Monster High, Huh?

Truth be told, I have always considered myself fairly "with it". I mean, I usually know what is going on with kids and such. I usually am aware of what is popular. THAT HAS CHANGED! Perhaps, I am just getting old. Who knows? Well, Bella received a birthday party invite that said "Come dressed like your favorite Monster High Character." Um, who? I briefly recall one of my 3rd graders getting a Monster High doll for Christmas but other than that, I couldn't tell you a thing about it. And because Bella had only been going to school a few days a week, she got her invite 2 days before the party.

Most normal people would just go get a gift and forget about the theme. Not me, of course. I am a head case when it comes to themes. So, OPERATION GOOGLE. Thank God for Google, man! There was NOTHING out there when we shopped so we improvised a lot. In the end, she looked super cute and was one of the only ones dressed up....that's to include the birthday girl.

Here is the character, Draculaura, that we tried to emulate.

And here she is as Draculaura. (sorry there are so many pics....I just thought she looked so precious)

The party was at the Skating Rink.  Bella NOW loves skating.

Jumping up and down.......a daily occurrence.

With the birthday girl.

Making More Memories with PaPa

Bella hadn't seen her PaPa in roughly a year so she was very excited to spend time with him. The feeling was mutual. They had a wonderful time together doing all sorts of fun things.

She has been drawing and writing up a storm these days.  This is a beehive!

Here was her welcome note for Papa. It says, "I am excited you are here, papa!"

They would tickle each other's face with little scraps of paper.

Just posing 

Her "surprised" look.

"Sad" look

"Happy" look

The two amigos

We always went strawberry picking on Father's Day when I was littler, so we took PaPa to our local patch.  Bella had never done it and she was a huge fan.

Proud of the ones she picked so far!

Handsome hubby did his fair share, too.

Even prouder

PaPa and her share a taste

Still eating them in the car

Bella rode her bike indoors around and around as PaPa counted laps!  It rained almost the entire time he was here!

Shaving like PaPa?

Boo!  Fun with a box!

Putting on Daddy's shoes.

Making words

She was so happy at how many words she kept making in the word families.

PaPa does nails as well!

See how pretty!

And Bella did PaPa's nails, too.  (only to find out we had no remover in the house, either.  Ha!)

One day, I bought this Cake Pop pan and PaPa thought it would be fun to make them together.  Baking them was a cinch...............

But trying to make them pretty was nearly impossible.  I do not know how the experts do it!

Yep, looks like a 3 year old made them!

Tasting some along the way!

PaPa's last day.  Sniffle-sniffle.