Evelyn Turns 3 Years Old! [Part 4]

Here are just some cute pics of Evie opening more presents on Sunday morning.  She is just such a beautiful girl, isn't she?  ;)

Evelyn Turns 3 Years Old! [Part 3]

After Evie's birthday dinner at home, we had our friends Vicki & Ray, and their daughter Gola over for an ice cream sundae buffet.  Evie loves ice cream possibly more than anything else in the world right now, so it went over really well.  Plus it was really fun for Joe & me to gather various toppings and make our own strawberry sauce (yum).  The girls had a really fun time playing together and we loved getting to celebrate Evie's birthday with our good friends.

Evelyn Turns 3 Years Old! [Part 2]

Evie got some really great and super fun presents this year from very thoughtful family and friends.  And she loved opening each and every one of them.  Here are some cute pics of her opening her very own umbrella from her Nana & Papa.  She spent a good time today playing with it, and saying "tut-tut, looks like rain" (Winnie the Pooh reference).  It was hilarious and really adorable.  I know she's going to love using it outside too whenever it actually does rain again.

Evelyn Turns 3 Years Old! [Part 1]

After much anticipation, Evie's birthday has arrived.  This year was even so much more fun than last year because she really "got it", and was especially excited about everyone wearing birthday hats, balloons, presents, cake, and singing the happy birthday song.  This year is great too, because her birthday is on a Saturday so Joe could be home for her special day and we made it a whole birthday weekend celebration.  In lieu of a crazy toddler party, we opted to just do fun stuff at home and try to make it as special as possible.  My parents always did a great job of making our birthdays feel very special through all the little things, even on years where there wasn't a party, and we wanted to continue the tradition in our family.  So on Evie's birthday morning, she woke up to balloons and other decorations, a stack of party hats (which she promptly insisted that we all wear), and a couple of presents.  And since she is 3 this year, we opted to have her open her presents periodically throughout the weekend so she could better enjoy each one.  Our big gift to her this year was a big indoor/outdoor slide, which she loves.  (And I think we should get an extra gold star for having a giant plastic slide in our living room now, don't you?) haha.  Here are some photos from her birthday morning.

Father's Day

We had a great, low-key Father's Day this year with Joe.  We just stayed home (most of the day in our jammies), made dinner together, and opened a couple of gifts.  Evie made her first Father's Day gift for Joe at school this year and it was so sweet.  Joe is already such an awesome dad, and that's only after 3 years.  Our kids are so lucky to have a dad like Joe!

A Night Out

One of the best perks thus far from Joe's new job is that his company has a suite at the Comerica Theater downtown.  And when the sales guys don't request tickets, we have the opportunity to see a show for free.  This week, Joe and I got to see The Fray, and it was awesome!!!  My sweet and incredibly cool cousins, Jennifer & Kelsey, came over and watched our kiddos for us for the evening.  Joe and I opted to skip the opening bands and went to dinner at Hanny's instead, and then walked over to see the show.  It was so much fun, the performance was incredible, and we had a really wonderful night out!  And we know the kiddos had a great evening with the girls too.  We love you guys!!

Also, Joe took this video.  Besides the fact that I'm nodding my head to the offbeats like a dummy, Joe does something at the end that totally cracks me up.  I'm so glad this is the guy I get to spend the rest of my life with.

Birthday Dinner at Grimaldi's

For Joe's birthday, we also spent Sunday evening with Syl, Steve & Sophia at Scottsdale Quarter.  We had dinner together at Grimaldi's, and then let the kids play in the splash pad afterwards.  It was so fun!!