Fourth of July

We had a nice Fourth of July holiday.  We started with lunch at our friend Jon and Heather's house.  Here's the super easy but yummy and festive dessert that I brought.  Recipe here.

Our friends had a pool and water table set up outside.  We forgot Isla's swimsuit, but that didn't stop her from playing and getting soaked.  The girls had a lot of fun getting wet!

After playing outside and eating, we all went inside.  The girls settled down to watch a movie.  Notice that Isla is sitting next to her friend Havanna on that couch (without her dress, because it was soaked).  Isla is not always very social, and sometimes she doesn't want to talk to any other people, especially kids her age.  She did an excellent job playing with Havanna today, and she had no problem letting Havanna sit right next to her.  Then Daniel and I left the room, and Isla just kept sitting there and playing with Havanna and Audrey...without getting upset.  Sometimes we see these little glimpses of social Isla, and it makes us so happy.  There is hope that she will someday outgrow her extremely introverted ways and at least be able to function with other people in society!  (That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is how we feel sometimes as her parents who want to see her make friends and socialize.  It's also ironic that I am writing about this frustration, because I too was an extremely shy and introverted little girl.  I still am, in many ways. So Isla probably gets it from her mom!)

While the girls played and watched a movie, the adults played a game of Catan!  Then it was time to go home.  At home, we played outside for a while.  It was a beautiful day, sunny with temps in the upper 70s.  The little neighbor girl who lives behind us came to the fence.  She has played with the girls a lot through the fence, but we have never invited her into our yard because we hadn't met her parents.  Well, we finally met Dad and felt comfortable inviting her into the backyard.  The girls had so much fun playing together, and I had so much fun watching them!  (And Isla continued to be Little Miss Social the whole time!!!)

We threw some stuff on the grill for dinner, then we let the girls try some sparklers.  Or rather we let Audrey try some sparklers.  Isla just wanted to watch.  This was our first time to do sparklers.  Audrey wasn't sure at first, and wanted Daniel's help.  But then she got braver and wanted to hold it all by herself.

We decided to meet up with some friends to watch fireworks.  The girls are not huge fireworks fans typically, so we wanted to be somewhere with a good view but not too close.  We ended up in a pretty good spot where we could see but it wasn't too loud.

While waiting for the fireworks, we had some popcorn and Twizzlers!

The girls' favorite babysitter Kaylee was there, and Isla just loves her so much!  She continued her social streak by sitting next to Kaylee the whole night.  Together, they cheered and oohed and awwed over all the fireworks, and it really was just the cutest thing ever.  I paid much more attention to them than I did the fireworks.  (Also, at one point in the night, Isla initiated a conversation with another two year old girl who she doesn't really know.  It was AMAZING!)

And here was our view of the fireworks.

Mary Poppins Party: Food and Cupcakes

 It's been over a month since Isla's third birthday party, so I suppose it is time to blog about it!

I have always wanted to throw a Mary Poppins themed party.  We talked about doing it for Audrey's fourth birthday, but then she requested a Tangled party instead.  So earlier this year, when Isla started showing an interest in Mary Poppins and starting watching the movie and learning the songs, I decided we needed to have a Mary Poppins party for her third birthday!

I think this is one of my favorite parties I have ever thrown, topped only perhaps by Audrey's Tangled party.

So I'm going to break this up into a couple of posts so as not to bore you with too many pictures and party details.  For today, the food and cupcakes!

For the sake of time and money, I tried to keep the food fairly simple.  We had about 30 people coming to the party, so I wanted to have enough snacks for everyone without spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  And of course, I wanted the snacks to go with the theme!

One of my favorites (I wish I would have gotten a close up picture though!) was umbrella cheese.  It was Babybel cheese cut in half with a piece of a flexible black straw stuck in the end.

Our Poppins corn was just microwave kettle corn which the kids could put in this fun striped boxes.  I had visions of making homemade kettle corn but in reality, microwave worked just fine!

Another easy storebought snack:  Penguin crackers.

These are spoonfuls of sugar, which are really cake pops on spoons.  Easy to make and a really fun way to incorporate the theme.

Mary Poppins' favorite drink (mentioned twice by her in the movie) is Rum Punch.  When Audrey was little, she would take drinks of everything and then say, "Mmm...rum punch!" just like Mary Poppins.  I thought we HAD to have Rum Punch for our Mary Poppins party, but obviously with a party full of children, we had to make it without the rum!

I asked Isla if she wanted cake or cupcakes, and she picked cupcakes.  Which is much easier for me!  I debated for a long time as to what I should put on top of the cupcakes, and I ended up making these kites.  I spent forever cutting out all those pieces of the kite by hand (5 tiny pieces per kite!), but they looked cute, so I guess it was worth it.

