Frozen/Paw Patrol Birthday Party

We continued our awesome tradition of a combined birthday party for Collette and Trey.  I know our years are limited, because I'm sure they will want "friend" birthday parties soon and not want to do them together, but for now it is fun.  And less stress.  And less work.  And one less party that family and friends have to try to attend during a busy holiday season.

The kids are so funny, because they will start planning their birthday party themes almost a year in advance. So Collette decided a long time ago that she wanted a Frozen themed party, and Trey has been a huge Paw Patrol fan for the past year, so that is what he picked. I know there are some fancy schmancy parents out there who don't go for character birthday and pick more "original" themes, but my feeling is-- this is what my kids are in to at ages 6 and 4.  I want their party to reflect what they love at the time.

Our invitation:

 The birthday kids! Collette had about 4 different Frozen-themed outfits to choose from, but in the end decided on this sleeveless dress.  In November.  Whatever. :) It was warm in the house with all of the people, anyway.

We set up food tables in the kitchen, and of course made pizza in the pizza oven for the event.  We also had a Frozen room and a Paw Patrol room for eating. Collette has an excellent memory about parties and reminds us each year whose turn it is to have "their" theme in the dining room, and who is in the play room. :)  When the kids turn even years, Collette's theme is in the dining room. 

Lunch time!

Party People! I had gotten Paw Patrol masks and Frozen crowns for the kids to wear, but the masks weren't too comfortable so they didn't last long. 

More friends! Simone and Collette, Evan and Trey, and sweet cousins Autumn, Tabby, and Collette. 

I made the cakes again this year, and they were actually fairly simple to make! Or possibly, I am getting more experienced and they just don't take as long to make any more.  Collette didn't have Barbie-sized Frozen dolls, so I got those for her as part of her present, and used them in her cake.  Trey already had a Paw Patrol game, so I used the game piece vehicles and Lookout Tower.  Quick and easy!

And the kids were impressed. I just love Collette's enthusiasm about everything. 

Trey was excited about his cake, too.

Ready to blow out candles!

Big grins with blue teeth from M&Ms and blue sugar icing. :)

And, of course, we had present time.  Which is pretty much chaos, as it always is with a young group of kids and presents, no matter how organized we try to make it. 

Our family, 2015. With our new 6 year old, our almost 4 year old, and Elliott nearly 1 1/2.  Where as the time gone? 

Happy happy birthdays to my big kids! I can't wait to see what adventures this year brings us!

If You Give A Kindergartner Scissors....

We had Collette's first Parent/Teacher conference at school, and it is one we will be sure to remember for a long time! I actually had to work the evening the conference was scheduled, so LL ended up going.  I had emailed her teacher ahead of time to see if there was anything specific that she wanted to talk about, or if there was a need for both parents to be present.  Her teacher assured me that Collette was doing very well, and she didn't have any concerns. So, off LL went to the conference. Shortly thereafter, I got this picture text from him:

Um....what?

Apparently, along with her project about her first day of school, LL was given A BAG OF HAIR THAT COLLETTE'S TEACHER FOUND IN HER DESK!  I guess during class at some point that day, Collette decided to take a big ole snip out of her braided pony tail. And she hid some of the evidence in her desk, which her teacher found when she was tidying up desks for conferences.

And, of course, I was far away at work and therefore unable to assess the damage to the hair myself. And since it was in a pony tail, LL hadn't even noticed yet that there was any hair missing, so he had no idea how bad it was.  I may have been freaking out, just a little.

I put in an S.O.S. text to my SIL who is a hair dresser, and she went over and checked Collette out. She assured me that cutting some layers would fix everything, and it wasn't really that bad.  Which made me feel a whole lot better. :)

The next day, we went to Aunt Gwen's and got her hair cut and shaped up.  It actually looks really cute.  But you have to remember, this kid was born with tons of hair and it has just grown and grown. And I love it.  To give you an idea of the length of it, here she is on the 4th of July:

Waist length, even with a braid and pig tails in. 

And here is my sweet girl now:

She looks adorable.  But so.grown.up. I can barely stand it!!

And then, as if she weren't looking like a 10 year old already, this happened:

She lost her first tooth.  

She turned 6, got a major hair cut, and lost a tooth all in the same week. 

She's like a whole new kid! 

She loves her new short hair, and is so excited that she can comb through it herself, something she could never do when it was so long.  When I asked her why she decided to cut it herself, she really didn't have an answer.  Just one of those impulsive, "If you give a Kindergartner scissors, she might cut her own hair" kinds of things. :) 

Year 6 is starting off with a bang!

Six.

It is hard to believe that my baby is six now.  I started this blog when I was pregnant with her! And even though I have gotten hopelessly behind on blogging in the past year, I love having a record of our life to look back on.  And looking back on the posts about Collette from each month of her entire life is pretty special.

Collette, Age 5: 

December 2014-November 2015

How can I sum up my sweet girl at 6?

She is so compassionate.  She is quick to help her friends and family, gets concerned when any one is upset or hurt, and feels things very deeply.

She is my Little Mommy.  Both to her brothers, especially Elliott, and also to her own dolls. Collette loves to help Elliott get a bath, or get dressed, or play games with him.  He giggles like crazy when she pretends to be a puppy chasing him.  She will also spend hours dressing and caring for and playing with her babies. Her Bitty Baby is her favorite.  Bitty Baby has had many names, since Collette tended rename her every time she "birthed" her (ha!), but she is often referred to as "Ellie" if she isn't just calling her "my baby." She still gets excited about the new babies or pregnancies of friends or family members, and continues to present a compelling case for a baby sister of her own. :)

She was born to go to school.  :)  She loves everything about Kindergarten.  I have never once heard her say that she doesn't want to go to school, or come home saying she had a bad day.  She loves her little friends, her teacher and teach aids, and everything she does at school.  Recently, as she was getting ready for bed, she said, "I hope I don't have a lot of homework tomorrow! I can't stand homework!" Which surprised me, since I had never heard her say that.  I said, "Really?" and she gave me a big grin and said, "Well, actually I don't. I like my homework." Yeah.  That's what I thought. :) She is the kind of kid that has assigned herself fake homework just for fun. (Really.) I pray that she continues to love learning and that school is always such a positive environment for her!

