Drew's brain

Even though she speaks very well, there are still some words Drew just can't master:

hangaburg
renember
naybe

However, she does enjoy expanding her vocabulary. Last night Boppa and I heard the word "according" several times, sometimes used correctly, sometimes not:
According to me, this is what we are doing. So, like, according! According, Boppa, according!
We asked her what she thought "according" meant and she said it's what you say when you want attention.

She also is a little sketchy on how marriage works:
Drew: "Mom, when you get married again will you have another baby?"
me: "who am I going to marry? I'm married to Daddy."
Drew: "um, naybe David?"
me: "when Daddy and I got married, we got married forever."

-- of course, David is her godfather so naybe there's some legitimate confusion.

Beach day in the OC

Out of all the sunny days to go to the beach, the day we planned to go ended up cloudy. 

Drew and Lauren did not seem to mind at all.

Disneyland

For the first time, Drew participated in the Princess Coronation Ceremony. She learned how to wave and curtsy and dance from Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella. As each Princess descended the stairs the kids squealed and screamed like they were at a Justin Bieber concert.

 Drew's shyness level is hit and miss these days. She was absolutely enthralled to meet Mickey and gave him hugs and kisses and many smiles.

 After the fireworks show at 9:30 we sped out to catch the tram. After insisting she wasn't tired, Drew fell asleep 2 minutes into the 8-minute tram ride to the Buzz Lightyear parking lot.

What did we learn today Drew??

me: "So Drew, what are we not going to do anymore?"

Drew's answer (as she counts them off her fingers):

"I'm not going to wet my panties. I'm not going to sneak licorice without asking. And I'm not going to spit. That's the big one."

The caregivers had a rough afternoon.

August birthday parties

We had two birthday parties in one weekend - Lewie's 40th and Meghan's 4th. The activities were quite different but equally fun! Drew and Lauren of course were happy to see each other, Lauren always says hello with a persistent "Doo! Doo! Doo!" It makes Drew feel very important, and she likes it.

 After a couple beers, Jeremy thought he'd take the Murdent Half Yard Challenge. The fastest drinker of the half yard won a gift card to Chili's. He was the first to go and finished with a respectable 1 minute, 48 seconds.

 Drew was very proud.

 Then this clown with a broken hand beat him. Just kidding, these are our friends Brian and Tanya who have a 4-month-old son, Grady, and deserve a date night at Chili's more than anyone. Unfortunately, Jeremy and Brian were then schooled by Lewie's sister, some guy without a shirt and then the birthday boy, who scored a remarkable 45 seconds. Better luck next time.

 Boppa and soon-to-be Grandpa? Boppa? Bobba? Jones hung out with some young chicks.

 Meghan's party was at Scooter's Jungle, where there was obviously no age limit on who could act a fool in the jumpy houses. Jeremy and I have 2-week-old slide-burns on our elbows to prove it.

 The look on Drew's face is pure euphoria. Not so euphoric? The wet panties from not wanting to take a single break to use the potty.

 Meghan had a very pink pig party.

 Oh girls, you are very silly.

Girls Golf Day

El Niguel hosted it's 2nd annual Parent & Junior Golf Tournament. Boppa thought that now Drew is 4 she's old enough to be in competitive sports. Luckily, Tyler signed Meghan up too and the girls also got to watch their big girl friends Charlotte and Sidney actually do a little golfing. Unbelievably, the girls made it through 7 holes before they were ready to retire. There's hope yet. Drew can pick up where Kelsey and I left off.

 Boppa had high hopes back in '83.

 Team Gratton: ready for the competition.

 Don't pay any attention to that ball still sitting there, post-swing.

 It got a little chilly and Drew had to borrow Tyler's sweatshirt.

The girls got goodie bags from the club for participation. Next year we'll pad our score a little more.

Happy 89th Birthday Grandpa/Great-Grandpa/Papa!

Drew loves her Boys.

Timmy and Kimmy (and Nancy)....Carson and Drew, 28 years later.

