three-year old in the house...

February 6th was no ordinary day around here... (or around Erin's house, either, I know... yay for SEVEN-year olds, too! ;)   

Maeve Helen Rollins turned 3!!! 

I was taking her pic outside, by one of our hibiscuses, and it was all I could do to get a COUPLE of shots of her not looking at the flower.  Her eyes and hands were just magically drawn... shooooop... to it...

Can't blame her. But THREE she is! 

Maybe she was especially enraptured by the flower because she remembered that on her birthday the year before, THIS is what she was posing by...

A heckuva lotta snow!

When I asked her, many times,  what she wanted for her birthday, she kept saying, "a rainbow with letters!" She was after the "Happy Birthday" sign we hung up for Nuala and Bran... I think she was pretty pleased that we got her some other stuff, too... 

 Being the bday girl, she got semi-free reign with the sprinkles for her cake. She really liked the orange ones.

We watched our friends' three little ones (6, 4, almost-2) for six days while they went out of town, and since the three kiddos arrived on Maeve's bday, it was like she had a party! A wild and crazy party. Woohoo!

We played "tape the crown on Princess Maeve" as one of the games, and M was quite pleased to have her princess self hangin' up. In fact, she's still there....

Happy 3rd birthday, Gatorade! As cliche as it sounds... I can't believe it's been three years. We've loved every minute of it (pretty much) and feel like the luckiest parents alive to have you! You are so sweet, and so cute, and have a great sense of humor, and are stubborn, and independent, too. You're a fearless little girlie who has to do everything your big brother and sister do. It's so much fun being your mom! And I know your daddy feels the same... ;) We love you!

Bran and Nuala: The big S-I-X

Our biggest rascals turned six in December. SIX! You have to use TWO hands for that! That makes you a big kid, according to our friend, Megan.  I have this long post all typed up, about the neat stuff they've learned to do this past year, but it's not quite good-to-go, and I've waited too long already to get their birthday one up.  They're now actually six-and-one-month-and-one-week-and-one-day.  So, that post wherein I wax eloquent about their fabulousness? It's just gonna hafta come later... (I know, I know... it's difficult to wait...) Let's get some birthday pics up!! 

Zachariah, Maeve, and I took cupcakes to their class. It was so much fun. I just love their kindergarten teacher, and their whole little class. I'm already feeling sad that it's half over! I never got to take treats to school for MY birthday, since it's in July, and I always wished that I could, even though I liked having a summer bday... Miss Parker has the birthday boy and/or girl stand at the front of the carpet squares and they get sung to.  It was really kind of a big deal, it seemed, which is awesome for the kids. They sang to both of them, and then the boys all sang and danced with Bran, and then the girls all sang and danced with Nuala. While that was going on, we put cupcakes at everyone's spot. 

Nuala and Raymond, with a new little addition! Maeve was so excited to be there.

 Muffin Man's table.

 After cupcakes, Miss Parker put on more music and EVERYONE danced. It got a little crazy there at the end. It was so fun seeing them have so much fun!

Nuala getting goodbye birthday hugs from some of her friends.   

Just a bit more six-(with a dash of almost-three) year old cuteness...

 We went to Macaroni Grill for their bday dinner. Cousin Kyle, who's stationed out here with the Marines, came with us.

Then we had a little party for them a couple of days later, and I didn't take ANY pictures! Well, I took two. At the very end. But they had fun, suffice it to say. They're holding up the remnants of a paper bag pinata we made... a cute monster. I was slightly over-proud of him, but totally forgot to take a picture before the whacking began. Sigh.

The kids all decorated their own mini-creature bags, to keep their goodies in.  From the left: Bran's, Nuala's, and Maeve's.  I love Maeve's. That's where she wanted the eyes to go, by golly!

Oh, yeah, one of the two party pics. Blowing out their number 6 candles on their doughnuts. 

Woohooo for being six!!!! We love you, Bran and Nuala!

birthday number TWO.

The littlest rascal turned two on Monday. TWO! She is crazy, and sweet, and cute.

Her day started quite well, when Bran and Nuala rushed in to yell "Happy Birthday, Maeve!" to her. Then Nuala got Daddy to help her get Maeve's "special breakfast" ready. Strawberries! Yum. Well, she would have gotten those anyway in her fruit course (the first course) of breakfast, but Nuala brought them upstairs for her. Very special. They love their baby sis.

Later that morning, we went out to play in the snow. It doesn't look exceptionally deep here, I guess, but we've got a LOT of snow. A lot. And it's freezing cold here, too. M insisted on wearing her coat over her snowsuit, because, and I quote: "My coat is weally, weally awesome!"

We went sledding on the driveway/hill down our street. It was so powdery. I just plunked Maeve almost chest-deep in the snow and then we set to work getting our run flattened out again for a few goes. It was fun, and then we went back home.

While Maeve napped, Bran and Nuala and I decorated for her birthday. And made her a wacky cake. Nuala drew a princess on this balloon on M's chair, and Bran drew Mickey Mouse. If you look closely at Mickey, you'll notice the poor fellow is wall-eyed. So are all the Ewoks Bran draws. It's cute. Slightly sad for them (I'm sure I'd get a headache), but cute.

Then Maeve woke up and we busted out some bubbles. I was hoping she'd be content to pop Bran's and Nuala's bubbles, but after about 90 seconds, she started petitioning for her own. Darn it! I did give her a container. Then Nuala -- NUALA -- spilled almost her entire bottle (which is why she's crying in the video).

