An Interview with a 2nd Grader

My big girl headed off to second grade the other day. How in the world has this happened? In our house, it's a tradition to do a little "interview" with the girls at the beginning of the school year. I usually stick with most of the same questions so that we can look back and see how their answers change over the years. Here's an interview with my 2nd Grader:

About E at age 7

• Who is your best friend? I have two of them - Vera and Bella.
• What do you like to do at school? Anything my teacher gives us.
• What do you like to do with Daddy? Wrestle.
• What do you like to do with Mom? Cooking and helping Mom with pizza.
• What do you want to be when you grow up? An artist.
• What is your favorite thing? Lucie.
• What is your favorite color? Light green.
• What is your favorite movie? Barbie movies
• Who is your favorite movie or story character? Barbie
• What is your favorite toy? Greenie (my blanket)
• What is one thing that you really, really want to do this year? Go swimming at a party.
• What is your favorite treat? Whatever treat that Mom or Coco makes.
• What is your favorite food? I have three of them -- pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers -- all of them homemade.
• What restaurants do you like to go to? Firestone (in California)

About the First Day of School

• What was the best thing about your first day at school? Choice time. I played with Bella.
• What was the best thing about your new class? My teacher.
• Did you make any new friends? Not really.
• What was the worst thing about your first day? The long wait for the bus ride home. (The bus was LATE!)

L and E Birthday Cakes 2012

Both of my girlies celebrate their birthdays in January, so we eat a lot of cake at the beginning of the year. Now, I am NOT a professional baker. I usually try to keep things simple but try to add touches that make the cakes special for them. I always use a simple box mix (of the birthday girl's preferred flavor), and we usually try to bake it together if time allows. However, I usually do the decorating on my own. Since I don't like canned frosting, I make this 5-Minute Buttercream Frosting. It takes just a few minutes, and it tastes sooooo good! Then, I make the frosting pretty by adding food coloring. (I prefer to use Wilton Food Coloring.) For decorations, I get sparkly number candles from Target and print out character images from the internet to use as toppers. I just print the images on cardstock, cut out and tape some toothpicks to the back. It's simple but the girls think it is so cool.

They always get to choose a theme, and I do my best to make it happen. In the past I've made cakes to go along with the following themes: Castle, Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire, TinkerBell, and Sleeping Beauty. This year, I'm adding Barbie & The Three Musketeers and Rapunzel to the list.

Lucie requested a Barbie and the Three Musketeers cake for her birthday. I recreated this Barbie Wallpaper image on a simple round layer cake. I printed the image on cardstock and cut out Barbie, the Three Musketeers and the castle separately to make cake toppers. Then, I created a "road" out of graham cracker crumbs for the road.

Ella requested a Rapunzel (aka Tangled) cake for her birthday. Originally, I wanted to make a lantern cake, but then reality set in. I just didn't have time to create something that elaborate. So, I decided to recreate the gondola scene. I used this image of Flynn, Rapunzel and Maximus in the gondola and this image of the kingdom island for the background. However, I'm a bit of a stickler for authenticity. Maximus was not in the gondola, so I cut him out. I made the water out of blue and white frosting and added some graham cracker crumbs around the island in the background.

The cakes were easy enough to make, but I still managed to get one of the best compliments from Ella: "You're the best mom in the world!"

Happy Halloween!

It has been a busy Halloween! We've enjoyed a Halloween parade, a class party AND now trick-or-treating. Okay, technically I'm not doing the trick-or-treating. I participated in the other activities and am now exhausted. So, I'm on door duty while these little sweeties brave the cold to collect some candy with their daddies. Lucie is Belle, Meli (their cousin) is a beautiful ballerina and Ella is Snow White.

Happy Halloween!

First Day of 1st Grade

In the month that we've been here, we've survived an earthquake, a hurricane, a week without electricity and now we can add "the first day of 1st grade at a new school" to the list. But, it wasn't just the "first day of 1st grade." Ella went to her first day at a new school with no friends on a bus! Is my little girl brave or what?

