Grace's 5th Birthday Party

Every year, we have only done a family party for Grace. When she was 1 and 2, we did a small party with mostly adult friends, but after that, she was just too shy to have a party where everyone focused on her. She is so sensitive and the last thing I wanted was for her to have friends over and get embarrassed and not enjoy her day. And she has happily enjoyed our little family parties and feels like the most important person on that day! However, this year, she started talking about wanting a friend party. We talked about themes and I really quizzed her to make sure and she finally decided on a Princess themed birthday party. I got on Pinterest and made a plan and decided to have her friends come to the house on Saturday, March 10th for her party. It's a tough time of year because her birthday will likely always fall on Spring Break. But, thankfully, all but one friend we invited got to come on that Saturday, the first day of Spring Break! It had already been a busy and stressful morning with her first t-ball practice (see the post about that little adventure), but by the time we got to party time, she was in good spirits and ready! And it was one of my favorite parties to plan for and watch happen! I am not sure there is anything to make a person more excited than watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds giggle and squeal and laugh and play in their little princess dresses! I'll explain everything below in pictures!

 Vic made this fabulous backdrop for the party and I embellished with this princess dress banner. He took a refrigerator box and painted it and we added some trim work. Grace decided she wanted to wear her Tiana dress for the party.

Oh my beautiful almost 5 year old!

 I love a theme, so we made some themed food and added some Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a cake to it!

Oh and before the party, the kids made station signs and colored princesses - so cute and fun!

Friends started to arrive and they immediately got to playing while we waited to start the party! This first thing we did was make princess necklaces with colorful beads and crowns!

 Then we played princess games.

Our first game was Snow White themed. The girls gathered in a circle and passed a poisoned apple around while Snow White music played. When the music stopped, whoever had the apple had to "die" and the only way to come back to life was a Hershey kiss (or True Love's Kiss). Oh my goodness. Little girls are SO much fun! And Grace has some friends with big personalities so they were so into this and loved it! I was a tad nervous about games because you never know how they are going to go and of course I had an audience of adults as well, ha! But, these girls made the games and this entire party so fun for Grace!

 Passing the apple...

 And Grace was poisoned! She told me she liked this game!

 By the end, only Juliette and Hallie were left passing it back and forth between the two of them! So fun!

 Then we played a Magic Carpet game like musical chairs where the girls moved from placemat to placemat while music from Aladdin played, until only one girl was left standing!

Then, we played a game based on Rapunzel. Grace told me this was her favorite game. We had rolls of yellow crepe paper (to look like hair) and the girls took turns wrapping each other up with the "hair" because it was too long! They giggled and laughed. I wish I had the entire thing on video!

 Then we played a game of Kiss the Frog, of course because of the movie The Princess and the Frog. The funniest part of this was that I didn't want to put any little girl on the spot to put on lipstick, so I had lipstick, but I also had lips cut out with tape on them. Well, this was a game that Grace did not want to do (my little one who doesn't want to be put on the spot), but EVERY other little girl who played went for the lipstick. And I think they knew how to apply it better than me! So so cute!

 

*Notice the little picture of Tiana colored above the sign. Atticus and Grace made so many of these to mark the stations and I should have taken pictures. So cute! Even cuter because Atticus didn't mind doing them and got into it, which makes Grace feels so special!

 

 Then, we took the girls outside for our last game - a scavenger hunt to find things like Ariel would find in The Little Mermaid. These boys hid lip gloss, tiaras, wands, jewelry and a magic mirror!

 

 

 

The Magic Mirror at the end was from Snow White and they had to say "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" And I would say "you are!" haha! That's about as creative as you could make that part.

Then we went inside for cake! 

 And everyone sang Happy Birthday! But, Grace only blew out half the candles and she immediately asked Atticus (who loves to do this) to help her finish and was so proud! You'll have to watch this video of it:  https://youtu.be/KAME8fmLoro

 After cake, we let the girls decorate their own crown cookies (you know - from Aurora's birthday party on Sleeping Beauty when the fairies make her cake). These girls went to town - sprinkles and icing galore, but I don't know if they even ate their cookies! ha!

 Katherine and sweet Olivia!

 It's a beautiful cookie, Grace!

Vic was the official birthday photographer and helper today, whether he wanted that job or not! I'm not sure, now, what this face was - was he thinking about the mess we had to clean up later? Was he overwhelmed with having so many girls in this house? Could he not hear from all of the squealing? Hmm....we will never know!

Next - a photo of all of our princesses!

Pictured are: Ellie K., Ellie W., Juliette, Grace, Hallie, Olivia, and Dani. *All of these girls except Juliette who is 4 and Olivia who is 3 will be in Kindergarten with Grace at Pebble Creek this year! She already has her squad!

