Molly's birthday videos

Here are a few videos from Molly's birthday party last week.


Eating dinner (chicken soup again - it's her favorite!):





Opening presents (watch her feet go - she's all excited!):




I wish I had video of Molly when we got the baby doll out of the box - she was just loving that baby! I was cracking up when she tried to "try on" her new clothes - what a funny little girly thing to do! How does she know this stuff?


And the cake:



Hilarious. You can see that she likes cake about as much as Elijah, so far. But that's OK. The grown ups actually enjoyed eating the cake, and watching Miss Molly play with it. Elijah was still not a fan, although he did eat some ice cream. Molly seemed to enjoy both of her first birthday celebrations, even if she had no idea what was going on most of the time. And she is still in love with that baby doll.

Molly's birthday

Molly turned one on Saturday! We had a little celebration at home with Nana, who is visiting from Colorado this week. Molly loved her balloons and enjoyed each of her presents, once she got them open. She didn't mind some help from Elijah opening them - she just wasn't too into the unwrapping yet. She had her favorite foods for dinner - chicken soup and cheese. Here are some pictures - I'll post some video soon.

The birthday girl!

The seat of honor

The cake

Our little party

Look, Daddy! Cake!

Molly was very interested in how the frosting felt, but once she squished it around a bit, she was pretty much done. She took a bite and spit most of it out! She did enjoy picking up her little cake and making a mess - we thought for a second she was going to throw the whole thing across the room.

Zooming around!

"I'm the Birthday Girl"
Miss Molly celebrates in style!

Happy first birthday, Molly!

Miss Molly through the first eleven months ...




(click on the thumbnail to see the full-size mosaic)

Birthday present

Molly got this fun walker for her birthday from Aunt Diane, Uncle Bill, Rylee and Brynn. We got it put together last night and she took it for a test run. She is having so much fun with it! She loves being able to get up and walk, and is enjoying all the little toys on it, too. It's a big hit!

Little boys ...

... get pretty banged up sometimes. Elijah has only two speeds - fast and super fast. On Tuesday he was going super fast through the living room and tripped over his train tracks and hit his face HARD on the chair. So now, in addition to his normal bumps and bruises (mostly on his knees), he has quite the battle scar on his lip. Boys!

Knoebels

Last weekend we also spent the day at Knoebles amusement park with Patrick's family - Barb and Jim, Danny's family and Diane's family. It's an annual tradition, and we were excited to get to go this year! Patrick hadn't been since high school, and it was the first time for me, Elijah and Molly. The kids had a great time on the rides and we enjoyed watching them and spending time all together. We had nice weather, and no one got a sunburn - I call that a successful day at the park! Knoebels has a great variety of little kid's rides, even for our littlest ones, so we stayed busy and happy all day. Patrick's Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Randy also came and met us in the afternoon and we all rode the train and then went to dinner together. What a fun day! We are looking forward to doing it again next year.

Maiah, Elijah, Evan, and Zoie measure up - we all get to ride!

The boys ride a firetruck

The (little) Whip-it

In a helicopter with Daddy

On the big slide with Daddy - look at that smile!

Miss Molly's favorite part was waving to the kids as they went by

Rylee and Elijah in a bug - Rylee had so much fun riding all the rides. She was a pro!

Zoie and Evan

Molly chillin' with Bobbi and Papa

Elijah and Evan ride the little carousel

Rylee on the carousel

Elijah in the ball pit - hooray!

An early birthday party

Last weekend, we went down to Pennsylvania to visit Patrick's family. We got to celebrate lots of things in just two days - Father's Day (a little early), Jim's birthday (a little early), Diane's birthday (a little late), Aunt JoAnn's birthday (a little late), and Elijah's and Molly's birthdays (a little early)! Here are a few pictures of the kids' celebration on Sunday. We had a good time with Bobbi and Papa and Diane and her family, and finally got to meet our sweet little niece, baby Brynn! (But we didn't get any pictures with her on Sunday - oops!)

The kids enjoy their quesadillas for lunch

Mmmm, yummo! How many highchairs can we line up?

Three years old! (almost)

Trying to blow out the candle - funny!

Elijah's favorite present - James!

Miss Molly - almost one!

She sure knows how to let us know what she thinks!

Opening presents - she just wasn't sure what to make of it all.

I'm sorry that there are no funny, messy cake and frosting pictures. Diane brought a very yummy ice cream cake and my strange kiddos didn't like it! Elijah tasted it, made a funny face and said, "I don't want my birthday." Maybe I should have prepared him better for how cold the ice cream would be. I don't know. What a funny kid! He sure enjoyed all the wonderful Lancaster County strawberries that we ate all weekend, though!

A few more pictures

Brother and sister

Just some pictures of the Shmuffin sibs together.

Sweet smiles

All ready for church

Fuzzy, but such sweet kisses!

Quick, get away!

Clean cuties