Anna's new bike

Anna got to ride her new Hello Kitty bike from Nana, Pa Bob and Uncle Ben today.  She did a great job!  We did a good loop around the neighborhood.  Lukey did a good job on his bike too but I didn't take any pictures of him.  This is going to be the year for him to lose the training wheels.  We said that last year too, but this year we really mean it.  

Happy Birthday to Anna

Anna wanted to wear this dress on her birthday proper.  No surprise.  She wears this dress all the time.  (Thanks Marianne!) She spent her birthday hangning out with Nana going to McDonalds a toy store and Holiday Market to pick out cupcakes and cheese.  She had a lot of fun.  Then when Tim and I got home we went out to dinner and then her and Lukey exchanged presents (they like to get each other something small for the non-birthday sibling for birthdays).  Anna got a new cat and cat accessories that she had picked out from Build-a-Bear a few weeks prior and Lukey got a ewok from Build-a-Bear.  

Anna has had a productive year.  Her favorite things are cats, owls, snails, butterflies and flowers.  Her favorite things to do are playing with Lukey and building legos and, going to dance class and, of course, any kind of art.  She also likes writing and loves reading and being read to.  She is pretty good at reading the first box set of Bob books (things like "Mat sat on the Cat. The cat is sad. This is Ruff.  Ruff is a dog, etc.")  She is also getting pretty good at reading her Hello Kitty books and other beginning reader books.  She can count to 100 by 1s and by 10s. She is an advanced speller and is always asking and guessing how to spell new words.  She is very imaginative and likes to tell stories about all of her cats that each have their own name.  She also likes singing and making up songs.  Its fun to watch Anna and Lukey play together and see how they fuse their interests.  They have good conversations about which of her cats are each of his Star Wars figure's pets.  Anna is always entertaining and we are very proud of her.

Anna decided that she wanted a Peep theme for her birthday just like when she turned 1.  She chose this Peep sunflower cake rather than the big peep (this was much easier to make so that was fine by me).  

decorations for the party

Party favors.

Peep-tini.  Some were made with Rum Chata.  Some were made with Peep chocolate or strawberry milk.  The Peep strawberry milk was not good..

We made another peep shirt just like the one she wore when she turned one.  

Lukey wore the same peep shirt that he wore to Anna's party when he was 2.  It fit him great.  

The best decorations were these pictures that Anna made of Peeps.  

Misc.

Anna spends a good part of each day coloring, painting or drawing.  She loves art.  She starts an art class this week called "Artists Who Inspire Me".  Hopefully she'll like it.  

Luke's hair looked especially handsome this morning.