Happy, Happy Birthday!

We have a few excuses for why we've been absent for a few weeks, first being our week of birthdays. Bridget had a great birthday with fun "big girl" shopping with Rachel, a short haircut, and a date with Justin. But, cuddling with Ian was certainly a great present.

We have a fun playgroup at our church, which is a great opportunity to get out during the winter. This lesson we were talking about shadows and the kids were trying to make different shadows on the sheet.

It is always great to have friends over and for some reason Rachel and Gordon thought it was very exciting to cover each other in the animal bucket. Whatever works.

Thank goodness for pbskids.org. They have some great games and Rachel loves their little project like these Super Why crowns. Ian is obviously pretty thrilled as well.

The birthday celebrations for the 4-year-old began with presents. She has been torturing herself with her too-small red shiny shoes, so we thought it was time to upgrade.

She was so excited to get her very own Fancy Nancy book (they've been our frequent check-outs so far), she took a break to study the pictures with Ian.

Nana and Grandad got her a wonderful tea set which has been put to use with her favorite animals and a good-sport little brother. Thank you!

As evidenced by many of these posts, Rachel loves to dress up and so we got her a few more accessories.

Here's our excited "fairy princess."

We then headed to Olive Garden for a delicious dinner. Ian wasn't too thrilled about staying at the table, but it was great to go out with Grandma, Grandpa, and the birthday girl.

We then headed home for a delicious cake made by Suzy. We're not quite sure why Rachel insisted on an "outer space cake," but Grandma certainly delivered. Thank you!

Here she is in her favorite present - a Snow White dress. As our pediatrician said, "there's nothing better than being 4. A princess dress and an alien cake." Our girl would definitely have to agree.

By then end of the night everyone was a little crazy with the excitement - check out the wacko in the background.

We then had some friends over to watch Enchanted and have a little princess/prince party. Here's part of the crew.

We had some scrumptious cupcakes while enjoying one of the few quiet moments during the showing.

We even had an appearance by Giselle, we mean cute Ella. It was a great and busy week and we'll be posting more about the following jammed-packed weekend.

Rachel's 4-year stats from the doctor surprised us considering Justin and Bridget's stature: 37.7 lbs 64%), 40 1/2 in (68%) and 20/20 vision. Maybe the Lee kids are out to break the mold of shortness and blindness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. For those of you that haven't heard yet, we're excited to announce that baby #3 is on the way! The due date is September 2nd and Rachel could not be more excited to start helping with her baby. So, there's our other reason for being behind on just about everything.