A Robot Birthday

Our Caroline turned four a week ago (which is crazy to me!). Just so happens that 4 is one of our big birthdays (4, 8, 12, 16) that gets a friends party. Caroline was ecstatic to have her first 'real' birthday party! I asked her what kind of party she wanted and her fast response was "ROBOTS!!!"... but I didn't want to get halfway through planning and have her change her mind to princesses, fairies, or dolphins, so I probed further. Her second response was, "ummmmm....SNAILS!!!" (and I started picturing snail impersonation games of slow motion...) so I said, "let's go with robots!" ;)

 She got to invite 4 friends since she was turning 4. My plan was to keep things as simple and budget-friendly as I possibly could. I made the invites in Word bc I didn't want to purchase custom ones. I used free images and fonts I found online and designed it to print 4 to a page so I only had to print 1 sheet of paper. I'm sure if you have better design programs and know-how you could make this way cuter, but it worked for us!

Guests were greeted with this DIY robot welcome sign (one arm broke off before I got a pic)

We played fun robot games--- no winners, just fun!--- like pin the button on the robot

our robot after he got 'buttoned' by all the guests multiple times

We also played a robot pickup game (un-pictured) with those toy robot arms (found them at Target) and various small balls we had around. 

The food spread was simple because I wasn't serving lunch and I figure the kids aren't going to eat THAT much anyway. I hate throwing away platefuls of food. I labeled the food with DIY labels (all in blue, so it used up the remnants of my printer ink. Perfect. Anyone else always use up the yellow first? What's up with that? :) We had nuts and bolts, gizmos, computer chips, bio-cyborg implants, and a robot refueling station. 

Caroline had to be coerced into giving me this meager smile. 

Good thing I caught that one, because all the other faces were blurry dancing pics. :)

Emmett got to try his first birthday cake... verdict was pure joy!

All our little robot friends also made their own costumes. I loved their various designs!

and funny tidbit: if you look closely at Caroline's robot dial plate, you'll see she drew a snail. So I guess she got a snail birthday too! :)

I made magnetic robots using pipe cleaners, milk jug lids, and various nuts/bolts for our friends to take home and also included a robot coloring page and some robot stickers. The tags say "thanks a bot"... hee hee, I amuse myself!

 Items that I purchased: plates, napkins, tablecloth, straws, balloons, green and blue wrapping paper, silver spray paint, nuts/bolts/screws/washers, orange cake mix, cream cheese for icing, peach rings, blue chocolate balls, chex mix, cheetos, tang, carrots/broccoli/cucumber, 3 sheets of scrapbook paper for the gears on the wall, robot stickers for treat bags, set of 10 headbands and 2 robot arm toys.

Items I already own, so it didn't cost but used up some supply: cardstock, printer ink, ribbon, pipe cleaners, foam hearts, star stickers, googly eyes, magnets (the free kind that come in the mail from businesses trying to solicit your patronage), milk jug lids, boxes, cans (from fruit and veggies), toilet and paper towel tubes, hot glue, silver duct tape, ziploc sandwich bags, and paper grocery bags.

Total: about $55

I'd say it was about as cheap as I could make it! 

These pics are from Wed night when we gave Caroline our family gifts. 

Can you believe I found this Melissa and Doug art easel free on the curb? The girls love it and it is still in great (not perfect, but it is for KIDS, so who cares?) condition!

She loved her gifts! In her own words, "I love today that is my birthday!"

Emmett was pretty stoked about the crackle-y wrapping paper

I love my little big girl Caroline! She's part monkey (gymnast) part barnacle (those hugs--- girl's got a grip, I tell ya!). Caroline we love your enthusiasm and affection, your generosity and sensitivity to others, and how willingly you GIVE to your sister without prompting. Love how much you adore Emmett, love your confidence (flips on the gymnastics bars unassisted? I'm astounded!), and love how much you enjoy eating (no coercion necessary to get you to down your dinner. meat and veggies and all!). LOVE your honesty (admitting your mistakes is a gift!) and LOVE how much you love talking about Jesus (every ray of sunshine that breaks through a cloud you declare to be Jesus). 

 Happy birthday stinker--- our family would truly not be the same without your vibrant energy to keep us on our toes. We love you!

#10 Honest Compliments

What I mean by honest is, I don't want obligatory compliments. But when someone acknowledges something good just because they SAW it and thought it worth mentioning, well. That makes me feel like a million bucks.

I had several people comment on my weightloss

(which is a blessed boon for those days when I am tired of the work and want to take the easy route)

and others comment on my cupcakes

(the only reason that is significant is because I literally told Eric the night before that they were ugly, I felt so bad, and I was embarrassed to bring them to the baby shower... I'll admit it seems so silly now)

thank you for your sincere compliments, because you know,

they really just make me feel like I could do anything.

And who doesn't love THAT feeling?

I Have a 3-year old

Today is Gwen's 3rd birthday. I can't believe it. Well, sometimes I can because she seems so much more grown up these days.

