Celebrating Annabelle with a Paw-ty!

Yes, last Friday and Saturday marked Annabelle's second birthdays.  About 6 weeks ago that notion seemed completely unfathomable, but I have begun to come to terms with it.  More on Annabelle at 2 later this week, but for now let me show you how we marked the special occasion!

The festivities began when Gommy and Papa arrived on Wednesday evening.  Sam was permitted to stay up late for their arrival and rode with me to the airport.  He sat still and silent in the back seat while the bags were loaded so that he could yell surprise when they got into the car.  No small feat for my boy, and it was cute to watch him work so hard at his surprise.

It is important to note that Annabelle mastered the ability to pronounce Papa's name over Thanksgiving.  She recognized his voice in the recorded storybook and named him in pictures - specifically.  She had no word for Gommy.  So she and I started practicing about a week before their arrival and she'd gotten as far as "Gom-ky."  By Thursday at lunch, it was clearly and loudly "Gommy" and she has been asking for her (well both of them) by name ever since.  What a relief for Gommy!

After a play day on Thursday, we were ready for an awesome 2-day birthday celebration.  Friday morning started early with a donut breakfast.  My kids have a particular love for those things, and they usually eat the frosting off the top first.  I can't blame them.

We all loaded up for a trip to the Children's Museum, a favorite outing for both kiddos.  I'm glad I had extra adults with me because I have rarely seen the museum that crowded.  Holy field trips.  We made the most of what we could and headed home for naps.

After naps we met up with Daddy for dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse - the kids loved it over the summer, the food and the entertainment.  Unfortunately, this time the fire terrified my daughter and she spent most of the meal in someone's lap.  The "Special Birthday Treat" was also a bit ho-hum and the ice cream went un-touched.  Oh well.

Back home for presents, and there was no disappointing here.  This year's present opening extravaganza (which admittedly extended beyond one night - too many presents or not enough attention span?) proved that my girl is no longer a baby.  No only did she officially grasp the concept of a present, that they are fun to open and generally contain someone she wants, she was truly interested and wanted to play with each item she opened.  And they weren't baby gifts.  My favorite moment has to be when she was wearing her new espadrille sandals (still one size too big), her princess cape and scootering down our front hallway.

It is so much fun to watch someone truly enjoy their new gifts.  New shoes, outside toys that will allow her to keep up with Sam, a new fish.  Annabelle is now officially, suddenly interested in "Pwim-pwences" (read: Princesses), so those gifts were more of a hit than I anticipated as well.

Saturday morning, after an 8:30am soccer game - yikes!, was the big Paw-ty.  My animal-loving daughter scored herself a Puppy Party.  We ended up with a great group of 2-year-olds, their older siblings and their chauffeurs - er, parents.  Everyone seemed to actually enjoy the activities I planned, and some of the food was even eaten.  I always have too much party food!

So, what makes a 2-year-old's party a Puppy Party?  Well naturally there was a Puppy Cake created by yours truly.  I think it turned out pretty great, perhaps my best "shaped" cake yet.  Unfortunately, after the fire scare the night before at dinner, Annabelle was a bit afraid to blow out her candles.  We had even practiced blowing out candles!  I decided not to force the issue at a party and let the always-eager-to-steal-the-spotlight older brother do the job for her.

There were other puppy-themed snacks as well.  Candied dog bones (store-bought Scooby Snacks I dipped in candy coating and sprinkles), Pink Puppy Chow and Bread Stick Dog Bones.  Yes, some of the snacks were served in dog bowls, which Sam and Annabelle have since adopted as cereal bowls.

What would a Puppy Party be without a puppy of your own?  I say no party at all!  So each party guest adopted their own puppy and decorated them to make them truly their own.  It was a solid call on my part to forgo the fabric markers in favor of washables - they are two, after all, and at least one mom went home with marker on her white pants.

Next up was the opportunity to make your own puppy ears!  A simple craft geared towards the 2's, coloring and stickers onto paper-shaped ears that the parents helped them staple to a headband.  I think the kiddos looked pretty cute, even if they did only wear them for a short bit!

Outside was the puppy obstacle course, with last-minute adaptations to happen on the driveway instead of the muddy backyard.  Each kiddo got a puppy sticker for finishing the course.  Some had the extra obstacle of crawling around Leo, who was using the last tunnel as a deer blind for target practice with the Nerf guns that the big kids had pulled out of Sam's room.  Ha!  They even managed to take turns on the slide...mostly.

