The Birthday Ball

Anne is 4!

She loves to fill her days

coloring and drawing pictures for friends and family

playing with her sister

and her dolls

(and even, sometimes, both together)

riding her bike

(we just took off the training wheels tonight!)

digging with sticks in the mud

and

watching Dora the Explorer

Yesterday was a good day and Anne was sad to see it end.

She kept asking if today was still her birthday.

Here are some highlights from the day:

First thing birthday morning she donned the birthday hat.

The guests arrived for the Ball. Don't they look fancy??

Anne requested a strawberry birthday cake this year. So we made half cake and half cake balls. Yum!

Birthday present time!! Finally!!

My favorite gift, if not hers :) So funny!

The Dutch & the Poo, Happy Mother's Day to You

I (Randy) only had braces for 2 years... and a retainer for 6 years prior so they could get braces on.

Anne still can't wait to play the violin. This violin is a baby toy guitar and the bow is a wooden screw driver.

What an angel.

We went to the 75th annual Tulip Time Festival in Pella, IA. It's a small town that was founded by Dutch immigrants and they have a week of parades and all things Dutch. I'm not sure if spring hit a little early this year, but we did make sure to get a picture by one of the last tulip flower beds that still had flowers with petals on them.

It was sweet to see a parade where one of the main attractions was a bunch of parents pushing their kids in strollers (many with wooden shoes, of course).

We weren't quite sure what this float had to do Holland, but then we saw the shoes...

Our favorite part of the parade.

Anne's and Ruby's favorite part of the day -- the shuttle ride into the city -- in a REAL (old) yellow school bus!

Ruby has been getting into EVERYTHING lately. The highlight of our week was when Ruby showed us that a travel size tube full of

+

+

=

poop on the floor

(I'm talking a log)

The most amazing part was that she never took her diaper off...

Happy Mother's Day!!!