Reagan's Birthday Recap: Part II

Saturday, Reagan celebrated her 4th birthday with her friends at the zoo.


Reagan's buddies: Addison, birthday girl, Adeline, & Elijah. Her two other pals, Hayden & Carson, were too busy playing to pose for a picture.

Addison & Reagan share a giant giraffe pillow.

Animal Presentation

The zoo provides an employee to be your guide throughout the party. She, along with several volunteers, did a little animal education presentation.

The kids sitting on the carpet listening. As they brought out each animal, the kids listened to information about the animal and then had the opportunity to pet it. If you didn't want to pet it, you got to say "pass".

Check out these animals....

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

Reagan: pass
(Do you blame her?! lol)

Happy, the Blue-Tongued Lizard

Reagan: pass

Hedgehog

Reagan: pass

Will she ever pet any of them?! I wondered.

Chinchilla

Reagan: Pet it! Although very briefly and with one finger :)

Reagan, being Reagan, didn't even answer any of the questions. She did whisper one I'm told, but I didn't hear it. Later, I asked her why she didn't answer any questions because I know she knew some of them. She answered "Well, I am a bit shy".

Train Ride

The kids boarded the train and we were off around the Good Zoo.

Reagan got to feed this bird a seed. I was surprised she let it get close to her hand.

Quinn enjoyed his first train ride (and trip to the zoo!) with Aunt Laney & Uncle Jim.

The birthday girl got a sunhat and new glasses for the beach

(Only one more week! YIPPEE!!!)

After Reagan's party, we explored the zoo.

The next morning, after her party, Reagan informed me she got to make a wish when she blew out her candles and that she wished for a 4-wheeler (because her Dora one is too small now she informed me) and that she could recycle everything all the time, not just plastic bags (lol). What a wish for a 4-year-old!!

There has also been talk about trying to save all the trees in the world as well planting more. Today, while at McDonalds with Bill, she asked for change. When Bill asked what she needed it for, she said "to help the sick kids". Bill called her our Tree-hugger Humanitarian. I hope that never changes about her.

Reagan's B-day Recap: Part I

Last week Reagan turned 4! I'm still in shock! Where has the time gone?! I vividly remember the day she was born. Daddy & his little girl

Birthday present!!

Since Bill worked til close, we went out for lunch. The bday girl chose Chinese b/c

1). We don't have Japanese nearby---YET, but soon (yippee)

and

2). She wanted crab legs (YUCK!)

With Bill off to work, we headed to the park!

A birthday just isn't complete without DQ!

The pictures are all out of order! I get so irritated when I forget to do things backwards on here. Bare with me...

Tonight, we had Reagan a little birthday party for her grandparents. Saturday she's having a birthday party with her friends. She was so excited all day. She was ready to hide from everyone at 8:00 this morning. (She likes to hide and "surprise" people when they come in the door.) She kept calling it her "Grandma Party". (we have more grandmas than paps).

She got a new CD player. Guess what I won't have to listen to all the way to the beach!! A break from children's music. Hip, hip horray!


Dora Saves the Mermaid is her favorite movie, and, lately, she's been intrigued by mermaids. SO this Dora Mermaid doll for the bath was great.

My grandma with Quinn and Reagan

Our first family picture. Can you believe it?! It only took five months! Actually, there is only one other picture of Quinn and me besides pictures from the hospital.

In other news....

Reagan is my future tree-hugger. She's all about nature, recycling, etc. She has a green thumb that certainly didn't come from me, but can be blamed on my dad. :) My dad is a gardener/nature lover and Reagan is always helping him plant/water something. Her newest "project" is a bean bush on our deck. I know, unconventional, but she's happy! At school, we did a unit on things that grow, which of course, included seeds. We grew green bean seedlings in baggies in the window. Reagan wanted the leftover seeds to plant at home. We don't have a garden. Although, I pledge, once everything is more in order at our house, we will have a garden. By that time, Reagan will be older and my dad will be retired, which equals I won't have to do so much of the gardening, I'm hoping :) So, we decided to do a little experiment. We planted the seeds in a large pot and put it on our deck. Here's the results thusfar....

Reagan and her green bean plant.

Back to the birthday party....

Speaking of my dad....

Dad & Quinn

Bill's grandma and Reagan

Reagan wanted a care bear cake this year. She helped me decorate the cake, which something else she loves! Baking! I am so NOT a decorator, hopefully, she'll turn out better than me! Reagan was really happy with the results, so I guess that's all that really matters.

Reagan sitting on her new jungle-theme park bench

Random stuff...

Reagan and Quinn

Quinn has been practicing his sitting. He's getting really good!

Last week, we met friends at the park. This is Quinn's buddy, Gage, born two weeks after him.

OUR NEWEST PROJECT

There's always a project at the Dorsey house! This time it's the laundry room. Bill completely gutted it. Reagan has been helping alot and getting in some Daddy bonding time. It's making progress. My washer/dryer are hooked up again, so tomorrow calls for LOTS of laundry! UGH!!!

