Birthday Girl...

For lots of really great scheduling reasons, we partied simply with this girl this year. It was just our family, and it was a great choice. The boys helped pick a theme for Tess's party, and the conclusion was unanimous... Her most favorite thing in the entire world? A cat named "Bob".

Go ahead and laugh. I laugh every time I say his name too. He is our neighbor's cat, and to say that Tess is majorly obsessed with him is putting it mildly. She wakes up in the morning and asks for Bob. We take several walks across the street each day to go find him. And when we're not trying to find him, we're talking about him. We make up stories about him sleeping or going on adventures in the neighborhood. Tess's number one sentence spoken every day is (with her hands thrown up in the air in confusion), "Bob?? Where-eeee-goooooo?"

Look out when a boy says Bob's name when we're actually taking a break from talking about him. He immediately gets the look. Everyone knows that you don't ever bring up Bob when she's miraculously forgotten about him for five minutes. Geesh...

So we celebrated Bob-style, and she was more than thrilled...

So happy to see her cake!

Bouncing up and down and dancing while everyone sang to her.

Spitting - uh, I mean blowing- out two hard earned candles!

Wait, is someone cheering for me?!?!

Happy Birthday, Tess Elena!

P.S. Oh how your brothers adore you.

P.S.S. Bob? Not so much.