HaPpY biRthDaY sAvaNnaH!

today is my little squashed-in-the-middle-cutie-patootie's birthday!   i am sure she will be anxiously awaiting her letter from hogwarts....

 we love her sweet smile and her enthusiasm for life.

 she doesn't always like her picture taken...

 she loves her big sister and they spend hours talking about books til the wee hours of the morning, literally.

 and she is helpful with her little sister, most of the time...

 and she loves her daddy!

happy birthday savannah! we hope it's full of lots of fun and magic!

what to do when #2 is in double digits

in honor of savannah's 10th birthday i thought i would give you the top 10 reasons why we love her and have kept her around this long

#10- she is thoughtful

  #9 - she is quick witted

#8 - she is an extraordinary writer

#7 - she has an incredible memory (well, at least for things unrelated to parental requests)

 #6 - she is freakishly strong for a child

#5 - she has a vivid imagination 

 #4 - she is still our little girl who needs us when she's scared (especially on the scary rides at disney ;)

#3 - she is a bit of a cynic and a tad bit on the sarcastic side (hmmmm.....where does that come from?)

 #2 - she is so DANG cute!

and the #1 reason is because she is definitely one of a kind!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH! WE HOPE IT IS A MAGICAL ONE!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

savannah's big 9th birthday bash

even though savannah's birthday was WAY back in january, i wanted to post the pics from her bash.  she had a sleepover with some crazy chicas.  it would have been more fun had i NOT BEEN SICK, but i muscled through.  we did however have to cancel her family/family friend bash scheduled for the next day b/c i was sick, mauricio was sick and so was his brother and my nephew.  that was pretty much 3/4 of the party right there.  but since she had had her buddies over the night before she was okay with it. 

of course i have to show off my awesome creation first; cute girls after.  i have always loved all the cupcake towers i see out there in blogland and finally made one of my own.  now i can just change out the ribbon and paper when i need to.  i thought it turned out cute, and sarah actually used it for a project at school. (we added different ribbon and changed out the birthday stuff in the front.)

i was extremely excited to use this stamp.  i have to admit it was fresh rubber that i bought, well, let's just say it's been a while.  it was perfect because it reminds me of savannah with her long brown hair.  and can you guess what her favorite color is?

my girlfriend made these cute "dollypops" for savannah.  best. present. ever.

the model shot.

thank goodness this joan of arc didn't get burned at the stake

this year savannah's class had to do an oral biography report on someone famous in history. and they had to dress the part while presenting. she originally wanted to do j.k. rowling, but because of some misunderstanding (don't even ask. it's a long story.) she ended up choosing joan of arc. which, quite frankly, was much more fun to dress up for.

most everything was borrowed from my good friend, MaryBeth, who has EVERYTHING. the helmet, with a few coats of silver spray paint, came courtesy of my other good friend, jenny, who has EVERYTHING else. and good ole dad even chipped in by making the breastplate. i did all the borrowing and spray painting and putting together. that counts right?

and did i mention this was due the day before halloween?????? is this some kind of ploy by the teachers to make our lives even more out of control than they are? four costumes for three kids in one week!

joan of arc off to battle barefoot. =)

homemade knitting needles?

leave it to savannah to do something like this. you have to admit she is a clever one. she got this idea from a knitting video we had been watching. (see previous post) in the video this lady teaches some kids how to make their own knitting needles out of dowels. well, i guess the nice ones that i bought at the store weren't good enough for her! my first reaction was to be very upset since what she used was REALLY NICE TINKER TOYS!!! did i mention that they aren't cheap???? so i told her that it was unacceptable and she had to pay me $3 for them. i handed them to her and said "enjoy your purchase!" notice how she even put the little knobs on the ends. the points were sharpened lovingly with a pencil sharpener.
here is the culprit with her new purchase. happy knitting sista!

virgin ears no more

in the linares family it is a right of passage that when you turn 8 you get your ears pierced. (good thing we don't have any boys.) so it was savannah's turn recently. she is so cute with her earrings and she takes care of them all by herself.

before

waiting in anticipation. i got me some nice dots on my ears.

i love this shot. "is it over?" "is that it?"
pretty pierced ears.

yay savannah!

savannah had a few end of the year events as well. the first few pics are of her 2nd grade award ceremony. she did a great job and we are very proud of her for her STRAIGHT A's!!! these pics are from her make-up field day. it was SOOOOOOOOO dang hot! i don't think the kids even wanted to do it. savannah says they should do field day in the winter and i must admit i concur. field day in june in south florida is just not fun.mom could you please stop taking pictures.

while my pretty ones sleep

this is what these girls looked like in bed last night. they always have "sleepovers" in each other's bedrooms on the weekends and i guess gracie got into bed with savannah last night. when i showed the girls these photos they said later on during the night gracie fell out of the bed! too funny!