Baby's 1st Feeding (by herself)

Amanda is feeding herself! She loves to grab the spoon right out of our hand and just goes for it...as you can tell by her darling, but messy, face:) We're currently gaiting a hit one, miss one, standing. In this pic, she looks just like Brandon when he was a baby. It is uncanny! I think I have a feeding pic of him about this age, I'll have to find and blog it. You'll see what I mean.

State of Grace...Almost!

We're off to Nathan's First Reconciliation. He looks so smart and handsome in his little sports coat and "power tie." I'll have to blog how this came about later (or maybe I already have-I can't remember what I have blogged or haven't anymore). But even though it's Christmas tie, he wanted it for tonight.

It was the cutest thing ever. We sat in the pews and the teachers came and collected all the kids to line up for one of the several priests present and posted around the church in little stations (all face-to-face). David was giving me the play-by-play, as if I couldn't see what was happening..."He's nervous. They're moving him to the front. He's next." Actually, I couldn't see anything because I lost it as he went walking away from us looking so mature and "on his own." Unto one of the most important thing he's ever done, nonetheless. David looked at me and said, "Oh shoot, I didn't bring anything (tissue wise)." Then he went back to the play-by-play.

The kids all had gift bags with letters and other treats inside when they got back to us-that's a pretty decent penance:) Then we had some other things we did as a family such as post Nathan's picture on the First Communion Candidates board, etc. Then we went to sushi! It was very well done and we're so looking forward to First Communion.

Cutie Pies

We're all still all glowing over the Giant's win just 11 days ago! As evidenced here by the glow and the bib;)

"Performance" Time

Patsy and her class had a little performace the last day of class for the session. This is when we could actually watch her and the class. Her teacher is very strict on any distractions that the girls may have during class, so parents/siblings are not normally allowed in the room and even peeking through the glass is frowned upon. The teacher's definitely "old school" but Patsy loves her and is doing so well. Being that this is the one class everyone is encouraged to attend, we went with bells on. She did great!

Stretching & Line-up

This line-up picture is similar to the one that was in the paper...I'll post that link later.

Patricia & Allysa

This is Patsy's little friend that she loves taking dance with...I'm certain that's a major reason why she loves it so much!

Daddy & his Girls (almost all, I should say)

Daddy was very proud of his little girl...both of them actually. Amanda couldn't have been better:)

Flowers for the Budding Ballerina

This is a good one.

The night before Patsy's big "performance," David brought home some flowers from which I fashioned the most beautiful bouquet of pink roses with red edging, and my best ribbon wrap/hand tie yet! It would surely be the envy of any bride getting ready to walk down the aisle;) It was a surprise for her, so I snuck it into a small shopping bag and it just blended with every other baby bag/back pack we had going. I thought we would present it to her after the show. Well, I thought wrong.

After we arrived to class early and got front row seats, I was busy settling in the baby, camera, video etc. while conversing with a friend and was just totally distracted. As I was talking to my friend and on the look out for David to arrive, I heard the teacher exclaim, "Oh, how beautiful, thank you! These are gorgeous...." I turned around and across the room was Brandon and Patsy with huge smiles on their faces, presenting the bouquet to the teacher. After she was done gushing over the flowers, the teacher looked at me and in a loud whisper said, "Thank you." I just stood there and simply said, "You're welcome."

Next session I will have two bouquets.

Patsy's 3rd Birthday Tea Party

Patsy enjoyed her first tea party-as did many of her friends! It's quite a change from the boy parties we're used to doing (ie activities/behavior etc).

Patsy & me...

in front of "our" table.

It wasn't meant to be "princess" attire, but then Auntie Kathy and Grandpa gave Patsy this Princess Aurora outfit on her actual birthday, November 1st. Yes, the day the Giants won the World Series! It's very appropriate that they won on All Saints' Day, Patsy's birthday and my mother's birthday-Patsy's namesake. So, of course, she was going to wear whatever she recieved on that great day!

The Guests!!!

Miss Gabriana is Patsy's first friend ever! See November 2007 posts to see these beauties as wee babies in car seats. We don't see nearly enough of them, but Patsy knows who her first girlfriend is and was very excited to see her at the party:)

Musical Matting

This was our version of musical chairs. I took the mounting out of the frame we used to take pics of the guests with Patsy as they arrived, and we used it for this game. I just knew as I held up the whole frame prior to the party, one of the girls would accidently get clocked, sustain a facial laceration and end up in the ER getting sedated and sutured. Making this the BEST tea paty ever... yeah, let's go the Babbys, they know how to have a good time:)

Time for Tea

I am so amazed at this picture, mostly because all of the girls are actually sitting and eating (or picking at the food at least). Remember, the last time I threw a party for a three year old, it was all boys and it looked nothing like this picure here!

After the girls decorated their crowns and tea cups, they had a game (musical matting) and then sat down to eat. The menu for the three year olds was heart shaped tea sandwiches, ambrosia, mini fruit spears and some tea biscuits. Oh, the tea...lemonade out of a pretty tea pot. After lunch we had a story reading, followed by cake, and finally presents. The schedule worked out well, but we still found ourselves quite busy meeting the needs of six little ones.

Time for Cake

I just had to sneak a pic of my handsome husband (and beautiful baby) into the lot. Somehow, time flew by and we spaced getting a pic of all of us-bummer!

Patsy's Favorite Part

Patsy's favorite part was the singing! She wanted stand up to blow out her candles and kept singing the song to herself for several days afterward.

Parente Girls

Twins! Another activity entirely! I forgot how entertained little girls are with babies (Amanda slept a good part of the time). Then the twins showed up so cute and matching, and the girls went nuts over them:) That worked out well.

My favorite activity of the day was the presents...actually not the presents, but Patsy's reaction to the presents. Everytime she opened a gift (and she was particularly fond of each gift as she was opening it) she'd exclaim, "Mom look! Look it Mommy!" Very sweet:)

Patsy had a wonderful time and loved her party...thank you everyone!