Celebrating Three

We celebrated Vada's third birthday on the second of this Month and then again with our friends and family this last Saturday by having a big party! 

Since GiGi's Playhouse is one of Vada's hangout's and since so many of our friends and family members have not been able to see what GiGi's is all about, we decided to throw the party there. 

The theme of the party was from Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

My husband and Father in-law made this cake for Vada.

My Mother in-law made these frosted sugar cookies. These were my favorite!

All of our food (with the excepting of crackers and extra kinds of cheeses) came from the story book.

We invited all of our friends from church, outside of church and from GiGi's as well as our immediate family. We wanted everyone who was special to Vada to be there!

Everything was decorated and themed to the book! Even the gift bags! I even found suckers that looked like fruit!

 I even hand made and delivered the invitations.

Everything went really well. The children seemed to have a lot of fun. The adults all seemed to enjoy themselves and were grateful for the healthy food verses the junk that is typically served at children's parties (like Vada's birthday party last year) and I personally, was just happy to have everyone together in a place that means so much to our family, celebrating yet another wonderful year of our sweet girls life.

After Walking

 It's interesting to me how much Vada must have been focusing on learning how to walk because for awhile all other activities seemed to almost come to a stop, that is until she finally mastered the fine art of walking, now I couldn't get her to crawl even if I bribed her with candy (which I wouldn't . Don't get me wrong, she still played and learned but I noticed especially with her therapies that nothing seemed to hold her attention for any real length of time. Now that she is an expert walker, she seems to be doing something new everyday and I couldn't be more proud of her or more excited of her daily accomplishments and let me tell you, everyday if filled with them!

Saturday at GiGi's, while we were waiting for Vada's friends to arrive, Jasmine decided to put on a puppet show. While introducing the puppet that she had named "Bob" (who by the way resembled a killer doll from the eighties movie Dolls),

Vada eagerly stood up and said "Hi Bob!" and then quietly sat back down as if she hadn't done something both shocking and amazing. She had never said that before. She does say "Hi Mom" and "Hi Papa" but never before had she said Bob and so quickly after Jasmine had introduced him. Its random, I know but it is also new and it is speech.

During breakfast this morning Vada signed "more cereal please", that was the first time that she has ever signed a three word sentence before. And then tonight as Justin was heading off to work she said "Bye Papa".  And then Kiliegh was saying that she was cold so Vada got up and walked away, only to return to Kiliegh with her coat! She's blowing our minds, this girl of ours! Tonight, before dinner I said something about someone turning off the t.v., guess who did it.., yep, Little Miss, she went right to the t.v. and turned it off then walked t the dinner table!

 Oh! One more. I almost forgot! V shakes her head for "no" now. So this Saturday when the DT came for the very first time she was surprised by Vada because when she would ask Vada if she would like to do this or that Vada would shake her head for no. Ha! It took the therapist three times before V said yes to something. I guess the third time really is a charm.

I love this age and stage. I feel like I have waited a long time to see all of these things come from Vada but the wait has been well worth it! So much has come in this last month but especially after walking. I cant wait to see whats next!

One Million Voices

Vada was super excited tonight and for a very good reason!

Tonight, was the "unveiling" of the traveling Quad cities own,  One Million Voices traveling photo gallery and V got to be a part of it!

That's right, little miss is a super model, or at least I think so!

I couldn't have been any prouder.

For more information about GiGi's Playhouse or the One Million Voices campaign I have attached direct links to their names for you.

WDSD

What did you do this WDSD (World Down Syndrome Day)? My Mother in-law as well as my girls and I headed over to Famous Dave's to celebrate. GiGi's Playhouse of the Quad Cities was having a fundraiser of sorts, up to 20% of each ticket was being donated from Famous Dave's to our GiGi's. How cool are they?

Not being the biggest fan of fleshy foods I was a little apprehensive but it was for a good cause and it turns out that Famous Dave's has some kick butt food! Seriously delicious! 

Jasmine order a full rack of ribs with full intentions of finishing them all off on her own...NOT! But she did order a full rack and brought home the left overs for Justin to have. She was a little embarrassed about the amount of food that was placed in front of her and tried to enplane her order to our servers but they knew what was up and gave her a hard time about it. It was all in good fun and made the night even more enjoyable. I love meal times that are full of laughter!

There was this lady at famous Dave's that night, "Zany Janie", who was making the most amazing balloon animals that I have e.v.e.r. seen. Jasmine and Kiliegh both received one. 

It was a fun night and it seems that we had a nice turn out as well which is great. Our youth leader from our church surprised us and shared the beginning of our meal with us which still makes my heart all warm and gooey. (I just love our church family, each and everyone of them!) We had our pictures taken and I got these very cute photos and last but not least we celebrated Vada and every other individual who share having that extra magical chromosome in common.

A couple of days before WDSD Justin's parents brought over some of our things that we had left behind from Vada's birthday party. One of those things was a bag full of balloons. The girls had been driving me crazy with them because they kept leaving them around and I was scared that Vada would end up with one stuck in her throat (it happened to my baby cousin when I was younger--scary stuff!). Anyway, I had had it up to here (picture me reaching for the sky) with the balloons and said enough was enough. Before we went out to eat i combed the house for the remaining death traps and thought that I had done a very fine job at getting them all but when we came home, after the girls were in bed and fast asleep, I found this...

Made by Jasmine.

Who never said a word about my balloons being a hazard rant.

And I couldn't help but marvel at the beauty in her words. She makes me proud but im still sticking with no more balloons!