Happy Happy Birthday Lydia!

Please see below to read about how AMAZING our little 4 year old is! But this is a quick blurb on how we celebrated our big girl!

As a fun surprise, the Wests came out for Lydia's birthday! Lydia was beyond words when Miyah showed up at our house! It was so great getting to celebrate Lydia's special day with such special friends!

After some fun hangout time at the house and dinner, we took the girls to the mall to get a little bit more energy out!

This was Hannah and Misty's favorite thing to do! They made countless circles on the bench!

Unfortunately Lydia closed her eyes. But they are so cute together!

I made a simple cookie for Lydia's actual birthday (or the night before since the Wests were there and I had Faith in God on her birthday).

The girls woke up to lots of fun balloons!

After a yummy breakfast (Lydia requested pancakes), we all went to Powerhouse Gym for the kids to bounce around :).

Hannah LOVED all of the trampolines!

Lydia showed off some somersaults.

Hiding in the foam pit!

 

We had so much fun celebrating Lydia's actual birthday with our friends!

 

 

The next special day for Lydia was her birthday party! Originally she wanted a Dora party. So, I threw out some other ideas that I would be more excited about doing and she very eagerly agreed to a "Horsie Party". I had a ton of fun planning it!

 

Next month I am doing my sister's wedding cake. So, in preparation for my crazy adventure, I used Lydia's cake as somewhat of a test run. I tested out the recipe I plan to use, as well as doing a 2 tiered cake for the first time. I love how it turned out! I borrowed the horses from a friend. They add the perfect finishing touches!

As the kids arrived for the party, they were each given a "pony tail" to wear and could either decorate a stick horse or go play in the bouncy house. I didn't get any pictures of the kids decorating their horses. Shame on me! I was too busy trying to keep them from putting too high of a mountain of glitter glue on them lest they never dry!

We borrowed the bouncy house from some friends. It was the perfect addition to keep the kids entertained! Can you believe that the day before it was only 25-30 degrees outside and everything was iced?! We didn't even need jackets for the party! Somebody was looking out for us!

Here is Lydia with her stick horse. Just a yard stick, a paper horse head stuffed with grocery bags and yarn. She tied her "pony tail" to the end of the horse. Appropriate :). I had planned on them having races with all of their horses. However, I hadn't thought about the fact that I was first having them decorate them with glitter glue and they were all wet. So, we weren't able to do that. But the kids were all excited to take them home as a fun party favor :).

The kids played a couple of games with apples, since horses love those sweet fruits so much!

The first was passing the apples down the line using only their necks. The kids thought this was hilarious!

And it resulted in some cute pictures :).

Next they raced with the apples between their knees. This was, surprisingly, a little bit more challenging for them!

But Grandma demonstrated it beautifully! (I failed to mention, the morning before the party Grandma and Uncle Neil drove out to celebrate with us! We were so excited to have them come party with us! And I was extra grateful to have the extra helping hands!!! Thanks for coming!)

The kids also enjoyed eating their sweet fruits as they bounced and played a little bit more.

Then we all went inside to "Swat the Fly" (or pop the balloons tied to eachother's ankles). The kids had a harder time understanding the purpose of this and, because they are still so light, took a very long time to pop eachother's balloons.

Lydia and Carmen spent a LONG time just sitting and bouncing on each other's balloons. It was a sort of stand off. Carmen won in the end :).

We sang Happy Birthday! And enjoyed cake and ice cream.

And then it was time for presents! The kids started off more spread out like this.

By the end they were all cramming me into the corner in their plight to see all the exciting new toys!

 

Overall, it was a very successful birthday party and fun was had by all! I hope for many more birthday parties in February where the weather is beautiful and we can spread outside! Thank you to everyone who helped me out and helped to make Lydia's day so special!



Lydia's First Dance Recital

I just looked back at my previous posts and realized that this one was never published! Yikes! Well, better late than never! This is from the beginning of December :)

Lydia LOVES to dance and sing! I have tried to get her into some sports, but she just doesn't get very interested. And she doesn't seem to have any natural talent. But if you give her any given topic or word, she will make up a song for you. She will sing it beautifully and very animated! It's one of my favorite things to watch her do! Fortunately, there is a gal in the other ward that teaches dance out of her home for a VERY reasonable price. Like, I can actually afford it and cannot rationally refuse it! It is the highlight of Lydia's week! The down-side of it being in someone's home is that there is not space for me to sit and watch Lydia practice each week. I had to rely on her "showing" me what she was learning. Sometimes she came home with some pretty entertaining moves. But other weeks all she would do was twirl. It left me wondering what they were doing each time.

Well, lastnight Lydia had her first dance recital and I got to FINALLY see what she has been doing all this time. It was so cute! She has truly been working very hard and is learning a lot! It was so fun watching her perform with her friends. And she was in Heaven the whole time!