And I forgot to mention how much fun this castle was - they danced and danced inside at the beginning of the party!

Then came presents.

 The cutest thing about gifts was HOW EXCITED each girl was for Grace to open her present immediately. They crowded around and couldn't wait for Grace's reaction. Grace was so funny because I could tell she actually loved this and the attention from her friends.

Grace got Barbie sets, an American Girl style bunk bed for her dolls, LOL dolls, a hairstyle kit, toy purse and cell phone, a cute Nike outfit, and had the very best time at her first friend party.

My favorite moment might have been when Grace opened Hallie's present (a hair styling kit) and Hallie exclaimed "Grace! I have one too and now we can be twinsies!" She was so excited and then she brought out her card which was just doodles and letters and read it to her and while I do not have it verbatim, she read it like it very seriously as if it had real words written on it: "Grace, you are my best friend in the whole world and I hope you have a happy birthday and you are the nicest and you are my best friend." So. Cute. 

 Also - how cute is this gift bag? It's the same kind of thing I used for the banners. Pinterest is the best. I can recreate, but I am not good at coming up with creative ideas on my own. I LOVED this part of crafting for the party!

That was the end of our party. We gave out princess fruit snacks and Little Golden Books for their favors (plus their treats they accumulated at the party). Grace was exhausted by the end. She opened all of her toys that night and played and played. 

I was so so overwhelmed with how sweet her friends are and what good families they come from. It makes me so glad we will all be together navigating Kindergarten with our girls this year. I was also so relieved that Grace had the best time and never got embarrassed or felt put on the spot. Her friends made this the best party!

Happy 5th Birthday Party Gracie Bug! We love you!

T-Ball & Baseball Season Begins!

Baseball season began at the beginning of March for both Atticus and Grace. Grace decided she wanted to play T-ball this year and while at first, I wasn't sure we could do 4 nights at the ball fields each week, I found out that they had a Saturday only T-ball league for those that were only 4 and turning 5. So, I signed her up. And, we made sure to get on the same team as both Ellie and Dani to make it more comfortable for the girls. Grace's team was the San Francisco Giants.

Atticus also wanted to play and this was his second season for machine pitch. He wanted to play every single day. He could not get enough of playing catch outside or wanting to play games with his friends in the front yard. So, I was excited for him to get to play too. He ended up back on his T-ball coach's team with some players from his spring T-ball team. His team were the Redwings and he was so excited to have a new mascot with a new cap to wear! For that matter, he was excited about Grace's cap too!

Atticus started practice a couple of weeks before Grace. I liked the format of Atticus's practices with Coach Michelle and her other two assistants. They were organized and encouraging all season (except for one game where I was pretty sure she wanted to give up) and did a good job of teaching the kids. But, I'll be honest - this is a tough age. You really want kids to love the game and have fun, but you need them to be serious sometimes. Well, Atticus had Kindergarten and 1st graders on his team. And they are boys. Great combination for expecting serious ball players, right? So, there are always going to be tough moments and kids are just kids. Even if they aren't being disrespectful, they just won't always listen to every word and do everything a coach says. Atticus is a great kid and wants to please his coaches, but he is also a silly boy who can easily get caught up in being silly with the other players. So, while I'm jumping ahead of myself, Vic and I struggled all season with wanting him to work hard but also wanting him to have fun. Parenting is so hard!

Anyways, his practices started out great; he had all kinds of new gear - new cleats and new baseball bag and new helmet from Pop. We had to get him a new bat and glove, so he was excited and ready!

We took a fun lunch date and went to buy a bucket of balls and go practice his swing off of the tee.

Grace's first practice fell on the day of her birthday party. It was at 11:00 that morning and didn't go as I expected. Grace was so excited for her first practice and Atticus was so excited for her. She had a fantastic coach who was also organized and prepared for this age group. The kids sat down at the first practice, with parents all around them and he asked each kid to tell everyone their name, their favorite color and what they wanted their super power to be if they were a super hero. Kids loved this...except Grace. She was the 2nd kid to have to go and as soon as he got to her, she turns around to find me with gigantic tears in her eyes because she is too afraid to talk in front of the group. Poor sweet baby! I went up and answered her questions for her, but she was done for awhile. She didn't want to be included in the group and just wanted me. Oh her little soft heart. Some great parents kept encouraging her and by the end of the 45 minutes, she was participating and feeling good and smiling again. Whew. But, I wasn't sure how this season would go. Even her best friends, Ellie and Dani, couldn't get her going right away. I'll update as the season goes on, but the good news: it gets so much better!

 Ready for the first practice!

 This was right before her tears.

 And by the end, she was better again.

 She kept attending practices (which ended up being on Wednesday nights, so there went my idea that this was only on Saturdays!) and got better each time, although she still needed me right by her side. The good part was that the coach really wanted parent help so it was almost a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults.

