For all of you mommas out there, you know how precious time away from your kids can be.  You love spending as much time as you can with your kids, but you also need to recharge your batteries and have some girl time, sans kids!  So Friday night I headed out with some of my momma friends to celebrate 2 of their bdays, had dinner and then hit the bar scene.  And can I just say I had not been to the bar/dance scene in about 4 years?  Yep, since before I was pregnant with Luna.  We had so much fun! 

Then I went to brunch with some of my old hip hop dancing girls.  I know, hip hop what??  Background here, I started dancing hip hop with Ronit back in 2002 at 24 Hr Fitness, she then moved her class to a private gym, and had about 10-15 loyal followers and we went every week to class.  We all became good friends with Ronit, and would go out to bars and clubs with her all the time, attending each others weddings, baby showers, etc.  And I LOVED class!  It was something I looked forward to each week and Ronit was the best teacher ever!  We are so sad she moved to Florida this year :(  But some of us loyal class girls met up at La Duni and it was so nice to see them all!  And it's so exciting that 2 of them are pregnant with twins!  (little do the almost new mommas know that meeting up for brunch with the girls is going to be a thing of the past once those babies come, ha!)  It was so nice to see them and have some good girl time!

I can't believe my precious baby Belle turned 1 years old already!  As you remember, my pregnancy had a little bump in the road with Belle having a single vessel umbilical cord, so I had to get weekly sonos, did kick counts more frequently, and I had to have her early.  So with that said, she was my miracle baby and I always called her my little Angel from Heaven!  I even have a little charm initial necklace with Luna, and Belle's names on it and a little Angel wing for her.  She had a rocky start with her colic, but then once she came through that, she has been the happiest, smiling baby ever!! Everyone always comments how happy she is and has yet to have any stranger or separation anxiety, just the happiest little girl.

Here is her 12 month update:  She is still eating some purees, but does love her blueberries, cheerios and puffs.  She is slowly eating real solids but is a picky girl!  She does still nurse too before naps and bedtime.  Sleep has been getting better, she had an ear infection that took awhile to clear up, but now is sleeping a lot better.  She still has some middle of the night wakings and feedings and I hope they go away soon!  She is miss social and loves to get people to notice her.  A definite second born child :)

For her birthday, she opened up some of her presents before Todd left for work.

Then we dropped Luna off at school, took her morning nap and then we went to Artistic Gatherings so she could make her own birthday plate!

Then after afternoon naps, we took some cute birthday photos in my backyard.  I also made her a pink cake so she could have her own cake and blow out candles.  She had a great day for her first birthday! 

Since Luna's school had a party for their last day the night of Belle's bday, we went to Mariano's for her bday dinner a few nights later.  She LOVED riding the horsie!

I can't believe it was Luna's last day of school on the 23rd.  It was also Belle's birthday (she deserved her own special post for her day, so I divided them up).  Her school had a cute musical performance by the kids, since they do Kindermusik there as part of their curriculum.  Then they hosted a Family Dinner, where they catered pizza and chicken, and we brought sides and desserts.  There were bounce houses, balloons, bubbles and lots of fun.  We love her school and so nice that we all know each other and it's like a small little family.  We are doing an art class at the Perot Museum this summer and also doing Kindermusik together, no school.  I may regret it, but it's nice not having to be anywhere in the mornings and spending time with my girls!

Just a quick post about Belle's first playground outing at CFA.  Belle and Luna and I met our friends Heather, Jack and Isla for lunch.  It was my first time going with both girls on the playground and Belle absolutely loved it!

I feel like Mother's Day was just this past weekend, right?  May is just flying by!  Last weekend we went to a friend's birthday party at Lindsley Park in our old Hollywood Heights neighborhood for Addie's 1st birthday and Ellie's 3rd.  They were also both born in May like our girls were and were so cute in their matching Minnie Mouse outfits!  Addie's birthday is also so special because she has undergone 2 major heart surgeries since her birth last year on May 16th, and has recovered so well, we are so happy for her and her progress!!

We had some neighborhood swim fun with our next door neighbors Delaney and Kevin and their girls Jillian and Camille on Sunday.  Jillian is 2 months older than Luna and Belle is 3 months older than Camille!  So fun to have next door friends!

We've been talking to Luna for the past few weeks that when she turns 3, she will be a big girl and no longer need to sleep with a paci.  That big girls don't sleep with pacis, just babies like Belle.  She is REALLY into big girls, like super obsessed with any girl over 4, and we knew it would work.  And our idea was to put it inside of Build a Bear, and we've been showing her the brochure all week.

