Eden's Princess Party

We celebrated Eden's birthday with a princess party this past Saturday.  When I asked Eden several months ago what kind of party she wanted, she immediately said "a princess party".  Eden is pretty girly but she is not that into princess stuff and dressing up, so I was a little surprised at the theme she chose and assumed she would change her mind several times before her actual party.  But as her birthday approached, she kept insisting that she wanted a princess party.  So a princess party it was!  (We weren't sure what Parker was going to do at this party so I asked him if her would be the prince and help me serve the princesses lunch.  We got him a crown to wear and he felt very important!)

We invited a few of her friends to dress up as their favorite princess and join us for her party.  We started the party by making the girls look like princesses.  When they arrived each girl got a pair of princess shoes and a tiara to wear.  Then Granna painted all the girls nails while Aunt MerMer gave them some sparkly princess makeup.

After the princesses were all dressed and ready, we decorated princess jewelry boxes.

While the jewelry boxes were drying, we read The Princess and the Pea and played a little game.  I put a green "pea" under one of three pillows and each girl had to sit on the pillows to decide where the pea was.  If they could feel the pea, they earned a pink necklace that told everyone that they were a "real" princess!  I'm happy to report that all of the girls found the hidden pea and proved that they were a real princess!

After our game, Prince Parker helped me serve the princesses lunch.  We had crown PB&J sandwiches, pink yogurt wands, and high heel jello.  I also served pink lemonade in fancy champagne glasses.

After lunch, Princess Eden opened presents.  She was excited to get a new game, new pajamas and lots and lots of fun princess stuff. 

Last but not least, we let Eden reveal her princess cake.  She was a little embarrassed as we all sang to her but did a great job blowing out her candles!

This was, by far, the most involved party I have ever thrown for one of the kids but hearing Eden say "My party is so beautiful!" and "My party was so fun, Mommy!" made it all worth it in the end.  Thanks to all of Eden's family and friends who came and helped her celebrate her 4th birthday! I hope it will be a party she will never forget!

Four Years Old

My sweet, sweet Eden,
Today is finally the day you turn four!  You have been counting down the days for over a week and today we finally get to celebrate your real birthday! You are such a beautiful little girl and I enjoy spending my days with you.  You are growing way to fast and I know that I am going to blink my eyes and you will be in school with Parker, so I am trying to soak up every minute with you.  Here are some of the things I always want to remember about you at this stage in your life:

-You are still tall and skinny.  You weigh about 37 pounds and wear size 5T clothes.  I have no idea how tall you are but I noticed at preschool this week that you are the tallest girl in your class. 

-You started speech therapy back in September and are making slow but steady progress.  You love your teacher, Miss Fabiola, and are always excited to go see her on Monday and Wednesday.  You usually work hard for her but sometimes you test her by being stubborn and refusing to try.  You are working really hard on the /k/ and /g/ sounds and can often make them in isolation.  You are still working on transferring those sounds into conversations.  I am proud of all of your progress so far this year!

-You LOVE going to preschool on Tuesday/Thursday.  You love Miss Tammy and your friends Noah, Reagan, and Sara. You are quickly learning all of your letters and sounds.

-You are painfully shy and hate to be the center of attention.  There are always tears involved when someone asks you to participate in an activity that requires you to do something by yourself.  It can be frustrating at times, but I did the exact same thing when I was your age, so I know there is hope that you will outgrow it one day,  It is because of this that we have not signed you up for any sport/dance/gymnastics yet.  I'm afraid you will just sit and cry the entire time so we are going to give you a little longer to mature before we throw you into something like that.

-You are not a good eater and as hard as I try to get you to eat well, I am rarely successful.  You do not like fruit or vegetables and usually just pick at the food on your plate.  One thing you do love to eat is cereal.  You would probably eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I would let you.  Some of your other favorites are spaghetti, yogurt, nuts, and black olives.

-You adore Parker (or Parpar as you say it).  He is your best friend and worst enemy!  You miss him when he is at school and always look forward to him getting home so you can play.  You are starting to form a much tighter bond with Lily now that Parker is in school.  I pray that you will have a strong and unique bond with both of them throughout your life.

-You still put EVERYTHING in your mouth.  You bite your nails, chew on your blanket, and put toys in your mouth.  I am constantly telling you to "get that out of your mouth".

-You have finally started singing songs and it is music to my ears!  You sing with or without music and you sometimes make up your own songs.  You always want to sing Lily a song before I put her in bed at night. 

-You still like to play with small figures and toys like the people in your dollhouse.  Harper doll is your favorite doll and you play with her often.  You have also shown an interest in playing games like Candyland and Memory recently.

-You are still easy to parent.  You are very sensitive and do not like to get in trouble.  You are usually crying and apologizing before I even open my mouth.  You can whine with the best of them but I am hoping that will get better now that you are four.

-You are not overly affectionate but can be very generous with your kisses at bedtime. I look forward to them every night! 