Today was the second installment of birthday festivities. We actually celebrated the cake portion of her birthday a couple of days ago before her cousins left. We wanted to do that part with friends and it was a big hit! Well, actually, it was pretty funny because Gwen asked Edward repeatedly the day before if he wanted to come to her birthday party... and each time without any hesitation he said "no". I think she was starting to get pretty sad about that. I guess his parents had to train him a lil bit, because when she asked him again on the day of, he said yes. and she was finally happy and said "yay!"

Gwen was excited today to see her Thomas cake come out. I spent about 6 hours making the cake. Made possible by so many helping hands tending lil kiddos. Gwen helped 'roll' one homemade marshmallow fondant rock, but after that she only wanted to eat them. I loved how the cake turned out: both delicious and beautiful! Definitely there are errors, but they aren't big deals and it was really perfect for the girl. She loved her Thomas and her Island of Sodor. And I was proud. :)

She knew what birthday cakes were all about this time and when she saw me put on the candles, she said, "but mom, it needs the yellow stuff on there so I can blow!" Yes, you're right Gwen. Blow out those candles!

She looks almost meditative here, don't you think? Planning a candle-blowing strategy, perhaps?

When I told her she could have first dibs on a part off the cake, she didn't hesitate. "I wanna eat Thomas" she told me. So that's what she did. :)

lol, her teeth were blue from the food coloring in the fondant!

Edward and Frederick enjoyed some Thomas cake.

and Caroline was happy too!

Then today, on her birthday birthday, she opened presents.

she was surprisingly timid about unwrapping. It was a very 'delicate' process.

She loved the pink fluffy purse with the frog that holds blocks spelling her name. He has his own lil blanket, which she thought was pretty cool!

Eric and I gave her some cheapo jewelry... and we probably should have saved it for later, because she didn't want to open any other presents. She told us "no thank you. I just play with my jewelries". Lol.

so we compromised by putting the jewelries in her new lil (used) back pack so she'd open this beautiful book about Jesus Christ from her G-gma. I love Simon Dewey paintings!

My MIL went all out and made this gorgeous quilt for Gwen. These fabric 'dolls' have clothes so she can dress them.

Gwen was in love as soon as it finally dawned on her what she could do with all this...in this picture, I think she was still at the 'overwhelmed' stage. :)

She is such a lil girl now, not so much a toddler. She is smart, independent and generous. She loves to take care of people, especially Caroline. Drama is definitely her friend. She actually enjoys being sad, I think, and will put herself into solitary saying "I just need to go be sad" on the stairs or in the corner...or at the very least, she'll bury her face in her hands and say, "I'm so sad" with big alligator tears.

I love our beautiful daughter, her enthusiasm for life, her tenderness, and her desire to learn. Happy Birthday, Gwen. We are so blessed you have you in our family, in our lives, in our hearts.

It's a....

Looks like we're going to have another one of these:

20 week ultrasound gave us a pretty confident look at our new baby girl! See you in April, sweetie! Couldn't be more excited!

ps. this was Gwen's 2 year birthday cake I made and never blogged about.

Wait, What?? She's 1?!?!?!

Can I believe she is truly an entire year old? No way. Where did the time go? Seriously? Is this what people mean when they say the years will fly by?
Can I believe that my daughter is no longer a baby? Well, she tries hard to convince me. She is one independent lil gal. That "I can do it myself, mom" streak runs big and bold right down the middle of every decision she makes! I present to you as evidence:

• once she learned how to tip her bottle back to drink, she no longer lets me offer her milk, water, or juice. She will cry immediately until I put the bottle on the floor. Then she will practically dive to pick it up and drink.
  
• She won't let me feed her anything either, but will only eat what she can pick up herself (I am pretty stubborn about feeding soup to her). And if she only wants to eat avocado, don't even think about trying to coax a little tortilla, corn, cheese, or whatever else into her mouth. She'll turn her head every which way to avoid you and cry like you really hurt her feelings.
• If she is reading a book and I try to help her turn pages, she will tolerate it briefly, then will either push my hand away, turn sideways and push her body against mine to "box me out", pull the book away repeatedly, or lose interest completely and crawl away.
  

Only what she wants, only when she wants it, and only if she can get it herself.
We've got our very own lil independent woman. :) (oh man, just wait til the teenage years!)

Here's what we did to celebrate!