Playing with her friend, Carmen, afterwards.

 

 

To Lydia at 4 Years old

Dear Lydia,

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! It is amazing to believe that you have been in our lives for 4 years now (plus 9 months pregnancy)! You remind me of myself as a little girl, for better or for worse. You have an imagination that could put Dr. Seuss to shame! Your little heart swoons for your current little heart-throb! And you love to get in a good snuggle! I have a hard time keeping up with you, but love (most) every minute of it!

On Sunday you were the spotlight in primary. Here are some of your responses to the statements on the questionnaire:
My favorite thing about my family is "playing with Hannah".
My favorite food is "macaroni and cheese".
My favorite book is "Strawberry Shortcake".
When I grow up I want to be "a mom ... that doesn't have to go to work (like Beckym's mom) and gets to stay home".
My favorite thing to do in primary is "play with play-doh".
My favorite prophet is "President Monson".
My favorite color is "pink".

Speaking of primary, you are now in Sunbeams and you LOVE it! Maybe this is a bad thing, but I can get you to sit (somewhat) still during sacrament meeting with the threat that if you aren't good then you won't get to go to primary. So far you have only had to go to primary late once. It is one of the highlights of your week! I have heard you singing new songs as you play with your toys and even trying to teach Hannah and Beckym some of the things that you have learned in your class. You are such a smart girl! And you love to learn!

You have loved going to preschool again this year! You have been learning more of your letters and have even started catching on to some spelling and math! The other night we were working on your Articles of Faith and you spelled the word "SINS" without looking at your paper. Wow! Funny that that would be your first letter to spell! Then I asked you if you could spell your name and you got it all except the A at the end. You are very close to being able to write your name too. You are very good at the L, Y and I. But struggle a little with the D and A. So, you tend to prefer to just sign your name LYI. You have a difficult time letting other people help you with things when you think that you are right. The main areas this has been a problem with lately is how to hold your pencil and scissors. I keep hoping that your other teachers will be able to help you change your mind with these. You have been getting pretty good at basic addition and subtraction lately. You have started learning how to count it out on your fingers and figure out problems. You also know the first 7 Articles of Faith. For a while you had them almost all the way memorized. But it started getting confusing for you since they start to sound a lot alike. So we let you look at the papers as you say them. But, as mentioned before, apparently this is helping you with some reading and spelling skills!

You are a very social and sensitive little girl! This results in a lot of things. You use your love for drawing and art to share with all of your friends. Hardly a week goes by that you don't give a friend a picture you've drawn during sacrament meeting. And you always end quiet time with several pictures for me, Daddy and other loved ones. You have a hard time getting through a day if you haven't gotten to spend some time with friends. I can relate though. This is an aspect that you are very much like me :). You also have developed a real crush. I knew that you had your little heart-throbs in Galveston that you told me you were going to marry. But it became clear to me that you had a real crush before Christmas when I told you that you couldn't have a boyfriend until you were 16. Your response? Jaw dropped to the ground and a complete silence and devastation that you would be separated from your love. Also incomprehension as to why Aunt Brittany could have a boyfriend and you couldn't (it took a while to explain to a 3 year old that 24 really is a bigger number than 16). Your next response? A plot to steal future Uncle Glenn from Aunt Brittany during Christmas vacation. This was done through not-so-subtle hand holding (and pulling Aunt Brittany's away from Glenn's), snuggles, and massive favoritism. By the end of the break I think that you gave up on this plight. But you have not given up on your plight to have your Little Prince. I'll admit, of all the little boys at preschool or church, Robby is definitely the cutest and sweetest. He loves his Ninjas and Zombies, but is not ashamed to play with the girls either. The perfect balance. And every little girl seems to see it and swoon to it! So, I guess that you have your work cut out for you! There's some real competition out there! But so far you seem to be getting your foot in the door pretty good! At the firestation last week there was, once again, some not-so-subtle hand holding and Robby didn't fight it in the least. He just may have enjoyed it a little too. Sigh.

Some other fun quirks that you have:
*You have a very set nightly ritual and when something has to change it results in a lot of tears. You must have your bedtime story, your door must be open a certain amount and the hall light must be on. However, this gives me some good leverage when you aren't behaving :). You very passionately want those 3 things and will do most anything to get them!
*You still need Pooh to sleep with! You are rational enough now that you don't have to take it everywhere with you. But SHE must always end the day in your bed.
*You are VERY talkative when you are at home. However, you are very shy when other people try to talk to you.

Lydia, we love having you in our family, quirks and all! You are so sweet and loving to all around you! And are always happy to lend a helping hand. You are, and will always be, my sweet Angel!

Love,
Momma