You are such a joy to me, Eden!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you- I'm sure it is going to be great!

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

A is for Acorn

 

A few weeks ago when Eden was learning about the letter "A" in preschool, her teacher taught her that acorn started with the letter "a".  I think they might have even gone on an acorn walk to find some acorns.  From that day on, Eden has been obsessed with finding acorns.  She looks for them everywhere we go- preschool, Granna's house, my school!  She even gets Lily involved in helping her search for them.

When I pick her up from preschool, her pockets are full of them!  Miss Tammy told me that there are no more acorns on their playground because Eden has picked up every last one of them! 

Luckily, I've convinced Eden that the squirrels in our backyard need them for the winter so she willingly takes them and puts them in our yard any time she comes home with a pocketful.  (I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel in our backyard since we do not have any trees, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her!) 

It is so sweet to watch her search for and pick up acorns! Now if I can just figure out how to get her to pick up her toys with the same amount of enthusiasm!

Cameron Park Zoo

Today we met our friends Nabeel, Julianne, and their kids Naser, Nadia, and Naila in Waco for lunch and a fun trip to the Cameron Park Zoo.  Nabeel and Julianne live in the north Austin area so it was about an hour and 15 minute drive for both of us which was perfect for meeting in the middle! 

 

Cory and Nabeel met their first semester at Texas A&M and have been great friends ever since.  We don't get to see them very often so we were excited when we were able to coordinate our busy schedules and spend the day together at the zoo.  We could not have asked for better weather and the kids had a great time hanging out with each other.  What a blessing that they all get along so well!

I have never been to the zoo in Waco and I was quite impressed.  It is smaller than the FW Zoo but still had all of the normal animals you would see at a larger zoo (elephants, lions, giraffes).  They also had several unique animals like bison and pelicans.  The boys liked the snake exhibit and all 6 kids loved the aquarium.  They only animal they didn't have a lot of was monkeys, which would not have been a problem except that Lily has been talking about the monkeys for days.  Every time I mentioned going to the zoo, she would tell me she wanted to see the monkeys, so I felt sad that she did not get to see very many of them.

Halfway through the park, we stopped for a little break and treated the kids to a Lemon Chill.  My kids have never had one before and although it was their first, I'm pretty sure it won't be their last! 

One thing I loved about this zoo was that it had lots of areas where the kids could stop and play and take a break from walking.  There were slides to go down, animals to climb on, and ropes to swing from!  The zoo was big, but not too big.  Perfect for a few hours of fun!

It was such a fun, family day!  The kids were all on their best behavior (even Lily, who had to miss her nap this afternoon) which always makes for a good day!  I'm excited that we have found somewhere halfway to meet Nabeel's family and look forward to doing this again with them soon! 

Halloween 2012

Halloween turned out completely different than we had planned this year, but we still ended up having a fun evening and got way too much candy that I'm having a hard time not eating! 

Cory took off work early so he would be home in enough time to go trick or treating with the kids, but it turned out it didn't matter.  He came home from work with aches, chills and a fever of 102 degrees and went straight to bed as soon as he walked in the door.  My parents have relatives from Ohio visiting all week so that left ME to take the kids trick or treating. 

The kids were so excited about their costumes this year- Spider-Man, Snow White and Dorothy.

After an early dinner, we got dressed and headed out to the Trunk or Treat at a local church.  We've never been to this particular Trunk or Treat but I've heard that it gets crazy as the evening goes on, so I wanted to get there right when it started.   It was already busy when we arrived, so I pleaded with Parker and Eden to stay close to me so I wouldn't lose anyone.  I have to give them a lot of praise because they were perfect!  They stayed right with me and never wandered off and obeyed every time I asked them to do something.  It was stressful, but not nearly as stressful as I thought.  They enjoyed walking around to each trunk to get candy and then we went inside to play some games.  Surprisingly, they all participated in the games without any tears and were so excited about some of the prizes they won!  I was most excited about the whistles they all got, especially when we got back into the car! Ha! Ha!

 Nothing says Happy Halloween like a llama!

Fishing for treasures

After the Trunk or Treat, we went to a few of our friends houses.  I think the worst part of the evening was getting the girls in and out of their car seats by myself so many times.  It's amazing how annoying those costumes can be when trying to buckle a carseat! 

In the car, Eden practiced really hard saying "Trick or Treat" instead of "Shrick or Shreat" but finally chose to say "Happy Halloween!" to our friends.  It got her some candy, which in the end is the only thing that mattered!

Lily couldn't decide which piece of candy to eat, so she just chose them all!!!

We ended our evening at Granna and Granstan's house.  The kids and I were sad that Daddy didn't get to come with us, but we ended up having a fun evening together!  I was proud of myself for surviving the night without any help and have gained a huge admiration for single parents who do this on a daily basis.  The evening didn't turn out as planned but I wouldn't change anything about it!  Now if I can just stay out of the candy bowl!!