Birthday Bonanza!

Well Kate is officially 4 now. Hard to believe it has been that long since that snowy Saturday when she arrived. She has certainly changed our whole world - in a wonderful way!

We had a few different celebrations for the big event. The day before her birthday she brought in cupcakes and a craft project to share with her friends at daycare.  We then picked her up early to take her to see the movie "Tangled".  She really enjoyed it except Mommy accidentally bought tickets to the 3D version and she was not a fan of the glasses!  Late that night (after Kate was already in bed) Uncle Josh flew in from Denver to join in on the festivities.  So he surprised her when she woke up the next morning on her actual birthday - which happened to fall on Thanksgiving day this year!  We all had some breakfast and then Kate opened her gifts from us, Grandma & Poppa Graham, and Josh. We played with all of the fun new things and then headed over to Grandma & Poppa Larsen's house to celebrate over turkey and other delicious food.  Kate opened more presents from Grandma & Poppa Larsen, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Kevin & Aunt Kari.  She received so many wonderful things!  We topped off the evening with a Disney Princess cake!


Two days later we had Kate's party with all of her friends at Kidz Bounce. It was two hours of pure bouncing fun! After the party we returned home to open all of the gifts from her friends. Yes, more presents! Can you believe Chistmas is less than a month away? Oh and she is already talking about her 5th birthday!  Here are some pics from all of the festivities:

Opening presents with Uncle Josh - he brought Stinky the Garbage Truck!

New roller skates from Grandma & Poppa Graham

Rapunzel dress & doll from Grandma & Poppa Larsen

Blowing out candles on cake #1 - princess cake at Grandma & Poppa Larsen's

Bouncing at Kidz Bounce

Kate and her friends at the Kidz Bounce Party

With cake #2 (and best buddy Noah) at her bouncy party

Kate and Jack sitting in the birthday chair at the bouncy party

Jack's Room

My mother-in-law offered to watch Jack and Kate this Saturday and Dave had an all day board meeting to attend.  So I decided to take advantage of the empty house and finally paint Jack's room.  The previous owners also had a little girl and a little boy.  The little girl's room was lavender which worked out just great with Kate's new Disney Princess theme.  The boy's room had a surf theme and the walls were an aqua blue and the curtains were red & white striped.  It wasn't bad but didn't really match the bedding and decor that we have for Jack.  So I painted the walls just a dark beige (think chocolate milkshake) color.  And then I hung navy blue curtains.  I figure they are basic enough that they will likely match future decor when he has grown out of the jungle theme.  I always under-estimate how long it will take to paint a room.  I figured I could get it done in a couple of hours because it is a small room.  But it ended up being almost a whole day affair.  Oh well - at least it is done!  Once Dave got home he hung pictures on the walls and it was finally complete.  Unfortunately it still reaks of paint so Jack is currently sleeping in the bonus room :). 

School Photos

The kids' daycare had school photos taken last month.  I put them in cute outfits, did their hair, instructed Kate to try really hard not to spill on her outfit (brought in a back-up outfit for Jack), and then crossed my fingers that they would turn out.  The problem with school photos is that you pay ahead of time and then you have no control on how they turn out.  You aren't there to try to make them smile, to fix their hair that is sticking out in strange directions or straighten out the wrinkles in their clothes. 

So last week the pictures arrived at home.  Kate's turned out okay.  Hair just a little messed up and smile just a bit fake :). 

She forgot to look at the camera during the class photo: 

Then I opened Jack's.  Apparently he was not a fan of the cameraman.  Very sad boy.  But at least his hair looks cute!

Class photo - slightly happier!

I sense many more years of mediocre school photos in our future!  But I will continue to order them every year and will proudly put them in their scrapbooks.  Because messy hair and sad faces aside, they are still the cutest EVER!

Disney on Ice

I spent all of last week in Orlando attending a conference for work.  I felt very guilty enjoying the Magic Kingdom, Downtown Disney and Epcot Center without my kids - Kate especially.    So I was excited that the Disney on Ice "Celebrations" show just happened to be coming to town the Saturday after I returned.  We dropped off Jack at Grandma & Poppa Larsen's house so that we could have a special day with Kate.  She got dressed up in her new Minnie Mouse outfit I had brought back from my trip along with a new stuffed Minnie to match.

   

After spending a small fortune on popcorn, a snow cone and a cool light-up toy, we were ready for the show to begin! 

As the lights went down, the music began to play and characters started coming out on the ice, I could tell she was a bit overwhelmed by it all.  But I was confident that she would warm up to it.  The first scene featured Mickey and the Gang along with some of the Alice and Wonderland characters having an un-birthday party.  So far so good.

 

Then came the Fantasia scene.  Once the dancing brooms came out I saw her eyes start to widen.  She was clearly not enjoying this as much as I thought she would.

Then came the Halloween scene with all of the Disney villians and her face is, appropriately, now as white as ghost.  This is not going well.  I was relieved when the Halloween scene ended and we were ready to move on to Valentine's Day.  Bring on the princesses!  We finally got a smile out of her by the time Cinderella made her way out on to the ice.  I thought we were in the clear.

Once the princesses cleared the ice, the lights went on and they announced that it was time for a brief intermission and then the rest of the show would resume.  Kate quickly gathered up her things and announced that she was going home.  We tried to convince her otherwise for a good 15 minutes.  But unfortunately there was no way that she was sticking around for any more Disney on Ice!

Lesson learned - your children may not always be as excited about something as you are.  Oh well, I enjoyed the first half of the show.  Maybe Jack will go with me next year so I can see what we missed in the second half!

Remembering Jane

Yesterday my grandmother Jane passed away at the age of 96.  Although I am very sad that I won't get to see her again and that she won't get to see how much my kids have grown since our last visit, I know that she is probably in a much happier place. 

My grandmother was a wonderful woman who raised my mom as a single mother with the help of her sister and mom after her husband was killed in WWII.  She was a very generous woman who dontated much of her time and money to her church and other organizations.  She loved holidays like I do.  So I have had many fond memories of her today as I have packed away our Halloween decorations, many of which were gifts from her. 

I remember Jane putting out bird seed and corn for the squirrels every day and smile when I realize that now my own mom does that.  I wonder if I will some day?  I can barely remember to feed my dog and cat every day!  I remember her baking many yummy treats for my brother and I when we would come to visit - especially her angel food cake with glaze made from orange juice.  I think I'll need to make one of those soon!  I remember telling her that Dave and I were moving in together (before we were married) and her saying "Well you be good to each other.".  All she ever wanted was for all of us to be happy.   

So now I am hoping that she can find happiness in the next stage of her life.  And wherever she is, I hope that she can finally be reuinited with her husband after all of these years. 

Granny Jane with me and Jack last November