Thurs. March 7, 2013 - Mommy's birthday!

 When Daddy is the hairstylist

 Aunt Winnie and Riley put candles on my cake

Celebrating with my family

 Luckily I had help blowing out those candles

 The girls!

My wonderful husband brought home tulips for my birthday. If he can find tulips in WI surely spring is coming, right? 

 That night we had a fire

 Everyone relaxed and enjoyed our evening

 Time for another art project

Lots of green paint and glitter

Shamrocks for our windows!

 One day Riley wanted to play with boots

 So of course Micaela had to join in

 The vegetable garden at our children's museum is so cool

Big sister showing little sister the birds

 To celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday (which also happens to be March 2), we went to a special story hour with the Cat in the Hat!

 Both girls paid close attention

 Riley with the Cat; Micaela wanted nothing to do with him

Making her own red and white striped hat

Micaela preferred to build blocks instead

 Nice hat!

 Riley misses Clifford, her worm from outside, so she made a whole army of Cliffs

 I loved Happy Joe's when we lived in Princeton, I had no idea it was a chain!

 When Daddy is away we girls have special treats like ice cream sundaes

This week we celebrated my birthday. I don't feel 37, am I really this old? It was a perfect birthday. Chad and the girls gave me wonderful gifts to let me know that spring really will come at some point: tulips, chocolates (to help me survive the rest of winter) and a gorgeous pink Kate Spade bag. I was very excited to have Mom and Aunt Winnie come up to help us celebrate. On Saturday we went shopping. We've been in the house for almost a year and I still haven't hung a thing on our living room walls and I really wanted to fix this. I knew I could rely on these expert shoppers and decorators, we found great pieces. Chad went biking at his indoor mountain bike park so he was ready to hang them all when he got home. We now have a lovely, homey-feeling living room.

Saturday night, instead of going out, I wanted to stay home and make a nice dinner. Chad grilled vegetables and steak fajitas while Mom, Winnie and I traded off chopping the toppings, making salsa verde and entertaining the kids. The result was an amazing dinner, accompanied by margaritas of course. Followed by 3 layers of chocolate cake and chocolate mousse topped with chocolate ganache...my dream dinner.

Chad has been Atlanta this week so I've kept the girls extra busy. We made shamrocks in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day and went to a special Dr. Seuss story hour with The Cat in the Hat. Tonight we went to dinner at Happy Joe's. This was one of my favorite restaurants from my childhood, I was so excited to find one in Appleton. The girls enjoyed the pizza but everyone's favorite was the icecream.