Gracie's Birthday!

We had a lovely birthday for Grace.  Her birthday is June 6, so yes, this post is just about 2 months overdue!  We started out with a family party Friday night at my parent's house.  Red was the theme, and even the gifts were color coordinated!  This red dress up dress was sewn by Mimi and the parasol was from Nana. 

Grace made it super easy on me this year and requested cupcakes.  Yum, yum!

Saturday morning was Grace's friends party.  We were both super excited about it!  We had a super fun girly party at our house.  The simple games, food, and fun, reminded me of the wonderful birthday parties my mom gave me when I was young.  We started by playing with balloons indoors while everyone arrived, then moved out to the deck to decorate visers.

We had some fun playground time too!

And a bean bag toss....here's Lydia!

Good job, Maggie Jane!

My mom helped me with the girls while Clay's mom helped with Claire.

Picture time!

Birthday girl!

Grace and Rosie!

Party table

Present time!  Grace got such sweet presents!  There were some really sweet homemade gifts too, that I need to post pictures of--made me want to get serious about sewing!

Happy Birthday to you, my wonderfully smart, funny, beautiful 4 year old!

Icing--yum!

Cousin Maggie and Aunt Dana

The girls with their visers.

And Pinata Time!!!!

Go Lydia!

Nice effort, Emily!

Swing, Madeline!

Go, Andrew, go!

A good effort by all, but we ended up using the pull strings :) 

Yahoo, candy!

Sweet Claire bear and Mimi

After all our planned festivities, the kids played Grace's new ice cream stacking game from Emily. 

Andrew was such a good sport through all the partying.  He didn't complain once about not getting any presents!  Looking forward to your turn, buddy!

I forgot to say this was either a daughter drop off or mommy and me.  Here's Emily's mom pictured, and Lydia's mom got to come too.  The party was so wonderful, we are so grateful for friends!   

Big Cedar Lodge and Silver Dollar City!

Well, I'm a little late in this, but better late than never!  After Jasper, we traveled over to Big Cedar Lodge near Branson.  Clay was presenting at an accounting conference, so we tagged along.  It is a great spot for family fun!  Above Grace and Andrew are enjoying the Lincoln Log table in the main building.  We spent a lot of time here!

Later this year, Big Cedar will open a Natural History museum.  For now, this Wooly Mammoth is in the main building on display.

I was one brave mama and took all 3 kiddos to one of the beautiful pools by myself one morning.  The picture of the pool near our building was really neat.  It was a walk in, and there was a huge area that went up to 2 feet, then a rope sectioning off the deeper end.  The big kids kept their floaties on, and all was well, but I didn't even attempt to bring the camera. I took this pic of the pool when my kids weren't in it!

Big Cedar is just a beautiful place!  Here is some of the lovely scenery.

Our lodge is pictured here on the left.  The building to the right is a restaurant, and the pool is in between.  There are several pools, a lazy river, a playground, tennis courts, stables, mini golf, and all situated on Table Rock Lake. 

Andrew checking out the boats at the marina. 

And then, Silver Dollar City!  There was really so much more we wanted to do and see at Big Cedar, so we will definitely have to return!  But we already had tickets bought for the park, so we headed there on our last day.  We are very grateful my parents came up and joined us--made for a perfect day!

Grace had the time of her life! 

Andrew enjoyed this pirate ship ride.  He called them race cars. 

What a great trip!