Best. Week. Ever.

I'm being slightly generous with defining the past week...it's actually closing in on about 10 days now...but I'm going to give myself a pass on that little transgression.

What a glorious last few days!!!

It started with the girls' 9th BIRTHDAY last Friday.  WOW!!!  We had all our traditional birthday fun...

...French toast with homemade strawberry syrup.
...lunch with the girls at school.
...goodies (ice cream cups this year) with their classmates.
...Mommy picking them up after school.
...shrimp scampi and MOLTEN LAVA PUDDING CAKE.
...and fun presents, oh, my!

Traditional first-thing-in-the-morning birthday picture!

Saturday, I surprised the girls with "tickets" I mocked up to the indoor climbing gym.  We had an absolute blast!!!

Even Mommy got in on the climbing action!

Sunday, we had a productive day at home, and then a productive few days at school/work.  Of particular note, the girls both made 100% on their timed math tests, even after the holiday break.  Baby A is only one test away from earning the title of MULTIPLICATION GRAND MASTER.  She is excited!!!  B is doing great, too, tracking a couple of weeks behind her.  Those titles will be cause for major celebration!

On Friday, we all got a huge surprise.  School was preemptively cancelled late Thursday due to impending snow.  The shock was that Mommy's work closed early Friday morning, too!  What a glorious family day we had together.  We mostly snuggled by the fireplace, and the girls built an obligatory snow-day blanket fort.  AND Mommy and Daddy got most of the holiday stuff packed away (FINALLY).

Saturday morning, the girls were up EARLY in anticipation of snow play.  And PLAY in the SNOW we did!!!  We had great snow for sledding, and it's wasn't unbearably cold, either.

Snow Bunny B!

Snow Bunny A!

Wipe out hugs!

Getting ready!

Winter perfection!!!

Yep.  Best week ever.  We're loving it!!!

EIGHTH Birthday Play-by-Play!

Since the girls' first birthday, I've done a play-by-play of their birthday happenings.  My pictures are a little more sparse these days, since I have to share my birthday girls with the public school system...but I still manage to document my darlings.  My newly-minted EIGHT YEAR-OLDS had a great day!

Our annual first-thing-in-the-morning pics!

Baby A!

Baby B!

And the girls soon piled up together...they said they were posing like they were in Mommy's tummy.  HA!  I think they should swap places for that to be more accurate, though.

Sillies!!!

Since the girls' birthday fell on a Thursday, we decided we would have our family celebration the following Saturday.  I still surprised the girls with a few little treats.  Waiting on them at the breakfast table were these little guys...a nod to their Serbian nicknames, which mean "little duck" and "little bird".

After breakfast, we had some play time with the fur babies.

Baby A with Miki

Baby B with Alex

And then I attempted our annual birthday picture.  The girls weren't super excited for that activity, but I did get this one in their new kitty shirts.

I took the girls to school (and then began my whirlwind of a day, buzzing around doing birthday stuff!).

I took the girls lunch from one of our favorite bakeries...chicken salad sandwiches and white bean chowder.  YUM!!!

Mommy with her birthday girls!

And after a short visit home for me, I was back with donuts and lemonade for their classmates.

I picked the girls up from school and headed to the library.  We were long overdue to get new books.  That's usually a weekend activity, so it was a treat to be there in the middle of the week!

In the hot air balloon basket at the library!

I made the girls' traditional birthday meal, baked shrimp scampi over mashed potatoes, and then we enjoyed their traditional birthday dessert, chocolate molten lava pudding cake.  YUM!  We sang "Happy Birthday" -- twice, of course -- and dug into the sweet goodness.

After supper, I had another surprise for the girls...the Game of Life board game, and some new astronaut pajamas.

These precious baby girls had a great day, for sure!

My sleepy 8 year-olds after a full day of celebration!

The Actual BIRTH-Day

We celebrated the girls' birthday as a family on a Sunday, and their actual birthday was the following Tuesday.  Although they were at school for most of the day, I still did what I could to make their special day, special.

But first, our traditional first-thing-in-the-morning pictures!

Baby A knew this was coming...she was giggling!

Baby B was trying to frown...

 

...but then she broke out in a smile, too.

The girls technically had their special birthday breakfast on Sunday...but they mentioned wanting waffles...so waffles it was.

And then I wanted my annual birthday-day picture.  This didn't end up being *the* picture, but it was the first one I took.  I thought it was so cute how they posed themselves!

And here is *THE* picture:

SWEETNESS!!!

And the obligatory "seven fingers up".  (Check out B's eyes...that's when I have to encourage her to keep her eyes open during the flash...HA!)

I took the day off from work so I could go and do with the girls.  The next stop was lunch with them at school.

I got them chicken salad from Sweet Temptations, along with a snickerdoodle dessert (because they wouldn't have enough sweets that day!).  It was a nice treat!

And then, just before school was out, I took cupcakes (complete with dinosaur rings!) to school.  The timing worked out that Hubby could be there, too, and it was wonderful to have the whole family in on the action!

B's class had their cupcakes first, and she migrated over to A's class for their celebration.  Nothing like a sisterly choke-hold to celebrate a birthday!

It was a COLD day, but we let the girls play outside on their scooters for a few minutes.

And then it was time for the girls' special birthday dinner.  They specifically asked me -- several times, of their own accord -- to make this on their birthday day, NOT on the day we had our family celebration.  I thought it was so cute to see how much they treasured their shrimp scampi!

And the girls asked to drink their milk out of "special glasses".  Hee hee!

And then it was time for our traditional birthday dessert, chocolate molten lava pudding cake (or so I call it)...YUM!!!

At last, it was time for bed.  I snapped one last picture, the girls snuggled in Daddy's lap during our night-night routine.

They still fit!

It was a wonderful birthday celebration for our SEVEN-year olds!

Happiest of birthdays, Baby A!  Happiest of birthdays, Baby B!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!!

A Birthday to Document

(This post may be late, but the girls' birthday celebration was not!)  :)  The girls' birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so we celebrated as a family the Sunday prior.  Going back to their first birthday, I like to document the day play-by-play, and I can only capture so much when they're in school.

So...two days prior to turning the big SEVEN...here's how our babies spent the day!

The girls requested French toast with homemade syrup.  I made strawberry syrup, and it was delicious!

Four thumbs up!

After breakfast, the girls did a little reading with Daddy...

And then it was time to open gifts!

The kitties even helped.  :)

The girls got lots of new books!

And they had to dig in right away...

After the girls each consumed a book, they each started building a wooden model they got.

Can you see me now???

 Baby A was super proud of her helicopter!!!

And B loved her tyrannosaurus rex!

ROAR!!!

 After their models were complete, the girls got an envelope to open.  It was full of clues...

...which ultimately spelled, "GET DRESSED WARMLY AND GO LOOK OUTSIDE".

To the girls' delight, they found SCOOTERS!!!  And we were incredibly lucky we had not-too-freezing weather to enjoy them!!!

The girls worked SO hard learning to balance...

After lots of concentrated practice, we decided to break for lunch.

We planned to go to Yuki for our traditional birthday sushi...but we didn't realized they were closed for lunch on Sundays.  We went instead to the Bistro and had a wonderful lunch.  The girls even got to enjoy a very special dessert!

After some much-deserved "quiet time" that afternoon, we donned our coats (it somehow seemed colder!) and got in some more scooter practice.

It was incredible how, after that little break from the morning, the girls seemed to pick right up and be able to RIDE!!!

They posed like this themselves!

We all had a wonderful day, celebrating SEVEN.