Wake up, kiddo!  It's your birthday!

What?  Cake? Presents? All attention on me?  Woohoo!

I distinctly remember singing...

Jaynie blowing out candles...

Only thing I have pictures of is this chocolate face.

Present time!

We know how to do birthdays right around here.

Breakfast of chocolate cake...

Immediately followed by the big bag-o-presents.

Gasp! New dress-up stuff!

Look at me!  Guess who I am?

That's right!  A mermaid!

Or... Maybe I just feel like being a princess ballerina today.

I love this.  Modeling the tshirt - how cute is this?

Here we have the troublemaker, oh so quietly sneaking up on her new chair.

Testing it out.

Hey, this isn't bad!  Not too manly, though...

Maybe the play-doh box would be better?  Eh, not very comfy...

Aaaah.  That's more like it.

Mom!  How is this wig supposed to look?

Before blowing out her birthday candles, Jaynie made a wish.

"I wish I had a REAL Cinderella dress!"

Then she opens her presents and finds this.

"MY WISH CAME TRUE!!!!!"

Thank you thank you, Aunty Suz.  You made her wish come true.  (I really hope you didn't spend too much on that wig, though.)

Madam had a costume party.  We had many Auroras....

and one duck. 

This is all the kids wanted to do - round and round and round on this thing.

Analiese hasn't *quite* figured out these sunglasses.

More spinning. It's a miracle we didn't have a puke incident.  (sugar + spinning = disaster.)

This is why you have the party at the park.  Look how much fun she's having!

Here is another reason.  Look at what a mess they're making!

Decorating their own cupcakes.

I may never make a birthday cake for this kid.  Look how great the kid-decorated ones are!

And so much fun, too.

Emma was the sprinkle queen.

Who knew you could fit that many sprinkles on one cupcake?

Jaynie just sits back in awe.

Niiiice chocolate teeth.

Bridget is thinking "Maybe you should stick to vanilla if you're going to get so many pictures taken of you, you fruit-loop!"

Back at the homestead...

The duck takes a tour around the driveway...

While the princess plays with her balloons.

Wheelie!

Hey.  Is that duck riding MY bike?

Why yes, I do believe he is.  Quack.

Eh, it's ok!  I have 3043087403740378 new toys to play with instead! Ha! Happy Birthday to ME!

Nobody was feeling cooperative, so we have this lovely shot of Grandma standing alone in front of the Castle.

See what I mean about uncooperative?  3 generation pic - would it kill her to look at the camera?

Naked chutes and ladders!

Jonas is desperate, DESPERATE, to play. 

If only Joe would let him reach the board!  Torture!

Awwwww.

It's the traditional "You've been here for 2 weeks and we hardly got any pictures so now lets go take 29038479387 of you and the kids before we head out to the airport" photo shoot!

Maybe we should work on taking these on the first day,

instead of the last morning of the visit.

Grandma looks a little teary in these, to me.

Nothing takes the sting out of Grandma's departure like presents in the mail!

Thank you Gil and Evie for these cuuuute pj's and princess stuff!

What is she doing, you might ask.

"Laying out her outfit", I might answer.

Gotta get everything pieced together juuuust right.

This includes tucking the socks into the boots.

The completed look. (Yes, she picked this out.)

What you can't see, is the underwear carefully tucked into the jeans.

Let's hear it for childhood OCD! Hurray!

Hey, gorgeous!  Why are you brushing your hair up there?

Ah.  To keep the brush away from your brother.  Very clever.

Awwww.

Two kids in the same photo!  It's like it's my birthday or something!

No, Jonas!  You can't have my brush!

Waaaaaah! WHY NOT?

(snuffle) FINE! (snuffle snork) I'll just wear this tiara instead! (shudder)

Jaynie runs into the kitchen and DEMANDS that I take a picture of her "running face".

So here it is, folks.  The running face. (Please pardon the food on her lip - I swear, I do occasionally wash her.)

Hey, Twink!  Hold up that cute card you made for Daddy's birthday!

