Happy Birthday Tyler

Tyler loves anything with wheels, so for his birthday party I made car invitations.


I had all of these great ideas for decorations, but December is busy, so I stuck with lots of streamers, and a pair of rear-view-mirror dice hanging from the chandelier.

We invited our extended family, and I was surprised that almost everyone could come on a December evening! We served dinner, all Tyler-friendly foods. He especially loves chicken fingers and carrots. Lots of our family offered to bring side dishes, which was really helpful.


Tyler had so much fun opening gifts. This is a good age, because he could mostly do it himself. Of course, his cousins and sisters were more than happy to help if he was going too slowly. He received LOTS of cars, and was in heaven. "Cars" is one of his best words, and he had many chances to exclaim it!


The cake was also a car. We had to re-light the candles to actually give him a chance to blow them out. Elise got a little excited the first time around and beat him to it. :)


Tyler is such a fun 2 year old. He learns new words every day. He will walk around naming things that he sees, and is interested in everything. He is very good at answering yes or no, and letting us know what he wants.
Tyler is a champ at going to nursery or staying with a babysitter. Babysitters always report that he was a perfect angel, especially at bedtime. For us, though, it's hit-or-miss whether he will lay down nicely in his crib. When he does, he wants all 4 of his blankets, plus his doggy, and definitely notices if you try to leave one out!
He loves to play with cars and trains, markers and crayons, and everybody's shoes. He also loves lotion, hand sanitizer, and washing his hands in the sink. He gives great kisses and makes a cute grunting sound when he hugs. Tyler is such a sweet boy, and we are lucky to have him in our family.

Halloween 2010

Let me tell you about our Halloween costumes!

Last spring, Elise memorized the "Queen of Hearts" nursery rhyme to recite in front of her Kindergarten class.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts
All on a summer's day.
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts
and took them clean away.

The King of Hearts called for the tarts
and beat the knave full sore.
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts
and vowed he'd steal no more.

The students were allowed to bring a prop or wear a costume, and Elise chose this poem because she wanted to dress like a queen. I agreed to make her a dress, but only if she would wear it for Halloween! So this is the costume that sparked the whole theme. I made the dress in the wee hours of the morning before the program (when else?), but I didn't have time for all the details I wanted to add. It was inspired by the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie.


For Halloween I added the crown, the beading, and figured out the hair using red hairspray. Elise LOVED being a really red redhead! Her hair does have a little bit of natural red, especially in the sun, and she always mixes red and brown crayon/marker in her self portraits. She thinks red hair is so much more exciting than plain old brown!


I made Lydia's blue dress, but the pinafore was from when I was little. When my parents moved to their new house a few years ago, I took home a bunch of my old dresses, slips, and pinafores. Thankfully this was among them. It had never even been worn! It's not exactly like the cartoon, but it has the right flavor, and looked really cute. Lydia's favorite part about this costume was the full twirl-able circle skirt.


Tyler was the cutest white rabbit I've ever seen. I looked at bunny costumes at several stores, but they were either very expensive, very girly, or all pink! I didn't want him to feel like this:
so I kept looking :). I thought I might have to sew a bunny from scratch (ugh!), but I finally found someone selling this one in the KSL classifieds. It had sewn-in feet like pajamas, so I had to modify it a little, and I added a yard-sale vest and bow tie, and a "pocket watch" that used to be a necklace. Hopefully I made the costume masculine enough to not be (too) embarrassing to him later!


So here they are all together! I think this shot turned out so cute!


It would have been really fun if I'd had time to make Mike and myself some Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat costumes, (or playing cards as my friend suggested too late!), but we had a (very awesome) pirate party to attend. We threw these together from stuff we had on hand, plus a vest from the DI. And I made Mike's hat with fake leather fabric. Mike did the stubble himself without any coaxing! He was trying to look more like a pirate and less like Paul Revere, ha! (Arr, the scurvy bilge-sucking Redcoats be comin'!)

Disneyland, Part Two

This is part two (find part one here).

