Celebrating Quinlin's birthday

Over a month later, but I didn't want to forget what we did to celebrate Quinlin turning 4. I wanted to start a fun tradition for her and I, so we planned a mommy/daughter morning, and truthfully, hope it's something we can keep doing every year.

We started with the "picture on the stairs"

Then it was off to dance class

and then to the salon... this was the tradition- a morning of pampering.

finished, pretty hair!

then it was time for Quinlin's first manicure

then it was my turn

She got her toes done too. she was too small to sit with her feet in the hot water, so we opted just to do it in the manicure room. 

Our finished hands

Her finished toes! she chose sparkly blue! they had to fold and cut her pedicure slippers. I wasn't thinking when I dressed her in her fuzzy brown boots that day.

After the salon, we came home, had lunch, and finally got to open presents!

She was so excited for her new booster seats, her scooter and her new birthday dress! 

Party time!

can I mention how much I love my new crock pots? They're the connecting ones where you can use one or more on one electrical plug. Love them!

Frozen cake! (we have a slight obsession with the movie)

My mom's annual birthday card! the sled is the number 4!

Cousin love!

More presents!

It really was a fantastic day. My baby is 4. sniff sniff. 

Quinlin turns 4

We have been chugging along trying to survive this cold weather. I cannot remember it being this cold in Ohio in a long time. Hunter has had school cancelled the past few days due to the temperatures. It actually has worked out though- he's home sick today (vomiting) and Owen and Quinlin are sick as well (Owen- double ear infection, Quinlin- sinus infection, strep and a staph infection).


Aside from the illnesses and the cold, we have been doing well.

This little lady turned 4!

I can't believe it (I say that about all my kids, every year, every age). 

• She is 37 lbs and I'm a slacker that I didn't catch her height at her sick visit yesterday. She goes for her well visit next week so I hope to get that then.
• She wears size 4 pants, and size 4 and 5 tops
• She wears size 10 shoes
• She has quite the personality- very animated, dramatic, sweet and funny
• She loves getting her hair done. starting to wear braids and ponies all the time.
• She knows all her letters and numbers (still working on both upper and lower case recognition wise)
• She is also starting sight words since we are working on them with Owen

Starting at age 3, we ask the same questions on their birthdays. Her answers from last year are here.

The annual birthday quiz:

1. What's your name? Quinlin Olivia (our last name here)
2. How old are you? 4 (proudly holding 4 fingers)
3. Where do you live? here
4. what is your favorite color? green and blue
5. what do you want to be when you grow up? a big sister (not happening, sorry honey)
6. who is your favorite person? Daddy and my new lamby
7. who's your best friend? Owen, Daddy and Ginny
8. what is your favorite tv show? Spongebob
9. what is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese
10. what is your favorite drink? grape juice
11. what do you like to do for fun? play with Tia
12. what do you like to play outside? ride my bike
13. what is your favorite song? What's the Weather
14. what is your favorite movie? Tangled and Frozen (we've seen Frozen 3 times now)
15. what is your favorite book? Pete the Cat

We had such a fun time celebrating this year. I need to get pictures off my phone and will post those in my next post.

Happenings

My sister has reminded me that it has been months since there has been an update. I have totally been slacking on my blog since I started working from home. For some reason, on my new computer, I was having a hard time linking pictures into the blog, and without pictures, what fun is a post? But, I think my IT guy got it fixed, so all is right in the world.

Well, except for Adam Levine being People's Sexiest?

I am not a fan... too skinny, voice high pitched, etc...but I am more of a Channing Tatum fan (as documented and noted....extensively). Actually, People magazine missed the boat.... they don't know about this guy:

OK... enough about hot men...

what have we been up to? Hunter, Owen and Quinlin are all thriving in the new school year. Hunter managed to pull a 3.5 for the first quarter of junior year (all while working- though no longer at the inflatable place...now he's in the food industry, and enjoying it).

Owen is doing well in pre-kindergarten and it solidified the fact that we made the right decision by holding him off from starting kindergarten as a young five. He is enjoying learning, eager to attempt to read, loves to play the game of rhyming words and opposites. Our new thing to tackle are sight words and will in due time. His coloring and drawings have been fantastic! It's amazing the difference in a year of how his mind works.

Quinlin is really enjoying preschool as well. She is learning and growing and has such the personality!

Other fun happenings...
My sister and I planned a girls weekend and went to Fort Lauderdale. So nice to have a weekend to ourselves. We visited family, spent time on the beach and at the pool, did some shopping. It was perfect!

