Moe Bday Party

Well, we had a fabulous party for Greta Bird yesterday. Unfortunately, I got surprisingly few pictures of Greta. Lots of pictures of our neices and nephews, not so many of our own kids. Well, that's not exactly true.... I took a lot of pictures of Greta in the bathtub after eating her cake, and Anja who joined her in the tub with all her clothes on! But as I told my sister, there is NO WAY I am posting bathtub pictures anywhere for the world to see. My bathtub is MUCH to scummy for that and I won't have you all thinking I live in a tenement. Here is Greta in her new red wagon! We had such a hard time (as we did when Anja turned one) thinking up a good present for a first birthday. I was pretty proud of coming up with this one, and Greta seemed delighted with our choice. (Please view previous blog post for the perfect picture--stolen off of TusaRebecca's facebook!) The only thing that Greta loves, loves, loves are baby dolls. Her Grandmamma gave her one yesterday and it was PRICELESS, the excitement of her opening it, and I couldn't get it out of the box fast enough for her. This girl LOVES baby dolls. It was so adorable, and I really hope somebody else got pictures of it because I didn't. Sadly.

I did get this great picture of our nephew, Carlos though! Martin went to the store and picked out party favors. He's so funny. He did this while keeping the girls out of the houes yesterday so I could do stuff like mop the floor and construct a cake that looked like a cat. No pictures were taken of it because it was so horrible looking that I thought I'd spare you all. I do wish I'd taken a picture of the mudpie though, because it was absolutely gorgeous AND delicous. All 567 calories per serving (pie serves 16). WOW.

And we got all these gorgeous bags! This yellow one (featured here with our springtime friend, Hairy Vawz) is from our fabulous neighbor Kelsey. I'm so glad she got to come! She gave the girls matching dresses that are adorable. They are in the "Liberty" print that is featured at Target right now, and there was a big thing in the current Country Living about it. CUTE STUFF! They even have a ladies bike in this floral print (not the print of this bag, don't be confused) !! Anyway, Kelsey's awesome. I MUST get her reading Amanda Blake Soule so we can be obsessed together.

This next adorable, homemade bag is from my sister-in-law, AnnLaura, and was filled with wooden food! You can't really see it all that well, but the button on this bag is the cutest in the world.

And this third bag was made by my sister with wipe-out lining so it's perfect for things like cheerios! It also has a velcro closure, which is great for both girls, cause who doesn't love velcro?

Greta was SUCH a better cake eater than Anja on her first birthday. Anja made me feed her her chocolate cake. Boooooorriiiing.

Greta got so messy she needed a bath!

All in all a wonderful day! The girls were GREAT too, cheerful the whole time. After the party Martin's family stayed and we ordered pizza. That's become sort of a tradition, and I love it! AnnLaura and Juan come down from Chicago and it seems to make their trip a little more worthwhile. Also, they had boarded their puppy dog for the night, which is usually the reason they need to hurry back home. After everyone was gone Martin and I drove the girls to sleep right away because Anja wanted a ride in the car. Ha! I think she thought we were actually going somewhere, but we knew she wouldn't last more than a few minutes before zonking out. They were both asleep within five minutes. So cute!!

Here are some pictures from the past week.

To celebrate the feast of St. Joseph and the beautiful weather, I surprised Martin on Friday afternoon with a picnic dinner. I picked him up from work and we drove out to Prophetstown with this loaf of beer bread an a yummy pasta salad that turned out to be not as fabulous as had been advertised. Still good though, and meat-free for Friday. I brought it in this handy bread box, a gift from my sister-in-law AnnLaura--it matches a cake container I have that I got from my grandma! AnnLaura also gave me the matching sugar and coffee tins. The sugar tin I now use for sewing notions, and the coffee tin has mysteriously disappeared. It's actually really weird.... I was letting the girls play with them and now I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, the bread tin is the perfect size for a picnic box!

Once we got there is turned out to be A LOT colder and windier than I had thought. We had one hat and one pair of fuzzy pants in the car... but in the end, we just packed up and went home.

This is Anja carrying our silverware box for us! Isn't this great? It's filled with small brass silverware with wooden handles. I got it at a garage sale the summer Martin and I were engaged. I love it!

These pictures were from earlier on Friday afternoon.

Anja is giving the flowers a drink on the sidewalk.

And here she is, coaxing the daffodils to bloom. (Which they did, the morning of G's party!!)

Two old ladies sharing digestive biscuits.

Oh, these are from St. Patrick's day, when we ate our corned beef and cabbage outside.

And that's about it! Happy birthday today to our friend MaryGrace! One day older than Greta!