Fancy Annabelle

Annabelle turned 5 this last weekend (holy crap I have a 5 year old!) and she invited 9 friends over for her party. I was actually surprised that all but 1 showed up...given that the holiday season is in full force with Christmas parties. She had a Fancy Nancy birthday party and she was ecstatic (cause ecstatic is fancier than happy) to plan the whole thing. She had so many ideas and so with her help (along with Pintrest and my sister Chelsie who did all the fabulous printables) we planned and decorated for her party.

The invites:

Gotta love the Christmas decorations that are mixed in with the fanciness of it all. Kinda throws it all off a bit, but what can ya do? I wasn't about to take all the stuff down.

We read a Fancy Nancy book at each station before we did that activity. Here the girls got to each take a boa, crown, sunglasses and butterfly wings - all of which Nancy wears - home with them after the party.

Please disregard my old, ugly pillows...or, notice them if you are still trying to think of something you could get me for Christmas ;)

Each girl got to make her own bracelet, which proved to be interesting as they each wanted to put their name on their bracelet and then after continued to just put lettered beads instead of regular ones so their bracelets are gibberish.

They made and decorated their own butterfly wand. I was running around like a mad person all morning trying to set up (we had a Primary activity that morning and I thought 2 hrs would be enough. Needless to say, it was not, and I ended up skipping lunch as a result. Not sure if that has EVER happened in my 28 years of life) and this table was the last to get my attention so it is pretty sad looking. They had stickers, sequins, glitter glue (that stuff will be the death of me...never again!) and other dollar store items to help them make their wands :)

They each decorated their own crown to play Pin the Tiara on Fancy Nancy. We only had one cheater.

I talked Anna out of a cake (after spending time making an egg free cake last year to have her not even eat 2 bites) and we had ice cream parfaits instead - parfait is fancy for ice cream sundae.

Pinkies up!

I got a kick out of some of the girls parfaits. They seriously LOADED them up and then only ate about 1/4 of their concoction. lol.

Time for presents:

If you want a good reaction to a present you give, you should give something to Annabelle. She has been known to hit her head, fall to the floor, scream, gasp & yell out things like 'Oh my goodness! I just CAN'T believe it!' while opening presents.

Each guest took home a bag to put their accessories in along with some other favors.

Those other favors included a Fancy Nancy activity book, pen (with a plume, of course) a lip gloss ring (Anna was adamant about this!) and a flower shaped sucker. There was very little treats at this party (for me, anyway) and NO baking. Who knew I could throw a party like that?!

After the party, we cleaned up and headed out the door to continue the celebration. We wanted to surprise Anna with the rest of the day. And even though was very excited to see where we were taking her, (her guess was Chick fil A) she crashed after a few minutes in the car. Apparently the party exhausted us both.

When we pulled up at Boondocks she was so excited. She requests to go there every time we pass it on the freeway (she does, however, call it 'Boondocks center dot com' as a result of only watching shows on PBS). She got a free unlimited pass since it was her birthday, we paid $3 for Evan and we were free. Score. We then headed to Chick fil A after, as per her request. When we pulled up Evan yelled, ' We made it! We made it! Hooway fa chick a wave!' That place it magical to my children.

The day was a success. Anna said repeatedly, 'This is the best day EVER!'

I love Annabelle. Can she try my patience? Like you wouldn't believe. Does she hit her brother and yell 'No!' at me when I ask her to do just about anything? Yep. When I give her 2 things to choose between so that I she can feel like she has some control, does she try and give me an option 3? Uh huh.

But when Evan starts to cry in the car she has been known to start singing 'I am a Child of God' to calm him down (even if half the time, it only makes him yell, 'Stop singing Anna!') She loves babies and is so sweet to them. When I state any 'rules' for something we are about to do, she will follow them to a T (and make sure everyone else does too). She loves to help me clean, bake or do anything that I am doing. She is very creative and has gotten a lot better at drawing and coloring. She has moved up 3 levels in her reading class since September and has gotten better at reading and writing by herself. She truly cares about her friends and family and thinks of ways to serve others on her own.

