All about me

My birthday is exactly one week after Willa's. So if you do the math, I turned 30 the week after Willa was born, so technically I managed to have a baby while still in my 20's. That's important to me for no important reason. I was all partied out from Willa's multi-day extravaganza and definitely all caked out, but we did manage to still have some fun. Ryan took the girls to get me some small gifts and pick out cupcakes. They were so excited, which is about 90% of the fun, Willa kept telling me she wanted to see my reaction when I saw my cupcakes. Ryan got me a breadbox, which is something I've been wanting for quite a while. When my parents were in town they also got me a little something that I've been wanting for a while.

Ta da! I'm officially a real grown up. I can now buy bulk items in the freezer section at Costco and open the kitchen freezer without risking several heavy frozen objects falling out on my toes. I love it so much. Now I think it just needs a little matching friend refrigerator to go with it.

So now I'm 35 and it does feel a bit old. I swear my gray hairs have suddenly multiplied around my temples. I might have to start dyeing my hair in the next year or so, or maybe I'll just let it go gray naturally. It's weird to think about gray hair for me. My body is shutting down; a betrayal and sign of my own physical fallibility in the more dramatic interpretation.

Rebecca volunteered to babysit so Ryan and I went out for dinner. It was an actual sit-down restaurant that didn't serve pizza or burgers, win! I don't remember the last time we got an actual date on my actual birthday, so it really all felt quite festive. They belatedly sang to me in Primary today (I'm the pianist). When we sing to the kids we give them a special card to take to the bishop after church where he gives them a giant star lollipop. I love it, the kids look forward to it and the bishop gets to personally talk to each child at least once a year. When the adults have a birthday, they give us a little card that says we can go to Relief Society that day if we want. I just laughed when they handed me mine, the pianist can't quite get up and leave like some of the others during sharing time.

Willa's Five Five FIVE!!

This post is almost two weeks late, but Willa finally turned the big FIVE and her birthday was the stuff of hopes and dreams :). We ended up celebrating quite a bit because my parents were in town over the weekend so we did a cake with them and their presents on Sunday. Then I also wanted to celebrate on her actual birthday, which was Wednesday. So on Wednesday, Ryan and I decorated a little with balloons and streamers and were planning on having a low-key dinner and family presents. Rebecca and Brandon came and with their added gifts and the other gifts that got mailed in from far-away family, it ended up being quite the fete. By that time I was all partied out, but wait there was more. We had plans to go to Chuck E Cheese on Thursday night with the Thalmans to officially celebrate and have her cake. (The Thalmans have music lessons on Wednesday night, which was why we couldn't condense these two parties.)

Willa kind of wanted a party with lots of friends at the park like we did last year. She also wanted to invite Bridgett who is in kindergarten now. All of Willa's friends around here are in preschool on TTH and Willa has it MWF, so it was doubly hard because I couldn't do a party with them in the morning because someone was in preschool and we couldn't do a weekday because Bridgett was in school. I was not very interested in doing it on a Saturday because the weather is just starting to be good so the parks can get quite busy and some people go early in the morning to reserve tables. It just seemed like a big hassle. Our house is also just kind of too small to do a party here. My compromise was to suggest to Willa that instead of doing a big friend party, we could just make a special invite to Bridgett and Abby to come celebrate at Chuck E Cheese. She thought that was a good alternative.

Homemade cake with grandma and grandpa. This is about creative as I get, unfortunately.

Successful blowing out of the candle.

She got a sleeping bag and a tent, which we are excited about. They threw in a sleeping bag for June too for good measure.

On Wednesday I took cupcakes to preschool and they let us come in for the last few minutes of class to sing to her. June felt especially grown-up because she got to sit at the table with all the preschool kids. It was hilarious as we were leaving because June was waving bye to everyone like she was on her home turf. She's five year old in a two year old body, poor dear.

Forgive the blurry pictures.

