Cat-tastic Celebration

Make a wish!

Happy 6th birthday, Emma K.!  What a whirlwind of a weekend. Such fun and sweet moments to treasure. Not that there was an absence of poor choices or behavior that was the direct result of being overwhelmed, over tired and disappointed. It's hard to be little!

Saturday the 19th we woke up and had chocolate chip pancakes, as requested by you the night before.  You were so excited about your birthday that the humdrum of a mostly regular Saturday was too much.  You wanted to open the three boxes that had come in the mail and waiting to open the gift bag from us was excruciating.  Once you got to open the bag you were very disappointed to find only a poncho. "That's not a present!"  Reading the card and the horse and pony experience promise for that afternoon wasn't enough to break the disappointment spell. But you did almost smile!
Waiting until after lunch seemed impossible.
 We carved pumpkins, which you loved.  "I'm going to draw the faces on all the pumpkins. Daddy you can cut both of ours out. Mine is going to be scary."  When I told you I was going to do a cat face you said, " that's not spooky for Halloween." You helped draw the cat face on my pumpkin using the image from the iPad as a guide.  I had to redraw it on the other side because your attention to small detail was too tiny for me to carve.  So you drew daddy's pumpkin face and your own.

Scooping out the insides was gross but you did it anyway. "Look at how much I got this time! Mommy can I please use that fork? The fork works good."
Lunch time came quickly and you could hardly focus on eating from all the anticipation. Then we were off to the stables!  La Fleur stables is about 30 minutes away and we got there with time to spare. There was a horse in a corral right by the van.  You got right out and walked to the fence and were fascinated watching it trot and harrumph long the fence opposite.  We went inside and were happy to be out of the blustery, cold.  You liked looking at the framed horse and rider pictures on the wall. After waiting a bit we were taken through the mysterious double doors that led...to...the indoor stables and arena!

Grooming and not quite at ease yet.

We walked down the long stable hallway to the tied up ponies.  Annika was interested in the horse faces pressed up to the bars on either side. You pointed out horses you liked and asked what their names were. The young girls explained how to groom the ponies with the different brushes. You were shy to begin with and asked me to go with you to choose a brush and get

Riding the pony was neat. Your feet almost touched the ground.

started.  You lost your shyness quickly and liked grooming the ponies.  After a bit the ponies were untied and we followed them down to the arena. There you asked for your bike helmet and waited your turn to ride a pony. The other pony was hooked up to a small cart.
You had no trouble getting on the pony by yourself!  And your feet almost could touch the ground.  You were reluctant to show even a smile but never said that you didn't want people to watch you.  You rode the pony two different times and liked it a lot.
At first you didn't want to ride in the cart even after the girls said you could sit on the seat and not on their laps like the younger girls in the group.  But at the very last possible opportunity you changed your mind and climbed in.  It went pretty quickly and you liked it. You said you liked riding the pony better.  And that was without a saddle!  The pony names were Mouse and Minnie.

Apple Jack, the quarter horse, with one happy Emma.

We went back and you helped groom the ponies before they brought out the big horses.  Apple Jack was the quarter horse and Sport was the thoroughbred.  We followed to the arena and you waited your turn to ride. You went on Sport first and insisted that daddy help you get on.  Sport cantered around the arena, which is pretty quick for a first ride.  You loved it and couldn't always keep your smiles hidden.  It was so much fun to watch you.  I could easily imagine you taking lessons and becoming a horse rider.

That was so fun and fast that you didn't want anyone to know how much you liked it.

After riding you did more horse grooming and you and the other girls were quite surprised by how large of a poop the horse dropped.  Then it was time to go home. In the car we asked you if you liked the experience and what your favorite part was. "It was good. I liked riding the big horses."  It all sort of came apart when Annika started crying and wouldn't stop. "Stop! You are ruining my whole birthday!"
Tom and Karen stopped by before dinner to give you their presents. You showed them the pictures from the horse and pony experience and were quite pleased to be able to share it with them.  Aunt Susan came for dinner and we enjoyed homemade macaroni and cheese with peas.  You also showed Aunt Susie the pictures of your day. Aunt Susan's cheesecake with fresh raspberries was phenomenal. You helped decorate the top of the cake with some fun supplies Aunt Susie brought with her.

Decorating that delicious cheesecake with Aunt Susie.

Then came the plethora of presents. Both sets of grandparents and great grandma's plus Aunt Susie and some other random boxes were filled with clothes, toys, and even money and makeup (lip gloss). You were right in your element. You said some pretty funny things that I am kicking myself for not writing down!
You went to sleep happy and woke up the next morning just bursting with excitement for your friends party. It was a long wait but we all survived. We arrived at the Dane County Humane Society and found the room to be much larger than we expected as well all decorated!  Frannie was the first to arrive and slowly your friends showed up. Frannie, Tesla, Violet, Rosie and Ellie, Meghan, Daryn and Soren, and James were all there. Plus Miss Beckie came with a lovely bouquet of flowers! The cat visitor names Max was first. He could sit on command! Everyone got to pet him once before his owner took him away.

