Annabelle's 3rd Birthdays

Let's get the questions out of the way first, the ones that I have been asked 8 kagillion times this week:
1. Her legal birthday is March 1 in a non-leap year.
2. We celebrate her on both days - my notion is that "when you don't have a special day, might as well have two!"
3. Leap years happen every 4 years, so no, she has not had an "actual" birthday yet.  This one surprised me this year, I thought people knew that!

I do love third birthdays.  They are the first that the child really understands - both what a birthday means AND that the celebration is all about her.  That makes party planning really fun, and really about the KID for the first time in her life (first birthday parties are for the parents.  Well deserved indeed, but not a bit for the kid's benefit.  I've thrown myself two "congratulations on keeping them alive for a year" parties).

Annabelle and I have been prepping for her big days.  We talked about how old she would be in a month (then in two weeks, then next week, etc) and practiced holding up that many fingers.  We discussed her party and who she'd like to invite.  We discussed the use of candles and what type of treat she would like Mommy to bake for her.  By the time her days rolled around, she was amped and ready!

Saturday, February 28 was a fun and busy day!  We left the house before 10am to make it to the Barnyard Bash being hosted by Annabelle's art teacher.  Pony rides, face paint, crafts and cookies, it was basically a second party without her name on it.  She and Sam both bravely rode the ponies, something I'm not sure either of them would have done a year ago.  Annabelle got to go twice, but clearly had way more fun when her brother was along for a ride with her.  I love watching their little relationship develop into friendship.  And Sam, again, was just as into the crafts in the art room as Annabelle was.  For a kid who resisted all things art related as a preschooler, he sure thinks her stuff is pretty cool now!  By the time we left, they were both seriously fancied up for the remainder of our celebrating.

It was straight to Sam's last basketball game from there, and I'd like to think the other team was intimidated by his Leonardo mask.  Then we went out for BBQ with the team - a yummy lunch with cookie cake to celebrate.  I should note that, by this point in the day, Annabelle had consumed 3 donut holes, 8 raspberries, a cookie, one bite of white bread, one bite of corn, one bite of turkey and half a slice of cookie cake.  Yikes.

After of few hours of singing to herself in bed (details on that in my next post), we brought her out to open presents from family.  Poor little unloved child.  She was appreciative of everything, although less enthused by the clothes than in the past.  She did squeel a bit when she opened her "Shooooooesssss!" from Aunt Becky and spent about 5 minutes putting princess lip smackers on both herself and me.  "See, it doesn't hurt!"  And then came the doll house, and both she and big brother had to be dragged away from it every time we needed them to do something for the next few days.

Then it was off to dinner!  We had asked Annabelle which restaurant she would like to go to for her birthday but "the red one!" just wasn't very descriptive.  So Mommy and Daddy selected Rainforest Cafe - as did, apparently, every other family in Katy that was celebrating a birthday that evening.  Honestly, I'm not sure that a single table did not receive a special birthday treat.  Fortunately that did not seem to lesson the level of special-ness for the kids, who thoroughly enjoyed checking out the waterfall, animatronic animals and decor and sucking down their over-priced, character-cup icee's during our 40 minute wait for our food.  It also gave us ample opportunity to verify with Annabelle that she not only wanted a candle on her cupcake (which was so tasteless that none of us would eat it) but that she wanted the full on sparkler.  We showed her three different sparklers to confirm.  And after we all devoured our food, to everyone's great surprise, Annabelle sat boldly, proudly, happily in front of her sparkler while everyone sang to her.

This is no small thing!  Only a few weeks ago she ran to me and buried her face in my shoulder during her friend's party.  Just this week she covered her eyes as I lit the gas stove to boil some water.  The girl's feat of fire is real.  But it appears that her desire to experience all-things-birthday was stronger than her fear.  Because she didn't just enjoy her sparkler, but also the candle on her Mommy-Made Daniel Tiger Cookie Cake we had when we got home.  Blew that candle out on her first try!

Sunday morning I woke her with another Happy Birthday!  And then we all hurried off to church, where she scored an awesome Birthday Balloon in her class.  Then we came home and...hung out.  We did not clean, prep, arrange, decorate or bake.  Annabelle rested, Sam watched a show and did some homework, Chris paid bills and I worked on bible study.  (Annabelle demanded a candle in her lunch, and singing to go with it.)  All this made possible by one very smart decision that I made this year: Outsource Annabelle's Birthday Party.

It came to my attention a few months ago that Miss Debbie, our Art Class Teacher, also hosts birthday parties.  You give her a theme and a check, she does everything, literally.  Everything from printing your invitations to passing out the party favors she purchased.  She does the food, the games, the crafts, the decorations.  We showed up with some "adult snacks" and ourselves.  It was awesome.  She even takes pictures.  Here is the blurb she posted to Facebook to go along with the pictures from our Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood party:   

"It was a beautiful day in Annabelle Tiger’s neighborhood today where all her friends gathered to celebrate her third birthday. The children started the party with arts and crafts and tiger snacks before entering Annabelle’s Neighborhood where the children had some fun, imaginative play making and selling cupcakes in the bakery, shopping at the grocery store, fixing sick creatures at the animal hospital and fishing on a picnic. The day ended with cupcakes and ribbon sticks all for a special little tiger named Annabelle!"