Luna woke up at 5am on her birthday wanting to 'open my presents!!'  We of course let her stir in bed awhile and then finally got her up at 6:30am to open presents and have a birthday waffle.

Then we got ready to go to Build a Bear, where she was going to pick out a pink bear and put her paci inside.  Of course right when we walked in, she went right to the bright pink bear that just happens to also be a Disney princess bear :)  We opted for no sound but did pick a scent, Strawberry!  She named her bear Princess Luna Bear!  Then she picked out a heart, rubbed it, stuffed it inside, then kissed her paci one last time and put it inside as well. Tear.  So sad for me to see she is growing up, but it was time!  She put her foot on the pedal and filled up her bear, then went over to the bath station and gave her a little bath.  It was so cute!!  She also picked out a pink tutu and purse for her bear, go figure!

Then after naps, we went to eat dinner at her fave, Marianos!  Coco, Buelo and Aunt Erika met us there for dinner where they sang happy birthday to her and put a huge Sombrero on her head, and she had a birthday sopapilla.  Then of course she had to ride a horse after dinner.  And she was so excited that Coco gave her the Sleeping Beauty Build a Bear dress and had to put it on when she got home, along with her matching one! 

She had a great, fun filled day! I can't believe my precious sweet girl is 3 years old!

Today was Belle's first mother's day so it was extra special this year!  Luna and Belle greeted me in bed with waffles for breakfast!  I got to sleep in until 8am, so excited! So different than the days before children :)  Todd took care of the girls' meals all day, so I didn't have to prepare 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches and dinner for all of us.  It was a super nice break, because normally meal time is hectic as both are starving, begging for food and getting it on the table at the same time isn't easy, and then to make something for myself, it's usually something quick and forced down my throat in a few minutes.
We went on a morning walk down to White Rock Coffee and then it was nap time.  We all relaxed and then went to Olivellas for dinner so mommy didn't have to cook!  They gave all the moms flowers too, super sweet.  I had a great mother's day and so happy to be a mother, it's sometimes surreal (what, me, a mom?, I still feel like a child sometimes myself and have to remind myself I am a grown-up AND a mom!).

My baby girl's first major dance recital!  So excited for her.  She woke up all excited about it and couldn't wait to go.  The theme was nursery rhymes and they did a few demonstrations of what they are learning and then did their little dance!  She got a cookie reward at the end and was smiling from ear to ear!  My little ballerina :)

The day after their party, Luna's cousin Carolyn and Aunt Heather came over to play.  It was Belle's first time in the mini coupe and she LOVED it!

I can't believe my girls are turning 3 and 1 years of age.  They are growing up right before my eyes :( 
And who would have ever thought I would be hosting a joint birthday party for my daughters??  I'm so glad I had two girls close in age and close in birthdays, it makes it so much fun! 

We decided on a Doc McStuffins theme several months ago since it's Luna's absolute favorite TV show and she has almost every toy they make, and Belle seems to like the toys too!  And after going back and forth on what to do for Belle's first birthday, I decided to combine their parties since we would have family in town (Grandpa and Sherry, Heather and Carolyn and Richard) and didn't want to ask them to come back a week later for another party.  AND then we had to decide on where the heck to have a toddler AND baby friendly party, so we decided to go with an outdoor park theme at Caruth Park.  SO glad we could reserve the picnic tables there too, makes it much easier to relax and not worry about fighting people for tables :)

And if anyone is interested, there is absolutely NO Doc McStuffins party goods sold anywhere.  No plates, balloons, cups, favors, etc.  So I basically had to order stuff off of Etsy, and had a major problem the night before when our cupcake toppers didn't come in the mail on time, so we were up late making our own from a downloaded PDF file, so not fun, and I hope to look back on it one day and laugh :)  But everything else turned out great!  Thanks to family for helping set up and for our Chick Fil A family,Heather, Carolyn and Richard for picking up the goodies!

The weather was perfect (minus some major wind blowing the balloons) and the girls had a great time!!  We also hired a face painter and balloon girl who was awesome!!  She had done some face painting for my CPS group last Fall and I was blown away by her work, and was so glad she was available for our party- I highly recommend her!  If anyone needs her info, msg me.

Thanks to everyone that came to their party and our family that came from out of town, we had such a great day!!  We had cute doctor bags favors for Luna's friends and the pink bucket was full of 'kisses for your boo boos' for Belle's friends :)