A very literary birthday

My little girl turned five last week.  After two years of princess parties, she branched out and asked for a Fancy Nancy party this year (based on the books by Jane O’Connor).

Activities

We did a fancy relay race.  The girls were split into two teams.  The first racer for each team had to put on a tiara, boa, tutu, and a pair of dress-up high heels.  The racers raced to the end of the room and back, then handed of the clothes to the next racer.  For five year olds the concept of a relay race was a bit beyond them, but it was still fun.

We also did musical crowns (think musical chairs) where the girls passed crowns around in a circle.  When the music stopped, they each put a crown on, except for the person who was eliminated each round.

Next, we decorated purses.  I found this pattern online, that you can do using glue.  I decided to sew ours instead.  I took 1 sheet of felt/bag, then a 1/3 of a sheet for each strap.  Overall, it took about 10 minutes to sew each bag.  The kids decorated them with felt stickers and stick on jewels.

The Food

We made a variety of sandwiches, which according to Fancy Nancy, are fancier with toothpicks in them.

Ditto on the fruit.  Plus, even picky kids will eat fruit.

I made strawberry lemonade by blending lemonade with frozen strawberries and ice.  Note the fancy touch of putting a cherry on each straw.

Our fancy purple cake:

I cut out the ice cream beforehand with a heart shaped cookie cutter.  It gave the ice cream a fancy touch and made it easier to just drop on each plate instead of taking the time to scoop.  It was funny though when one of the girls asked for another cookie later, because hers had melted.  They do look like sugar cookies I suppose :)

With ten fancy party guests it was loud, and a bit crowded, but a whole lot of fun!  Cecelia was very happy with her party and her friends seemed to have a great time too.

First Day of School

My little girl started her first day of kindergarten! She was very excited. She put her things away, sat right down, and got to work. After a few minutes of hovering, she told me, “Okay Mommy, you can take one more picture, and then you need to go.” That’s my girl!

Lance really wanted to go to school himself.  He’s been walking around with a backpack all week himself.

Now we’re at home and it’s strangely quiet.  Lance keeps saying we need to go back and get Cecy.

A Little Bit of Spring

Lance wanted to have a tea party while Cecy was at school.  Gato decided to join him. And here’s the reason we need boy dress up clothes.  We’ll leave her friends unidentified so no one finds this picture tagged on the internet in ten years.

Mitchell walking with the castle.  He’s even walking on his own now. 

Lance is talking a whole lot more.  He gets very excited when he sees trucks and buses.  Every time we’re in the garage he exclaims, “Daddy’s four-wheeler!”  He also says yes and no now which helps when I’m trying to repeat his sentences back.  This is one of Lance’s favorite books.  It’s called Tuck Me In and he turns the half pages to cover the animals as blankets.  The book asks “who else needs to be tucked in?” and I love hearing Lance join in with his cute little voice saying, “I do!”

Helping Daddy!

Okay, not so much help… And don’t worry, the power was off.

Happy May!  Check out all of our snow.  I think it will all be gone by June, we only have a little bit left now.  Here we are being all creative, and spraying colored water at the snow.  It didn’t work as well as I hoped (you had to get pretty close to the snow to make the color show up), but it was something new to try.

Cecelia lost her first tooth about two weeks ago.  The new one’s already growing in.

Out in Denali National Park with some friends.

My pretend daughter.  We watched her two weeks ago with her brother and I got very excited about dressing her up each day.  She’s a sweetheart!

Cecelia graduated from preschool.  I can’t believe she’ll be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  As she says, “It’s very exciting!”

Lance snuck up to sit by his sister.  Remind you of anyone?

I asked Cecy what she wanted to get or make for her preschool teacher, and she wanted to make her a wreath with butterflies.  She’s my little crafter!

That’s all for now.  I’ll post again in three months probably ;)

Our Alaskan Winter Wonderland

So, it’s March here in Alaska, and everywhere else for that matter.  Here, March is apparently the perfect winter month.  It’s sunny, very very sunny, and snowy.  Usually temperatures have warmed up to the 0-30 degree range, and did I mention that it’s sunny?  For those who like to be outside (cough…Keith) it’s the ideal time for snow machining, ice climbing, cross country skiing, etc.  So, without further ado, here are some happy snowy people:

Keith ice climbing with a friend up Mt. Panorama (I think). 

King of the mountain!

Keith fulfilled all of my childhood snow fantasies by building an igloo.  I don’t know how many times we tried to build one and failed back home :) The kids really love their shovels and Keith has various sizes so each of the kids carts one around outside.

I look at this picture and think “Hi Ho”

This smile of pure joy is part shovel and part Daddy just came home!

Arizona (just a bit late)

So, I’m obviously behind on my posting.  In the meantime we did make homemade Valentines, file our taxes, play with friends, read lots of books, spend time with Daddy, and lots of other good and wonderful things.

So, here’s Arizona in January:

Eating Italian ices.  Mitchell liked them too!

Hanging out with Annie.  “Big A, little a.  What begins with a?  Aunt Annie’s Alligator.  A..a..a.” 

At the Phoenix Zoo.

Lance wishes he could get this big shovel down to play with it.

Eating at the counter just like we did when we were kids at Aunt Katrina’s house.

Cecelia hiding behind the stool where we obviously can’t see her.Playing at THE Ikea.  Yes, it got a “the” in front just like Cecelia’s favorite restaurant, The McDonalds.

The rainbow door! Organ Stop Pizza.  They play songs on an organ there along with flashing lights, bubbles, whistles, and dancing cats.  Plus, they had ice cream :)

At the train park.  

Cecelia at her special show (Disney on Ice) with Aunt Katrina!  At the Sea Life Center.  We love fishies!

We just don’t want to walk over them.  Cecelia was afraid that they would touch her somehow. The Ikea again.  It was so special we had to go twice!

At the zoo again.  This time we got to meet Alaskan friends who happened to be down in Phoenix at the same time.

Petting the goats.  Because we all do that…

  Riding a camel!

Cecelia with her statue family.   There’s statue Mommy, statue Mitchell, statue Cecy, and statue Lance.  Statue Daddy is probably on top of Mt. McKinley or something.

Playing with Katrina’s coolest toy ever: color changing cars!  We got to play with water, play with Cars toys, and be out in the sunshine while we did it.  I wish my cars set came with warm sunny weather. At my favorite restaurant with a cheesy grin.

After all of these warm pictures I’ll be uploading my snowy pictures next.  He he.