I sometimes read this quote from Lynn Robbins talk in the April 2011 General Conference to calm myself down after a frustrating day. When he spoke them, my family paused the TV to make sure I was listening ;)

A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101. If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505. Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself. With which child will your patience, long-suffering, and other Christlike virtues most likely be tested, developed, and refined? Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?

And I do need her. Her lack of patience and stubbornness is definitely coming from me and this is God's way of drilling the things I need to work on into my head. I am grateful for all that Anna brings to our family and I couldn't imagine my life or our family without her. I love you Annabelle.

Since I've Been Gone

I hope you all now have Kelly Clarkson's song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Muahaha. But seriously, at least it is better than her new song Mr. Know It All. I loathe that song. LOATHE.

I took my kids to the State Fair. They had a grand ol' time seeing the animals and playing at the farm exhibit.

But lets face it. The sole purpose for this trip was so Jenny & I could hang out and eat some fair food. I think bacon makes everything better. But twinkies? That are fried? That is just wrong!

But for some reason, I didn't think deep fried oreos sounded gross? Hmmmm. I just wanted to do my part to be American. Mmkay. The verdict? Meh. I think the batter was too thick and it through the ratio off. I wanted more chocolate flavor.

Anna started dance class back in September & was put in a class with the 3 & 4 years olds. Granted, she is 4...but still. She has always gone to church, school and played with older kids and I thought she might do better in the kindergarten class. I wanted to channel my inner 'Dance Mom' and demand I get my way (kidding) but after the first week, they actually moved her up anyway. Tear. So proud. She is loving it, but the way. Like that needed to be clarified.

I started to run 3x a week and even got up to running 10 miles on Saturdays (Yippee!). I had to take a picture of my 5k time to send to my brother in law to show him I was getting closer to a 20 minute 5k. (Go ahead and sing Your So Vain right now. Judge me) And then remind yourself that karma sucks because I have now injured my other leg/ankle and have had to limit my running...again.

which really puts a damper on my ability to eat things like this without so much guilt.

My friend and I are in charge of the book club in our ward & we read The Help. I was in charge of the desserts and wanted to make a caramel cake like Minnie's. Let's just say it was an epic fail. So last minute I made these caramel cupcakes. Also, note to self: take the picture AFTER you are finished decorating them & they are sitting pretty on the cake stand, instead of your cookie sheet.

Evan always likes to help clean up the mess :) I love the way he says 'dee-wish-us!' Anna; however, takes one lick and says, 'That is SO good. But I think I am done now. Can I have some celery.' Whose kids is she, anyway?!

Anna requested to be Sleeping Beauty/Aurora/Briar Rose (man, that chick has a lot of names) for Halloween and thanks to Jenny, I happily obliged.

One morning Evan woke up & after crawling into our bed, as he usually does, he said (very matter of factly) 'Halloween soon. Wanna be a fider'. I asked, 'you want to be a fighter?' And he yells, 'No! A FIDER! Scare ev-we body!' So a spider it was!

I have to tell this story, because I love it. Before we had found Evan's costume, we were at Target and I thought I would go check to see if they had any spider costumes (there are slim pickins of cute spider costumes. The only one I liked was from Pottery Barn and was sold out and selling on Ebay for $75. SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS!) They only had Spider Man costumes. Anna tried to convince him to settle but Evan was adamant that he be a spider. Well we approach the checkout counter and this follows:

Cashier: Hello. Did you find everything okay?

Me: Yes

Evan: NO! No Fider costumes. Neva gonna find it! Neva eva! Wanna be a fida. Scare Ev-we-body. So sad!'

What?! I laughed forever about that. Thanks to Carlee and her neighbor we were able to use the fabulous costume above.

I gave Annabelle my old American Girl doll, Samantha, and one day she came and showed me this card she had made for Samantha for her Christmas present. Earlier that morning we had read the Fancy Nancy Christmas book and Nancy had made a card for her doll. Love her.

