Rose's 5th Birthday

Rose turned five on the 19th and asked for a "rainbow unicorn" birthday cake.  We did a little birthday party at home (more like a glorified play date with cake and presents) in between preschool and ice skating lessons that day.  

It was actually kind of perfect.  We just asked the guests to wear their favorite dress-up, then played musical chairs, then the kids went off to the play room.  I was glad I hadn't planned any other games or crafts or anything because really, all they wanted to do was play.  

Rose got some very nice presents although I think the one she has enjoyed most of all is the Elena nightgown that Tabby sent her.  

I took Rose out to lunch at her favorite place (Mr. Pickles Sandwich Shop) after her Tap/Ballet combo dance class.  Then I got to work at preschool with her. 

When I asked Rose what she wanted to take to preschool for snack on her birthday, she immediately said that she wanted fruit salad with marshmallows.  I tried to talk her into cupcakes, but she was adamant that we do fruit salad instead, so that's what we did.  

Rose at 5 years old:

• Loves ice skating, dress-ups, reading books (especially the Mercy Watson and Princess in Black series), dance, gymnastics, and anything pretend.
• Is obsessed with princesses (especially Elena of Avalor), jewelry, make-up, and basically anything fancy or girly.  Whenever she notices me wearing lipstick, she comes begging for a kiss, hoping to steal some right off my lips for herself.  She also likes to pick out earrings for me to wear and then won't let me put them in myself, choosing to do it for me instead (which causes me no small amount of anxiety).
• Rose freaks out about spiders and even the tiniest scrape or hangnail, wailing until a band-aid is applied, which is the only thing that gives her any consolation.  
• She is still our social butterfly and makes friends easily.  But she is also boy-crazy and is constantly informing us about all her various boyfriends and who she plans to kiss or marry.  It's been cute, but it's also worrying us for what she will be like as a teenager.  ;) 
• Loves anything chocolate.
• Gives the sweetest snuggles and hugs.  She still loves to be held and climbs onto my lap almost every morning, just wanting some quiet time with me holding her.  When I snuggle her in her bed at night, she snakes her arm under my neck and pats my check.  The other night she put her cheek right against mine and then told me softly, "mom, I'm so glad God made you."  I died on the spot.
• Deals with serious hanger issues.  For reals, sometimes she just loses it and it's all we can do to manage her rage until we can get her to calm down and eat dinner.  Fortunately, it's been less and less frequent to experience this lately.
• She is soooooo close to riding a bike.  Really I think we are ready for the training wheels to come completely off, but she's wanting them on still and we just haven't had the chance to head over to the church parking lot for some serious practice.

We sure love our Rosie!

Clara's Moana 6th Birthday Party

I feel like I started out the year strong, updating this blog each week, and now here we are almost at the end of May and I am over a month behind.  My other New Year's Resolutions are similarly in shambles.  Time to refocus and recommit!

Anyway, I have some catching up to do and I'm going to start with Clara's recent birthday party, since I have pictures developed from that day that I can share.  

Since both our girls are Moana-obsessed (like most little girls in America I would say), we went with a loose Moana/Luau theme.  Which turned out to be super easy since the party supply store had loads of cheap luau decorations.  I picked up inexpensive grass skirts and flower leis for each guest, along with a plastic coconut shaped cup with a lid and straw that were on sale.  They got to dress up and use their cups and then take everything home as their party favors instead of a bag of candy and other little toys that just get thrown in the trash.  

Scheduling was tricky because there were so many conflicts with a school open house, a school carnival, a classmate with a birthday party, and a day trip to Yosemite all in the same week (aka, all reasons why this blog has been put on the backburner).  So we ended up doing her party the day before her actual birthday, on a Thursday afternoon from 4-6.  Which worked out because we fed everybody dinner and then parents were prompt picking their girls up since we were all going to the open house that evening.  

The favorite activity?  Maybe just free dancing to the Moana soundtrack.  We knew a couple of guests were going to be late thanks to afternoon art classes and soccer practices so we just got started with dressing up and dancing.  Clara got a Moana dress-up dress that she is pretty pleased about.  It's not as cute as the one from the Disney store, but we went with this because it's a one-piece instead of a two piece, having the considerable advantages of being both more modest AND easier for the girls to dress-up in (and clean-up afterwards - one less thing to hang in the closet).  She never even saw the Disney store version, so she is perfectly content with this version.

If you haven't seen Moana, Clara is standing on the arm of the couch pretending its this giant rock in the ocean that Moana stands on when facing down Teh-ka, the lava monster.  She isn't normally allowed to stand on the furniture like this.  

The girl Clara was spinning with is her friend Annalisa.  She is in Clara's Kindergarten class, but she is also the only other Kindergartener in Spanish class and she is doing swim team with Clara this summer.  She is really a sweetheart.

Rose got right in on all the fun.  She refused to wear her grass hula skirt that she had been wearing for days prior to the party because once she saw Clara's Moana dress, Rose's grass skirt wasn't going to cut it.  She was in tears until Daddy put together this special ensemble for her and told her it was "another Moana skirt".  The flower necklace turned into a flower crown was Rose's idea though.  

