Halloween

A Frozen Birthday Party

For months Sophie has been saying that she wanted a Frozen birthday party. I kept giving her other ideas but she wouldn't change her mind. The nice thing is that everybody seems to be doing a Frozen party so it was easy to find ideas of what to do. However a quick search on the Internet left me overwhelmed. There were so many possibilities! I could have easily gone overboard but decided to keep it simple.

The Decorations, Favors, and Games

Like I mentioned, I didn't want to go overboard with the party decorations. Since Josie had a Winter 'ONE'derland theme for her birthday, I was able to reuse some of those decorations. I also picked up a couple of snowflakes that I spray-painted silver, which we will reuse for Christmas. I also found some paper banners in blue-and-white that I hung up around the house. I cut out letters to spell 'Happy Birthday Sophie' and hung them on our wall. I also printed out a few quotes from the movie Frozen that I put in picture frames and put on tables. I bought some centerpieces that had Frozen characters on them, though I wish I wouldn't have wasted money on that.

Sophie helped me create the party favors. We made blue glitter Gak.. The only issue with the Gak is that the glitter would settle to the bottom of the container and it would come off easily on your hands. We did make a second batch for boys that didn't have glitter in it and that was much better in general. I looked all over for containers to put these in but they were either too big or too small. I ended up just using old (but clean) baby food containers. They still had the names of what food was originally in there but who cares.

We had the trampoline and the bounce house for the kids to play on. They really enjoyed that and spent a big chunk of time outside. We also played Pin the Nose on Olaf. (My students from last year traced a picture of Olaf on a poster board for me. They even traced out carrots for the game. I am so thankful to them for their help!) We tied a scarf around the kids' eyes and let them try to put the nose in the correct spot. We ended up with two winners who each received an extra large sized chocolate bar.

Food

Of course we had to have sandwiches for lunch. I printed out the quote from the movie that was obviously the inspiration for the meal choice. We also had picnic type sides such as coleslaw, broccoli salad, and deviled eggs. 

Instead of a big cake this year we had cupcakes. My mom's friend makes amazing cupcakes so she helped us out. They were delicious! Everyone enjoyed them, especially Josie.

Gifts

It was so much fun watching Sophie open her presents. I loved hearing her exclaim over everything before she tore through all the presents. We are so thankful for all of our generous family and friends.

I am glad that so many people came out to celebrate our girl turning 4. We are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives.

Dance Recital

Sophie has been taking dance lessons all year long. She absolutely loves her Tiny Toons class! They been working on their dance for a while now. It was to the song "Under the Sea." Their costumes were so adorable with little fish heads as a headpiece.

I was really sad because I didn't get a chance to go to the dress rehearsal. It was on our last day of school and I wasn't able to leave to get her ready. Luckily my mom saved the day (as always) and helped us out. She did great job and was excited for the big recital.

The day of the recital Sophie refused to take a nap. We got her as ready as we could at home and then drove over to the location of the recital. Of course she fell sleep in the car, so she was super grumpy when we woke her up to go inside. I finished getting her ready and then left so that I could watch the recital. Sophie did really well with her dance until about halfway through. They had to shuffle across the stage sideways so they could go towards the back and "swim like a fish" behind their teacher. Sophie was the third from the end so she had a long way to go. Her short little legs just couldn't carry her over to the other side fast enough. All the other kids were at the back and she was still scuttling across the front of the stage. The crowd thought it was really cute and laughed. Sophie danced her little heart out and finished the dance. 

When I went back to find her backstage she ran to me in tears. I'm not sure if it's because she was tired, embarrassed, or a little bit of both. Poor kid! She just wanted to go home. Seeing her daddy with flowers waiting for her did cheer her up though. I asked her later why she got so upset and she told me it was because there are a lot of people in the crowd and it scared her. 

We sure are proud of our tiny dancer!

Easter 2014

We had such a wonderful Easter! Sophie woke us up bright and early asking if the Easter bunny had come. We tried to convince her to snuggle in bed with us for a little while longer so that we can get some more rest but she wasn't having it. So we went and woke up choosing not headed downstairs to find Easter baskets. Sophie found Josie's basket right away and it only took her another minute to find her own. They loved pulling things out of their baskets and enjoyed all that was in there. (The Easter bunny likes giving books more than candy.)

After eating candy and breakfast we got dressed and headed to church. After a nice service we went to the church hall for Joe's families Easter brunch. It's always great getting together with Joe's family. Sophie loved playing with her cousins and Josie enjoy being passed around and playing with everyone. Sophie love taking part in the Easter egg hunt and was so excited with all of the eggs that she found. Josie was just excited to get one egg to play with then put in her mouth. I am so glad that Joe side of the family is so close knit. I love that my girls get to experience that.

When we got home we all took a nice long nap. After that it was time for Easter party number two. The girls changed into new dresses and we headed over to my moms house for dinner. When we got there they each had an Easter basket waiting for them. I was excited about the Twix eggs that were in there. Yum! They had eggs hidden and ready for the girls to find. Josie is still too little to go on a hunt, especially since she still can't walk, so Sophie and Kaci went to search for eggs. They had so much fun! When they brought all of the eggs inside and dumped them on the floor Josie became so excited. She kept grabbing new ones and repeating "egg." A new word! After some more playing was time for dinner. My mom is a wonderful cook and as always the food was amazing.

I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people in our lives. I am also thankful for our church and all of the blessings that God has given us.