Winter Wonderland Birthday

Time goes by so quickly! I can’t believe my baby is FIVE.  This little surprise baby is growing up too quickly.  I can’t imagine my life without this sweet little girl at the end of our family.  She’s my little shadow and love.

Mia loves her birthday and looks forward to her party all year.  I thought it would be fun to have a little winter wonderland party since her birthday is right after Christmas and we had lots of snow in our backyard when I started planning the party.

Mia loved the idea and stood right next to me as I designed her birthday invitation (telling me where to put the snowman and to take off the penguin).  Kissing me over and over, “Oh Mama, this is going to be the best birthday party ever! (kiss, kiss)”  That kind of love and excitement makes doing birthday parties all worth it!

Birthdays right after Christmas are hard.  I always think I’ll save some of her Christmas stuff to give to her on her birthday but I don’t.  I walked up and down the toy aisles, not seeing anything that she didn’t have or need, and forced myself to buy a few more Lalaloopsy dolls so she could have some toys to open on her birthday morning.  The rest of her presents were clothes.  And she didn’t hide her under enthusiasm as she opened sweaters, shirts, leggings and slippers. “Why did you get me clothes and not toys for my birthday?"

It ended up that we had playgroup on her birthday so we took all of her cute friends to Chick-Fil-A for lunch before dropping them off at school. 

Moments before her party, it started snowing.  Almost all of the snow that we had when I started planning the party had melted and turned to slush so it was perfect timing.  We got hit with a huge snowstorm that weekend and got as much snow as the ski resorts. 

Party details (and links):  Penguin beach balls, mini snowman globes, penguin pinata, penguin squirt toys, winter animals sleep masks, penguin sand art necklaces, penguin swirl lollipops, bouncy balls and polar bear suckers.

The girls (and Griffin) all had a great time with the crafts.  I tried to keep it simple with activities they could do on their own.  They started with coloring a snowman for their mini-snow globe.  Hadley was the helper in the kitchen with the medicine syringe and filling the snow globes full of water.  Then it was time for penguin necklaces sand art.  My mom was a big help with the sand art.  It was actually pretty mess free and the necklaces turned out really cute.  If I did this party again, I would have had enough medicine syringes for each child to fill up their own snow globe and I would have splurged and bought enough little bottles for each color of sand, that would have made it so they could have done their penguin necklaces all on their own.

The party guests

This poor snowman cake was half frosting.  The cake really stuck to the bowls and I didn’t feel like making another one so I just filled in all of the missing cake sections with frosting. Mia didn’t mind.

After the crafts, presents and cake and ice cream it was time to get all of the snow gear on and go play in the snow.  I wish we would have had more time for this part of the party because the kids all loved playing out in the snow together and had so much fun!

A little penguin pinata time.  I really should have gotten this on video.  Pinatas and snow just don’t go together.  Once the penguin broke open, the candy started sinking into the snow and the kids couldn’t pick any pieces up with their huge gloves on.

In honor of her 5th birthday, 5 things we love about Mia Kate:

1.  She’s a mama’s girl.  Being the my last baby and home with just me most days, we get a lot of quality time of being together.  She’s always by my side even when I’m busy, she’s right next to me with crayons and paper, coloring her heart out.  And I love that she’s five and still calls me “Mama”.

2.  She’s brilliant.  She has no idea when to use “she” or “her” in a sentence and always uses the wrong one.  She used to always say “her” and after I explained to her that it could also be “she” at times, she switched to only using “she”.  “Mama, do you think I could play with she after school?”  The other night I was trying to explain to her when to use she or her.  She had had enough of my discussion and looked at me and said, “Alright.  Enough of the Math talk.”  Griffin has high hopes that she’ll get it figured out in Kindergarten in the fall.

3.  Girl’s got an attitude.  She is seriously so full of spunk, sass and attitude.  I love it.  It worries her dad.

4.  She loves to play with her dolls, toys and color and draw.  She can go days without watching TV and never asks to play on the computer, iPad, or any electronic device (unlike her siblings).

5.  Every night when she is tucked into bed she has to have a bedtime song and prayer.  We take turns. One of us sings the song and the other one says the prayer.  Some nights are so rushed and I just want to get all of the kids in bed and have some quiet time, but she never lets us forget and I love hearing her cute songs she is learning at school.  And sometimes she makes up really cute ones about her birthday . . .

Happy New Year!

We had kind of a quiet celebration on New Year’s Eve.  We originally had plans for a bigger party but a couple of families were hit with sickness and another found a better option with other friends so it was just our little family (smaller than usual with the teenagers and pre-teen heading out to their own parties) and my parents and brother, Uncle Blake.  But we still had so much fun being together and the little kids were so excited for the party  . . .  games, NYE toasts with our Christmas goblets, hitting pots and pans and silly string a midnight.  And having Grandma and Grandpa over made it feel like a real party!

Last night for Christmas lights on the house.

