A Dozen Years With You, Babe!!!!

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day twelve years ago, we welcomed our second baby girl into the world!  I never would have guessed how amazing she would become.  It's such a blessing to have daughters that are sweet and kind and so aware and helpful and just so in tune with what is going on all around you.  I'm just in awe at how blessed I am to have such great kids!!  We had a blast celebrating Ariel's birthday - started off with a fun breakfast of monkey bread, eggs and strawberries (she's known as our "Spunky Monkey"!).  Then I took Rose on up to our local homeschooling ice skating day, totally planned last minute and all by God!!!  It was rescheduled from a snowy February day when they had to cancel it.  So how perfect was that to land on our sweet girl's birthday?!!  ++thank you, God!!++  Then in the evening, I took my middle bunch to A Wrinkle In Time, since that's the read aloud we are currently reading.  Here's a peek at our wonderful day together...

**ICE SKATING FUN**

Melody gave the sweetest gift to Ariel for her birthday.... and that was by being such a good big sister to Rose (only 5 years old) and sticking close to her and helping her skate.  Melody knew that since it was Rose's first time ice skating, she would need a big sissy to help her out.  Wasn't that so sweet?!!  I love my big kids SO much!  They are the BEST helpers!!

**MOVIE NIGHT**

And I have to send out a huge shout out and thank you to my wonderful hubby, who stayed home with the littles the whole day since I was out running the town with the birthday girl to celebrate her special day.  Such a great daddy and husband!!  

++Thank you, God, for the last 12 years with our beautiful Ariel!  Please bless her abundantly over this next year and bring her even closer to You!++

MAY the FOURTH be with you!!!

Melody's FHC trip back in 2012, posing with a life size Lego creation of Darth Vader

 Max making his first Light Saber at Disney in 2013


We are a Star Wars family, that is no doubt!!!  And, in a family where Star Wars is a favorite, we can not let a day like this go by without celebrating.

First off, we started the morning with watching the first Star Wars movie  (notice the cute kiddos in jammies!).  Then they watched #4 in the afternoon, and will probably watch the new Yoda Chronicles sometime this evening. All enough to make for plenty of happy kids to get to watch this much tv in one day, which is definitely not a norm in our house.  But special days require special exceptions, eh?

And, of course, we had to work in FOOD FUN!!!  We used a lot of the same food items for lunch that we used back in February for Max's Star Wars themed birthday party...

Luke Skywalking Taco's

Hans Rolo's

Leia Buns (honey buns)

Dark Side chocolate pudding

Darth Vadorade (red gatorade)

Star Wars fruit snacks (will save these for one of the movies)

We also have a couple favorite Star Wars videos that we had to watch as well.  Enjoy!!!!

"Cello Wars" by The Piano Guys

"Let the Saga Begin" by Weird Al

Star Wars Christmas special (although it is not a favorite, and is known as the WORST Star Wars video out there.  Neil said George Lucas asked for it to be destroyed because it was that bad!)

What fun it is a family to have silly traditions like this to grow and bond together!!!  

Have a blessed day and 

MAY the FOURTH be with you!!! 

**Movie Night**

Isn't amazon great?  New movies come out on Tuesdays, but amazon always seems to deliver them a day early.  Can't wait to pop some popcorn and watch this movie in a bit....