Then Maeve started trying to get her presents down. The step-stool was not as helpful as she was hoping it would be.

Then she tried to hold up two fingers. It's pretty difficult.

Success! Yay! Little clown... about a week and a half before her birthday, I started asking her "how old are you going to be?" She picked up on "two" pretty quickly, but after a couple of days of rehearsing that, she got a little glint in her eye and started saying, "fwee..." Or "one," but usually "fwee"... Now she will NEVER answer "two." She thinks she's quite hilarious. And she's pretty right.

Then everyone helped frost/decorate the cake.

Then, FINALLY, Daddy came home! We ate dinner, and then it was present time!

Her Scooby Dooby board books were a favorite.

She kinda couldn't care less about her Scooby doll. And she got more books. And a Care Bears t-shirt.

And a Rody horse! She loves this guy. Her friend, Emily, has one, and the scuffles that ensue over it when we're at her house have tipped me off to how much she loves it.

Cake time!

In between the presents and the cake, Bran jumped off the kitchen counter and landed on Maeve's little push-toy kitty cat and snapped its head off. One of her absolute favorite toys... maybe even THE favorite. She seriously plays with it so much. Probably more than any other toy. Bran was pretty sad when it happened. Z and I were pretty annoyed, poor fella, so that added to his sadness. Maeve, on the other hand, was the sweetest and most forgiving little thing. She saw her beloved kitty lying headless on the kitchen floor, but just said, "that okay, Bran!". Then, as you can see above, she put her little arm around her sad brother when we forced him to come be in the cake pictures. She is so sweet. Not always, not always. But this was just one of those moments.

Here's Kitty, from earlier in the day. Hmmm.. I guess right before he was fatefully parked underneath the counter there...

See? Little sweetheart. Though, she did, for example, scream bloody murder at him for trying to touch her Rody horse today. She has her good moments and her not-so-good ones. Like all of us.

Singing to herself.

Yummm....

Then it was time for bed, and the big, strong 2-year old insisted that her horsie come upstairs, too. It's almost as big as she is. I helped her out.

It's super fun to bounce on as fast as you can, but almost more fun is making yourself fall off. (Until you bounce too close to the edge of the carpet and smack your noggin on the hard floor. Then it's not so fun.)

Yippeeeee for two! Maeve, we love you!

And here's a video, with some clips of the Maevsters on her big day...

In case you need help understanding, she says: ~ I don't know, and my open presents! And show (?) my birthday! ~ Mama, is this Bran's? ~ Bran draw. ~ Nuala cwyin'! ~ Blow the candles. ~ Mama, say that's okay, Nuala... ~ Nuala, STOP IT! ~ Mama, can I get my presents? ~ Brushin' Bran's hair. ~ Bran, one more time! ~ Nuala, let me try! ~ Me! ~ Daddy, I need a push! ~ (???) and she also get hurt, right here, and my legs right here, and my fall over! ~ Scooby want to ride with me, Scooby want to ride with me! ~ Mama, can you help me put beside me right here?

Man alive... now they're FIVE!

Five years old today! Cliche, but true: Time FLIES. Wanna see? Here we go...

New babies. Bran on the left, Nuala on the right.

And then they were ONE!

We blinked and -- poof! Energetic, adorable TWO-year olds...

(Two-year old Bran, because you can't really see him above. Ahhh... Uruguayan beaches.)

Three. That seemed to sneak up, too.

Four skipped along behind three...

And NOW they're five.

They had a fun day. We all did. Z took the day off and we went to a movie (TinTin) that was being shown in English as a special showing. Animated movies are always dubbed in Bulgarian, while live-action ones are subtitled, so it was definitely a treat for them to go to an English movie. Maeve didn't come. It was for the best. Trust me.

Then they got to open their presents in the middle of the day instead of waiting until evening, woohoo!! They got some fun stuff.

Maeve loved their Ewoks, that we got off Ebay. We always give the other child/children one present on the other bdays, so when Maeve was opening hers, she kept saying, "my Ewok! my Ewok!" all full of excitement. Nope. Not an Ewok. Luckily her birthday's coming up soon (Did I say "luckily?" Sigh. Didn't mean it. Slooooow down, slow down!) so if she still loves 'em, maybe she'll get one, too.

Bran dressed his Ewok up. This is just a cute picture. Oh, they loved all their gifts, but a big hit was their stomp rockets, which some of their friends have. They love them. I don't know why we haven't gotten some before! They were blasting those suckers off all evening. Maeve is getting good at it, too. Good thing they're foam, since we've been using them inside. Anyway, just a little plug for stomp rockets. Great entertainment, folks... great entertainment.

They each got their own little birthday cake this year. We bought them, and they didn't care, but I was a little bit sad to stray from the wacky cake tradition. The poor kiddos were too full from all the pizza they ate while watching ANOTHER movie to finish them, but do not worry... Z and I helped them out. Oh, and they wore those little paper crown/headbands all day, even all over the mall. It was cute how much they liked them. Hmmm... I think I'll make Z one for his next birthday. I'm sure he'll love it just as much as Nuala and Bran... Anyway, the tykes (are they getting too big to be "tykes?" Nah.) are pretty excited to be five! We love you, Nuala and Bran, our funny, smart, kind, cute, adventurous five-year olds! Happy birthday!