 We tried to put the kids to bed early so they wouldn’t be exhausted but our ‘early plan’ ended up being closer to midnight.  The kids had only been in bed for a few minutes when the fireworks started exploding around the neighborhood.  Morgan and Mia ran back downstairs to go outside in the cold and bang pots and pans.  Griffin was so tired.  He came back downstairs crying, asking if we could please be quiet that he just wanted to sleep.  Ryan and Hadley came home from their friend’s just in time for the countdown.

And nothing is sweeter (or wetter) than a little New Year’s kiss from Morgan!

Happy 2013!

A Very Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning is always crazy chaos.  We make the kids all wait to go into the room and open presents together. Morgan really liked what Santa brought Mia and kept riding around on her new bike instead of checking out her new scooter.

Hadley is always so thoughtful and makes sure to get everyone a gift.  She spent lots of time knitting these hats for Griffin and Mia.  She also framed a subway art that she made just for Griffin.

Morgan got a scooter and Lalaloopsy doll from Santa and LOTS of Disney stuff from us.  She loves the movies Brave and Tangled right now.  She was excited about her new horse, Maximus, from Tangled and gave it a test ride.

Ryan got BYU gear and skull candy headphones.  Jack got the newest iPad.  He has been working and saving up for it and paid $500 towards it.  Hadley got a scooter and a new iPod so she can now take pictures and upload them to Instagram.  Mia got lots of Lalaloopsy dolls and a bike.  Griffin got the Lord of the Rings lego set he wanted and games, toys and lots of books.

We also got another Christmas surprise from Nan and Papa . . . A Christmas book with their voices recorded on it, reading the story to the kids.  We all loved it.  Such a treasure.

Gavin made his specialty overnight french toast with yummy syrup for breakfast.

Then it was time to meet up at my parents home for a late brunch and more gift giving.  

The kids were all excited with their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  Jack and Ryan got loaded up with BYU and UofU gear.  Ryan got the NBA jersey he was hoping for and disappointed because it wasn’t under our tree.  That’s the risk I take when Grandma asks for ideas of what the kids would like for Christmas.  Morgan loved the new roller skates and leash for her Build-A-Bear dog.  Griffin got his first pair of roller skates and a helmet and knee pads.  Mia got Lalaloopsy bus and ferris wheel.  And Hadley got to open the clothes that she had picked out when she went Christmas shopping with Grandma.  We gave Grandma and Grandpa season tickets to Hale Center Theater since that seems to be a favorite gift for them.

My parents with all of the grandkids in town for Christmas.  

We ended the night at home, playing games together and just relaxing.  This Christmas stuff is exhausting.  I am always ready for it be over by the time it rolls around.  Online shopping was the only thing that saved me this year.  So nice to be able to shop in your pajamas and have it delivered to your doorstep.

Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Gavin’s family at Uncle Trevor and Aunt Anne’s house.  We got hit with a huge snowstorm on Christmas Eve and slid our way over to their home.  Unfortunately some last minute gifts also didn’t make it in time because of the storm.  The kids spent time doing some last minute Christmas knitting to finish up their projects in time for Christmas.

We ran out of time for the Nativity Play last Christmas Eve and Mia and Morgan asked about it for several days after and were so sad that they didn’t get to dress up so I made sure we had time to do it this year.  

These 6 years olds make the cutest wisemen!

The Innkeepers.  Jack and Ryan spent most of the play trying to do something creative with their costumes.

Mia asked right away if she could be the angel. 

Hadley was happy to co-narrate the play with her cousin, Avery.

The cast (Morgan went back to playing at the train table as soon as the play was over)

Then it was time for the “Wise Man Gifts”.  Rae read the story of the fourth wise man while the kids opened their three gifts.  Red gift = spiritual/gift from the heart.  Green gift = necessity.  Gold gift = worldly gift.

Griffin got Mario jammies, book light and  “I am a child of God” picture frame.  

Mia got snowman jammies, Horton Hears a Who DVD and a Jesus puzzle.  

Hadley got rudolph pj bottoms, red jeggings and a picture frame with a picture from her trip to San Francisco last year.  

Morgan got snowman jammies, Annie DVD and Articles of Faith flashcards.  

Jack got UofU pj bottoms, Lord of The Rings Trilogy and Scripture stickers.  

Ryan (not pictured) got BYU pj bottoms, Bourne Identity Trilogy and a digital scrapbook.  Only his scrapbook didn’t make it in time because of the huge snowstorm on Christmas Eve.  I spent most of December finishing it so he could have it for his wise man gift so we were both really disappointed.  Gavin surprised me with my first pair of adult sized (XL) footed pajamas.

Ryan’s scrapbook arrived the day after Christmas.  Here’s the link if you’d like to peek inside.  

We got home in time to set out some cookies for Santa, cookies that our neighbors had brought over earlier in the day.  Griffin and Mia (Hadley was Mia’s scribe) left a note for Santa and then it was off to bed.

A sneak peek of what Santa left for the family.