 And then she got her uniform in and if that doesn't make the entire experience more fun, I don't know what does!

 Atticus goes to every practice with us. Vic doesn't always know exactly how to manage Grace if she gets upset (well, he knows how, but he would rather I do it - ha!), so this month I did all practices. Anyways, Atticus is so helpful and the coach lets him help kids too.

 And, really - this is just Grace. She had to wear her bunny ears on Easter weekend practice. I think they came off when she put her helmet on, but until then she was a t-ball playing bunny!

And, last but not least, they had College Station Little League Opening Ceremonies at the end of the month. Vic and I traded kids mid-way through because Grace had dance pictures that afternoon and then Atticus had Opening Ceremonies and baseball pictures. And the place was packed at the ball fields! So, I stuck with Atticus while Vic took the girls. We got to visit and see the Gregory's after the event too.

 Atticus and Lane

February Memories

Here are a few more of our memories from February:

 Todd brought Leighton and Camden in for a basketball game in February and they got to come play and eat lunch first!

 This crew went to another game this month also!

 One morning Grace crawled into bed with Everly and they played and played for probably an hour! I am going to miss this sweet big sister so much when she goes to Kindergarten!

 I took Atticus to the Aggie Baseball Opening Day game and it turned cold really fast that night. We were not prepared AGAIN (like Leadoff). AND we just bought general admission tickets, but I didn't know those seats filled up so we didn't have a seat and the grassy area was full. I wasn't sure what we would do, but then Debbie and Scott (who have season tickets and know everyone around them with season tickets) invited us to sit in some vacant seats around them. AND they shared their blankets! It was a fun night, but by the end, Atticus was coughing and sick and it was kind of tough on him. I'll be better prepared next time!

 This little miss ALWAYS wants to sit in this stroller, but she is way too big. I can't help but love that squishy little body stuck in that stroller though.

 Atticus made us laugh with this random story he wrote to himself and then pretended to mail to himself!

It was a good month!

Sarah's 35th Birthday

I turned 35 this year and while we celebrated big the weekend before with DWTS and a weekend with Erwins, Vic and the kids still celebrated me on my day, Wednesday, the 28th. What started out as a great morning turned scary quick. We had MOPS that day and it was so fun to go and we had plans to meet Vic for lunch (girls were with me) and then come home for fun at home that evening. Well, during MOPS, we were playing Minute to Win It Games and although they are not hard or anything, I tripped while half running about 20 feet from one spot to another. Well, when I tripped, I fell. Hard. Right on my stomach. I did not catch myself with my hands and it happened so fast. I jumped up fast and said I was ok and smiled (because that is what I do) and then started thinking about how hard I hit my stomach. At 17 weeks pregnant. I went to the bathroom to get away for a minute and the tears started. And I was just worried. And then the girls and my mentors started coming in and I could NOT stop crying and that is not how I like to handle things. I like to handle things without freaking out. But, for some reason, my hormones and just being scared kept me from being able to not cry. One of the girls was a delivery nurse and she advised that I call my doctor and even go in for a heartbeat check. I did that and the doctor on call (mine was not in that day) said that at 17 weeks, to just watch for bleeding for 24 hours and any pains and to drink lots of water. And that was it. While I can follow instructions, it was just going to be a long 24 hours. And really, there was nothing that could be done at 17 weeks if I had hurt the baby. It was just scary. I wasn't feeling kicks yet to help me know that baby was moving around and it was just scary. I had never fallen during pregnancy and I felt SO DUMB being so clumsy, especially since I know I am clumsy. But, anyways, I called Vic bawling and decided I was in no form to go to lunch. We went home but then all I could do was think about it. And cry. I had so many MOPS girls calling and praying and just realized that a group of mamas like that are an army! And every one I talked to told me to go get the heartbeat checked, even though the doctor didn't say to come in. I called and the doctor's office said to come in and they would check. So, Vic came home early (poor guy - I was a mess and there wasn't much he could do) and I went in to wait to see a nurse. It took two nurse's to find the heartbeat, but my only hope was that it had taken Dr. Bertsch longer to find the heartbeat on this baby at every appointment. Then, all of a sudden they found the heartbeat. I was so thankful and so relieved. But, boy was I emotionally exhausted. I was so glad baby was ok and for the next 24 hours, I didn't have any symptoms to make me think anything was wrong. I was so thankful that God makes our bodies to carry our babies and protect them so well inside us.

Anyways, we ate a delicious dinner and had cake and relaxed the rest of the evening. What a scary day, but so thankful for my 35th birthday and that all was ok.

 I loved the sign Vic made - GOAT (Greatest of All Time)!

 My kids and me!

This is my favorite lemony shrimp pasta dish!

Nothing Bundt Cake for dessert!