That night when she opened presents with Brandon and Rebecca over, she was enormously excited. It was amazing to see all the uninhibited joy and excitement. It made Ryan and me a little contemplative about how we can nourish that in her and encourage it since all too soon she may become self-conscious or "better" at masking her emotions. I hope she never changes, but I know it's an eventuality and it makes me a little sad. She was squealing and jumping up and down as she opened each gift. Brandon gave two little My Little Ponies. At first she thought there was just one and she was really excited, but then I showed her the second one and she couldn't believe it. She was screaming out their names (Pinkie Pie and Flutter Shy) and jumping and running around. It was so fun. We also got her a Cinderella dress from the new movie and an Elsa dress that I snagged a few months ago at the Disney store for like 80% off. We tried to keep gifts to a minimum, but she got very spoiled by aunts and uncles and in the end there were quite a few presents to open, lucky girl.

Blowing out cupcakes from Rebecca.

The next day, playing with her gift from the O'Kelley's and wearing her "Mommy Cinderella" dress. She calls the new movie Mommy Cinderella to distinguish it from the animated one. I love the new movie, it's so sweet and even got Ryan's approval when we watched together as a family one night.

And unfortunately, the parties (and this blog post) don't end there. Ryan and I were pretty partied out, but we still had Chuck e Cheese on the schedule for the next evening. Since the only other time I have visited this fine establishment, was at 9 am to just ride rides in the heat of the summer, I was unprepared with the noise and crowds of evening - even on a weeknight. They let you bring in your own cake if you don't want to book a party with them, so we did that and ordered pizza for dinner.

I love this photo of all the girls. Best friends for sure and their personalities are shining right through. We ordered a special Frozen cake from the grocery store. I loved going there when I was young and flipping through the book of all the possible cakes and choosing one for my birthday. We had fun doing it for Willa this year.

Among her gifts, Bridgett got them matching friendship rings from Deseret Book. 

This photo looks more serious than it was. They were having a great time giggling and playing up there.

The whole place was chaotic, even though Kim informs me that it wasn't bad at all compared to what she's been to. It was so loud and the noises just didn't blend. There was a birthday area that was blaring its own music, then all the music from the games. My nerves were on edge. We spent a good 2+ hours there and I hope that has filled our quota for the rest of forever. June was funny. She was a little unnerved by the crowds, but liked to sit on one ride holding her little cup of tokens and just putting them in one after another and riding continuously. So Happy Birthday to Willa! It was an exhausting but fun week and I can't believe I have a five year old.

Preschool

Willa started preschool the week after Labor Day. We were both very excited for her to start! I even put off a much-needed Costco trip for the tantalizing prospect of only having to go with one child if I waited just a few more days.

We had to reschedule a piano lesson for 7:30 am the first morning of school, and we drove directly to preschool from there, which made it a very long morning for Willa. Other than that, she had a great time. She was a little put out that they didn't make treats in preschool. She did the summer camp, which was "Read it and Eat it" and assumed since it was at the same building with the same teacher that it would be the same activities too. I didn't even think to explain that out to her.

Getting ready for her first day

We were running a little late after piano, so I rushed her in and didn't have time to get a photo until preschool ended. By that time, she was getting pretty tired and I had a hard time getting a good photo. Oh well, you get the idea. I might try to retake one before they change the bulletin board.

The most surprising thing for me is that Willa actually doesn't love it as much as I thought she would. I mean, she enjoys it and has a good time, but after two or three weeks of going every Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8:30-11:30, she is realizing that we don't have as much free time as before. She'd probably prefer a Tuesday/Thursday class just because then we would have more free mornings in the week. I'm glad she's three days a week, but I miss our mornings too. I wish I could have done afternoon classes for her, because the afternoon is kind of a hard time to get out for activities anyway and it would have left all our mornings free for parks and museums and exploring. The afternoon classes run 12:30-3:30 and I thought it would be too hard on June's nap most days because I like to put her down earlier and I can't exactly leave her sleeping at the house while I run to drop Willa off. In the end, it probably would have been fine because we're already getting back late after preschool pick-up, then we have to eat lunch, etc. So sometimes she's not getting a nap in until closer to 1 pm anyway. Ah well, that's life with the second child, I suppose. I'm trying to do some fun things still, but most of our little friends have started kindergarten or have preschool Tuesday/Thursday mornings, so they aren't available. I just tell myself that I was doing a little too good of a job getting the kids out of the house and having amusements. They've gotten spoiled at always being taken somewhere to have fun instead of playing fun things at home.