Finally was "Digging for Dog Bones" and it was a HUGE hit.  Turns out all those preschool teachers out there really know what they're doing with those "sensory tables."  I filled our water table with rice and buried some dog bones marked with different colored shapes.  Find a matching shape and earn a stamp!  With Papa in charge on the stamp, though, I'm not sure how many had to find a match to get that stamp.  Those two-year-olds had a blast pouring and scooping and working their hands through that rice!  Score for the party-planner!

And then it was time for everyone to go home.  I am very pleased with how it all went off.  I am very pleased with the fact that the Birthday Girl really enjoyed herself and everything I planned for her.  I am thankful for friends and family who joined us to celebrate our Baby Girl - because it turns out, I really love celebrating her!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl, I love you!

Happy Heart Day

I made an effort to document my Valentine's Day with my kiddos this year!  You will see that I strongly prefer to celebrate with food...

The festivities, of course, started with Sam's class party on Thursday.  We made his first Valentine's Box, and I showed great restraint in letting him decorate it as he saw fit, regardless of how messy the end product looked in my eyes.  We assembled his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (TMNT for short) cards for his friends, complete with eraser and smarties.  This year her wrote his name on all of them on his own, no tracing required.  Some were neater than others - focus is not his strong suit.

He also requested to make a special valentine for Mrs. Erin and one for his friend Reagan as well.  They try to so hard to keep everything equal with the little ones, but the heart wants what the heart wants!  I put together Valentines for the teachers - Starbucks cards!  Not quite as cute as the Pinterest version, but I still liked them.  "Sam Likes You a Latte!"

Friday morning I found roses waiting for me when I returned from my run, and the kids found their heart-shaped balloons shortly thereafter.  Next up: heart-shaped sprinkle pancakes.  My children will eat ANYTHING if I put sprinkles on it.  This year I managed to get two pancakes handed off to my biggest valentine before he left for work!  (Side Note: how do you teach a 4-year-old to ditch his terribly forced "picture smile" for his much sweeter real smile?)

We hung around the house all morning, but that gave us a chance to open a few gifts that arrived in the mail!  Aunt Becky sent Kiwi Crates for the kiddos - what great gifts! Sam got to make his own super hero cape and meteor ball, while Annabelle created her own jingle bell bracelet.  I promise, she is way more into the craft than this picture would imply.

And the super hero races the three of us had afterwards were awesome!

Lunch was also Pinterest-inspired.  Peanut butter sandwiches with heart-shaped sprinkle cut outs.  Sam ate every bite.  Annabelle worked hard to pick every sprinkle off that sandwich.

After naps I treated my little valentines to a trip to Starbucks.  Sam requested the same "chocolate chip cookie I got when I had to go potty when we were looking at houses with Mr. Steve."  (that was a year ago)  Annabelle loved on her pink cake pop, declaring it "yummy!"  She got a kick out of watching all the school buses drive by as we snacked.  I took advantage of the buy-one-share-one latte offer, but saved my iced one for later (for myself).

Dinner was, again, heart shaped!  Heart-shaped meatloaves and bell peppers arranged to look like hearts.  And desert was the heart cake.  I use that heart pan once a year, every year - without fail!

I forgot to give the kids their candy boxes from me.  Maybe tomorrow?

The meatloaves were actually just dinner for the kids.  As they were finishing, Chris sent me to a candlelight bubble bath while he cleaned the kitchen and got the kids to bed.  Once they were asleep, he prepared grilled steaks, bacon-wrapped potatoes and bruschetta.  We dined outside next to a warm fire.  Oh, and deep-fried strawberries with chocolate sauce for desert.  Mmm.  And our gifts to each other prove that we do actually pay attention to one another after all!

It was a great day - I thoroughly enjoyed my time with each of my valentines.  And now I shall enjoy some leftover cake...

My Girl

She's really becoming a person.  She is such a perfect addition to our family and our days.  I am having so much fun watching her little personality shine through.

-She enjoys art.  She is excited to sit and color at a restaurant and is eager to use every marker, stamper and paint brush in the art box.  All of which, thankfully, are washable.

-She has discovered God's gift of bacon.  This thick cut slice was hard for her to bite, so she sucked on it.  I was so proud.  I was not quite as proud the day she drank her Spaghettios.  I tried really hard to hold off the junk food with her, and succeeded for awhile.  She was 15 months old before she had juice!  But the streak has ended and she is now as addicted to her "nini" (candy) as her role model.