Then the group was off to see  behind the scenes; you were always the line leader. You saw loads of cats; you wanted to take them home.  And so many cute dogs enjoyed tasty morsels that you and your friends dropped down the feeding tube into the kennels. There were also smaller pets like gerbils and feathered friends, too.  Back at the room we had some juice and you and your friends colored cats or dogs.

Not a cat but it will have to do.

The best part was coming up! The leader took us all into a small room where you got to hold a corn snake, guinea pig and rat.
Okay, maybe the best part was coming up- cake and presents! You decided that a cookies and cream custard cake from Culver's was a fine substitute for vanilla cat cupcakes with custard on the side. (I still feel guilty that I didn't make them!) The cakes were a huge hit with everyone and you blew out all 6 candles in two breaths I think. Your friends know you well and got you presents that fit your talents and hobbies- lots of art projects. Then it was time to clean up and go home. You were sad that it was over but also very happy.
Since it was late(r) in the day we let you pick a restaurant for the last birthday celebration meal. We went to Monty's and had yummy food but no dessert. Instead you had some cheesecake when we got home.

You are such a great big sister! Here you are helping your sister navigate the Earth and Sun set-up.

Was the birthday fun really over then? No! Annika and I came to school on Monday for your birthday celebration at Toad Hill. We kept the Emma-isms very brief but shared some pictures of you doing fun things through the years. You walked around the sun 6 times and Annika crawled on the sun!  Then I hung around for a little bit while you showed me some work, and I read a pumpkin story to your friends. Before I left I made sure that your teachers knew what to do with the special snack. I made individual parfaits for you and your friends with the berries and yogurt of your choice- vanilla yogurt with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Plus there was a bag of granola for sprinkling on the top and some chocolate graham cat cookies. We brought three pieces of cheesecake for your teachers.
At the end of the day you were sad because the cat cookies were not served. But we took them back the next day and you got to share them with your friends.
Such a wonderful celebratory weekend for such a wonderfully sweet and beautiful girl! We are proud of you and love you so much. Happy 6th birthday, Emma K!

Kindergarten

All ready for the Meet and Greet on Tuesday.

Emma started Kindergarten last week. She is at Toad Hill- the same school she has been at for preschool for 2 years. So it shouldn't be that different and I shouldn't be all teary-eyed, right? Ha. I have been near tears for a couple weeks now. I just can't believe that she is old enough to be starting school!
Mommy or Daddy: So Emma, are you excited to be starting Kindergarten?
Emma: yeah, except for the teachers.
M/D: what do you mean? We thought you liked your teachers.
Emma: No, they are silly, mean teachers.
M/D: Why are they mean?
E: Because they tell me what to do.

It should come as no surprise that we also wear the mean hat from time to time- whenever we tell her what to do. Aye aye aye!

Emma told us that she had a good first couple of full days at school. She was playing with some new friends. Friday in the car she said, "They don't serve enough food for community lunch! I'm hungry!" 

Smiling for the first full day on Thursday.

Happy 1st Birthday, Annika!

August 18, 2012 was a marvelous, joyous day because Annika finally was born!  One year has flown by, except for the crazy months when she didn't sleep and screamed all the time!  How did we survive?
A pinwheel theme seemed like the perfect way to celebrate Annika's first birthday.  I read that for the Chinese New Year people will write hopes and dreams for the year on pinwheel points so that as the pinwheel spins, they go off into the world to come true.  
On her birthday we ate salami, tomato, and cucumber pinwheel roll-ups. A huge hit with both girls! That night for dinner Aunt Susan came over and we gobbled up smitten kitchen's heavenly chocolate cake roll for dessert. Annika seemed surprised at first to be offered so much of such a tasty thing!  She opened a couple of token presents from her godfather, great grandma and us. (We are trying to keep the first 5 years fair between the girls. Starting this year for Emma we are sticking to useful or experiential presents only. It's only fair that Annika have some books from her parents until she turns 6!)

