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.

The rest of Utah

After the exciting weekend, I headed back to stay a few more days with my parents and Ryan flew back to Vegas to work. We played, did the zoo, and just enjoyed ourselves.

The girls tried out the hot tub for the first time. They learned pretty quickly to sit on the side when they were getting too warm.

On our first night up, they were playing outside and June went to sit on my dad's lap. Willa got bored and wanted to go somewhere else so I followed her, but sweet June just wanted to snuggle with grandpa. She stayed with him for quite a while out there!

On Tuesday we did the zoo and actually met Carey, Robert, and Slate up there. My girls are just like me, big sissies when it come to motion. We've tried and tried to get Willa to try one of the moving animals on the carousel but she adamantly sticks to the peacock bench. She also declined to go on the zoo train so I stayed with her and Carey while everyone else went.

I know all these photos see blurry, but they are here for posterity. I also have a love/hate relationship with her transitional lenses. They look so dorky and never take good pictures outside. But they protect her eyes and she really loves that they darken and that it's never too bright. I have a pair of prescription sunglasses, but they are a hassle a lot of the time because you have to switch between the two pairs if you are going in and out of places.

5 Year Old Pictures

It's so great to be almost five! I was wondering if I should get five-year-old pictures done for Willa this year. I kind of liked the idea, but I didn't want to pay a lot of money or have it be a big hassle. Why did these fancy photos become so popular? Let's go back to the day when we just went down to the elementary school as a family on picture day and got our family Lifetouch photo. So much easier, and cheaper!

The night before I was going to drive up to Utah, I had an idea. My older sister's friend is a photographer and lives in Richfield. It's a little out of the way, but not too bad if we were already making the drive. She was offering $30 mini session for back to school, which is about the price I'm willing to pay.

I texted her in the morning as I was frantically packing up the car to see if she could fit us in on our way back through next week. She was leaving to Italy the very next day, but said if we could come today on our way up, she would do the photos. So, I hurriedly packed an extra small bag just with nice clothes of the pictures, hair brush, squirt bottle (for hair), bows, and anything else we might need. I put it on the passenger seat of the car and we were off.

Her house was about four hours into the trip, so the perfect place to rest and take a break. Plus it's a total farming community, so after we did the photos the girls had lots of space to run around, horses to pet, and chickens to look at. It was a last minute idea, but I'm so glad we did it. I think the pictures are adorable. I decided to have her do June too, because, why not. It's nice to have some good individual photos of the girls.

The only bummer was that I knew we couldn't use her black-framed glasses because of the transition lenses. They are my favorite glasses normally. I brought her other pair, but we had to do quite a few without those ones too because of the glare. She still looks cute, but I swear I can see that wonky eye. Plus, glasses are who she is to me right now.

Don't you just love them? I could just die at some of their expressions. Ryan says they are "okay" and admitted that he didn't like their hair. It's how I do their hair every day, though, so I guess I need to work on that. I think they look adorable - especially with no planning ahead of time - and I'm glad we could get some good photos celebration almost-5 and 2 1/2.

Aero's Sealing

I know that you were all thinking, "Why, why? Why are they driving up to Utah again?" We were going up for this little guy.

Isn't he the sweetest thing? The adoption was finalized at six months and then Robert and Carey could go ahead with the sealing. We love living close enough to drive up and be a part of these special moments.

The sealing was on Saturday morning and Carey's dad got to perform it, which was so special. They asked Ryan and Dan to be the witnesses. Aero did amazing, especially since it was right during nap time. The cutest thing was Slate, he just turned three and is the cutest, sweetest boy you have ever met. He came into the sealing room dressed in white with his blue glasses and the biggest smile on his face. He kept that grin on the entire time and it was so adorable. After the sealing we all went out to lunch and then had dinner together at the rental house (Ryan's parents rented a house for all the visiting Daniels to stay at together).

They blessed Aero in church on Sunday and then we all went back to Carey and Robert's for the afternoon and evening. We were talking and I started talking about my favorite book which is called "The Uses of Adversity" by Carlfred Broderick. It is the best book. One of my favorite passages is when he is counseling a woman who grew up terribly abused by her family and even though she has grown up and married and had a happy life, she still felt very bitter sometimes and wondered why Heavenly Father didn't love her enough to stop it. He felt inspired to tell her that she had suffered like the Savior, meaning innocently taking on pain and suffering to help others. She was able to absorb all this wickedness and hurt without passing it on. She had suffered innocently to purify a bloodline so that her children and posterity could continue without it all. The basic idea of the book is that bad things happen, we don't know why, but we can use the adversity to strengthen our testimony of the Savior and the Gospel plan.

I think my point was that Aero couldn't have been sealed into a better family. Carey replied with the parable of the olive tree and having Aero grafted into their tree. Call me an idiot, but I had never thought about adoption like that before. It's such a beautiful image to me. I just love the thought of Aero coming from this wild branch and being grafted in, breathing new life into the tree, but also becoming able to produce good fruit himself. We were so happy to be part of a wonderful weekend with family and I'm so grateful for the gospel and the sealing power and the knowledge and comfort it brings us.