I wanted to try out a traditional Korean activity for celebrating a first birthday. All these objects were placed on the piano bench in front of Gwen. I held her and showed her each one, hoping to get her excited about all of her options. Then we took her across the room and let her go. Of course she bee lined it for the piano bench. The idea is that the first or second object that she grabs "foretells" her future. Not that I actually think it does, but sounds fun, right? So her options were:

The traditional ones:

• bow&arrow (we used a box of ammo): the child will become a warrior or have a military career
• needle and thread (we used yarn): the child will have a long life
• jujube (fruit known as the Chinese date, so we used chopped dates): child will have many descendants
• book, pencil, brush (we used a book): the child will be a successful scholar
• ruler, needle, scissors (used bag of sewing accessories): child will be talented with her hands
• knife (we substituted measuring cups and a bowl): the child will be a good cook
• money or rice (we used money): the child will be wealthy
• cakes or other foods (some raisins and goldfish crackers): the child will be a government official

and the Modern ones of our own invention we added for fun:

• mini soccer ball: she'll be an athlete
• piano: she'll be a musician
• plant: she'll be an outdoorsy gal
• computer mouse: she'll be technology-savvy

(We didn't add scriptures or any other religious things because we certainly hope that she will be strong in faith and testimony regardless of other passions she may choose in her life. Same goes for babies and motherhood.)

So do you want to know what she chose?....

wait for it...

drum roll...

oh, the anticipation is mounting....

she went straight for the soccer ball, next grabbed the measuring cups... and as an afterthought grabbed at the ammo box. Eric says that counts, even though it was 3rd. Apparently she will be warrior enough to fetch her own food for use with her culinary expertise and then work off the results with some athleticism! whew, what a gal!

We also had a delightful monkey cake (I was so excited to see if she would think it was just like a stuffed animal since I used some of my birthday money to purchase this mini stand up pan for this very occasion) which she very fastidiously smeared at first and then eventually got around to eating some.
and opened so many presents! She loved it! (I, seriously, no joke, was getting quite anxious to open these myself! I was just so excited to see what she was going to get!) I thought she might be more interested in playing with the wrapping paper. She was so funny pulling it off in strips and then trying to get it off her fingertips! I loved the way she wouldn't even look at it as she 'flicked' it away-- already focused on her next move. Sort of with this "talk to the hand" attitude flair that only teenage girls and toddlers pull off so convincingly. (oh, funny side note: she wanted to hold her own cards. Kept taking them from us when we tried to read her the messages on them.)From Uncle Justin and Aunt Amber: thanks for the thoughtful card!
From Grandma and Grandpa Allan: thanks for the adorable lady bug outfit, the much-needed warm pjs, and the fun books!
From Grandma and Grandpa Hart: thanks for the "smart" caterpillar, the fun dinnerware set, the camo dress, and the lovely black-white-pink dress!
From Mommy and Daddy: thanks for the stacking cups for making bath time fun
(boy our present is kinda lame compared to what everyone else gave her! :)

Happy Birthday, my darling little Gwen! I can't even express how much love and joy you have brought into my life. You are such a huge blessing from our Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful that you are ours for all eternity!

Neighborhood Halloween Shin-dig with my first Tiered Cake!

Halloween decorations in preparation for festivities. Mostly I just wanted to document how awesome my spiderweb job was.
Last month I started brainstorming about Halloween cake decorating ideas. Such a fun holiday, I couldn't let the creative opportunity pass me by. I decided I wanted to try what is called a topsy-turvy cake or Mad Hatter cake. Tiered. Lots of cake. and I'm only 1.2 lbs away from my current short term weight goal, so there is no way I was going to eat all that cake. I knew Eric, as voracious a junk food consumer as he is, would need help to eat it all. So we decided to invite some neighbors for a lil get together. Perhaps that'a a lil backwards? Don't people normally decide to make a cake because they are throwing a party? Oh well. I digress. So. Just neighbors. Just cake. Just casual. No stress.

I spent the month "researching" how to do the cake, brainstorming ideas, and planning an "attack" on the various steps of the cake making so that it wouldn't become a stressful last minute deal. I got a lot done on Friday during Gwen's naps. That made Saturday's construction both relaxing and fun! I had a blast working on this project!

The cake had 4 "firsts" for me:

1. first topsy turvy
2. first tiered construction
   
3. first fondant application
   
4. first homemade fondant

I learned a ton and had a blast doing it! Don't be honest if you think it looks bad. But other than that, what do you guys think? I was pleased as pie! (or cake!) :)

If you'd like to see the online tutorials I used, follow these links:
how to make a topsy turvy cake
how to make and apply homemade marshmallow fondant (which is way tastier than regular kind)

Lucky St. Patty's Day!

Lucky me, Gwen went down EASILY for 2 of her 3 naps, giving me time to experiment (please ignore the painfully ugly rainbow-- I improvised!) with some different icing tips (namely the grass one) and make this:

Lucky Eric, he got to eat butter chocolate cake with a layer of mint cream in the middle that looked like this:

Lucky you, I'm including recipes for our DELICIOUS Ireland-inspired (sort of) dinner: semi-spicy BBQ Roast and Sweet Seasoned Cabbage in my next blog entry!

Lucky Gwen, she got to take a fun bath which is her favorite part of her pre-bedtime ritual:

Lucky Grandparents, get to see another cute pic of Gwen:

Lucky all of us, it is finally warming up and we are taking advantage by spending time outside!


Feeling Lucky lately? :)