Bridget's 7th Birthday and Thanksgiving

This year, Bridget finally got to have her first friend birthday party, and she was so excited about it. I had planned to do one last year when she was in Kindergarten, but with a newborn, it was one more thing that I just couldn't take on.

Her actual birthday fell on Thanksgiving day this year, so she had her friend party the Saturday before, and then got to celebrate with family again on her birthday.

Like most little girls lately, she wanted a Frozen themed party. We chose to do the party at our house, playing games, eating cake and ice cream, and opening presents. Because it was her 7th birthday, I let her invite 7 friends. Sadly, only 3 of them came and only one parent actually bothered to RSVP saying their daughter couldn't come. I was pretty irritated by the poor turnout and rude parents that didn't RSVP because I had gone to a lot of work, but I guess that's what you get when your child attends a low-income school. Anyway, enough of my ranting. At least Bridget wasn't as disappointed as I was.

Here's a few pictures from the party:

We went to West Yellowstone to spend Thanksgiving with Nate's parents, and two of his siblings and their families. The girls couldn't wait to play in the snow and spend time with their cousins.

Grandpa plowed snow with his tractor into a hill for the kids to sled on.

The birthday girl 

Dayton wasn't a big fan of his first snow experience and only lasted a few minutes outside.

Bridget begged to open her presents on the morning of her birthday, so I told her should could either open all of them that morning or open one then, another later, and the others after that. She chose to open all of them that morning.

She loved all of her gifts, and was thrilled to get just what she asked for from Nate and me - a set of Frozen PJs that included a bath robe and a locket.

After a yummy Thanksgiving meal, we had pie as well as the pumpkin dessert I made and stuck a candle in so we could sing to Bridget.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday, Bridget!

Dinosaur Park Field Trip

For some reason we just don't seem to have good luck with the weather when it comes to this field trip. Two years ago when we went with Bridget's class, it was snowing like crazy so we didn't get to go outside to see much of the park. This time, it was just cold and there was snow on the ground. Luckily, we'd been as a family in good weather a little over a year ago so it wasn't a big deal if we didn't see everything outside this trip.

Felicity loves this place though and will be talking about it for weeks. She loved the robotic dinosaurs inside the most, and we also got to watch some of the paleontologists that were working that morning to carefully dig some bones out of some rock with their little tools. We had a great time with her class, and I really enjoyed the one-on-one time I got to spend with her while Dayton was home napping and Nate was working from home.

Nate's Birthday

Nate had to work on his birthday this year, so we kept our celebration pretty low-key (which he prefers anyway). We went out to dinner and then came home for cake and ice cream. He's always nice to let me experiment with new recipes for his birthday, but there's always the dilemma of cake vs. pie. He prefers pie, but I prefer cake and have many more cake recipes than pie recipes I want to try out. In the end. I made a caramel apple cake with apple cider frosting. It was good but probably not one I would make again. Our friends Sandy and Bill also stopped by to join us for cake and ice cream.

As for his presents...his main gift was a 6 month membership to a massage place in hopes that it would help with his headaches and the knots he always has in his upper back. And since I needed to give him something he could actually open, he got a new pair of slippers. Happy Birthday, Nate!

Halloween

Even though I don't love Halloween, I do love helping the kids decide what they want to dress up as and then making all their dress-up hopes and dreams come true by making the costumes myself. I don't often have time to sew for fun (anything other than mending/altering), and Halloween forces me to make it a priority. I also love that our kids are still of the age that they love to dress up and don't mind dressing up with a family theme.

Truth be told, they would have loved to dress up as the Frozen characters Elsa, Anna, and Olaf, but I convinced them it would be better to wait another year or two because there would be a million kids dressed that way this year. Thankfully, they agreed to be a little more unique. Since I've made several of the Disney princess costumes already, we opted to go with yet another and chose a Little Mermaid theme this year.

Our mean sea witch, Ursula

The cutest Ariel ever



Our adorable Flounder

I was thrilled with how the costumes turned out. Normally, I'm a sew from a pattern kind of person, but this time I made all three without any. I used an online tutorial for Felicity's costume and found some pictures I tried to imitate to make Bridget's and Dayton's. It also made it pretty easy when the base of both of the girls' costumes was a leotard and Dayton's was a hoodie.

Happy Halloween!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Felicity was so excited for her field trip to the pumpkin patch this month. The weather was a little chilly but not bad when we were in the sun.

Felicity was pretty excited to pick out her pumpkin, and she miraculously decided on one within a couple of minutes and without changing her mind 10 times.

 

After picking a pumpkin it was time to head to the courtyard for some activities including this little train pulled by a tractor. Dayton was so good to just hang out in his stroller the whole time.

So much fun!