Old Navy had a stuff and save sale where card holders got 40% off. I usually avoid sales like this (how I LOVE internet shopping) because I hate crowds. But I thought since this was just for card holders, it would be less crazy. WRONG! I am half way through the line here and I am at the very back of the store. It wrapped around the place! I was in line for 1 hour and 15 minutes! Come to find out, my friend Carlee went to the same sale by her house and was in line for less than a minute. I friggin hate Utah County sometimes.

You may think, well why didn't you leave? Because I had clothes in my hand that were on clearance, so I got 40% off the sale price, then an additional 40% off that. I got button up shirts for my dad and Ross for $2.08. We won't talk about what I allowed my children to do while I waited in line....

Speaking of buying things. Anna has taken it upon herself to take pictures of things she wants with my the camera on my phone. At the end of the day I will find random pictures, like the one above, on my phone and she will tell me to put it on her Christmas list. Apparently Santa texts now?

Random Summer Recap

This post is going to be random & in no particular order cause if I have to have this post make sense, it will probably just be put off for another month instead.

Summer has pretty much come to an end with the cool mornings and back to school. I love Fall, everything about it...except for the fact that Winter is the next season. If it could just stay like this forever, I would be so happy. Speaking of things I wish could stay like this forever..my kids! They are getting big and I just don't know how much I like it. I do like how much they love each other...well about 35% of the time anyway...

hugging leads to wrestling. Evan can hold his own. I'll walk in the room and he will just be sitting on Annabelle.

We went fishing with the family. Evan thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Anna was super concerned about this fish when we put them in the bucket....and it was windy. To say Anna is frightened by the wind...or a breeze...is an understatement. But she had fun playing with her cousins, as usual. Though she was a little dissapointed we didn't eat the fish later that night...like she would have eaten them anyway. Pffft.

Evan had fun with the stickers. So proud of himself.

Evan also upgraded to a big boy bed a few months back. He actually handled the transition really well, unlike his sister. Probably since he had been requesting a bed for a while. Please ignore the vinyl that needs replacing, not to mention all the stuff needs to be rearranged now that they layout is different.

We went to the zoo with my friend, Brook. Anna freaked out at the beginning and cried cause she wanted to go home...because of the wind. However, she did get along so well with Brooks oldest. They were holding hands while we walked around, which was pretty adorable.

Evan kept saying, 'Hold on tight mommy! Hold on tight!' on the carousel. I'm surprised he let me let go of him to get this picture.

We went to a raspberry farm & picked raspberries one night. Evan took it upon himself to eat the entire time we were there. For reals. We probably should have weighed him before and after too. Don't worry, we did tack on an extra pound to what we picked, for good measure.

He put this hat on, ran up to me and exclaimed, 'Mommy! Effan (how he says his name) chef Pig!' (from Word World)

A post wouldn't be a post without some sort of food. Authentic (as you can get here) tacos al pastor from a dive in Salt Lake. So good!

While staying at my parents Evan decided to see what he could fit into their toilet. For the record, a ball, a roll of toilet paper & the entire Melissa & Doug ice cream set can fit.

However, after we got it all out (or so I thought) I proceeded to flush the toilet. When it didn't flush, we got worried. That, my friends, is the wooden ice cream cone from the set lodged into the toilet hole. There was absolutely no way it was coming out. We tried several things, and after a while called a plumber who said my mom would need a new toilet. Luckily I called my husband, whose mind things differently than the rest of ours, and he suggested getting a really long screw, drilling it into the cone and pulling it out. It worked like a charm and saved me a couple hundred dollars to boot.

A very squished ride to Bear Lake. We need a bigger car.

Mommy-daughter date. She always requests frozen yogurt. It's how I know we are related.

Ran another 5k. Better time. Less loogies. Can I just say how weird this Summer has felt since it has not been full of races? I didn't do a single triathlon or run a big race. I don't like it. Stupid leg.

Lastly, this is a pretty regular occurrence at my house - my kids putting on a 'show'. Evan usually finds anything he can drum on (in this case, my closet doors) while Anna sings and dances. Good times.

I would like to be able to say my closet isn't always that messy. But it totally is. The great thing is, I shut those 2 doors and no one, including myself, ever has to know ;)