She is enthusiastic about everything she does. Collette lives life big.  She is thrilled to go to church every week, to go to Pioneer Kids, to have a play date with friends, and to try new things.  Since her dance teacher moved and we didn't find another dance program for her this fall, she decided that she wants to try basketball.  Never mind that she has practically never touched a basketball, she is brimming with excitement for her new adventure. She is not hesitant to join in, and she is not a sit-on-the-sideline-and-watch-the-fun kind of kid.  She is all in.

She has learned so much about the Bible and about God this past year.  I love listening to her earnest (and sometimes long!) prayers, and answering (or trying to answer!) her spiritual questions.  She is a deep thinker, and sometimes catches me off guard!

Things she loves: babies, coloring or anything crafty, kitty cats, fashion and accessorizing, any social event, pink and purple and sparkles, and blue box mac and cheese.

One last sleep as a 5 year old! Pink, pink, and more pink. 

We had a fun day celebrating her birthday breakfast with her grandparents. It actually worked out well, because her birthday fell on a Friday, so she didn't have school.  The birthday girl requested waffles, with homemade blueberry syrup.

Most of her presents will be given at her birthday party, but she did get a few on her actual birthday. This matching pajama outfit for her and her American Girl doll was a hit. 

 Of course she had to change immediately and try them out. 

This Poodle purse was another birthday gift. After breakfast, the kids and I, plus Mimi, went shopping at Target, had lunch at Moe's, and visited with Great Grampie at his place-- all requests of the birthday girl.  

That night, we celebrated with a strawberry cake, Collette's favorite. We made strawberry cupcakes for her class the day before, and decided to just make a small birthday cake for our family for the next day, since we'd be doing a bigger, fancier cake for her party. 

Her gift from us this  year was a new bike-- much needed, since the girl has been growing like a weed and totally outgrew the other bike she has had for a few years.  The whole no-training-wheels thing is still a work in progress, but now that we have the patio finished, at least she a flat place to practice. 

Happy 6th birthday, sweet girl! I can't wait to see what adventures 6 hold for us! 

Boo at the Zoo and Halloween Night

Since Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, and LL didn't have to work, we were able to try something new for Halloween-- we went to Lake Tobias for the Boo at the Zoo event, with my best friend Nora and her family.  It was a cold day, but so much fun! (Well... fun other than Elliott getting car sick twice on the way there and once on the way home... sigh.)

The kids get along so well, and we all had such fun together!

Elsa, Simone the Giraffe, the Knight, Evan as Thomas the Train, and the Dragon.  Too cute!

The first thing we did was go on the safari ride and feed the animals. It was so much fun! I had been to Lake Tobias when Collette was a baby, and Collette and Trey both went with their cousins while I was in the hospital after having Elliott, but LL had never been, and obviously Elliott hadn't either.  It was so neat to see all of the animals!

  Checking out the animals and posing in their costumes. 

The kids all got to decorate a pumpkin.  You can tell they took their job very seriously!

  Exploring the park! These little donkeys tried to steal Trey's mitten.  It was very traumatic for him. :) But the kids did love petting the snake and baby alligator. 

 Everyone loved the petting zoo! (And you can see Evan and Trey super excited about the "display" with the tractor and skid loader.  It was really just a shed with the door open, but to them it was even more exciting than seeing the animals! :) You've gotta love little boys!)

When we came home from the zoo, we did go visit the grandparents in our costumes.

And who did we run into as we were getting to the farm, but cousins Isaac, Tabby, Amelia, and baby Isaiah!

We were cracking up because both Collette and Tabby decided to be Elsa, and we didn't plan it! (Tabby didn't suddenly have a big growth spurt, something about her heels and the way they are standing on the hill makes her seem super tall in this picture.)

The two Elsas with the protectors-- a Storm Trooper and Knight.

And even funnier, both Elliott and baby Isaiah wore green fuzzy animal costumes. Ha! Isaiah is a frog, and Amelia is a princess.  Bringing our count to 3 princesses, two protectors, and 2 fuzzy green babies. :)

After a quick visit to Mimi and Bumpa, we went home, got the kids showered, and were about to get ready for bed....when our sweet neighbor called and said that she wasn't home earlier, but she was home now and had something for the kids, if we didn't mind stopping by.  So, we donned our costumes once again and went trick or treating at one more house.  She was so excited to see the kids (remember, country living = almost no trick or treaters) that she took pictures of them in her house and sent them to us! ;)

She even got a family picture!

Whew.  What a fun and busy Halloween!

Dress Like A Farmer Harvest Party

Trey's preschool had a "Dress like a farmer" day instead of doing Halloween costumes, and they had a Harvest party.  He was so excited and had a great time! Elliott and I got to go, too, and it was fun to see him enjoying everything!

Trey decided to wear his Case IH Combine shirt, a red flannel, and his Reitz Dairy Farm hat. He looked just like Uncle Andy! 

 There were all kinds of games for the kids to enjoy. 

  

And they got to decorate pumpkins.

 They even introduced each of the students and did a square dance together! I didn't get any pictures of the dance because Elliott was needing attention, but it was very cute. 

Posing with one of his buddies from school. 

The boys! His class has a ton of boys! (God bless his teachers! Ha!)

 Trey's class.  Cute little farmers!