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We have a lover of all things pink in our house, so when National Pink Day came around on June 23rd, I knew we had to celebrate! I hosted a Pinkalicious Party in honor of the day.

I decided to make our reading of Pinkalicious a bit more fun. I had the girls stand-up or sit-down every time I said the word pink or cupcake. Do you know how many times those are said in this book?! Oh.my.goodness. A lot! They eventually gave up and just sat and listened.

We had some pinktastic treats: strawberry cupcakes and strawberry pink lemonade. I used these free printables for the cupcake toppers.

And of course there was a pinkerific craft! The girls painted with glue to create Pinkalicious magnets.

The girls came dressed for the occasion and had a fun time celebrating all things pink!

And Leah enjoyed getting in on the cupcake action too.

Last week, I took the girls to pick the last of the strawberries at Larriland Farm. Leah had the perfect outfit for the occasion! (I won the overalls in a giveaway from Overall Baby!)

Molly had her own box to fill. Here she is counting her pickings.

Eventually, she moved on and decided to help Jake and Mrs. Josie add to their box.

Matilda was a big help to her mom too!

Leah just couldn't resist the sweet, juicy strawberries. She might have had just a few - stem, leaves and all!

The kids had a great time (as did the mommies!). It was a beautiful day to be in the field, and had it not been for my friends leaving, I might have stayed out there all morning!

The girls and I headed to Port Discovery Children's Museum with our playgroup this week. Leah loved playing in the Wonders of Water room.

Molly and Simon had fun filling this cylinder causing it to spin due to the power of water.

A couple of our playgroup dad's came along for the fun too. Zach is doing a great job overseeing the boat building.

The museum has three floors of exhibits for the kids to discover. Any kind of "shopping" area was a hit!

While the big kids played in the three story tree house, the toddlers checked out the new Tot Trails exhibit. Leah liked making these pegs light up.

And she thought it was fun to sit in these seats that looked a lot like turtle shells.

What happened to waiting until 16 before she got behind the wheel?

The Music Studio was great. They loved playing with the Boomwhackers and the big drum.

Queen for a day...or may be just a moment!

Before we left, the kids requested to play in the Wonders of Water room again. Standing inside the big bubble was a must-do since you've already seen that Molly loves bubbles!

For the third year, I hosted a Mardi Gras celebration with my MOMS Club. I enjoy sharing this New Orleans tradition with my Maryland friends!

The party favors were made...

And someone was very excited about eating king cake with her friends! I made a cream cheese filled, with cream cheese icing. Mmmm...

Molly welcomed everyone at the door saying, "Happy Mardi Gras Day!" The kids decorated their own king's crowns...

then donned their hats and enjoyed a piece of cake.

Each child left with Mardi Gras beads and a bag of cookies. I hope I lived up the the hype, as according to one friend, "It's the best event of the year!" I had to laugh when another friend said she'd been waiting years to come and was "starting to feel like [she] should camp out for tickets!"

On Monday, we had friends over to make a thaumatrope. It's an optical illusion created with two spinning pictures.

Leah is coloring one side - a snowman.

Rachel is coloring the other side - a hat, scarf and gloves.

And here is what happens when you spin the images - a snowman dressed with his hat, scarf and gloves!

Our playgroup took the kids to Brookside Garden's train exhibit. The kids loved watching all the trains go by.

These two sure do love each other! Molly kept talking about how "Keira was wearing boots just like me!"

Leah enjoyed watching the choo choo trains too.

The exhibit had an I Spy list. Simon was in his own little world working on it with one of the employees.

We've had so much trouble getting pictures of Leah standing still that I just had to capture the rare moment!

Molly was invited to a Gingerbread House party. The houses were prepped and ready for decorating.

There was some Mommy help, but it was definitely directed by the 3 year olds!

Molly had such a good time adding all the special details. She'd grab a handful of candy, add a few to her house, then ask if she could eat the rest!

Smiling with the Gingerbread family.

This week I hosted a Drop In & Decorate party for my MOMS Club. The idea is simple: decorate sugar cookies, then donate them to a local non-profit agency. The kids had a great time using squirt bottles to decorate the sugar cookies.

The kids also painted icing on the cookies.

The moms joined in on the decorating fun too!

Decorating is serious business!

Throughout the day, over 40 kids and moms came to the house to decorate. Molly loved having so many friends to play with!

We had some creative designs created on the cookies.

Everyone had such fun decorating that before I knew it we were out of cookies! In the end, over 200 cookies were decorated. The dining room was so colorful and smelled heavenly!

The cookies dried overnight and the next day we wrapped and boxed them for donation.

I delivered 125 bags of sweet treats to the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

The party was a huge success! Several moms talked about hosting a party with their Girl Scouts and military wives groups. The great thing about these Drop In & Decorate parties is that you can have 5 people or 40 people. If you are interested too, all the information and resources to do so is on the Drop In & Decorate website.

Last week, I hosted a squirt bottle painting playdate. Squirt bottles + colored water + paper = happy kids! They sprayed so quickly that the water didn't really soak into the poster board, but they didn't care!

The kids did a nice job of sharing to end up with a nice waterfall of colors. They all had such fun!

We all enjoyed owl s'mores when the masterpieces were completed.

Today is National Sugar Cookie Day. In honor of it, we had some friends over to decorate, bake, and of course eat sugar cookies. First, the kids decorated cookies to be baked.

While those cookies were in the oven, they decorated previously baked cookies with edible markers, icing, and sprinkles.

The party was a great success. I think the kids would have eaten sugar cookies for lunch if they could have!