We've Got a Mission

 What a beautiful day!  It all started off a tad chilly but after getting Nora to school, Rose and I headed to the store to start her party preparations... then after some house cleaning and picking up Nora, we headed outside and spent the rest of the afternoon out back. 

 The girls were swinging on swings...

 Played ball...

 Just having fun enjoying the warm weather... we're still waiting for winter to really hit! 

 I took advantage of the girls playing to fix the arbor which had been hit hard by all the nasty winds we've had...

 And while watching the girls, noticed that these little guys are already blooming... and it's still January!

Even the forsythia have little buds on them...

 As our outside time wrapped up, Emily got home and shared her Wampum Beads with us (they tell the story of her getting her ears pierced)...

 and then onto Karate where Nora earned another stripe ...

 and another star for reaching her goal of keeping her room clean all week. 

 Then once the girls were in bed, I got to work on party preps... here's one thing to check off my list ... Rocket is done...

Next Up

 Now that we have finished up Nora's party - it's time to start finalizing Rose's.  With her birthday Wednesday and then her party Saturday, I have quite a list to finish up.  But today the girls were playing with the leftover decorations while I was cleaning up.  Rose had a balloon in each hand and was putting on quite a show with her hair..

The other two?  Well, they finally settled into playing together nicely with Nora's new toys in the afternoon and had a fun time doing so... with all the little Lalaloopsy stuff all over... Emily ran down at one point asking for the camera to take a picture of their set up (see below)...
Then I was talking to Rose about her birthday - well, you can see the progression of our conversation here...
 http://youtu.be/xvspXLHSHX0
http://youtu.be/-UJZi3WpRCE
http://youtu.be/8G7YIER_MVM

Birthday Party Day

 The birthday party day has arrived... we had a busy morning ahead of us and after going to bed late and getting up during the night (Rose was up calling a "meow, meow" around 4am), I wasn't sure how it would all go... but off we went...

Karate first... then from there to get Nora's cake..

 Then onto Emily's GT Architectural Showcase... all the kids in the district had their structures on display at a local elementary school.  They were all great... although I'm a tad partial to this one! :o) Emily did such a wonderful job - they've spent the semester learning about architecture, made blueprints and turned those blueprints into real structures.  Emily planned and created all the pieces and she can label and name all of them!  There were parts on a house I never knew had a name except for "thingamajig"! 

 Then from there to the party store to get the balloons for the PARTY!

 A quick lunch and then the final set ups for the party...in between setting up, we had a quick webcam chat with the Mays - they wanted to wish Nora Happy Birthday... she was so excited!  So since we were all gathereed around the computer - figured I'd snap a picture of all of us.
                                    

 Nora checking on her cake..

 The room was all set - all we needed were some guests...

 Once they got there, Nora greeted each guest and helped them make a Lalaloopsy hat/headband...we then played "Pin the Star on Peanut Big Top"...

 Then they got their face painted.  We enlisted Emily and her friend Mary Claire to do the face painting station - they did a great job!

 We then moved onto "sewing" pillows.  Nora wanted to do some kind of sewing (keeping with the Lalaloopsy theme and all) so we had felt pieces with yarn string and made little pillows that we filled with Polyfil. 

 Here's Rose being silly...

 Then onto some "Patch Treasure Chest Treasure Hunt"... here's Nora with all her Pirate booty...

 Then Cake time...here's a video fo the kids singing to Nora:
http://youtu.be/sxUR7NAoMfE

 A group shot of all the kids there...

 Then onto presents...

 We then played a quick game of hot potatoe with Mittens Stuff and Fluff...

  

Once a winner was declared in Mittens, we headed outside to run some steam off.. 

 Once everyone was gone, the girls didn't waste anytime with digging into all the toys and checking out Nora's gifts she got.  It was a really fun day - Nora had a great time and was so nice to all her guests.  Happy Birthday Nora!

Want to see more pictures from our day?  Here's the link on Walmart.com -

http://photos2.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7031946004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

Final Preps

 Today was final prepping day - we have a few more things to do tomorrow but they are more pick up type things (cake, balloons,etc) So today we put up the decorations....

 the games...

 The goodie bags...

 The table...

 The goodies (we made up little Lalaloopsy coloring books)...

 And the table decorations in the dining room..

 Rose did her part and helped me cut...

 Then Nora helped me mix the dough for her button cookies..

 Emily helped me finish the cookies after Rose and Nora went to bed. 

 And now the cookies are done and separated out for each of the goodie bags... and hopefully soon, some sleep - tomorrow will be another whirlwind day! A Lalaloopsy Day!