For the record, she once again reveled in the singing to her and put great effort into blowing out the three candles on her cupcake.  That makes for 4 candle adventures in 2 days.  Is she cured, or is this only a birthday reprieve from her phobia?

After a few friends weren't able to come at the last minute, we ended up with about 10 kiddos at the party.  I think everyone had a good time - I know that my two did!  In spite of our lack of work for the party, the four of us returned home exhausted.  Annabelle opened gifts from her friends, we had a snacky dinner and crashed early

After a whole weekend of celebrating I was a bit concerned that my baby girl would wake up on Monday thinking that it was all about her once again.  To the contrary, she woke up and informed me that it was not her birthday anymore, but that she was three now.  And that she still started with an A (there was debate earlier in the week.  She thought that since her number was changing that her letter would, too.  Clearly we have work to do on our letters and number and their meanings).

And now...we have no baby.  We have no toddler.  Our little family is growing up!

Special Trip

As I alluded in my previous post, Annabelle recently took a very special trip and it was all Daddy's idea!  Chris had a conference in Florida and, after researching flight options, realized that it made as much sense to fly into Tampa as to any other airport.  Well guess where we go when we fly into Tampa - Grammy and Papa's house!  So Chris proposed that he take with him a tiny tag-along, whom he would leave with Grammy for a few days while he went to his conference.  Brilliant!

My little girl was SO excited.  Honestly, it was the first time I saw her show so much excitement in her own right, for her own thing, rather than just mimicking her big brother.  She spent a few days counting down till her trip, listing the things that we would do before she would go, who was and who was not going with her.  She was mildly confused about who would be there when I told her that she'd be sleeping in Aunt Becky's bed, but I think we got that all straightened out.  And then the morning of she was literally bouncy and giggly.  I dressed her as girlie as possible for her plane ride, packed some lunches for her and her escort, and sent them on their way.

I am told she had a lovely time!  Baked cookies, had lunch with Aunt Judy, had her nails painted, etc.  I'm pretty sure she loved all of the special attention!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sam and I managed to have a very special time ourselves.  And I must say, I am over the moon proud of my boy for how well he handled the fact that he was not going to Grammy's.  He asked once why he wasn't going, and after a brief explanation, never complained or whined even once.  I told him we'd do a few things ourselves, and he was actually excited, too.

So the two of us enjoyed a dinner date, followed by his first ever baseball practice, on Tuesday night.  A bike ride to Starbucks to do his homework, just like the grown ups do, on Wednesday.  Some park time on Thursday, and then I spent most of the day at his school on Friday (Friday Readers, I brought him Wendy's for lunch, and then the party!).  Lots of one on one conversations, lots of "big kid" behavior. 

But my sometimes-sweet children DID miss each other!  As he stepped off the bus on Tuesday, at a time when Annabelle still would have been napping on a normal day, Sam declared that he missed his sister.  And the exhausted boy leaped off the couch and jumped into jammies at the suggestion of Facetiming with her.  It was a happy reunion on Friday afternoon!

You know, people were rather confused when I told them that my 2-year-old was on vacation.  A few of them asked what I was going to do with "all my free time."  They seemed to be forgetting that I still had a kid I was responsible and really only gained about 6 hours of "kid-free" time the entire time she was gone.  But a few were spot on with their responses, "Oh it must be so nice to have that time with Sam!"  And they were right.

Recently At Art Class...

Everything that Miss Debbie plans is intentional.  There are themes for the month and for the day, but the crafts are not just a craft to match.  The activities develop fine motor, large motor, verbal skills, etc.  Activities like this one where she studded her hand-molded moon surface with small jewels, are all about pincer grip coordination.
 

Squishing the clay builds strength, but is also helping my girl be more comfortable with different, shall we say messier, textures.  And then when she smashed a dinosaur into it and painted it, she also got to learn what a fossil is!

Sam got to visit class with us again when he was off school for MLK Day.  It was Dinosaur Day!

February brought us into a Wild West Candyland Adventure.  We read the story of the Gingerbread Man and feasted our eyes upon a plate of cookies, but they ran away during craft time!

I realized as we were creating these Valentine's that she no longer needed me to peel the backs off of these foam stickers for her.  She couldn't even come close to doing it herself when we started class in December!

The week that the kiddos were invited to sit around the campfire, Annabelle was expectantly hesitant.  Miss Debbie explained that it was pretend and eased her into touching the tissue paper representation of her one, true phobia.  And Miss Debbie commented that this fear of fire isn't surprising, given Annabelle's more cautious and thoughtful personality.  She did relax, and grew increasingly enthusiastic when she saw what was planned for camp fire time.  What a creative way to serve s'mores to preschoolers: each got to dip one marshmallow in chocolate sauce and then roll it in graham cracker crumbs.  Most of the class devoured them, but Annabelle sat there for at least 10 minutes, licking and enjoying her treat.  That's how I would have done it as a kid, too.