The night before our first "official" day in Disneyland, Mike stayed in the hotel room with the kids while I spent a couple hours in the park with my sister Shaunda. I redeemed my free one-day pass from the Give-a-day,get-a-day volunteer promotion. The nice lady at the ticket window thought I was crazy to redeem it at 9pm, but it was so worth it! We saw Fantasmic! and fireworks, rode some roller coasters, and ate a yummy treat. Thanks Mike (and Dave) for letting us do that!


The rest of the week we spent in the parks. We probably would have just spent 3 days in the parks, but there was a promotion where you get 5 days for the price of 3 and we took advantage of it!

The first day, we wore our new tie dye shirts (I think they turned out better than the ones I made in 2007). We washed them in our hotel sink and wore them again on our last day there.

We ate a yummy lunch in New Orleans Square, and we told Lydia the restaurant was just like "Tiana's" on Princess and the Frog. Hey, whatever gets her to try a bite of gumbo!

We bought an autograph book and it turned out to be very fun getting signatures from characters. Lydia and Elise were good about trading off whose turn it was to hold the book.

We spent most of that day in Disneyland, and that evening we saw the new World of Color show. It was amazing! We took Shaunda's suggestion and ordered picnic dinners that came with World of Color fastpasses (tickets for a viewing location) without having to wait in line for them. The food was overpriced (big surprise...), but worth it to avoid the hassle. We had a "pixie dust" moment when we picked up the box lunches. Elise and Lydia's came with flashing light-up bracelets, but we didn't order a meal for Tyler because he didn't need a fastpass. I asked if I could possibly buy an additional bracelet for him, to avoid fighting, and the extremely nice cast member let him have one for free. Isn't that sweet?

Our second day we spent mostly at Disney's California Adventure.

The third day, we had a reservation for a Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto, so the kids dressed up in their princess and knight costumes.


The lunch was yummy (but again, overpriced!), and we got to meet Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, and Snow White.






We saw Billy Hill and the Hillbillies twice (Thursday and Friday), and it was so funny and enjoyable. The second time, we had reserved seats at the very front tables because my mom has a cousin with connections! We ordered a giant slice of chocolate cake to share, and Tyler really enjoyed himself.


Elise's favorite rides were all the roller coasters. She is tall enough to ride everything except Indiana Jones.

Lydia was just barely tall enough for the Matterhorn. She was willing to ride it a few times, but it wasn't really her idea of fun. Her favorite rides were Dumbo, and It's a Small World.

Tyler liked everything, except maybe the teacups. He was such a good sport. My dad helped me make a really cute harness to keep Tyler from wandering off, but we didn't even have to use it. He fell asleep in the stroller a couple times, but for the most part he did fine without naps. I had expected more meltdowns, but he was pretty easygoing.


Overall, I'm so glad we decided to take this trip. It is a sweet memory. I think our kids' favorite part of all was the togetherness; almost every minute of the trip they were within arm's reach of one or both parents. I am grateful for the ages they are at right now, because in a few years, who knows if they'll appreciate the togetherness quite so much. Lydia thinks it would be great to all live in one hotel room across from Disneyland permanently. The only drawback, she points out, is that it would take a REALLY long time to drive to see our grandparents, cousins, and friends.

Disneyland, Part One

We had such a fun time in Disneyland in September. We planned our trip to coincide with my siblings' trips, and it was the perfect kind of extended family vacation because we each planned our own itineraries, but we could get together with cousins and grandparents spontaneously without worrying about a schedule.

The kids were very easygoing about the road trip. They seriously didn't whine except for about 20 minutes, on the way home, after 10 hours straight in the car. I was whiny myself by that point!

Awesome distractions for the road:

• Portable DVD players with Disney movies, and our own home videos.
• Bendaroos
• AquaDoodle Travel'n'Doodle mats (Thanks for the suggestion, Trish!)

On the way down, we spent a night in Las Vegas. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the strip to see the sights, and find a cheap prime rib dinner. We walked our feet off! All the way from the Bellagio water show (my favorite) to the M&M World store (where we made a custom mix with everyone's color choice), and ended up at the Excalibur buffet (not recommended!)