Honestly, I didn't want to send her on the bus. In California, very few children have the privilege of taking the bus to school. Quite frankly, there just isn't enough money in the budget for it. That's how I grew up, and that is how it was for us in Solvang. I just always assumed that I would take her myself. However, last week we went to the school's Open House where she toured the school, saw her classroom and met the teacher. The school here REALLY encourages parents to send their children to school on the bus. I guess the school's location doesn't make it very easy for folks to drop their kids off. After the Open House, we gave Ella the option to take the bus or drive with us. Surprise, surprise...she REALLY wanted to take the bus! So, if she felt comfortable and brave enough to go to a new school (with no friends) on the bus, should I have told her No? I couldn't do it.

Of course, things didn't go exactly smoothly with the bus. It was a good 20 minutes late picking her up, which I had been forwarned that might happen during the first week. However, never in my wildest dreams did I think that the bus would be nearly 1 1/2 hours LATE bringing her home! We had a pretty good storm that afternoon which delayed the bus from taking the middle school students home, which in turn delayed the bus from picking up the elementary school children on time. Needless to say, Ella was in high drama mode by the time she got home. A combination of a long day, hunger, and someone messing up her nametag were the cause of tears and grumpy attitude as she stepped off the bus. However, Daddy saved the day with some special gifts and candy that he bought her to celebrate her first day.

When Ella finally calmed down enough to tell us about her day, it turns out that she did, in fact, enjoy it. She made a friend in her class named Bella, and she seems to like her teacher and her other classmates. I feel optimistic that she will flourish both academically and socially here. She'll grow where she's planted. I think we all will...it just might take some time to adjust.

The Girls' Visit to Nanna's House

This past week has just been a whirlwind. Brett and I headed off with his brother and sister-in-law to check out our new town in Virginia and find a place to call home. We decided that it would be easier to make this trip without Ella and Lucie in tow, and my mom graciously agreed to watch them. Since my sister Jamie, the family paparazzo, lives near my parents, we got LOTS of photos of what the girls did while we were gone. In fact, Jamie even made a scrapbook for us. By the looks of it, they had a great time!

They went to the pool three times!

They played at the park.

They played with the dogs. We don't have a dog, so the girls love to play with their canine cousins Condie (shown here), Chipper, Dax & Danny. 

They had a slumber party at Jamie's house.

They had a tea party with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Ella even managed to lose a tooth while we were gone. Apparently, the Tooth Fairy in Nanna's neighborhood leaves twice the cash as the one here at our house.

In all honesty, I don't think that they even had a chance to miss us. Nanna, Auntie Jamie, Uncle Rob, and Uncle JJ did such a great job watching them while we were gone. I am so thankful for my family and for all of their help in watching the girls while we were gone. 

April Fools' Day!

Today is April 1st, and I have never explained April Fools' Day to Ella. Whoops! In any event, she learned all about it at school today. When I picked her up this afternoon, she was adamant that no one look in her school bag. Usually when she responds this way, it means that she has some sort of project that she wants to unveil in a special way. The minute we walked in the door, she took something out of her bag, proudly displayed it in front of her chest and said...

"Look, Mom! I made a bunny!"


Then after I complimented her work, she flipped the "bunny" around and said...

"April Fools! I made a bear!"


She thought it was pretty funny. I thought it was pretty cute.

Ella's 100th Day of Kindergarten

Today was Ella's 100th Day of Kindergarten. In preparation for this special day, Ella was assigned to bring a collection of 100 items to share with the class. Since we got the task when we were knee-deep in planning Ella's 6th Birthday in Pixie Hollow, we decided to make a really, really LONG Pixie Bead Necklace that featured 100 paper beads. We just printed out the template from the Disney pdf and traced it onto several sheets of colored construction paper. Once we had made 100 beads, we strung them on a very long piece of yarn and tied it into a loop. It ended up being a quite out of the ordinary contribution to the Collection of 100 Project.

