Happy Birthday, Erin!

Our baby turned 4 on Tuesday!  I am not one of those moms who says "wow, I can't believe it's been 4 years", because, either due to the fact that I am home with them, or for whatever reason, it feels like she's been around for 4 years...not in a bad way, just in a "4 year" kind of way!  Erin is our super special, smart, sweet, silly girl.  We love her so much and are so proud of all that she has accomplished in 4 years.  We have our struggles and challenges, but we are so very proud of her and love her so much.

She started her birthday week by meeting Grandma and Grandpa Ambrosini, Uncle Chris, Aunt Leslie, Logan, Ansley, Ben, Uncle Dale, Aunt Maria, and Cole at Lake Lucas Park in Asheboro (halfway point for the 4 families).  We got Bojangles food and Grandma made yummy chocolate princess cupcakes with "pink" icing!  We had lots of fun playing and checking out the boats.

On her actual birthday, she took cookies and goody bags to her friends at school.  They sang to her and enjoyed the cookies.  She had spaghetti at home that night and took it easy after a busy day.  She even had to stay home from school the next day with a mysterious illness that vanished by 10:00am.  Mommy, Daddy, and Anna gave her a bike on Saturday, and she also got a camera from us on her actual birthday...and a super fun book from her neighbor friends Nina and Lily.  Her birthday celebration continued today with a special gift from Uncle Tom, Aunt Pam, and Jimmy that came in the mail!  Erin LOVES her new jewelry :)

Happy birthday to our big girl!  We love you so much!

September

Maybe someday I will get organized enough to post more than once a month...but at least this way I don't have to think about what to title each post...

Let's see - September is over already?!?  We had lots of fun last month, but I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it.  Labor Day weekend, we started out right with an adults-only party at our neighbors' house, then mostly hung out around the house and caught up on chores and errands.  The following weekend, Grandpa A. came up to pick up our old crib for Cole to use at his Grandma and Meemaw Andruzzi's house.  The week after that was somehow filled with extra appointments and meetings, and Daddy and Mr. Josh had a boys' night at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham for the Science of Beer event.  I hear it was fun!  Erin's teachers came to our house for the Family Partnership Day on the 14th, which disturbed Erin immensely.  On the 15th, we had a really fun time at neighbor Ella's birthday party at Sonshine Gymnastics.

That Sunday, we had our neighbors over for a shrimp boil, which was a lot of fun, despite the rain.  The kids' table was the place to be.



I seem to have a knack for having parties in the rain!  We went to Concord the weekend of the 22nd-23rd and had fun watching Ansley play soccer, going to eat Mexican food, and lots of fun with cousins and grandparents...despite Mommy losing her wallet (arrgh).  Erin's last day of school was last Friday, now she'll have 3 weeks off for her track-out.  This past Saturday, Erin got to check out Monkey Joe's for Mason's birthday party.  She loved it!  Yesterday we had a fun time at brunch and the pumpkin patch with Oliver and some big people:

We've watched our mediocre Wolfpack football season thus far, but continue to hope for improvement.  We also started back up our Friday morning moms group at St. Andrew, which we all enjoy.  We've been watching Cole once or twice a week and LOVE spending time with that sweet little guy!  We try to get to the Y 3-4 times a week in between everything else. The girls really enjoy playing in the nursery there.

Possibly the most  noteworthy event of September has been Anna's dance class.  The first and third (of 4) classes were a big hit, but she was a little off the second week.  Last week she learned how to tap, and she definitely liked that a lot!





We are looking forward to some fun days with Erin at home, and Mommy and Daddy's trip to Niagara Falls next weekend!  It will be our first night(s) with both of us away from the girls in 4 years!  That will be great.
We're also looking forward to the big 0-4 for Erin on October 23rd.  What happened to our tiny little  baby?!?