Molly with her almost clean teeth :)

Today, Ella and I colored, or as she calls it "coror." She is finally at the age where she doesn't try to eat crayons, so we love to spend time coloring. But just to be on the safe side, we bought the non-toxic crayons :) She will grab her crayons and tell me to "coror it" when she wants to color. The other night she tried to color the couch...luckily, we bought the washable ones so it came out! We better keep a close eye on our walls! We've also found this a great way to teach Ella her colors. She is doing so well! She can identify and say red, blue, green, yellow, pink, black, brown, orange, and purple. Our favorite color is PINK but I love to hear her say purple. She pronounces it "puple" and it is so cute! We're going to have to get a bigger box of crayons and learn some new colors!

Today we went to The Little Gym for Ella's friend Madelyn's 2nd birthday party. Madelyn and Ella live across the street from each other and enjoy getting together to play. Once it's warm outside these girls are going to be into everything! We had so much fun at Maddie's birthday party!! Ella's favorite part of the party was the cupcake (as you can see from the pics below!) Mimi said she could work her magic on the hot pink icing stains on Ella's WHITE shirt! What was I thinking dressing her in a white shirt for a birthday party?!

Mommy and Ella are not so sure about this!

Ella LOVES "pizzie"

The Birthday Girl

Ella definately enjoyed her cupcake! She had it all over her face, hands, and that WHITE shirt! I even found icing in her ear (and all over me, too)!

And it was a SURPRISE!

I am so proud of everyone for keeping it a secret! Anyone that knows a Bolick knows what a triump this is! We have been planning this party for weeks now and everything went as planned. My Dad is on the Town Council so he told Mom that they had called an "emergency" Town Hall meeting to deal with some local government issues. He said she fussed all the way there and was so mad about having to come that she didn't even recognize all our cars in the parking lot. The look on her face definately showed how surprised she was when she walked in the door...it was priceless!

We didn't know how she would react to the big party so we decided to place the blame on the cutest little party girl there because we knew she couldn't get mad at her...

Since Mimi is far from being "Over The Hill," we decided to have a "Fifty & Fabulous" Party instead. We had so much fun honoring an amazing woman that does so much for her family and NEVER asks for anything in return! All I can say is that I hope I look as good as my Mom does when I turn 50!

The "Fifty & Fabulous" Birthday Girl

Ella helping Mimi blow out her birthday candles

Flowers by Ashley :)

We had a spaghetti dinner with salad which was so good! Thanks to Uncle Dave, Aunt Sherry & Maw-Maw for all your help! Also thanks to Nanny, Debbie, Brandy, & Ashley for all the yummy desserts! I don't see how caterers handle all the stress of trying to feed so many people! Now I understand why they charge so much per person!

We LOVE our Momma!

I thought this was a cute bag!

Madalyn grabbed her a gift to get some practice opening presents for her upcoming birthday!

Ella trying to gather up all the balloons she could hold.

For Valentine's Day, one of the gifts I gave Ella was a dress that I made for her (with a little help from Mimi and Maw-Maw). I got a sewing machine for Christmas and this was the very first thing I sewed. I've been waiting for Valentine's Day so she could wear it and it fit perfectly! Here are some pictures of Ella modeling her Valentine's Day outfit!

We had an extremely busy but FUN weekend! We started partying on Saturday morning and didn't finish partying until Sunday evening! The best part was getting to eat 3 Happy cakes!!! Ella was on a sugar high all weekend long (and so was Mommy)! At least she was able to run around outside in this beautiful weather to get rid of some of that energy!! I'll have to run around this week to get rid of the extra pounds I put on!


After spending the morning at The Little Gym on Saturday, we headed to the Catawba Science Center for Drew's birthday party. We had so much fun! They did a presentation on the solar system and then all the kids got to make a miniature Jupiter to take home with them. It involved paint so Mimi assisted Ella in making her Jupiter! While the other kids went to watch a show at the Planetarium, we got to visit the Swamp Things exhibit that just opened this weekend. They had alligators, HUGE snakes, a bobcat, and all kinds of critters on display. But out of all the animals, Ella was most intrigued by the SKUNK?! She got so excited when she saw it and kept yelling "SKUNK! SKUNK!!" Good thing we can't have one of these for a pet! She also liked the bobcat, but Mimi and Ella got in trouble for tapping on the glass trying to get her attention :) Drew had a great party and got lots of fun gifts!

The birthday boy with his dinosaur cake

Ella out in space while Mimi paints her Jupiter!

Happy Birthday Daddy & Paw-Paw!

On Saturday night, Mimi cooked a birthday dinner for Daddy and Paw-Paw, who share the same birthday! We had a great steak dinner to honor these special men! I baked a firetruck cake for Cory and it turned out really cute! It was actually good, too. We didn't stop partying on Saturday, but instead continued celebrating Cory & Paw-Paw's birthdays on Sunday with the rest of the family. Happy Birthday Daddy & Paw-Paw! We love you!!!!

Ella and Daddy swinging

Daddy's firetruck cake

53 & 32...these men are getting OLD!

The birthday boys being silly as usual!

Ella was tired of eating cake and decided to move on to the candles.

Not only was it a fun weekend for partying, but the weather was absolutely beautiful for some outdoor play! This warm weather made me so anxious for spring to get here! Here are some pictures of our attempts to get Ella off her sugar high :)

Run Ella Run!

Our Sweetie Pie with her piggies!