 

 

Halloween happened. Sean and I went to a Halloween party in the neighborhood:

And the kids enjoyed trick or treating, though it was incredibly rainy and cold and they only lasted 30 minutes. But they sure looked cute!
 

We took family pictures this fall- a snapshot to leave you with!

 

and how sweet is this one???

 

Now that I can get pictures back on the blog, I will attempt to do it more regularly.

Owen- 5 year stats

39 lbs, 43 inches (I think he was 36% weight and 44% height)

He had his 5 year well visit last night. 2 shots and he's milking it today. walking with his legs stiff. The nurse we had made me restrain him, which I think made it worse for him to get the shots.

Passed his hearing and vision tests with flying colors. Named every shape for the vision test- circle, square and the little house symbol which I figured he would say house, but answered pentagon (or his version- pectagon).

My little smarty pants.

Happy Birthday Owen! Owen turns 5!!!

You guys...my baby is 5! I cant believe it. This was seriously his best birthday ever. He was old enough to understand, old enough to countdown the days, old enough to fully speak and communicate exactly what he wanted to do. His birthday celebrations started on Friday as we had his party Friday night at the pool of one of the rec centers. He loved it- though 21 kids was slightly chaotic. He had a blast, the kids had a blast, and needless to say, us parents had a blast as well. I had pinned so many ideas from pinterest and then ran out of time to do them, and actually was glad I didn't. The kids wouldn't have noticed my fun details, and I think I would have been disappointed in the time spent and what we got out of them. So simple- pizza, cake, etc.

On Saturday, my parents came over to celebrate.

my mom makes him the sweetest cards. This was this year's- he's a pirate on his number 5 boat.

His actual birthday was Sunday and we had a laid back kind of day. He opened presents in the morning and then we did whatever he wanted.

We went to breakfast- Owen's choice:

 

then played around the neighborhood and road bikes (he learned how to ride without training wheels about a week ago),

 

then we went to a kiddie park with our friends from the neighborhood.

Tacos for dinner (Owen's pick) and we called it a day. Success!

Though, Quinlin wasn't too thrilled that the day wasn't all about her. Poor little lady.

 

 

• Not much has changed between 4 and 5 growth wise. He is in 4T shorts, 4T and 5T shirts and size 11 shoes.
• I am not sure how tall he is as his physical is in a few weeks, but he is still about 36/38 pounds. He is really lean but has a nice, athletic build to him. Definitely has daddy's body and daddy's legs.
• His hair is darkening up a bit. Not as blond as it was last summer. More of a dirty blond color.
• This year, he loves swimming! I signed him up for swim lessons again and he did really well this year. Not afraid- and almost a little too not afraid as he begs to take off his water wings. But- he is doing well, loves to go under and loves to show off his moves of what he has learned.
• He also loves playing outside- football, basketball, riding his bike (yay on his own too- such a big boy!
• Preschool was great for him. By 5 he can count foever, knows most letters and can write his name. Still needs some help and practice with some letters and writing, but he gets it. One more year before kindergarten will be good for him.
• Friends are still huge for him. Aside from the friends in the neighborhood, he has developed great friendships with the kids from school. We find ourselves constantly planning playdates or trips to the movies. I'm a little sad that he's not going to kindergarten and all his friends are moving on, but I know this is the best thing for him.
• He seriously is so sweet. When asking him what he wanted for his birthday, he said whatever we wanted to get him. And when opening gifts, he ensured Quinlin could have some presents to play with too. I'm so proud.

The Quiz
I asked Owen a series of questions and will be asking this every year on his birthday. You can read age 3 answers here and age 4 answers here. Here are his responses from this year:

1. What's your name? Owen Patrick ______
2. How old are you? 5
3. Where do you live? here (though when asked again, he gave his full address)
4. what is your favorite color? blue
5. what do you want to be when you grow up? a dentist
6. who is your favorite person? Daddy and Mama
7. who's your best friend? Daddy, Mama and Quinny. from school- Patrick
8. what is your favorite tv show? Bubble Guppies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spongebob
9. what is your favorite food? tacos
10. what is your favorite drink? warmer water (much prefers from the faucet as opposed to filtered from the fridge)
11. what do you like to do for fun? play outside
12. what do you like to play outside? ride my bike or play with my friends
13. what is your favorite song? I Love It by Icona Pop (though he calls it Snooki and JWow)
14. what is your favorite movie? The Simpsons Movie
15. what is your favorite book? Pete the Cat