Spring Break Day 6

Our final day of our Spring Break letter activities was Saturday and we just had the letter "K" left.  It's a little bit more challenging to come up with K activities.  Luckily we have a fun place nearby called Kangaroo Zoo that has a ton of bounce houses and slides.

Princess was a bit confused at first because she had never been there.  When I told her where we where going she got all excited thinking we were going to the actual zoo and getting to see animals and kangaroos.  I don't think she was too disappointed though when we showed up and she saw what she was going to do.  I pretty much could track her throughout the place by her screams of excitement!

It was hard to get her to stand still long enough to get a picture.  This was her favorite bounce toy- it was the biggest slide and she went down it over and over.  She is the blur on the side:

They had a little play area for Cupcake too.  Here she is making her new "ooh" sound/face:

She found a little tunnel she liked to crawl through. 

 
Most of the time she sat in the umbrella stroller though.  It was funny because I had 5 different little kids come up and just start pushing her like she was a doll in a toy stroller!

That night we had her 2 cousins sleep over since there was no church the next day due to Stake Conference.  And like good Utah Mormons we didn't go ;)  They had a blast!  They got to stay up late watching Smurfs, eating cookies, and they all slept on the couches.

Wow!  What a fun Spring Break!  We threw all caution and routine to thew wind- skipping naps and letting the house get messy.  Ok the house is pretty much always messy, but I didn't let it bother me too much last week.  Princess says her favorite part was Kangaroo Zoo and bowling.  My favorite part was that she went to bed every night completely exhausted and slept so well.  Usually she comes out of her room 5 times before finally going to sleep. 

Actually my favorite part was spending so many amazing little moments with my kids.  I hardly checked Facebook and online things this last week.  A habit I have been wanting to break for a while.  It was easy to do- we were so busy having fun and spending time together that I didn't even think about it.  We had zero tantrums and no time-outs.  Lots of laughs and exciting times.

One of the best moments was the night she rode her bike.  It was only her third time on her new bike, but her confidence shot through the roof.  She picked up speed and went around corners and up and down dips in the sidewalk like she was a pro.  I was so nervous and started running after her thinking surely I was going to have to pick her up off of the sidewalk- but she didn't fall once.  Just kept going and it was a very exhilarating moment as a parent to watch!

I think after this experience I will definitely make more of an effort to take time out for special moments with my kids every day.  It doesn't take a special vacation/stay-cation or planned activities to do.  Just moments of time you completely dedicate yourself to them!  I encourage everyone to give it a try!

More activity ideas that start with the letter "K":  Make/fly Kites, Kebabs for dinner, Knights, Kiwis for snacks

The Birthday That Never Ends

Both of my beautiful girls have February birthdays.  Which I think is awesome.  It is one of my favorite months!  But since this was the first year of having two February birthdays I struggled making each one special and sticking to traditions for both girls.  So I kinda just went overboard the entire month.

Lesson learned.  Next year: SIMPLIFY.  And maybe switch off each year on who gets a party/outing.  We did a big combined party for them both.  I did a party for Princess' first birthday so I didn't want Cupcake to be left out on her first birthday.

But Princess wanted a Rapunzel party.  I told her we had to do something Cupcake would like too so we did Pink Zebra.  Actually, I think the theme was more for me- but Princess signed on to the idea since it was going to have a lot of pink!  Still- I tried to do everything on her actual birthday in Rapunzel to make up for me getting my way.

Anyway- their big zebra party really isn't the subject of THIS post.  That comes next time!  This post is about Princess' actual birthday.  Which happened to be on a Sunday.  Which led us to take her out the day before.  Which just prolonged the celebrations even more!

Ever since she was little we took her out to celebrate as a family, just us, and then had her party on another day.  You see the tradition of ridiculousness beginning?!  Anyway- can't break with tradition right?!

