Alex Turns 6

The birthday blueberry muffin

On 22 January our little Angel turned six. We spent her actual birthday having all her favorites – blueberry muffins for breakfast, her favorite pizza place for lunch and a nice walk out with her baby sisters.

For her birthday party, she wanted a sleep over. She had her first sleepover when we the twins were born and Alex stayed at Ethan and Izzy’s (the other twins). From then on she was hooked.

She once again had a sleepover when we were home in the States. While Melissa and I went to a hotel with the twins, she “sleptover” at my parents with my sister. Now she wanted another one.

The birthday girl

Many of her friends have been talking about sleep overs as well, but we knew that at six not everyone is ready for them. As usual, most people said we were crazy to try this with less than three-month-old twins. But we are brave (or perhaps crazy) and thought we’d give it a shot. Also Alex had really been fantastic with all the attention being on the twins so we obliged her only request.

Her sleep over night arrived. Several girls and one boy showed up for the party, but most were not going to spend the night. Ethan was the only boy who was starting early in working his magic with all the girls. We had games, activities and of course, cupcakes. The evening finally digressed into a movie (Tangled), the parents came to pick up the non-sleep over girls and the rest got ready for bed. Only one meltdown occurred (by the birthday girl of course) but all in all I would say it was a success.

Our day out for Alex's birthday.

The cake and cupcakes....YUM!!!

Alex with her American Girl and matching PJ's

The birthday crowd (Claudia, Zoe, Izzy, Bella, Alex, Ethan and Isabella)

It's time for cake and cupcakes.

This may seem like a civil tea party, but five minutes later, the girls were soaking wet (as was the floor) and their clothes were off. Six year old girls gone wild.

There wasn't much slumbering going on. Breakfast the next morning was pancakes and cupcakes.

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True Twins

Sophia looks a lot like Alex when she was a newborn. They both have big eyes and crunch their forehead. Before you look at the below caption, see if you can guess who is who!!!

Going clockwise from the top left....Alexandria, Sophia, Alexandria, Sophia

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Alex the statue

While shopping in Dallas, Alex decided to mimic some statues. She cracks me up.

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Alex gets tattooed

Alex has some crayons that are made to draw pictures on herself. The past couple of weeks we’ve been drawing her some rings, bracelets and necklaces. Slowly she started drawing them herself as well as other pictures that are in this book that came with the crayons. While on Ischia, her body art really blossomed as she was drawing pictures continuously. She’s doing a great job and having a great time.

Hey, look at me (I even have earrings)

Those are suppose to be big red lips, along with the butterflies (on both arms) and big eyelashes. All done on her own.

Here she is, fully decorated.

I helped her get the faces going, but then she took over. They were really cute and several people got a kick out of it.

This was a princess crown on top of blue hair.

Body art in progress. Is this the start of things to come...?

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Carnevale

Rome doesn’t do much for Carnevale, there are a few celebrations around the city, but mostly it is day that the kids dress up in a costume.  Alex’s school had a short parade for the kids to show off their outfits.

Alex smiling for the camera

Ethan in his kung fu outfit, Claudia behind him and Alex doing the princess wave in the background

Zoe looking like a princess

Princess Izzy

Princess Alexandria

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More birthdays – Melissa and Eric

Alex’s birthday is on 22 January.  Melissa’s is 8 days later and mine exactly a month later, so our birthdays are all crammed together. After having a birthday party for Alex, we went to Spirito de Vino the following weekend to celebrate both Melissa and Alex’s.  This marks the third year in a row that we’ve gone to Spirito for Alex’s birthday. They are such nice people there, they gave us a nice bottle of wine on the house. Francesco, the waiter and son of the family-owned business, was busy running around on a Saturday night, but not busy enough to stop and take a picture with Alex.

The next morning, Sunday, was actually Melissa’s birthday. After a failed attempt of Alex and I providing breakfast in bed, we headed down to Piazza Navona to buy a painting from one of the local artists there that Melissa has been looking at for the past year.  Hot chocolate and a café were calling our name after that to round out the birthday.

Us getting ready to go out for our birthday dinners

Francesco with Alex and Melissa

Has anyone seen Alex?

Here I am

Melissa's birthday present.

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Alex, one to five

Alex turned five.  A big milestone for a little girl.  She’s now all the fingers on one hand, learning to read and will be in Kindergarden (Prep as they call it here) later in the year.

Alex is born in the morning on 22 January, 2006

Alex turns one

And then she was two. She loves this skirt.

Alex turns three shortly after we moved to Rome

Alex is four with a big Dr. Seuss looking cake.

And our little girl is five and happy as ever

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Alex turns five

Birthday girl

On 22 January, our little girl turned 5 years old.  As she kept telling us when she was four, that when she turned “this many” holding up five fingers, she’d be able to do all kinds of things…like jump off of taller chairs, eat bell peppers (those are grown up food), use more colors when she draws, etc.  So this is going to be a big year for her.  So far she has been a perfectly, wonderful girl for 1,824 out of her 1,825 days that she has been alive.  She was bad that one day a couple of years ago…well it was really only half a day so I’m sure that doesn’t count.  For her birthday we had a few of her friends over for a party. As usual, Melissa had all the fixins for the party.  She found a lady to make a very nice cake, it even made it on her web-site. She put together a nice poster board of Alex’s first five years (see below) and had some games ready, such as pin the tail on the donkey and pass the orange. I was in charge of drawing the donkey, since I can associate with being an ass (or so I’ve been told.) Mostly there were just a bunch of small kids running around, which was quite comical, while being noisy at the same time. Happy Birthday Alexandria Josephine Bell.

The morning started with Birthday pancakes. She eats pancakes so much we keep telling her she's going to turn into one.

Time for our party. Check out the cake.

Pin the tail on the donkey

Pass the orange. The girls had alot of fun playing this game.

I was trying to distract the kids having them make faces while Melissa got the cake ready

Melissa was having fun watching the kids she wasn't getting the cake ready.

Yummy cake

Alex with the twins Izzy and Ethan, her school buddies.

Alex finally getting to open her gifts

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Alex loves taking pictures

When Melissa takes pictures she snaps off a bunch at a time trying to get the perfect picture.  Alex enjoys it but she also enjoys making faces and being goofy (can’t imagine where she gets that)…so the perfect smile soon takes on different forms.

Ok, big smile….

Good, but sit up straight and full smile…

Your smile is so big that we can’t see your eyes…

Honey, we don’t need the big eye look…

Now you are just being silly, did Dad teach you that…

OK, maybe one of the first few shots will work…

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School starts

Alex started school earlier this month.  This year she starts Kinder, which isn’t kindergarten but pre kindergarten, so the grade before kindergarten in the States, which I’m not really sure what that is called. Here it is Kinder, next year it will be Prep, which is really kindergarten, but it is Prep, as they are prepping for 1st grade…I think. Anyway, she started school again.  Here are some pictures of her first day.

I have no idea what she is doing

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