The Slumber Party

Addie made me promise a year ago that she could have a slumber party for her 6th birthday party and that day finally arrived. And we survived it!  Addie had two friends over and yet we had about 18 people at our house Saturday night to celebrate. Addie wanted a chocolate themed party too so we celebrated with chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate ice cream sundaes. The girls also made chocolate lollipops together that they could take home as party favors.

According to a Boston co-worker's 8 year old Adelaide, the key components of a successful slumber party are pizza, a movie, popcorn and manicures. I took her advice and scored some awesome party favors for the girls. Each one (including Addie and Eliza) got matching Hello Kitty pjs, flip flops (aka spa shoes), Hello Kitty nail polish sets, a nail file and some chocolates. The girls finally crashed at 10:30 pm all curled up together in a pile of sleeping bags and glittered toenails. The next morning everyone came back over for pancakes, coffee and a bloody marys. Success!




Glitter girl!

Happy 6th Birthday, Adelaide!

Addie has been eagerly counting down the months and weeks and days until her birthday. On Wednesday, we played hooky from usual routines of work and school to go to Disneyland. We didn't tell the girls until that morning after they had breakfast and were dressed. Addie squealed and jumped up and down exclaiming "You're the best parents in the world!" Eliza, who has no idea what Disneyland is, was just thrilled that she was going too, wherever it was.  Gran and I sent Cap and Xavier off to work and school and met up with Jamie and Clara for a girls day at Disneyland. It was so so so fun and we are all sore and exhausted from going on almost 20 rides and walking around the park for 10 hours.

This morning Addie had 6 silver dollar pancakes to get her birthday started, and then Gran and I took her to school (in itself a rare occassion) loaded up with brownie bites to share with her classmates. Tonight we celebrated at home with mac n cheese, molten lava cakes, birthday cards and presents. The fun isn't over yet (or the sleeplessness). Saturday is her official birthday slumber party! 

I'm really so very proud of my Addie. She's growing into a brave, independent, creative, and caring little girl. I love her so much.  Happy Birthday Adelaide!

Ring of Fire

I caught the eclipse bug which you may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram.  I hastily built a pinhole project Friday morning at work out of a long plotter paper box (my first ever!) and then tossed it into the back of the car as we raced off to San Diego for a wedding, not sure where would be on Sunday at 5:24 pm for the annular eclipse. While it took 4 hours to drive down on a Friday afternoon, it only took 2 to drive home on Sunday. We made it home just in time. We didn't get the full ring of fire in LA but it was fun watching it through our projector and seeing the quality of light change outside.  The coolest was the shadow of the eclipse through the leaves of the trees reflected onto the back wall of our house.

Birthday Boy

Going back a couple of weekends . . . we celebrated Cap's birthday with chocolate cupcakes that Addie and Eliza made along with handmade birthday cards. Earlier that day we met up with friends at LACMA to see the exhibit In Wonderland and then had an early dinner at The Counter. Xavier sat in his first high chair. It seemed like a big deal.  Happy birthday, Po!

My mom is here now too as we gear up for Addie's 6th birthday this week kicking it off with a surprise mid-week trip to Disneyland, then her actual birthday on Thursday followed by a slumber party (yikes!) on Saturday.

Our Family

Here is a recent portrait of our family by Addie. When I asked Addie what Xavier was trying to get, she told me "lipstick."




(and yes I inverted and colored this line drawing of Addie's too)

I love you this much

Mother's Day. I tried to sleep in but after Eliza dropped Xavier on his head I was pretty much awake. After that Cap made raspberry pancakes with fresh blueberries and lots of coffee. After Eliza's gym class we all piled in the minivan and headed out to Glendale to wish Grandma Vede a happy Mother's Day. Then we went to Descanso Gardens to ride the train and walk in the rose garden. Dinner was Chinese take-out followed by champagne and chocolate caramels. Lovely.

Xavier gave me a card with his handprint and a photo of his big happy bald head. Eliza made a handprint flower stuck in glued beans and Addie made this watercolor bouquet which I framed. All of these came home with them from school. While I was at Eliza's class, Addie also drew me the above picture. On the reverse it said, "I love you this much." So guess how much she loves me? As big as the Svana (savanna). I'm so lucky! There is an elephant, a giraffe, and hippo with her baby. I took her black and white line drawing and fiddled with it in photoshop (Addie said she didn't like it in color). I guess I shouldn't mess with the artist.

My mom is coming in less than 48 hours and will be staying with us for 2 weeks to celebrate Addie's 6th birthday. We all can't wait!

Happy Mother's day!




Eliza looking at koi


Addie looking at koi

Thought Bubbles

The Prince is thinking about the Princess and the Princess is thinking about the Prince. How romantic!

Derma-glued

2 weeks ago Addie took a swan dive off the couch onto the corner of the coffee table and ended up in the ER. No stitches but she had to have it cleaned, taped and derma-glued. We asked the doc if she needed a plastic surgeon and he looked at us like we were from outer space - or LA. After 10 days, I finally pried off the tape with a lot of baby oil and, while it will scar, it doesn't look to bad at all. She's thankful her hair usually hides it too.

Our coffee table is the worst - a giant thick wooden slap set in a metal frame both with sharp edges. But I think the table was just getting back at Addie after all these years for when she gnawed off chunks of wood. The first time she tried to eat the coffee table she was a little tot. Then at age 4 she decided to sample it again and carve 4 = 5 on the top of it. Poor table.  Poor Addie.

That same weekend a 2 foot square chunk of the ceiling in our laundry room collapsed at 1 am while I was standing there trying to clean up the flood from, what we later learned, was the upstairs neighbors broken water heater. It was just that sort of weekend.

Sisters

Sisters. What a dynamic.

Eliza wants to do everything her big sister does. When it comes to chasing each other around or jumping in the bounce house, they are great at playing together. But when Addie has homework or wants to draw or play with toys, Eliza is more into grabbing whatever Addie has and running away with it. Eliza's vocabulary just hit a development leap and with it we are seeing signs that she'll be able to resolve her struggles verbally instead of resorting to hitting, kicking, pulling hair and screaming - four things she excels at.

While they are often fighting, this past week we found them curled up in each others arms in our bed fast asleep. Heart melting. While they have over three years between them, I hope that throughout their lives they will find they have each other to depend on. I know my sister has my back and I have hers even if we live on opposite coasts (Hi Auntie Snorg!).

I Can Read

Addie is really turning into a great reader. She had an amazing head start with Montessori pre-school and we now have a little book worm. She can read a few Dr. Seuss books by herself and can easily sight read dozens of words. She especially loves reading on the Kindle.

Addie started out Kindergarten slowly and diligently sounding out each individual letter but now she's confidently attacking full sentences. I'm not pushing her though. She's at school for ten hours a day so in the evenings we let her listen while we do the reading.