But, the project was not the only way her class celebrated the 100th Day. Oh, no...they had a whole day of festivities! My neighbor Rebecca graciously agreed to watch Lucie for a couple of hours so that I could join Ella and celebrate with her. It was a rare treat to get to spend some time one-on-one with Ella. When I arrived, the teacher had set out several stations with projects to work on including make a Fruit Loops necklace (with 100 pieces), a stamp book (with 100 stamps), a paper plate shaker (with 100 beans inside) and this crazy little hat with 100 tally marks. Too funny!

At the very end, the Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes had a "snake" parade through all of the classrooms. As you can imagine, it was quite the sight watching the kids march around in get-ups like that!

Ella's 6th Birthday in Pixie Hollow

I did it. I survived "Birthday Season" at our house. And I must say, we went out with quite a bang. On Saturday, Ella celebrated her 6th Birthday with family, some longtime friends and a couple of her classmates. The theme was Tinker Bell / Pixie Hollow...and I would just like to say "Thank You" to Disney for their help. Pretty much all of my inspiration came straight from the Disney Fairies website. I took some of their ideas, tweaked them and used them to fill in my little "format" that I've come up with for our birthday parties. I like to have a craft, a game, gifts, cake and a pinata.

We began the party with some free time. In the past couple of years, I've learned that it is best to begin parties that way. Not everyone shows up on time plus Ella really loves to show her room and belonging to her friends. So, it was extremely loud in our house for awhile. Ella has an exuberant personality...and attracts friends with the same tendencies.

After about 30 minutes of loud chaos, it was time to calm things down and work on a craft for a bit. The Disney Fairies website had a very cute Rosetta Frame Craft. (You can catch a glimpse of the frames on the mantel in the photo above.) The pdf includes instructions, a template and some printable "clovers" to decorate the frame. I also printed some extra decorations from the Disney Fairies website so the kids would have more options. I ended up resizing and printing birds and berries from the First Flight Garland pdf. Last week, we collected a bagful of sticks at a local park, and I used them to build the frames ahead of time. All the kids needed was a Q-tip, some glue and decorations to create their masterpieces. When they had finished putting on the paper decorations, they had the choice of adding glitter to it as well. I had them put the glue on the frame and place the frame in a shallow bucket before shaking on the glitter. (The bucket is KEY if you want to contain the glitter!) The finished frames were soooooo cute! We also made sure that Ella took a photo with each friend, and we'll be mailing them a photo to put in their frame.

For the game, we had a variation of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." I created a huge tree on one of our walls to resemble the Home Tree in Pixie Hollow. Then the kids had to pin the pixie dust on the Home Tree. Right away, Olivia, one of our youngest guests, pinned her pixie dust right in the center!

After the game, all the kids sat near the Home Tree and Ella opened her gifts. I know some people don't feel that it is appropriate to open gifts at parties, but I disagree. I think that it is a great opportunity to teach your child to accept gifts graciously and demonstrate their thankfulness. Before the party, I clearly expressed how I expected Ella to act during gift time, and she did not disappoint me. We like to set up two special chairs durings gifts -- one for the Birthday kid and one for the guest giving the gift. This ensures that the gift giver gets an up close view of the unwrapping and gets to feel special too.

Next it was time for cake. Although the cake wasn't perfect (mine never are), I thought it turned out pretty darn cute.

I made a set of Fairy Houses and a dozen "mushroom" cupcakes. Thankfully, Ella loved it. (See a tutorial of the Tinker Bell & Terence Cake and Mushroom Cupcakes.)

Last but not least, we let the kids have a whack at the Acorn Pinata. Ella's classmates Dylan and Max have quite a lot of power in their bodies, so we saved them for last and let the smaller guests have a try first. Dylan did not disappoint and broke it open for us.

Unfortunately, Ella got her party bag confused with another friend's and ended up putting her loot into his bag. Vera came to the rescue though and offered some of her treats to Ella. Afterward, Ella said that Vera's generosity was her favorite part of the party. When all is said and done, the decorations, the games and the food don't matter all that much. It is the good times that we spend with those we love.

