Ahoy to everyone!

Braelyn’s 3rd Birthday party was a success this weekend :)  The pirate theme was fun to work with from the decorations, food and even a costume (exclusively from Disneyland!) for Braelyn.  We kept it simple for the menu; buccaneer burgers and gold (chicken) nuggets, cannon balls (grapes), peg leg veggies (carrot & celery sticks) and a variety of crackers and dips.  We had a cupcake cake made to look like water and sand and then I added her Backyardigans pirate ship bath toy and some gold coins, palm trees, and other characters to dress it up.  Braelyn even ate some frosting off of one of the cupcakes (although not the cupcake itself) which we were surprised about as she is NOT one for eating sweets.  Our backyard is PERFECT for these types of occasions and we put out her easel, sand/water table and Matt’s ping pong table.  We rented a Pirates of the Caribbean bounce house for the whole day and Braelyn was in it precisely at 8AM when it was delivered and didn’t get out until 5PM when they took it away.  She invited various members of the family to jump with her so I think the adults enjoyed it too!!  We had pirate balloons and streamers, various pirate cartoon character decorations and even made some “food islands” out of fruits (cantaloupe) and veggies (carrots and bell peppers).  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and Braelyn complimented my decorations several times telling me they were “beautiful” and asking me if I “did this all by yourself?”  I did wear myself out with all of the planning and executing though and Sunday did NOTHING but take a long nap and rest :)  Thanks to all of you that made it out and helped us to celebrate.  For those of you that we missed, here are some FABULOUS pictures that can help you see how much fun we had.  I will be taking a party planning break until next year when she turns 4 - - YIKES!!!

Love to you all,

MLB Mama

So, my blog post doesn’t really have a theme this time around, other than to show off how AWESOME our family is!!! LOL

Braelyn started swim class again and this time, Uncle Chris is her private instructor.  She LOVES going to class and is really happy to see Chris every week and kick her feet, wear goggles and splash around for 1/2 an hour.  Mom likes it too because it seems to tire her out and make her naps last longer!

Braelyn has really been into writing and drawing lately and she has perfected the drawing of faces; happy, mad or scared with big eyes and “crazy hair”.  She will draw faces over and over on her easel, pads of paper and her chalkboard.  I thought everyone might like to see one of the samples that she drew especially for me with NO help!

I also wanted to show everyone how she can write her name (with some help from mom!).  She is definitely right handed which is strange to Matt and I, both being lefties!

This week we took some family pictures and any of you that have ever tried to photograph Braelyn know what an experience it can be getting her to stay still, look at the camera & smile nicely all at the same time.  So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when the pictures turned out WONDERFULLY!  Here are 2 of my favorites:

We here in AZ hope that you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and enjoy the upcoming week.  We will have another post soon detailing all of the 3rd Birthday festivities for those of you that won’t be able to be here with us.  It should be a lot of fun!

Love Always,

MLB Mama