Annie's 5th Birthday

Annie turned 5. She invited all the girls from school to celebrate with her at Red Butte Gardens. It was a garden fairy party. The girls made fairy wands and then ran around the garden casting spells on the plants. They made vials of fairy dust that they could wear around their necks. They planted their own flowers and made their own lemonade.

I did it!

The task that I was dreading .... but that had to be done before the baby arrived.  I went through all of Carolyn's outgrown clothes and organized them by size.  I full rearranged both girls' closets and drawers.  With this task done, I am officially ready for the baby.  (well, at least in the house.  She can and should definitely cook longer and let me finish up stuff for work)

Fun Run

Carolyn's school does a "Fun Run" to teach the kids the importance of exercise and fundraising.  Each classroom picks a charity, kids get pledges of support, and then they run laps to earn their money.  It was pretty funny to watch the toddler classrooms (18mos to 3) and the early childhood classrooms (3 to 5) do it.  They would come out of the building, single file, while some inspiring music was playing.  Think theme song from Rocky!  One parent would then lead them through a warm-up routine.  They would line up at the start line.  All the parents would count down and they were off.  Each classroom ran for 8 minutes, and parents tried to count how many laps each kid would do.  Some would barely walk.  Others were cutting corners and sprinting as fast as they could.  Kids were tripping over one another.  They were laughing; some were crying saying they couldn't do it because they started off so fast.  When the 8-minute time was up, a bell rang.  They then went through a stretching and cool-down routine, and all received medals, bottled water apples, oranges, and granola bars.

 

Birthday for Mom

Carolyn painted me a beautiful picture of sea shells at school.

Carolyn and Steve surprised me with a homemade pie. 

After dinner, we had an impromptu dance party in the living room.

It was a pretty awesome day.

As an adult, birthdays began to lose their excitement, but having a child in the house makes them more exciting than ever.  I love rediscovering the joys of life through the eyes of my daughter.

Awesome Friends

My friends decided we needed to celebrate the coming of Elizabeth Grace .... I guess it was a shower, but more than anything, it was an opportunity for us girls to get together for a fun afternoon and evening out.  We painted pottery.  I made an adorable red and white polka dotted piggy bank for Elizabeth's room.  We then went to dinner and laughed a lot.  They generously gifted me with a certificate to the spa and some cute little onesies for Elizabeth.  I am thankful for the awesome friends I have here.

Steve went to Germany; Addie & Grandma came to Utah

Steve went to Germany.  He saw a few friends while he was there.  He took pictures of castles, flamingos, and trains for Carolyn.  He enjoyed the opportunity to be back in Germany and to speak German.  We missed him.

While we were pretty certain that the baby would not come while he was away, he offered to fly my mom out to Utah while he was gone.... just in case.  That is when my mom had the brillant idea to bring Addie with her.  It was both girls' spring break, so we had a pretty awesome time together.  We made lip gloss (huge mess).  We went to a fancy tea party downtown.  We saw a movie (Mirror Mirror).  We went to the ski hills and watch some skiers.  We rode a chair lift up to the mountain resort.  We went to the zoo.  We carried the olympic torch, sat in a bobsled, and on a luge sled at the Olympic Park.  We had matching PJs.  Addie humored Carolyn and played dress-up.  We giggled.  We had slumber parties.  We were all exhausted after our few days together.