-Her Role Model.  She looks up to him in everything, for good and for bad.  She's desperate to figure out the scooter and actually begged me to take the little bike down off the wall after Sam spent an afternoon on his bike.  She refuses to sit on the tricycle.  She wants to be big like him. (Note: She can't move the bike yet.  She will be required to wear a helmet once she can push the pedals.  She wears one when she rides on my bike.)

-And she loves him.  He wasn't feeling well this day, but some choices require a punishment even if you're under the weather.  He sat in time out and whined that he was cold.  Annabelle grabbed the big blanket, huge and awkward compared to her, and dragged it over to him.  And then laid with him until his sentence had been served.

Sweet, huh?  Oh did she miss him when he went back to school after Christmas break!  Asked about him all day long.  She gets excited when we pulled into the parking lot, calling his name as she points to the building. 

But she is also learning to stand her ground with him.  She's learned a particular scream she uses to get her way when she feels she has been wronged, particularly by him.  Someone is starting to show her 2-year-old self!

-Speaking of being 2, she has also decided she's interested in the potty.  No really, she asked about it, tried it out, and has been successful.  Successful enough that we tried underwear for a few days, but that she was NOT ready for.  So we are practicing for now. 

So maybe she's doesn't have all of her teeth yet (still!), but she's not a baby anymore!

And I now realize that I need to be better about taking her picture on days when I put together really cute outfits for her.  Because I do - she looks adorable all the time.  Yet she is a mess in all of these pictures.  Sigh.

Christmas 2013

In spite of the fact that Chris and I have been packing up and heading out of town our entire marriage, it is still overwhelming for me to load up this crew for this particular holiday.  The thing is, Christmas means gifts and gifts for young children are large.  And because I am ALL ABOUT the magic of Christmas, I insist that my children not be denied the joy of a room full of new toys on Christmas morning just because we have to travel.  That, of course, is why our car looks like this when we hit the road:

Really, its not bad!  We could see out the back, did not require the car top carrier, and we had a play kitchen in there!  The drive went ok, I think it helped that Annabelle was provided the privilege of facing forward in her carseat for the first time!  There was traffic on the way, rain on the way home.  The kids didn't sleep well on the return trip, but we got home early enough that we were all able to get three hours of sleep in our own beds before the kids decided we were all awake for the day.

Enough about the drive, what about the big day?  Of course, that starts the night before...

We managed to get a decent family picture before Christmas Eve church this year.  So fun to be able to shop for pretty Christmas dresses for my sweet girl.  Maybe one day Sam will agree to wear a pair of dress shoes...

The kids had a bit of a hard time sitting through the service, but they loved the candles at the end.  Annabelle kept looking at hers, wondering why hers wasn't working.  After they were extinguished, she kept dipping it into other candles trying to get it to work.  So cute! 

They did, however, really well waiting for a late dinner after church, which all 8 of us were able to enjoy together!  Of course there were things to keep busy with while we waited.  We had to spread our reindeer food on the front lawn...

This year Sam and I did some real baking for Santa's drivers - what you see there is Oats, red food coloring and sprinkles toasted to a nice crisp in the oven.  It actually smelled pretty good!  I guess its basically a boxed cereal at this point.

We laid out cookies for Santa and some carrots for Rudolph.  We all dawned our Christmas PJs and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and the real Christmas story for Luke.  True Story: combine a boy that TOTALLY believes in Santa and wants him desperately to come with one who can't yet tell time and you have the quickest to bed ever!

And then it was Christmas morning!  We opened stockings from Santa on Mommy and Daddy's bed before heading to the tree to open the mound of gifts with the whole gang.  In contrast to years past, Sam ripped through his stack in record time, or at least it would have been if we hadn't encouraged him to play with his things a bit.  Annabelle was a bit more patient (shocking) and spent time with each of her things.  We did stop for breakfast, but it was noon before we finished the unwrapping!  And then we did presents from my siblings and stockings from my parents via facetime later that day.  Ridiculous!  Fun! 

The kids spent hours and hours playing with their new stuff for the rest of the trip.  They truly enjoyed everything they received, and I think they both seem more grown up now at home as I watch them play with their new things. 

Now to find a home for all those new things - Cue the annual January Toy Organization Project!