Happy 6th Birthday Ella!

Today is a special day! Ella turns 6 today. Oh my, how my baby has grown!









Since she is going to be having a party this weekend, we're keeping things low key but still trying to make it different from just any ordinary day. We headed out early this morning to stop for a muffin at a coffeeshop before school. After school, we're going to head out of town for lunch and a bit of shopping for Ella's party. Then later tonight we're going to have Chicken Scampi (her choice) at home. I confess, since I'm planning on a cool cake for her party, I'm not making her one tonight. I went the easy route and bought a small chocolate Pepperidge Farm cake from the grocery store. As a mom, sometimes you just have to take shortcuts for sanity.

Happy Birthday Ella!

Breaking Bad Habits

Last night, Ella was in quite the energetic mood...so energetic that she decided to start kicking her bedroom door over and over. When we told her to stop and asked why she did it in the first place, she responded "I was trying to get my energy out." Since she knows better than to punch the doors, walls, etc., Brett had her calm down in a "time-out" for a few minutes. After it was over, he talked to her about it and somehow they decided that she should make a door sign to help remind her not to kick the door. The girl will embrace any opportunity to draw. So, she got to work...

Don't you just love it? On the left side, we have what to do (notice the check mark). On the right side, we have what NOT to do.

And while she was at it, she decided to make a couple of signs to remind her not to indulge in a few of her other bad habits, like...

sucking on her hair...AND

biting her fingernails!

Oh, how I love my girl, short fingernails and all.

Speaking of short fingernails, if anyone has ideas on how to break the nail biting habit, I'm all ears! I'm working with Ella on this right now. She bites them down until they bleed. I haven't been able to get her to pinpoint a specific reason WHY she does it other than she is hungry. Yes, she actually told me that. Funny child.

Planning the Last Birthday Party of the Season

Now that Lucie's 3rd Birthday is behind us, I have just one more event in Birthday Season 2011-2011. Once we get past Ella's birthday in a couple of weeks, I'm off the hook for the next ten months! Overall, it has been pretty manageable, and I hope to keep it that way!

When Ella started preschool, we started throwing her traditional "friend" birthday parties because she actually had "friends" in the plural sense. Plus, in my opinion, a two or three-year old really doesn't care too much about a big party. If you give them a cake, they're happy. (See case in point.) But, a four-year old who is in preschool? Oh man, are birthday parties exciting to them! Ella chose a Castle Party for her 4th Birthday and a Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire Party for her 5th. They were so much fun and gave her so much joy.

This past weekend, we started planning her 6th Birthday Party. On Saturday morning, I printed out this nifty little Birthday Planning Page from FishMama, and we sat down to work. Ever since we checked out Tinker Bell from the library, Ella has loved Tinker Bell and the world of fairies. So, Ella will be having a Pixie Hollow Birthday, and I'm so excited about the possibilities! Stay tuned for more details...and possibly a cake and pinata tutorial.

Love. Support. Encouragement. Fun.

When I picked Ella up from school last week, she was very grumpy. I'm not sure what exactly was the cause on that particular day. Tired. Hungry. Missing home. A combination of the above. When we made it home, I fixed her some lunch and she asked, "Mom, can I watch Pride & Prejudice?" She even asked for the super-long BBC version! Obviously, I didn't let her watch ALL of it that afternoon, but it did put her in a much better mood.

Of course, I couldn't help but watch some of it with her as I did my work around the house. It got me to thinking about the lovely relationship between the two eldest Miss Bennetts -- Jane and Lizzy. They love, support, encourage, and have fun with one another. Although this is only a fictional relationship, I heartily wish that my Ella and Lucie will grow to share a loving, supportive, encouraging and fun relationship.

