Julia's Birthday Part 3 of 3

Today Julia had a Prince/Princess Birthday Lunch. She invited her 3 and 4 year old friends to a Prince/Princess Lunch. They were to come dressed up and have lunch with her in celebration of her birthday. Pictured: Sir Ben, the Knight, Grumpy Dwarf (aka Daniel), Princess Laura, Princess Darby,
Sir Zeke, the Knight, Snow White (aka Julia), and Cinderella (aka Ella Kate).

For lunch we had:

Ariel's Mac & Cheese Shells

Sleeping Beauty's PB&J Spinning Wheels

Cinderella's Magic Wands (Pretzels Sticks with Mini Marshmallows on top)
Snow White's Non-poisonous Apples
Belle's Royal Punch
Tinkerbelle's Mini-cupcakes with Fairy Dust

Then we did a finger puppet theater craft...Princess-themed of course!

They had such fun!

Julia's Birthday Parts 1 & 2 of 3

Yesterday was Julia's birthday. She's now four. She had quite line-up of
birthday celebrations.

First, on Saturday, we went to a friends' house to celebrate both Julia and Ella's birthdays. Ella is 364 days younger than Julia. After lunch, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. So, that was part one.

Part 2 was yesterday. We went to Chick-fil-a at her request and then came back
and she opened her presents.

She got an "American Girl" (or maybe it's a good replica of) named Amanda.
Now she can play with Hannah and her Samantha. :)

Here she is with the presents from her Nanie and PopPop. They left them here
for her when they were here for Thanksgiving.

Her Daddy burned her a cd with all her favorite songs on it.

She was so excited that she had her very own cd!

The Way a Kid Brain Thinks

Check out the question I was asked yesterday after Daniel (almost 6) and Julia (will be 4 next week) had this conversation:

Julia: "Daniel, I saw birds flying the shape of an "S"!"

Daniel: "Cool! Mom, what does it mean when birds fly in an "S"?"

Me: "What?"

Daniel: "I know what it means when they fly in a "V", and when they fly in an "O" that means something is dead, so what does it mean when they fly in a "V"?"

I love moments when you get to see how a Kid's brain is working.

Is This Normal?

After arriving home following Bible study tonight, I sent the kids upstairs to get ready for bed. "Please do it efficiently," I said, "I'm tired and would like you to get to bed quickly." Some shuffling and other kid noises followed as they began to get ready for bed.
A few moments later, the boys came charging downstairs with the following news...Jay: "Mom, I punched out Daniel's tooth!" Daniel: "He did! See?" They were both thrilled.
Now, Daniel's tooth had been loose, but really, was the punching necessary? I don't know I just had a sister growing up...

The reenactment...Jay showing the punch and Daniel showing his newly lost tooth.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It is by far my favorite holiday of the year.

Here are a few highlights of the tradition...

This is at my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Patrice's house. We meet here each year for dessert, football watching and Christmas carol singing. The two favorite songs are "Silver Bells" and "12 Days of Christmas." Aunt Patrice always directs the mayhem.
Oh, and I think I counted 44 people. There are 3 sets of original couples (my Mom and two of her brothers); myself and 8 cousins (and some spouses);
and 21 second cousins (I think that's what they're considered).

This is my "Uncle" Joe (long time friends of the family). He has always entertained the kids (used to be my sister and I, now it's our kids) with his expansive train sets. I love watching the kids' faces and seeing it bring joy to Uncle Joe.

The cousins have such fun together. Our kids are the "big" cousins
and they take their role very seriously. :)

Daniel and my Dad

Julia and my Aunt Linda

Hannah and my Mom

And so the countdown begins for next year...

A Few Fall Crafts

There is a book called, Leaf Man, where the author/artist creates pictures of different things using various types of leaves. It is so creative and interesting to look at, that we decided to collect leaves and make Leaf Turkeys. It was fun to look at leaves and try and figure out
what part of the turkey they could be. The kids had a blast walking around our
neighborhood and picking up leaves.
The first picture is Hannah's. She made several different turkeys, some of which are facing to the side. I was impressed with her creativity.
The second picture is Julia's. With a little assistance, she did a great job!

( I tried ironing them between wax paper but was quite disappointed in how they turned out...apparently wax paper isn't as waxy as it once was. The leaves move around inside if they aren't carried just right.)

Daniel had to "dress" Curious George for a costume party as a Kindergarten project.
Daniel LOVES Donovan McNabb (from the Philadelphia Eagles),
so he had fun dressing George like him.

This was a school project as well. Jay had to decorate the turkey so that the turkey could "hide" at Thanksgiving time. We chose to make the turkey look like a cow.

Halloween

So, this year is brought to you by a Chef, a Kitty, the Thing (from Fantastic4), and a Ninja.

This was our first year trick or treating in our neighborhood...it's a jackpot! We actually quit when the kids were having a hard time managing their buckets! What fun!