Once the other friends started arriving, we did a craft, painting rocks with green and blue glittery paint so that they could each have a "heart of Tafiti".  Then we played "Who Stole the Heart of Tafiti" (basically "button button, who's got the button?" with a rock that I had painted earlier.  The girls loved guessing which one in the circle was "Maui" and had stolen the heart.  

Musical chairs was a huge hit because we just played more Moana soundtrack for the girls.  They were all singing their hearts out along with the music as they skipped around the chairs.  Rose was SUPER into it and you could see the gears spinning in her head as she strategically eyed each chair she passed, making sure she didn't miss an opportunity to grab one of the remaining seats before they were taken.  She cried every time she got out and cheered every time she got to play again.    

After games we ate dinner - just slow cooker hawaiian pulled pork sandwiches (made with crushed pineapple - they were only so-so; it was an experiment), pineapple chicken fried rice (fail - it wasn't very good - I need to figure out how to make fried rice better), and carrots, cucumber slices, pineapple spears, grapes, and "ocean punch" (a party punch made with blue hawaiian punch, 7-up, and pineapple juice).  I thought the table turned out really cute.  I just used a plastic tablecloth for easy cleanup and taped a tiki hut type grass skirt around the table, which made it look fancy.  Then I made a centerpiece with a couple of pineapples, some mangoes and kiwi.  And the girls loved their coconut cups.

Presents are always a big hit at kid birthday parties, both for the birthday girl and the kids giving the gifts.  They always crowd around, so excited about the whole process.  It was really cute and Paul and I were especially pleased and impressed that Clara took the time to read each card out loud.  She's become such a good little reader!

Then it was time for cupcakes and candles before parents started showing up.  I was experimenting with cupcake flavors and found a vanilla/white cupcake that I love - the search for a perfect chocolate and yellow cupcake continue though.  I made a bunch, figuring that way I wouldn't have to bake again that night to have some to take to school the next day.  The only fancy thing I did was to color half of the frosting blue and leave the other half white, then put both in a piping bag so that the frosting was piped on in blue and white swirls.  I told Clara they were ocean cupcakes (blue water and white foamy waves) and she was thrilled about that.  I totally skipped the seashell shaped chocolates and graham cracker "sand" crumbs that were in my inspiration cupcakes from Pinterest, but I don't feel bad about it one bit.  I'm cutting myself major mom-slack these days and honestly, I think my family appreciates it since I'm not as stressed about silly little things.

And that was pretty much it!  The day of her birthday was nuts with balloons in the morning, taking cupcakes and juice boxes to school, and the school carnival (in sweltering heat) in the afternoon.  We ended the day with opening her family presents.  

Clara was beyond thrilled with her Moana books and necklace from Grandpa and Grandma Nash, her ukulele and music books from Grandma Cece and Grandpa Russ, a new outfit with tiny wedge sandals from Renita & Judy and my grandparents, and a drawing book and flower press from Mom & Dad and Rose.  Then we had dinner at one of our favorite sushi places where Clara opened all her cards and was beyond thrilled with the servers came and sang to her.  Our servers were totally enamored with her and kept asking, as if surprised, "She like sushi?"  Which she confirmed by expertly using her chopsticks to snag her favorites (she likes it all pretty much, but I the fried softshell crab and the eel are probably her particular favorites).  

It was a great birthday!  We can't believe she is SIX!

Rose's Snow White 3rd Birthday Party

Our little miss Rose had her third birthday this past week and what a celebration it was.  It was the first time we have ever thrown a birthday party for her (hashtag second child probs) but really this is the first year that she has even understood what a birthday is all about.  And oh man, now that she has it figured out this girl is birthday obsessed.  

Rose loves all the Disney princesses, but Snow White is definitely her favorite (followed closely by either Cinderella or Belle, I'm guessing).  So when we were trying to figure out what sort of party to throw for her, Snow White just made sense.  On her actual birthday, she woke up to traditional birthday balloons floating on her ceiling.  I heard both girls up around 6:15 but they stayed in their room chatting and playing with the balloons for half an hour until their alarm clock lit up and they knew it was okay for them to come out.  Normally it's more of a struggle than that so maybe we should do balloons more often, lol.   

Clara is our "maker" and is constantly crafting/drawing/writing/inventing things.  She grabbed a spare wooden scrap block from a project Paul has been working on in the garage and created a happy birthday sign for Rose, who loved it.  This picture gives me all the feels.

We had quite a few little dwarfs come to Rose's party to play with Snow White.  My mom sent this costume to Rose for her birthday and it was just too perfect.  Rose was thrilled.  Clara was incredibly jealous, but fortunately I showed her the costume a few days earlier before wrapping it for Rose and we had a good, long conversation about how somebody's birthday is THEIR special day, not Clara's special day.

Clara went through a bunch of ideas of how she could also get a Snow White costume and we could have two Snow Whites.  When that didn't work, she suggested being the Evil Queen.  I shot that down telling her that there would be little kids at the party and while she was big enough not to be afraid of the Evil Queen, they weren't and anyway, it was Rose's special day, not Clara's, and while she would get to play all the games and celebrate WITH Rose, it was not Clara's day and that her day would come on her birthday in May.  After a day or so to mull that over, Clara did awesome on the actual day of the party and really showered Rose with love and support in a way we don't always see so I could tell she really took the message to heart.