We've had a lot of fun with the large motor this month, playing with our hats and stick horses.

She has her favorite seat at the craft table now, and her favorite tree to park under, and feels totally comfortable there.  And wait till you see what we have in store with Miss Debbie next!

Happy Heart Day

I must start by saying that I feel really REALLY sorry for all of the single/dating dudes this year.  Valentine's Day happened to fall on a Saturday and I feel like that really ups the pressure.  No longer can you get away with an overpriced dinner date, but you must make your valentine feel special ALL DAY LONG because its Saturday, and what else are you going to do?  Sigh.

That was not the case in the Hunniford Household.  We set alarms, not to prepare each other some romantic breakfast in bed, but because Sam had an 8:15am basketball game, 20 minutes away, for which he needed to arrive about 10 minutes early.  Pour the coffee into travel mugs and pack some cereal for the car!  I think it was lunchtime before we remembered to wish each other a Happy Valentine's Day.

Please don't let that little anecdote lead you to believe that I had forgotten about the special day until lunchtime on said day - that would be particularly impossible when you have children in the 2-10 sect.  Especially when you had a party to plan for 96 Kindergartners.  Don't worry, it only took me about 3 house, and as many episodes of the last season of Parenthood, to assemble 96 party favors, cut apart 96 sticker sheets and organize 5 class bags full of party supplies.  It could have been a lot worse (I know, because the Winter party was!).

And I needed something to do in the evenings, anyhow, as 2 of my 3 valentines were in Florida Tue-Fri preceding the big day.  Which two?  The oldest and the youngest - more on that in a separate post.  And yes, that meant that Annabelle missed her class party.  No, that does not mean that she skipped making her first Valentine's Box, or assembling a class set of Valentine's for her friends and teachers.  My heart didn't have it in me to make her skip all that, so we prepped her stuff early this year and she returned to school to find a stuffed box of treats and cards waiting for her.

Sam also prepared a class set of Valentines - ok, so I did a lot of the work for both of them, but he DID write everyone's names, and his own name, on all 20 cards.  Yes, he wrote a card to himself.  Because when you're Valentines are awesome, you want to make sure you get one.

That was the class set, though.  Then there was the afternoon that Sam said,
 "I want to make a heart and I want to write I love you on it.  I'm going to give it to Riko." 
"Oh yeah, buddy?  Why Riko?"
"Because she's my favorite girl."
"Why is she your favorite girl?"
"Cause she rides my bus with me and she's in my class.  So can we do it?"
...and we finally got around to our project...
"I'm going to need pink sparkly paper and girlie stickers."
So there you have it.  Sam's first real Valentine for a girl of his choosing.  I was in his class for Friday Readers that morning and he pulled it out of his bag and handed it to her before he even put his coat away.  Love it.

The class party that afternoon was fun and low key.  The kiddos heard a story, ate a pure-sugar cookies, created Valentines to take home for a special someone in their life, and then spent the rest of the time digging through their treasures from their friends.  As promised by their teachers, looking through their loot was all they wanted to do and the loved it.

Back to the day of.  After that early morning basketball game, we stopped for donuts on the way home.  And we kinda ate our way through the rest of the day, because that's how this family does holidays.  After I ran a spontaneous half marathon (feel free to be proud of me, no one else was and two years ago I couldn't run two miles...), I made Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread for lunch.  You're Welcome, family.  And those kiddos seemed to remember that last year brought with it all-things-heart-shaped and were excited to see what was for dinner.  Umm...frozen pizza was the plan, since Chris and I were busy cooking adult foods, so I pulled this out of my hat.  Not bad, eh?

Adult food!  We really don't like going out to eat on Valentine's day.  Overpriced, overproduced food.  We'd rather a fancy restaurant on a regular night.  So I devised the Chocolate and Cheese Challenge.  Each player was to create one dish containing cheese and one dish containing chocolate and a winner would be declared for each round.

For the cheese round: I made Gruyere Grilled Cheese.  It had shallots sauteed in bacon fat, and the bread was toasted in bacon fat as well.  Chris made Roast Beef and Brie Sliders with a Red Pepper Relish.  Believe it or not, he won that round.  We decided my sandwiches needed thinner slices of bread and a bit of actual bacon. 

For the chocolate round: I made a Chocolate and Salted Carmel Tart.  It was a bit tedious, but my first attempt at REAL carmel was a success.  Chris made these bite sized treats that consisted of pecans wrapped in bacon then dipped in chocolate.  Unfortunately his recipe lied and told his to cook the bacon for waaaay too long, and then the bacon fat messed with his melted chocolate.  Next time, shorter bake time and drizzle the chocolate rather than dip.  I won that round.

So there you have it, our low-key, high-cal Heart Day.  What will I turn into a heart next year?!

**Chris also sent me a box of chocolate covered strawberries and I gifted him a few manly sweet treats.  Seriously, our stomachs are the paths to our hearts.