Birthday play-by-play

First - THANK YOU for all of the fantastic gifts and LOVE that you sent for Zoe. She had a great birthday because she has so many people that care for her.

We had a good day. Pete was working on a building in Lynnwood and he was able to come home for lunch and open presents with Zoe. She got an amazing Calico Critters cottage and furniture & accessories from Nana Jo and Aunt Annie. It even has lights that turn on inside the house. It goes with the bunny family that Zoe got from Rowan's mom, Jen, for her birthday last year. This, btw, is the doll house/etc that I want Zoe to have. So if you, or someone you know, wants to get Zoe a little gift that is "doll house-y", look at the Calico Critters stuff. It's at the usual toy stores & online. It is definitely a little pricey, but totally worth it in my opinion because it's so well-made and detailed. Nana Jo sent the Birthday Girl t-shirt that Zoe is wearing, too. Thanks!!! It might still fit next year?

Uncle Doug & Aunt Tammy sent some very fuzzy moose pajamas that I think Pete would have put on if they were a bit bigger. He loves them. There was also a great box of sea life animals with a submarine and a boat. Zoe took the animals out of the box one-by-one and then looked in the empty box and asked "where's the sea? where's the sea, mom?" And then she insisted on taking a bath so that she could play with the boats in the water. She really likes the octopus.
Uncle Doug & Aunt Tammy sent a GeoTrax set, too. It's really awesome! We were actually at the toy store last night and I looked at all of the parts & pieces that we could get to add on to the Radiator Springs set that Zoe has now. Some of the sets have remote control cars and the tracks are really sturdy and easy to assemble in lots of different ways. The cars stay on the tracks really well, which is the point of this brand, and they're big so that little hands can push them around easily. There was a cool Christmas set with a Santa train and a bridge with working lights & ho-ho-ho sounds. fun!

Betty & Everett sent some cute pj's and pink slippers with bows on them. Zoe looks super cute in them and they keep her toes toasty!

Pete went back to work in the afternoon and then Janie and Constance were here later. Rowan is out of town and everybody was kind of busy on the Monday before Christmas, so it was the 5 of us, which was just right anyway. We ordered pizza that Zoe likes [dominos] and watched Beauty & the Beast on tv. Then we piled into the jeep and went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream sundaes! Two scoops!! Then we went to Toys R Us so that Janie could get a My Little Pony for Zoe, but they were all modern & weird looking and not at all like the My Little Ponies that Janie loved when she was a kid [last year], so she picked out some My Littlest Petshop animals. She brought it back to the house and wrapped it up and gave it to Zoe who said "A present for me? I'm so surprised! Thank you!" and it was hilarious.

We are still enjoying all of the new toys today and I know that we will for a long time. It's fun to have things that we can add to - like the GeoTrax & the Calico Critters - instead of things that we have to replace.

********** Thank you again! Zoe is here saying "let's go mom, let's go mom, let's go mom, let's go mom" and I think she wants to play Candyland [my birthday gift to her] so I'll try to continue this post later!

FYI - we have the webcam & Skype set up for free video calls. If you want to do this, just call me or text or set up a time and we'll do it!