This past weekend as we were hanging out with just the three of us, I caught one of those precious glimpses of what the future will hopefully hold for them. They played and laughed together. They helped one another. And, Ella even helped and encourage Lucie as she was potty training. I felt so blessed as a mom so see that they are well on their way to having a wonderful relationship. It made my heart very, very glad.

Ella's Christmas Ornaments

It amazes me what joy and hours of activity a set of new Crayola markers can bring. A couple of weeks ago, I busted out some markers that I picked up at one of the back-to-school sales so that the girls could draw on our Christmas Calendar. Since then, Ella has enjoyed drawing and making paper creations with the markers as well as her crayons. Nearly every morning, she tries to squeeze in some art before school. She's been gifting lots of people with her creations -- school teacher, dance teacher, childcare provider, friends, etc.

Now, she hasn't just been making drawings. She has also been making ornaments! I didn't even show her the idea - she thought of it all on her own. She draws out a shape, cuts it out, and tapes a loop of embroidery thread at the top. I keep finding them everywhere! She has a stack ready to go to decorate our still unadorned tree. It was just a few years ago that she was breaking "oh-na-ments" and now she is making them.

Flashback

A couple of months ago, we checked out the Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper DVD from the library. Ella initally didn't want to watch it. Apparently, there was a mean-looking, white haired lady on the back of the case that freaked her out. Yeah, in the past she's had a thing about white haired people. I think it is a holdover from her fear of Santa Claus. Anyway, Lucie was totally set on watching it. She has no such qualms about white-haired people. I put it on while they were eating lunch and eventually Ella was hooked. Come on...princesses, singing. It's gotta be a winner for two princess-loving girls, right?

Oh yes. Yes, it is.

Soon enough, they were pretending to be the characters in the movie. I used to do that ALL the time as a girl -- The Parent Trap was one of my favorites. (The original Haley Mills version, of course...no Lindsey Lohan for me.) Not only were my girls pretending to be the characters, they were fighting over who got to be who. Yes, I confess that I used to fight over the same thing with my sisters. However, since there were three of us, we used to fight over which one of Charlie's Angels we were going to be. Because Jamie had the brown hair, she automatically got to be Jaclyn Smith's character. Because Jessica was the oldest, she called dibbs on Farrah Fawcett's and/or Cheryl Ladd's character. As the youngest, I was "forced" to be Kate Jackson's character. I was never happy about that one. She wasn't nearly as glamorous as the others.

And now about 30 years later, I sit and watch my girls fight over who gets to be Princess Annelise (the blonde) and who has to be the pauper Erica (the brunette). Strangely enough, it is my two-year old who insists on being the Princess, and my five-year old who gets upset. I can't help but laugh.

All She Wants for Christmas Is Her Two Front Teeth

And it looks as if Ella will get them!

It feels as if it has taken FOREVER for her two front teeth to grown in. She lost them in late July and early August. I meant to post that story, but never got around to it. So, I thought that I would today. Who can resist pictures of a little girl with missing teeth?!

At the beginning of the summer, my sweetie looked like this:

As the summer wore on, her top front teeth started getting loose. As with her first two, it took a long time for the top two to fall out. The first one decided to come out in July when Brett was on a missions trip to Guatemala. After watching (and grimacing) while one of them flopped around in her mouth for a couple of days, it finally came time that I had to pull it.

Oh, I didn't want to pull it. Never did I think that I would ever pull one of my kid's teeth. In my mind, that is Daddy's job! But, Daddy was gone and it needed to come out. Ella had bumped her mouth on the nightstand in my room, and her mouth was bleeding. So, the easiest solution was to just pull the sucker out. It wasn't an easy feat but somehow I managed it...after about 30 minutes or so. Despite being scared initially, Ella was elated when it was finally out. I suppose the extra buck I paid her for letting me pull it might have contributed to that!