Here are a couple other images from the weekend. Aero with grandpa and grandma.

Playing with cousins Isabelle and Slate.

The girls LOVED Isabelle and talked about her for several days after. June wanted to go sit by her after bath time. She is so good with little kids. I want to fly her down next summer for some Vegas fun.

Slate and Junie playing Ring Around the Rosie. Slate is seriously the best little boy. He played so well with both girls one on one and all three together.

Swimming with friends

Willa has gotten so much more adventurous in the swimming pool. Soon after she started jumping in with Ryan, I took the girls to the pool again with a friend. Her son is just a few months older than Willa. Willa always complains to me that she likes playing with GIRLS and Austin complains to his mom that he likes playing with BOYS, but too bad kids, because when the moms are friends then you are stuck with each other. When they are together they actually get along pretty well, and my friend and I both think it's important for them to be able to play with lots of different kids. Sadly, they are moving at the end of the month to Utah and so now I won't have a close friend who will respond to my texts of, "I'm going crazy! We are headed to the park NOW!" and meet us there in fifteen minutes. I'm all for planning playdates, but kids are really unpredictable and the day you plan something they might wake up early and need an early nap or be still asleep or something. I kind of fly by the seat of my pants a lot and whoever can keep up is a very good friend whom I really appreciate.

Anyway, since Austin is a boy and a few months older, he's a little more confident in the pool, which has been great because Willa really wants to do what he is doing and she pushes herself a little more and more out of her comfort zone. Austin even will take time explaining how to do a particularly challenging skill - like jumping into the "deep" area (4-5 feet) and pushing off the bottom of the pool with your feet to come back up!

I love how weird they both look with their goggles on.

Another day that same week we went to another friend's pool and there were older kids again and because of their example and fearlessness Willa started jumping off the diving board and swimming to the edge of the pool. I never thought she would attempt it, but she watched them a few times and then got a little closer and closer. She tried it wearing her ring first, but then I talked her into doing it without the ring and she did great. This video is only the second time she did it, so she's going off the side closer to the stairs, but pretty quickly she started jumping straight out and then swimming to the edge.

It has helped that we can go swimming so much. It's basically the only outdoor activity in the summer and some days we go four or five times a week for several hours at a time. She made the most progress all in one week where she was around it a lot. I noticed since our trip to Utah that she's a smidgen less brave because we weren't around the pool much there. We will see what the cooler weather brings (if it arrives at all). It's hard to imagine that in a few weeks it will be nice enough to go to the park on a regular basis and all the pools will be closed.

Bridgett turns 5!

An event is coming up in our family that has been talked of and planned of for months and months and (long, exhausting) months. It is Willa's fifth birthday in October. A second event, only slightly less important and slightly less talked about was Bridgett's birthday on August 31. I feel like we've had to patiently try to explain how many months/weeks/days/sleeps/years/etc. before these events for the past six months or more. It's exhausting. One particular funny time came at the pool this summer when Willa looked up at one of my friends and told her in all seriousness that her birthday was going to be in 100 years. Finally, FINALLY one of the long awaited days arrived.

Bridgett had a mermaid and pirate themed party at her grandma's pool. The highlight for Willa was the treasure hunt because in the hidden treasure chest were pirate swords for all the boys and, gasp!, mermaid tails for all the girls. Kim's girls had been begging her for mermaid tails for a while and instead of spending the money she thought she would experiment by sewing some. She got some swimsuit fabric and sewed a little thing for the legs, then left and opening for the feet to stick out and lined it with tulle. So, there wasn't a mono-fin or anything at the bottom, but Willa actually really preferred this homemade version because she liked having her feet free and it also allowed her to do a little waddle if she needed to walk somewhere. The originals turned out so well that Kim decided to make them for everyone at the party.

We had a great time and we were so happy to celebrate with Bridgett. The one thing I learned is that if you have eleven children, please do not leave eight of them (including several large teenagers) at a five-year-old's birthday party. Or, if you do leave them to swim, you ought to make sure to tell them that they don't get to hit the pinata, participate in any other birthday games or activities, and that they should make sure all the little kids get a piece of cake before they do. It wasn't super annoying but it doubled the size of the party and turned it from a small affair into quite the crowd. The parts that really got me was when Kim had to go get one of the mermaid tails off one of them because one of the little girls didn't get them and then when they got in line for the pinata so the little kids (including Bridgett) really only got one small turn to swing. I probably won't have eleven children, so this advice is lost on me, but if anyone reading this has that posse, now you know.

The birthday girl and several older kids in the background.

The party was on the Saturday before Bridgett's actual birthday, which was Monday. We have been so sad that Bridgett has started kindergarten and we are left without our best friend during the week. Luckily, Bridgett had a dentist appointment to get a tooth pulled and the dentist recommended that she stay at home that day rather than going to school. We were happy to drive out and spend the day after her birthday playing for hours. I got a little video of the girls dancing together. It's a little long, so don't feel like you have to watch it. They are just so cute together.