I came up with this idea to making "magic mirrors" when I saw super cheap paddleboards at Joann's that were 4 for $1.  I just cut off the elastic string and ball and Paul painted the paddles with some leftover spray paint, then I glued circular mirrors on each one (I think the mirrors were 5 for $1, so I had 2 leftover that I just glued onto small plates for circular mirrors).  Then we (really, my friend Christina who I knew would jump right in and help me) just put dots of glue all around the front of each paddle and the kids decorated them with a bunch of jewels that came in a huge bag.  The bag of jewels wasn't super cheap ($10 with a 50% off coupon at Joann's) but we only used about 1/4 of it and I'm sure we will use these in future craft projects for the girls (crowns, jewelry, picture frames, etc.).    I spread the jewels around the table as much for decoration as ease of access for little hands, and it worked well with the Seven Dwarves mining for jewels vibe that was part of some of our later activities.  After the magic mirrors dried, they went into each child's goodie bag to take home.

One of the Snow White party ideas I saw online was to get a bucket and a bunch of pennies to do a "Wishing Well".  The kids were so cute making wishes and trying to land their coins in the bucket.  They ended up playing this again at the end of the party when waiting for parents because it was so easy and fun for them!

After the wishing well game, we went back to the table to make Seven Dwarf beards.  We had foam beards cut out and the kids glue cotton balls on them.  It worked okay, except that we should have done this earlier so the glue could dry because we pretty much immediately put the beards on and kids started losing cotton balls.  So my execution wasn't great, but I still think the idea was cute.

Once the kids all had their beards (and not everybody elected to wear them), we went out front where we have a rock garden (which I hated when we first moved in but it has since grown on me to the point that I think we are going to keep it although it needs to be weeded and we need to rearrange rocks).  I had ordered a bag of 36 1" plastic jewels through Amazon for $8 and Paul had scattered them around the rocks to create a jewel mine.  The kids all saw it walking up to the door for the party, which was fine because it partially set the scene for the party but we also then "mined for jewels" easter egg hunt style, which took all of a few minutes, but the kids had fun with it.  They then got to put their jewels in their goodie bags along with their dwarf beards and magic mirrors to take home after the party.

We served lunch after the jewel mining.  I made a poisoned apple cake for Rose's birthday cake by cooking a doctored up chocolate cake mix in a medium-size glass oven safe pyrex bowl, which was kind of annoying because I only have one and it took almost an hour to cook each half of the sphere.  Then I stuck the two sphere halves together with frosting, frosted the outside and covered it with red sprinkles, and carved out a little spot to frost with white frosting to make it look like a bite had been taken out of it (I don't think that turned out as great as I hoped it would, but it was fine).  A cinnamon stick for a stem and a leaf that Clara collected from outside finished off the cake.

For the real party food, I did all small, finger food type things for "dwarf food".  We had beanie weinies (those tiny hot dog things), baby carrots, apple slices, chips & guacamole, and mini quesadillas made from wonton wrappers (which Christina made because she is the best).  Oh, and wishing well water that was just water with apple slices in it to make it look pretty.

I also made four different flavors/colors of Jell-O jigglers which I cut into small cubes and placed in clear plastic cups to look like jewels (again with the whole mining for jewels concept).  Those were a hit with the kids, which always baffles me because I think Jell-O jigglers are disgusting, but at least they got eaten!  I spread some decorative moss around the counter to make it look "enchanted foresty" and that was that.

This was our tablescape before the kids showed up.  Just plain yellow fabric for a tablecloth with a blue crushed velvet runner and Snow White colors for plates, napkins & utensils.

Snow White really dug into her cake.

We just let the kids play in the toy room for a bit after finishing lunch because so many of them kept sneaking back there in between earlier activities, but eventually we called them all back out to the living room to open presents.  Rose got so many nice things from her friends and just had a great time.  She said the sweetest little "thank you's!" when prompted.

This princess sticker book was a big hit with both Rose & Clara.  They sat side-by-side and looked through the whole thing (and it wasn't a small book!) exclaiming over each page and set of stickers or settings.

A quick picture of the goodie bags all lined up and ready to take home.

We waited to have Rose open the rest of her presents from grandparents, Aunts and us until her actual birthday, which was the day after her party.  I don't have pictures of the unwrapped presents but she got a toy cash register, a tea set, a Snow White doll, more Mag-former tile things, the Elefun game, some dress-up jewelry, and a sleeping bag for camping.

Since we did a big birthday cake the day of her party, for her birthday I just took her to Nothing Bundt Cakes to get her free Chocolate Chocolate Chip bundtlet (her favorite) and we sang to her and did candles after dinner that night.  

She is still talking about her birthday and already telling me that she thinks she wants a "Belle birthday" next (year, I'm guessing although I'm pretty sure she is convinced she ought to have another party next week).  

Happy 3rd Birthday, Rose!