Reagan's First "Concert" & a Day at the Park

Reagan and I headed to Best Buy tonight where our favorite band was playing acoustic for their new CD release. We were so excited! The Clarks are a Pittsburgh band that Reagan and I both enjoy jamming to in the car. Their over 18 gig is tonight at Generations (*sigh* I didn't get to go *sigh*) but it was great to see them up close and personal with Reagan. In the usual Reagan way, she stood staring the entire 30 minutes. She did get in a few good moves at one time, but told me she couldn't really dance because of her "pinky boo-boo". (A battle wound from the park trip earlier today). They did music from their new CD, but closed with an old song :) After playing, the guys signed CDs....

Reagan was the first in line!

One of the guys told Reagan he noticed her singing all the words to Shimmy Lo that must be her favorite song. And, she replied "no, God Save the Snowman". lol The guys got a kick out of that comment, and I'm sure was quite surprised by not only her comment, but her choice in song fave :)

Proudly displaying her autographed copy of Reckless Days

She carried it around all evening!

Heritage Port Playdate

Reagan, Addison, and Elijah

My Little Man enjoying himself too!

Can you believe he's going to be 5-months tomorrow ?!

Peek-a-boo!

Catch Up

It's official....school's out for summer!! Today was my last day working until August. YIPPEE!!!!Now we can focus on a summer filled with fun and lots of house remodeling (the not-so-exciting part). Yesterday, Reagan and I celebrated the end of this school year with our annual Dairy Queen trip. This year we were joined by Daddy and Quinn and Maw-Maw and Pappy!

Tonight, our friend Adeline kicked off the summer birthdays with a party at Michael's.

Reagan, of course, decided to be a selective mute and didn't talk to anyone. She still gets quiet in crowds until she warms up. Tonight, she didn't really even warm up. In true Reagan fashion, she was pretty emotion-less during the party (until she tripped and hit her knees, and crying followed). As soon as we left though, she talked non-stop about how much fun she had and told Bill all about it when we got home.

At the birthday party, the children do a craft. The craft was coloring a t-shirt, which she is very proud of.

Reagan coloring her t-shirt

Ta-da! Good job Reag!

Addie the birthday girl opening her presents. Reagan did get up enough nerve to stand next to her buddy, Addison, to watch present opening.

The girls of the party.

(In Reagan's short stature defense, the birthday girl turned six, so the girls to the left of Reagan are a bit older. Her friend, Addison, on the right is the same age, but is just a tall girl. Her parents were kind enough to share tall genes with her :)

The kids!

Okay, so I have three pictures of this same pose. In every one of them, Reagan only had eyes for Hayden who is the cute blonde next to her (and the birthday girl's brother). Reagan was in love with Hayden for the longest time, then we hadn't seen much of them. Looks like the old flame may still be flickering :)

I can't believe how fast Quinn's growing! Even though he's still small in comparison to other babies his age, he looks chubbier everyday. He is weighing in at 11 pounds 13 oz. and 28 inches long. (He may just end up being the tallest Dorsey in our house lol) He recently discovered that he has a voice and he uses it! He "talks" quite loudly at times and squeals away. He is such a pleasant baby and so laidback. At almost 5 months, his favorite past time is still sleeping. A growing boy certainly needs his beauty rest :) You should see the mohawk he's sporting these days! Hilarious! It lays down the first few seconds after a bath, then springs right back up. Oh well.

My Handsome Man!

Check this gorgeous girl out...

Can you say wowser! She dressed herself this weekend. Thank goodness we didn't go anywhere.

Reagan and I decided to bake this weekend. SHe got a Paula Deen cookbook for Christmas and from time to time, we try out a recipe. She's been after me to try another one. This time, we made a homemade cake and chocolate icing. Half the cake we left plain so we could eat it with yummy strawberries we bought. Reagan said "Paula Deen sure does make good chocolate icing". lol

It is pretty tasty!
Bill took shelter from the downpour under our beach umbrella while cooking us dinner.

Reagan's First Sleepover

Last weekend, while my in-laws were sunbathing in Naples, my niece and nephews came over for a sleepover. If your doing the math, yes, that means we had five children ranging in age from 12 to 4 months. The number of children was not difficult at all. I do, afterall, wrangle 18 four-year-olds on a daily basis for a living :)

Reagan was so excited to have her first sleepover at her house.

After the girls went to sleep, Isaac, Josh, Bill and I took in a game of Pictionary Man, which was very fun. Isaac and I made a great team and kicked butt!!

As soon as Audrey arrived, I was bypassed without even a hello and off to the bedroom girls went to begin playing.

Birthday party was the first thing on the agenda.

No party is complete without makeovers! However, they are no pictures of the makeover because I was the "victim". :) You'll just have to take my word that I was beautiful ;)



We could pretend this was a trip to the jacuzzi, but my bath tub isn't really all that exciting.
They had plenty of fun though.

The girls put themselves to bed. It didn't turn out quite as easy as it looks. Around 11:00, Bill found Audrey with the lights on playing while Reagan was still sound asleep in bed. I was able to get Audrey back to sleep after a while. Eventually, she ended up in my bed while I ended up on the floor. Around 3:00, Reagan woke up wondering where Audrey was. Needless to say, she joined the party and crashed with me on the floor. Quinn's crib was looking kind of inviting after a while :)