUPER excited for school this Wednesday because her very best friend, Maddie, picked her up from lunch bunch and took her to Pearls Cupcake Shoppe for a special birthday cupcake.

Maddie's Mommy said that Hailey told every single customer who walked in that it was her "special birthday celebration!" She was in hog heaven and is still talking about it!

Can you find the baby?!! Avery had fun helping Mommy go grocery shopping for Daddy and Hailey's birthday parties this week!

Mommy and Lulu Date

Little Lulu gets lost in all of the birthday planning, so Mommy took her on a special Mommy/Lulu date. She got her very first mani/pedi and loved it!!! Her favorite part was the "bath" for your feet!

She also really liked the massage chair!

Tiny diva.

That's one happy girl!

Then we got icecream, BEFORE dinner! She got vanilla with chocolate chip cookies on top ;)

Then we got "Mommy's chicken" aka Chick-fil-a.

Lulu is very excited about her birthday party next month and has been busy decorating her invitations!

Easter Detox

Just when we've undone the spoiling damage from our Christmas-like Easter, it's time for "birthday season!" Lord help us! The girls have really enjoyed dwindling down their Easter candy stash!

Zoned out on a new move from the Easter Bunny on the 7 MINUTE car ride to preschool! Ridiculous, I know.

They love their Lalaloopsy Bubbly Mermaids for the "Grandma Easter Bunny!"

And Hailey has been all about Palace Pets lately!

Just when I think she's not listening to me, Hailey comes home from preschool with this written on one of her (many) crafts for the day. She narrated this to her teacher :)

Frozen fans in their new jammies from the Easter Bunny.

Gymnastics

Thank goodness!!! The girls are both old enough to take gymnastics at the same time! FINALLY! It's the little things that make my life much easier!

Lulu, in her favorite leo. It's her favorite color!

The girls were so cute during gymnastics. They kept saying, "Good job Sissy!" and gave each other hugs. Look at little Lainey waving at Hailey on the bars!

Lainey is becoming quite the gymnast!

There's no doubt, she's a little short for her age!

Lainey's Last Big Day

Lulu had her last "Big Day" this week. She still never said those magic words, "Please come in!" but she sure was always very excited to see us!

Daddy and Avery, waiting for Lainey to open the door.

Darden 5 Year Reunion/Foxfields

Doug and I had a great time reliving the "glory days" during his 10 year Darden reunion. It was a fantastic weekend with old friends. Plus, we got to spend two nights in a hotel, child-free! Our favorite event was the Foxfields horse races.

It was so fun seeing my BFF Julie again!

We were tight as ticks all weekend!

Ready for a fun night in Charlottesville.

We had to make a trip back to the Lawn!

Dinner with friends on the Downtown Mall.

Gigi and Babu on Duty

Gigi and Babu were on babysitting duty all weekend while Doug and I were off pretending to be college students again. Bless them!

The Stomach Virus Strikes Again

Poor Lulu was down for the count earlier this week with the stomach virus. The girls always like to get sick when Doug is travelling for work, which is lovely. Lainey has always been a Mama's girl (which I love!!) but when she's sick, she takes it to a whole new level!! She HAD to have broken the world record for repeating the phrase, "Mommy hoooold me!" Poor little thing.

She's coming out of the "sick fog" now, and we're all hoping that the Birthday girl doesn't get sick for her party! Fingers crossed!

Avery is 8 months old

I turned around today and all of a sudden my newborn was 8 months old!!! How on earth did that happen?! Avery is a delight. She's still our smiley, drooly baby, but now she's also babbling and sitting up! She said "Mama" this week and Hailey about fell over! She told everyone and their mother that her baby sister said "Mama!!"

"Life is so much more exciting way up here!"

Little Mommy and her baby sister.

Avery rolls all over the place now!

She sure loves her puffs!

And the girls sure love feeding them to her!

"Tomatoes"

It rained for 4 days straight here. Fortunately, it was only rain for us. Our prayers go out to the poor people who lost so much during all of the recent tornadoes. I made the mistake of letting Hailey watch the morning weather with me one day this week and the weatherman was talking about the tornadoes and showed footage of the storms. I didn't realize that Bug was listening so intently until we were driving home in the car during a storm and she starting screaming, crying, yelling, "IT'S A TOMATO! IT'S A TOMATO MOMMY!" Bless her sweet heart.

Little Lulu is SO over this rain!

"Rain rain, go away. Come again another day!"

Even Ariel the Elf was tired of watching the rain fall.

We tend to get a little nutty after being cooped up for so long! The girls got some wiggles out through a princess dance party.

And then there's this...

Trying to do handstands like Daddy.

Reading a story on a rainy afternoon.

American Girl

I gave Hailey my American Girl dolls for her 5th birthday. It was love at first sight. And so it begins....
I still remember when I got those dolls. It was a big deal! For years and years, I kept them looking pretty, on a shelf and they were practically in mint condition after 20+ years. I have to turn away when Bug pulls her around the house by her hair! But I have to admit, it does warm my heart to see her playing with my old dollies :)