parties and priests...

we were excited to celebrate with our godson, owen, this weekend for his 3rd birthday. Laurie and Paul put together an awesome construction themed party for Owen. It was perfect from start to finish! We had a fantastic time building, playing, and eating :) 

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saturday-

 adorable construction cake

 all smiles on his birthday!

 pulling on the pinata

 grabbing for some candy

 owen opening our gifts

 i think the construction hat was a hit!

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sunday-

 sophia and i made some fruit pizza cups on sunday in honor of livia's first reconciliation...just another recipe i pinned on pinterest!

livia with father zach and father jerry before her first reconciliation...

we are so proud of our little girl!

water park for the withers...

as a valentine's gift, bobby and i surprised the girls with a trip to the venetian water park (a.k.a. holiday inn water park) in maple grove this past weekend. We hadn't been to a water park for quite some time, so the girls were very excited for Saturday! It was a nice "warm" getaway to try and remember what warm weather/swimming suits feel like again. I sure hope we can wear our swimming suits outside sometime soon. maybe it is wishful thinking...

 ready for some fun at the water park

 sophia's sized slide

 livia braving the ropes...she mainly enjoyed the big slides by herself - she is quite the adventurer!

 after swimming the girls hit the hotel arcade and won some BIG prizes - thanks to daddy's 750 ticket win from one machine!

to end the already fun day, we picked up some DELICIOUS cupcakes from "nadia's cakes" - winner of cupcake wars on the food network (from the back: chocolate chip cookie dough, wedding cake, triple chocolate, and lemon drop - yummy!)

 on sunday we swam one more time and then headed over the imax theatre in apple valley...it turned out to be family weekend so all of their movies were only $5.00

 i knew it was meant to be, since the movie that was showing was entitled, "dolphins"...can you tell who is more excited?

what a week...

this week was a BUSY week at school! We celebrated the 100th day of school, Read Across America Week, and Valentines' Day. Throw in Ash Wednesday, a workout, a few meetings, and play practice and you have one TIRED teacher/mama...it was a fun and fabulous week, though, and I wouldn't change a thing!

read across america/dr. seuss week

 100th day of school

 "100 years old" 

 livia's drawing

 twin day - livia with her friend, piper

my "twin day" was with my grade level friends

 

 valentine's crepes for breakfast

 chocolate covered strawberries & meat and cheese tray for appetizers...we were definitely spoiled by bobby on valentines' day!

sophia's valentine's party day and livia's dr. seuss day

the last day of the week we celebrated reading by performing our annual dr. seuss play for the entire school...it was so much fun, but I am glad to slow down just a bit!

LOVE is all around us...

~love is all around us and so the feeling grows~

 last weekend we celebrated grandma nancy's birthday at our house. It was a special milestone birthday - I am not going to say how old she is, but I can tell you that she is now a part of the septuagenarian club :) I know she felt LOVEd and appreciated with all her family gathered around her!

nothing like a button and a banner to make you feel LOVEd, right nancy?

 her grandchildren and great-grandchildren sure LOVE her! 

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bobby and i celebrated valentine's day this weekend. The past 2 years I have taken it upon myself to organize some "fun" for the two of us. I LOVE being able to surprise Bobby! My first surprise was our reservations at Pittsburgh Blue - an awesome steakhouse that Bobby had been wanting to try for quite some time. He LOVEd his filet mignon!

At the restaurant, I presented bobby with our tickets to the "ring of fire" show at the plymouth playhouse...it was outstanding! I knew Bobby would LOVE all the music, but who knew I would, too?

 

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the next day we were hit with a rain/sleet/snowstorm...who doesn't LOVE to make a snowman?

we hope you are staying warm and feeling LOVEd this Valentine's Day...
XOXO, the withers family