Well, naturally, the absence of one tooth made for a lack of support for the other. Soon, the second tooth was flopping around in her mouth. For some reason, Ella forgot the elation she felt when the other tooth came out and was afraid of the other one coming out. She didn't want either Brett or me to come near her mouth. Despite promises of money...and even a much desired Ariel Doll, she would not cave and let us pull the tooth. After the tooth flopped around for at least a week, it's time had come. We were camping in Oregon, and frankly, the tooth was just getting gross. Ella couldn't brush it properly and didn't want us brushing them because she thought we'd knock it out. So, we did what I'm sure other parents have done...we pinned her down and pulled it. It took three adults to do the job -- Brett held her mouth open, I held her hands down, and Auntie Ray held Ella's legs with her knees and ever so gently wiped it out with a kleenex. She hardly even had to touch the tooth before it fell out. After the inital shock of how the whole thing went down, Ella was happy to have her tooth gone.

And we were all happy to see this smile. Boy, did she like sticking her tongue through the hole!

And now we're happy to see this one...

First Day of Kindergarten

Last Monday was a special day at our house. It was Ella's first day of Kindergarten! Since she is our first child, it was even more momentous. Although school doesn't start until 8:25am, we were there bright and early at 8:00am. Brett also started back to school that same day (inservice, not with students), so we wanted to be there when he could help drop her off.

Ella was excited rather than nervous for her first day. She was thrilled to share a double desk with a boy named Dylan and to have her very own pencil box loaded with school supplies.

When we got home after school, I asked Ella a few questions about her first day of school.

What was the best thing about your first day?
The snack! I liked the Babybel cheese and the fruit roll.

What was the best thing about school?
I liked the visor that I made. [They made a "First Day of Kindergarten" sun visor out of cardstock and pipe cleaners.] We played with different colored cubes and you can make huge, huge buildings with them. And they are fun.

Did you make any new friends?
My new friends are Dylan and Hatziry. They sit next to me.

What do you think of your teacher Mrs. Hammill?
I am so happy that she is my teacher.

What was the worst thing about your first day?
I didn't get to go on the playground today because Mommy packed a huge, tremendous snack. I took to long to finish my snack because I didn't know it was time to go inside.

I guess even Mom has some things to learn in this new school year!

Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes

Looking at these two cuties, it's still amazing to me that they were both born with brown hair and blue eyes. Within a couple of months of birth, Ella's baby hair began falling out and began growing in lighter and lighter. I expected the same with Lucie and was not disappointed. Now people look at me and ask where they get their hair color. That always surprises me...in my mind I'm still a blond! But, I guess in reality, it looks a bit darker.

However, I always figured that if one of my children were to inherit my brown eyes that she'd have them at birth. Ella managed to keep her beautiful blue eyes, but over time Lucie's began to change. I wasn't sure what color they were going to turn...but now there is no mistake about it. Lucie has her momma's eyes. Funny enough, it is something that she likes to talk about nearly every day. "Ella and Daddy have blue eyes. Lucie has brown eyes like Mommy." She looks for brown eyes in other people...and animals too! Today we were swimming at a friend's pool and they have a beautiful dog that Lucie just adores. After getting up close and personal with the dog, she was very excited when she noticed "Hey, puppy has brown eyes like Lucie!"

Ballet Open House

Since January, Wednesdays have been a special day in Ella's life. They have been "ballet days." I LOVE Ella's ballet school. Miss Christine, the studio owner and Ella's teacher, is a wonderful French woman who offers caring yet firm instruction. I'm so glad that we've been able to give her lessons this year.

The studio doesn't have a recital for the youngest dancers...and that is just fine by me. Given Ella's past performance anxiety issues, I'm not in a hurry to get her on a stage in front of hundreds of people. Instead, the studio offers an "Open House" on the last day of the session. The dancers have a normal class and we parents get to watch.

I was so proud of Ella. She performed beautifully...and managed not to talk to her best friend Vera too much. I even got to see her "arabesque" which is her favorite part of ballet.

At the end of class, Miss Christine gave each girl a beautiful pale pink rose. Ella was so excited to have her very own flower...and to pose for pictures with Vera. I hope to get to watch my Ella enjoy ballet for many years to come.