I'm glad my kids were little enough to be naive about some of the advertisements and things we saw. We kept having to say, "If you see anything that's not modest, look away." If I could rewind and do it again, we would have watched the water show, grabbed some fast food, and gone swimming in the hotel pool. I think that's what Mike suggested in the first place. I should have listened!
We found a church meeting the next morning, and hit the road again.

When we arrived in Anaheim, we checked into the Desert Inn and Suites (awesome location right by Disneyland) and went to Huntington beach.


The girls weren't so sure about the cold water and the waves, but they did their best to be brave about it. Tyler thought the ocean was great, as long as he was being held.


The seashells and sand castles were more fun.

Part 2 (Disneyland!) coming up...

Happy Birthday Elise - Rapunzel Party

Elise decided on a Rapunzel birthday party. The internet, usually a wealth of party ideas, was mostly void of anything Rapunzel themed. But Elise did have one clever idea for a game. It would be like a fishing game at a carnival, except that instead of a fishing line, the guests let down their "hair" from somewhere up high, and pull it up to find a prize.

The "somewhere up high" could have easily been the stairwell, or the deck, but due to some luck (and a little pettiness on my part), we happened to have a refrigerator box on hand, perfect for making a Rapunzel tower.


The story behind the box is a little funny, so I'm going to tell it. Recently we got a new oven, and the kids and I made an awesome playhouse out of the cardboard box. We kept it in the family room for a couple weeks, until Mike got sick of it and threw it away one evening while I was out. I was so mad that he didn't check with me first, so to spite him, I procured an even bigger box from a neighbor who had just ordered a new refrigerator!

I painted it with leftover latex paint, and decorated it with fake vines. The tower fit perfectly over our coffee table, which gave the kids something to stand on to reach the window. If you ever have a need to paint a cardboard castle this website is very helpful. Or you could just call and borrow my tower. It's still folded up in the basement, unless Mike has thrown it out. ;)


My other big project for the party was making hats for all of the guests. Elise insisted on inviting a few boys, so I came up with a generic Robin Hood type hat for them,

and the girl hats were a simple cone shape with a long yarn braid.

At the party, we started off coloring pictures of Rapunzel or her prince.

Then we played that silly baby/wedding shower game where you cut a piece of string (yarn hair) and have to introduce yourself for as long (or short) as it takes you to wind it around your finger.


The activity that everyone liked best was making a giant tangled web of yarn hair in the backyard. I stole that idea from my friend Stacy, and it was perfect for a Rapunzel party.


After making the web, the kids ran a few races through it. They really liked that part too, especially the boys. If I ever host a Spiderman party, I'll have to remember this.


After that we tried melting ice cubes with plastic rings inside. This turned into throwing ice cubes to break the ring out. :)

For the cake, I decided to make cupcakes in ice cream cones, because they look like little towers. They didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but Elise was still excited about them.


At the end of the party, we played "Let down your hair" to give out the favor bags. For the boys, we sent their prize down with the hair so they wouldn't have to wear a girly hat.

It was a fun day.


At 6 years old, Elise is so energetic and creative, and loves to have Lydia and Tyler follow her around and play along with her ideas. She is artistic and slightly competitive, has her own opinions, loves to be girly, and loves her friends and family. She writes the cutest little notes, and loves to surprise people. Elise is a wonderful daughter and a fun big sister.

Happy Birthday Lydia - Wizard of Oz Party

For Lydia's 4th birthday, she wanted to wear her Dorothy dress and have a Wizard of Oz party.


I had a hard time thinking of Oz party favors, beyond just rainbow-colored things, so I decided to make each girl a pair of "ruby slippers". As always, I was a little too ambitious and I ended up spending a late night turning this:


Into this:


At the party, the kids painted rainbows,


Played a freeze dance game,


And a "What's Missing" game,


Went on a hunt for the broomstick and melted the Wicked Witch of the West (drawn with watercolor markers on freezer paper),

Opened presents,

And had rainbow cupcake cake!


Lydia had a great day. She is such a loving and fun girl. She has quite a sense of humor for a 4 year old, and loves to make people laugh with her made-up jokes and good natured teasing. Lydia likes to give hugs, and kisses "on the wips" to any parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle who will let her. We love having Lydia in our family.