But we do want to hold true to the mantra "less is more" while keeping the amount of stuff in our house down to a minimal. Such a hard task with kids and society and stuff!  So instead of presents we asked guests to bring a hope or wish for Annika. They wrote it on an unfolded pinwheel, folded it up and pinned it to a pennant on a banner made the night before.  The pennant banners will be for decoration in Annika's room to be somehow incorporated into a quilt at some point.  Lots of good wishes came with guests on Saturday August 24th. Wishes came in the mail from family, too.
The party had pinwheels everywhere!  Lots of spinning ones outside, inside, on the cake and in the form of games and activities.  Annika had one on her shirt, her bib, and on her headband (all made by me just for the occasion.). Although Emma was the one who added sequins and ribbon to the head band first; she would want me to say that.
 We played Pinwheel the Cupcake (like pin the tail games), find the one matching pinwheel out of the 20 or so around, draw a pinwheel competition with sidewalk chalk, color a pinwheel in the cool of the house with crayons, make a pinewheel, and a homemade pull string piñata. It was so much fun!  Annika really seemed to enjoy herself, too.  She was all smiles as she was passed from person to person.  Annika even put a pinwheel on the cupcake!  With Auntie Em's help.
For food we had Glass Nickle pizza, a rainbow fruit "pizza", raw veggies and ranch dip displayed in a gigantic hollowed out zucchini, and pinwheel cookies. I am so bummed that we don't have any pictures of the fruit and veggies!  We had mason jars with cute fabric name tags and paper straws in raspberry and purple to drink up root beer and pink lemonade.  (Beer was also served.)  For the birthday song Aunt Susan made a fantastic three layer cake with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry layers.  It was Neapolitan!  So we also had the same ice cream flavors.  And of course the cake was decorated with pinwheels plus a mini pennant banner made from scrap melted crayon
decorations and affixed with the letters in Annika.  (The stained glass buntings made by following idea from artful parent.com were hanging around the house.)
It was just so much fun having everyone gather together to celebrate!  Guests: Tom and Karen, Aunt Chenoa, Maddison and Audrey, Auntie Em and Ian, the Gletty-syoen family, the Montague family, and aunt Susan.
Annika loved her cake!  And the no gift thing worked great; we did say guests could bring their favorite candy for the piñata if they wanted and many did!  Annika pulled strings, too.  But none of the strings actually opened it up!  Oops!  My efforts to secure the ribbon were not good enough.  Bt the kids all laughed and were happy to take turns hitting it with the baseball bat.
Happy birthday, dear sweet baby!

On the move!

Annika is crawling!  We have gone from the doctor mildly concerned that she wasn't meeting her 9month gross motor milestones to an active baby.  Who is also not so little. We don't have confirmation on the little thing and no actual verifiable evidence. But she has some chunky thighs that even strangers notice.  And she feels heavier and looks different after every sleep.

Three days ago she was only sort of crawling a few short "steps" at a time.  Yesterday afternoon we had to set up the gate to keep her out of Emma's art area and the computer space.  She explored the sliding glass door, got close to the dogs water dish, tried pulling herself up on the octagon table, rattled the gate and generally just want everywhere in the back room.

Yesterday when I went to get her from her afternoon nap she was standing in her crib.  She has only done that once before.  This morning she was also standing after her nap and when I did a reset this afternoon.  Yay!  Now to make more progress on the gross motor skills she needs to walk while holding on to furniture.  She is starting to move her legs when standing so its a start.  All this good sleep is working to her advantage!

Go little baby, go!

Let's Pretend

There probably is a post with this title already!  It is Emma's favorite game to play. We pretend to be the Frances family (like the Bread and Jam for Frances characters) quite often- daily actually. And sometimes hourly. She has added Lily as a character and sometimes Annika is just the new baby Annika while Baby Katie scrubs in as Gloria.
On the way home from the nature center this afternoon Emma says, "Let's pretend that this is a bus and you are Lily the bus driver. I'm Frances, Annika is Gloria, and Daddy is Albert." OK I say, "Stay in your seats and keep quiet! you're on my bus now!"  Said with a smile of course.  Then Emma replies, "You're Lily and you live with us." OK but then that was that. The game ended without any warning.

Yesterday we played Barbies in the basement. She wanted me to talk for some of the girls so I did. But then she would ask, "who said that?"  So I would tell her. As I listened to her she talks but also narrates as if we are enacting the pages right from a book.  "Let's go to the beach, said Mia. So they all got dressed and went to the beach. Let's pretend that Ariel climbed up the cliff and dove into the water and swam and swam."  It is really fascinating to witness but a little hard to follow along. (It's hard to narrate!)

Mother's Day 2013

With two it is even sweeter!  Emma and Daddy kept whispering and talking for a few days leading up to Sunday. A mysterious package arrived in the mail mid week. Emma made some picture cards for Grandma, G-Bugga, Nanie and Great Grandma and said, "but why? They aren't my mommy!"
Sunday morning Steve and Emma got up early with Annika and let me sleep.  Not that the sleeping was great, but being able to lie in bed for awhile was heavenly.
Then a breakfast in bed that still has me smiling came up the stairs with Emma and Daddy. Emma insisted that I have my usual oatmeal, plus she picked out Surprise muffins to make, Steve cooked bacon, there was delicious tea, juice with fruit, a bowl of fruit and an iPad mini!  It was just the best.  Emma stayed and helped me eat the wonderful spread with just a few crumbs making it in the bed. We played with the iPad a little and I found a song from Zumba. Emma asked to not hear it again after a few minutes! It was will i am's Scream and Shout. Steve came back up later with baby and we got a group photo. 
Perhaps the piece de resistance was the card. I don't know where Steve finds them but he always manages to get the best blank cards. This one was blank but for the beautiful hummingbird and flower art on the outside and inside. Emma wrote "Happy Mother's Day Love Emma" and then added her own flower that matched the drawing. She also drew a hummingbird to match and it looks fantastic! She is a very good artiste. (Steve also had his own sweet message.) I am so lucky!

 

I am loving watching the two of my girls grow up. I can't remember what we did for the rest of the day and I don't need to. The morning is memory enough for me.

Trim It Up

It was really past time to trim Annika's old man hair style.

BEFORE

AFTER

SO MUCH HAIR!