Elsie Turned 6!

My little girl turned 6 last week.  I just noticed this week how big she is getting and how much more independent she is.  She is a driven little girl, and it's fun to watch.  It's fun to teach her things and then watch and listen to her process it.  I taught her the spanish alphabet, and for a month everywhere she went she skipped and sang the alphabet.  She practices counting to 100 in the car, and stays up late reading books.  Yet, if anything gets too structured, when it's not her doing the scheduling, she is sooo not interested.  She loves painting and all things arts and crafts at home, but getting her to her art club every week is such a hassle!  Elsie definitely has her own mind.  Her school lessons are often self directed and lead.  This girl knows what she wants, which is why planning a birthday party with her was so fun!  She had some great ideas and was all about helping implement those plans into action. To begin, she wanted a Jungle/Safari birthday where everyone could come dressed up as an animal if they so desired.  It was inspired by her favorite stuffed animal, "Tigey".  Hence, she dressed up as a tiger.  She wanted to bust open some pinatas, so we spent one day with balloons and paper-mache, and another decorating them into animal pinatas.  Elsie knew exactly how she wanted to decorate them, but put up with some suggestions from Mom (phew!).  Here they are:

 Elsie also wanted a game of tag and pin the tail on the tiger.  With a couple extra games I turned it into a hunt where the "animal" children had to escape from the zoo and find their way back to the jungle.  I think I had just as much fun pretending as the kids! 

 This was the first time I had a birthday table with everything set-up together beforehand.  It helping in organization and made for a pretty picture.

 Here is Elsie, our little tiger birthday girl!

 Mike was amazing and found a cotton candy machine at a second-hand store for a few dollars.  It really loaded the kids with sugar and added to the excitement!  He was good to make some for each of the kids.

 Here goes all our hard work with the pinatas!  It was fun, all around!

At the end of the day I told her I was glad she had such a great birthday.  She said, "It was more than great!  It was more than awesome!  It was the best birthday ever!"  I was happy to hear it. 

First Pinewood Derby!

These next 2 posts are a week old.  One of the children stole our card reader and I felt these posts were useless without some great pictures.  But, it turned up, so now I'm posting.

This Wednesday, and actually the couple days leading up to it, were really exciting at my house as Peter got to race his own homemade car in his Cub Scout Troop's Pinewood Derby.  He was soooo excited.  He thought of his design, sanded about 10 seconds (Mike couldn't take it, so he did a bit more to finish it well), painted, and weighed, and reweighed, and reweighed until.... Ta Da!  The car was done.  It was off to the races.  His car didn't do great.  The car came in first on the first race, but ran into some axle problems and somewhat hung on for the rest of the races thereafter.  The success of the car didn't deter Peter from running around with a big grin on his face.  He was very happy to be involved and share in the excitement.  He worked hard, and so did his dad.  It was a lot of fun.  Peter came home ready to practice the whole year round to make the perfect car for next year.  What fun.

New Year Resolutions

Last week I somewhat nailed down my New Year Resolutions.  They always somewhat morph as the year goes by as I get a little more realistic or my interests turn, but I'm going to try to set them in my heart firmly this year.  Mike shared a scripture that has really inspired me.  It's in the Pearl of Great Price in Abraham 3:17, and it says, "...and there is nothing that the Lord thy God shall take in his heart to do but what he will do it."  So now I'm determined.  Of course, I'm not going to post my resolutions because they are personal, but I thought I would share one with you.  Its full of irony - to set weekly and monthly goals.  I am usually really good at this.  I love setting goals and having something to work towards, but this past year I have just been... surviving!  Now I am determined to take a fresh breath of air every Sunday and write out a plan for the week and month.  I feel so much better when I am in this mode, and I think I will feel more in control of my life.  Perhaps through the year I may share a weekly goal from time to time with the 3 people that follow this blog.  Anyhow, those have been my thoughts as of late - to be more firm in my heart.   Good luck New Year Resolutioning.  It can be a doosy!

Happy 2014!

The First day of The New Year, and I am already posting!  Maybe I'll be more diligent this year in writing.  I'd sure enjoy that.  We celebrated the new year beginning by sleeping until 8:00, ALL OF US.  This was a first, but it was also the first time all my children have stayed up until 12:00.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I think the American New Year traditions are silly, but I continue to comply.
This morning we celebrated by having a family marbles tournament.  It was my first time playing, and I must say it was a fun experience.  We got a few tips on how to "shoot" from Uncle Glenn yesterday, and they were helpful!  In the afternoon Dad took Peter and Elsie to a park, which has been iced over for a great place to ice-skate.  It was Elsie's first time, and everyone came back thoroughly happy and excited.  I was so glad, and also happy I could stay at home and read while I nursed my hip which has been bothering me as of late.  Then we all went to a neighbor's house for a New Years get together.  It was fun and sociable.  I finished the day off by finishing the book I was reading, Daddy-Long-Legs.  I thought I wouldn't cry, it being the second time I've read it, but to no avail.  It is the sweetest book and very inspiring to read before I settle in on my resolutions for the year.  I must recommend it as a between Christmas and New Years book.  I have a cousin who reads it every December.  Hmmmm, not a bad idea.
Here are some pictures of the ice skating trip.  Elsie loves to be in front of a camera, and Peter dodges it as if it were the plague.