Dayton's 1st Birthday

I can't believe our sweet boy is one already!

 

He was all smiles that morning.

Our dear friends Sandy and Bill (aka Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Bill) stopped by on their way out of town that morning.

We started off the party by letting Dayton open his presents. He did a pretty good job and Bridget and Felicity couldn't help but jump in and help him.

 

This airplane toy from Grandma and Grandpa was a big hit.

Then it was time to move on to cake and ice cream. Once again Bridget and Felicity were ready to step in and blow out the candle for him.

At first he wasn't too sure about the cake (pumpkin with cream cheese frosting)...

But within a few minutes he devoured it.

 

By the end, he was pretty tired and ready for a bath and his crib.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAYTON!

Felicity's Half Birthday

When you are only 3, tacking another 6 months onto that is a big deal. When I asked what kind of treat Felicity wanted to celebrate the occasion, she replied, "Pink cupcakes!" This little girl loves pink and likes to remind me on a regular basis that it is her favorite color. So I made some homemade funfetti cupcakes with pink frosting and pink sprinkles on top.

 

Preschool Zoo Field Trip

The first preschool field trip this year was to the zoo. We lucked out with perfect weather, and Nate even took the day off so he could go with us. At first, Bridget was a little sad that our family was all going without her, but then she got lucky too and found out a couple of weeks before that all the first graders at her school were going to get to go on a field trip there the same week (although not the same day as we were going).

All the preschool kids - her class as well as the older class

Watching the seals and sea lions swim around and around in their tank

Felicity with the polar bear

Hanging out on the elephant statue

The new African exhibit opened earlier this summer, so now the zoo has zebras and ostriches.

That's a rhinoceros on the other side of that really scratched up, dirty glass. Felicity thought it was pretty cool that he came right up to the  window to say hello to her. 

11 Months

How can my baby be 11 months already? In many ways it feels like I just gave birth to him a few weeks ago, and now his first birthday is right around the corner. He's certainly growing and changing, and I've started to notice lately that he's less and less of a baby and more of a toddler now.

Dayton is walking more than crawling these days, but still falls frequently and has to crawl to get to something so he can pull up to stand and start walking again. I can't help but smile as I watch him toddle around.

He's quite the climber, and I gave up the battle of constantly pulling him off the hearth of our fireplace. I figured he'd learn to climb down eventually and probably take a few small tumbles to the ground in the mean time, and most of the time now he is able to get off by himself safely. I love his mischievous grin in this picture.

Anything is a step stool for this kid. He's very strong too and moves large toys all over the place.

He loves being a big boy and trying to keep up with his sisters.

Thankfully, he's been sleeping really well at night for the past couple of weeks and napping well too. I hope this is a permanent change although it will probably only last until he has more teeth come in.

I've also decided that wrestling must be something that is innate in boys. He loves to wrestle and climb all over anyone who might be laying on the ground. And he smiles and laughs the whole time.

CAUTION: Don't read this paragraph if poopy diaper stories gross you out. You know those stories people tell about children playing with their poopy diapers? Thankfully, we never had that happen with either of the girls, but Dayton did it for the first (and hopefully last) time just yesterday. I could tell he was in his room doing his business after he woke up from his nap, so I gave him about 5 minutes because I was in the middle of something. Felicity wanted to go in and play with him, and just seconds after she went in, she informed me there was poop all over in his bed. Somehow it leaked and squished out and down both of his legs and then he proceeded to get it all over in his bed. Nate was gone running, so I had to deal with the mess myself and was dry-heaving in the process. Nasty. At least Nate came home just as I was finishing up the bath, so he helped with cleanup.

Dayton's also finally learned to clap and waves more than he used to. It seems like anytime I try to teach him things like this, he just stares at me like I'm crazy and has no interest. Right now I'm trying to teach him to blow kisses, but he just laughs at me. I've accepted the fact that he prefers to do things on his own timetable, and my teaching and encouragement does very little to change that.

I love my sweet boy and can't wait to get going on planning his first birthday party!

Felicity's First Day of Preschool

For a few months now, Felicity has been very much in the stage of wanting to do a lot of the things Bridget does, and she could hardly wait until she could go to school too. More than anything, I think she was excited to have her own backpack. Bridget's school started 2 weeks before Felicity's, and she was having a hard time being patient because she was so ready to go.

When I dropped her off in the morning, there was no tearful goodbye or clinging to me. She took off running and hardly looked back. I just hope her excitement continues. I love my Felicity and hope she makes some good friends and learns lots this year.

It is kind of a bittersweet thing to send another child off to school. It certainly reminds me how quickly my kids are growing up, but I also look forward to having some quiet one-on-one time with Dayton a couple of mornings each week.