it was grace’s birthday! we trekked our way up to dick and jane’s house to celebrate grace’s day. when we got there, the kiddos were on the boat with gramma and grandpa, tubing. olive, hc, and i chilled at the house until they returned. once they got back, jane started to whip up some dinner.

while we were waiting, everyone was playing with miss olive. as soon as olive saw her sister grace, she was nothing but smiles. she loves her sister! grace is the only person who can make olive laugh and laugh.

[olive loves her sister!]

[hb gracie!]

[daddy with his girls]

jane made spaghetti, meatballs, and sausage. i decided on the pasta and meatballs with a pound of parmesan cheese, please! we sat down for dinner, while olive {miraculously} played on the floor by herself! we were pretty impressed, i love seeing her change and grow and how she is now so content with entertaining herself. so, she scooted around, grabbed at her toys, and gabbed out lout while we downed our dinner.

[marbled birthday cake]

[papa, daniel, olive, grace, and hc]

[spaghetti and meatballs]

gramma made marbled cake with chocolate frosting for grace! her cake was adorned with m&m’s and different colored sparkler candles. we lit them up and sparks started to fly from each one…a very fun, pretty sight for everyone. we sang happy birthday to her and then her dad tricked her into getting up from her seat…he gave her a birthday spanking! every year she falls for it!

[olive singing happy birthday to grace!]

[make a wish! grace couldn’t get all the candles blown out!]

[birthday spanking!]

[cake and ice-cream]

she opened up all her gifts and then we had to jet! i felt bad we had to leave right away but we were behind schedule. we were suppose to leave at seven, due to olive’s schedule, but we ended up leaving at eight. i was not a happy camper…i’m adamant on sticking to olive’s schedule. it takes an hour or more to get home and i knew she would fall asleep in the car. baby girl goes to bed at nine…that meant we would be home after nine, she would be sleeping that entire hour {when she should be awake!}, we still needed to give her a bath, and i needed to feed her. she ended up staying up later because she wasn’t tired {because of the nap} but all was well in the end.

[opening her gifts]

[she’s outgrowing me!]

happy birthday grace! it was fabulous to be able to celebrate it with you. happy twelve years little lady. here is to many more wonderful celebrations!

xoxo