Excellent!  Now move that cute card so we can see your cute face!

Fabulous! (Another stylish outfit picked by Jayne.)

If you can't tell what's going on here...

Then you obviously don't watch as much Sleeping Beauty as we do.

It's Aurora and Phillip dancing in the forest, hello!

Aww.  Ballet day!

I couldn't help taking all these pictures of her in the outfit.

And now I can't help posting them.  Look how cute!

Once at class, she immediately checks her outfit in the big mirror.

Sitting, patiently awaiting instruction.

Is this dancing?  Just running?  I don't know - Joe took all these pictures.

He took the kids to class and got these pics for me.

Yes, kids.  Plural.  You can see the other one (the trouble-maker) infringing on the ballerinas in this blurry yet priceless shot.

Holy cannolli!  The teacher managed to teach her to sit criss-cross-applesauce!

I've been trying to get her to do this for months!

Practically all of these are from the back.

But would you look at how adorable she is?  Check out those tights!

Hands on hips.  So sweet.

Wardrobe malfunction.

I'll end with this beautiful shot of her ballet arms.  Can the rest of you tell that she's a prodigy from this picture?  Cause it's obvious to me. 

Joe put Jaynie down for a nap wearing pj's.  We didn't hear a peep out of her.  30 minutes later he peeks in and finds this - pj's have been put away, Madam is wearing a full princess outfit (complete with tiara) and is fast asleep.  That kid.  She's slowly figuring out that she can get away with anything, as long as she's quiet about it.

Post-nap, we're playing the "Does this fit?" game.

Bathing suit? Yes!  Rain boots? No! (Huge!)

Mom. These. Boots. Fit.

In fact, I don't think I'll ever take them off.

Look, folks!  Proof!  He can walk! (He simply chooses not to.  Seriously - he's wearing holes in the knees of all his pants.  He just loves to crawl.)

I got bangs.  Look - can you see my wrinkles?  No?  What about that big zit on my forehead?  No?  GREAT SUCESS!!!  (If I ever get a Misc. page set up, I'll move this over there. For now? It stays on the kid page.  Complaints can be mailed to GetOverIt@Gmail.)

Holy cow! Is that the real Ariel?

Ah - nope.  Feet.  She almost had me fooled there.

I say "Jaynie! Smile for the camera!" and this is what I get.  She says "I was licking my lips so they'd look glossy for the picture."  Geesh.

A princess and a......

What is he?  A ganster?

DJ Chubb is in the hiz-ouse!

Oh, disregard. He's a pirate! AAARRRR!

Jaynie's friend Bridget couldn't decide between a pirate party, or a princess one.

So she had a Pirate Princess Party.

We had a rep from both camps in our car. Tons. Of. Fun.

Speaking of Bridget...

Here are the two trouble-makers (sorry, PRINCESSES) doing I don't know what with a bunch of rocks.

Seriously - what is the attraction?

Here's how this worked - we'd say "Say CHEESE!" and they all would.

Then there would be a time delay (Foose!) and they all would look away.  Emma's still saying cheese, I see.  It's those other two with the short attention span.

The crazy outfits aren't an every day thing.

It was dress-up-day at the library.

I don't know who's idea it was, but the girls seemed to enjoy it. (Notice the ballet skirt with the leopard-print tights.  Does my kid know how to "dress-up" or what?)

All that playing is exhausting.

Apparently, all that being carried around is exhausting, too. (You gotta love a car that's big enough to just leave the stroller un-folded when you put it away.)

It's a tough life.

Up from the nap and time to play.

Oooh!  Jaynie's not up yet, so he goes straight for her toys.

Whoops.  There she is. (Ok, for real - how much do you love this outfit she picked?)

She spots Jonas playing with her Dora castle....

And yawns!  He's saved by her not being fully awake.

More fun at the library.

This time, some nutritionists came to read stories about the food groups, and when they were done they put out fruit for the kids!

Which was great, since we never feed them (or so you would assume, watching them fall on this fruit like ravenous little monkeys.)