No one can resist playing Just Dance!

Papa and his Great-Grandkids, minus Sierra :(

Papa will go anywhere there is chocolate cake and/or vodka.

 There's the chocolate cake, with you-know-who right in the middle.

 And there's the vodka, as promised.

Making friends

Drew's friend, Jessica, is 2 days older than her and Drew went to her birthday party a couple weekends ago. She was very excited to see many of her school friends at Build-a-Bear. But she was also cranky and exhausted from the late night we had at her birthday dinner.

Waiting (patiently?) in line.

 Emma, Drew, Delaney and Callie

 Drew and the Birthday Girl, Jessica.

 Giving her bear a bath.

 Drew named her bear "Jessica" after the birthday girl.

 It was a very large party!!

 Drew and Emma rocking their "babies."

Drew is 4!

 Drew woke up to open her first 2-wheeler and an easel for her birthday. This was after waking Mommy up at 5am, then Daddy getting up at 7:30 to give Mommy a nap until 10. Great start! 

 Auntie Kels got Drew a tent where they can tell each other spooky stories. This replaces my 5th grade comforter thrown over the top of bar stools.

 We kept it a secret that her super special secret birthday dinner was at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure. She figured it out with the big Disneyland sign up ahead. Proof that you don't need to know how to read to recognize the word Disneyland.

 Blowing out her candle...first of many birthday desserts.

 Riding The Little Mermaid ride...a new attraction for all of us.

 Not too old to be afraid of The Sea Witch, Ursula though!

 "When are these freakin' fireworks going to start?" Not an exact quote.

 Arie's Grotto is the lit up tower furthest to the right.

 She couldn't even take her eyes off the World of Color for 1 second. A successful night!

Drew's birthday party was last weekend at the Regional Park and it had an Alice in Wonderland theme. Her teacher had informed us at Open House (in May) and every week since that Drew had invited everyone to her birthday party at Disneyland and that she would like a pink car and a spaceship as gifts. While she did not get either of those, this was our first party where she invited her classmates. Since I don't drop her off or pick her up from school it was nice to finally put some names with faces and meet their parents.

We had tea PB&J sandwiches for the kids (Mom insisted on cutting off the crusts), fruit and pasta salad skewers, cupcakes, vanilla scones, whoopies pies, and a special cake for Drew.

 I learned a few things at my first public venue party. 

1) Picnic tables will always have bird poop. 

2) It will ALWAYS be windy on the day of the party. Bring packing tape.

3) Kids who aren't invited to the party but who are using the playground will "borrow" party favors and not return them.

4) The Grandmas will get them back.

5) Latino parties last a long time. Even if their party has been going on for a couple hours before you get there to set up, they will not be finished by the time your party is starting. Bring loud speakers.

6) Taking a balloon home is better than just about any party favor. Except maybe swords.

Each party attendee got to take home a stool and then either a sword or a teapot they could make at the table. Next time I'll buy more swords.

 Grammy got some very cute Alice cupcakes from Cinderella cakes. Apparently they make their frosting with semi-permanent dye.

 I had ordered a really cute skirt and clip from Etsy with teapots and teacups but forgot to get a really good picture of it. I'll have to fake a good picture of it next time she wears it. Her Alice cake unintentionally looked like the Mad Hatter's hat and Grammy decorated it with some Alice toys, perfect!

My 4th Birthday...do we look alike yet? (shout out to Josh and Uncle Jerry in the photo!)

 Even the not-quite-2 year olds were very patient. Good job Baby Lauren!

 We had very bright lips.

 The little party guests were very patient and sat while Drew opened all of her gifts. Jeremy and I were so pleasantly surprised when Drew got up to hug each friend after she opened their gift.

 Hugging one of her "oldest" friends, Maya. Side note: Drew was playing with her paperdolls yesterday (from Carol and Dennis) and she named them all and they were all sisters. At least one doll is always named Maya and is the oldest sister.

She's still got those crazy expressive eyebrows! Happy 4th Birthday big girl!