So the day before The Artist and I took her to the mall- just the 3 of us.  Actually, the last 3 years we've always taken her to Jungle Jim's. but that is getting a bit old for us so we decided to try something new.  She got to go to Build-a-Bear where she picked out a pink teddy bear and a Rapunzel dress for it to wear along with purple high-top sneakers and orange ear-bows.  She named it "Rapunzel Bear", very original!  The Artist had a hard time getting a good picture of her because she wouldn't hold still- she was so excited!

Next we picked out some pink shoes to match her birthday outfit she was getting the next day.  Then we walked by a booth that was selling those curling rods and they were doing some girls' hair.  I asked if they would Princess' hair too.  The girl was super nice and when she found out it was her birthday- she got out a tiny curling rod and spent extra time doing her hair to make it look really good.  She looked like Shirley Tempe when she was done.  She sat so patiently through the hairstyling, I was so proud of her.  It was nice because the curl held up pretty well over night so she had pretty hair for church the next day.

Next we ate dinner at Subway in the food court and then we let her play at the playground for a while.  She ran around squealing the entire time out of excitement.  Lastly, we finished up with ice-cream at Coldstone.

The next day was Sunday- but her actual birthday so I wanted her to feel special this day too.  Yes I did warn you with the title it was the birthday that never ends.

She got to open one present before 9am church, which happened to be her birthday dress so she could wear it.  I stayed home from church that day because Cupcake was sick, so I decorated the living room with streamers and balloons (another tradition) and surprised her when she came home form church with Daddy.

She was excited to open all of her gifts.

She loved the horses, Fresh Beat band CD, and her Pillow Pet the most.

But the best was still to come!  After her nap and dinner I wheeled out her brand new Barbie bike out of our bedroom.  It came with a barbie on the handle bars and for a minute that's all she noticed.

Finally she got really excited to climb on her big-girl bike.

Showing Daddy "how many old" she is with her new bike gloves on:

We took it out the next day to start learning.  She was a little bit scared and asked to go back to her tricycle afterwards- but I thought she did really well for her first time!

Click here for a video if you are really interested in seeing her ride her bike!

Lastly- the ridiculousness continued on Tuesday at pre-school where we got to bring cupcakes for the entire class.  I was really proud of my cupcake flags I made myself.  And Princess was proud of the sprinkles she put on them all by herself.

At school she got to wear the birthday badge and pick out 4 toys from the birthday box for turning 4 years old.  After eating the cupcakes she got to pick her favorite game to play, "Dog-O-Dog".  It was a lot of fun getting to stay and watch her interact with her friends and teacher.

Very First Dance Recital!!

On December 1st  Princess had her first ever dance recital!  We were all so excited and it was great having a bunch of our family there to support her.  The day before she went in for rehearsal on the big stage and to get her pictures taken.  She is in the back row oon the left here.

The theme of the recital was "When I Grow Up" and her class were firefighters and danced to "Great Balls of Fire".  They were all so cute- but I only had eyes for Princess of course! 

 

Her group was the first to perform at the recital.  She came right out and knew just where to stand.  She waved to us in the middle and did a little "Ta-da!" pose at the end. Totally adorable!

Here are video of both the rehearsal and the recital.  The first one shows her more clearly, but she did even better on the night of the recital.  She got nearly every step!  That is on the second video- but that one is pretty shaky and blurry at times.  She is in the back row to the right.

She got a Christmas necklace from her dance teacher and we gave her flowers.  We also took her out to Arctic Circle after to celebrate.

I can't wait to see many more dance recitals to come!

Parents and Pie Party

In November we got to go to Princess' school for a little Thanksgiving party.  I was excited when we walked in the door and they were singing to all the parents!  How cute!  

I have a really cute video of her singing, but for some reason I can't can't the video to embed and play.  So just follow this link to see all the cuteness! Please let me know if you can't get it to work!

These days, Princess seems to always be singing around the house and LOVES going to primary now because of singing time.  She has told me a few times lately that when she grows up she wants to be a music/song teacher!  I think that is a wonderful thing to be sweetheart!