The birthday girl doesn't like to be the center of attention.  So while everyone else was outside, we took her inside to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles.  I thought she was going to let us sing Happy Birthday, but when the time came, she didn't want us to sing to her.  No reason to make the birthday girl mad at her party, so we skipped out on singing and just went straight to blowing out her candles.

Isla's Three Year Stats

What a month!  It is been just constant craziness around here, and I'm ready for a break!  I had plans for this to be a nice, relaxing summer, but so far that has not happened.  We traveled for Papaw's funeral, then the girls and I left the next day to go see my mom and my dad, then Audrey got sick while we were there, and we had to miss out on seeing my dad, then we came home and went straight to a week of church camp, then I got sick while we are at camp.  And it was horrible.  I had strep throat and an ear infection, and it is the worst I have felt in a very very long time.  Ugh!  And in the middle of all that, Daniel has spent most nights this month running sound at Muni.

Now we are back on the road to normal, and the month of July is looking beautifully empty.  For now at least.

So I'm going to try to catch up on some blogging!  I don't think I've even mentioned Isla's birthday on the blog yet.  But it happened back on May 31, and now she is three!  I have lots to post about her party one of these days.

At the beginning of June, Isla had her three year checkup with the doctor.  It was horrible.  She cried when the nurse tried to take her temperature and check her heartbeat.  She refused to stand on the scale or be measured.  They had to weigh me first then weigh me holding her to get her weight.  For height (what I was most curious about!), she refused to even stand by the wall to be measured.  They had to lay her down on the table and measure her like a baby. I'm not sure the height measurement they took was accurate.  I was helping, and my job was to keep her head touching the top of the measuring chart.  The nurse asked if it was touching, and I could see that it wasn't quite touching (but it was very close).  But Isla was screaming so much, I just told the nurse it was touching so we could get the whole process over.  So her height might be a little bit off, but I think it's close enough.

She was 35.5 inches long, a growth of 4 inches in the past year!  That is awesome growth (even if it might be just a tad exaggerated).  She moved from the 3% for height to the 15% for height.  Go Isla!  She weighed 26 pounds which puts her at 7% for weight.

I used all of my persuasive powers to get Isla to sit next to Raggedy Anne for a picture.  I think the last picture I have of her with Raggedy Anne was this one at 18 months.  She's changed just a little bit over the past 1 1/2 years!

Isla didn't really want to cooperate, but I enlisted Audrey's help to make her laugh, and eventually she at least started laughing even if she didn't want to look at the camera.

Raggedy Ann picture make me feel sentimental, which makes me create side by side pictures like this one.

And this one:  (Audrey's three year stats were:  37 inches (39%) and 31 pounds (55%))

Since Isla had a growth spurt, I figured maybe we could move into some 3T clothes?!  I pulled out these PJ's, which were a little baggy but still wearable.  (Look who is willing to smile now!!)

I vividly remember buying these pajamas when we were in Florida in February 2011.  Audrey was 2 1/2, and I was pregnant with Isla.  I bought matching PJ's for her and her baby sister.  I think it was the first purchase I made for baby Isla.  These pictures were taken back in September 2011, the first time Audrey and Isla wore those matching PJs:

Now that little baby is as big as the big girl in those pictures.  And that big girl is going to be starting kindergarten soon!

Papaw's Funeral

Daniel's dad passed away last week after a 7 year battle with leukemia.  Daniel was able to drive over and be there with his mom and siblings when his dad died.  Then the girls and I joined him a few days later for the visitation and funeral.  It hasn't been an easy time for the family, and there have been some sad/hard moments.  But at the same time, I think everyone is at peace with this being his time, and his funeral was a lovely time of remembering him as a great man, dad, and Papaw.

The girls wore new flowered dresses for the funeral.  I was a little uncertain about what was appropriate for them to wear to a funeral.  It seemed strange to dress little girls in black/dark clothes especially in the summer.  So I ended up having them wear these pretty floral print dresses.

After I picked out the dresses, Daniel told me they were perfect because Papaw loved flowers!   And when I showed Daniel's sister the dresses, she commented that Papaw would have loved them because he loved when little girls wore dresses that looked like they were made for little girls (and not little girls trying to look like grown ups).

In the end, I don't think it really matters what the girls wore to the funeral.  But it makes me happy to think that they wore dresses that would have made Papaw smile!

Several of our Springfield friends drove over for the visitation, which meant so much to us!!  The girls and I left the visitation a little early (as the girls were getting REALLY restless) to join them all for dinner.

Here's a picture of the whole family after the funeral.

While the family was busy making funeral arrangements and grieving, I tried to keep the girls occupied and out of everyone's way.  One day we were able to go spend some time with my friend Kellie and her kids.  We met for lunch at Chick Fil A and then went to a splash pad at a local park.  The kids had a lot of fun at the splash pad!

Summer Reading Guide

I have a bunch of blogging to catch up on, and I'm going to do it SOON!

For now, go take a look at the Summer Reading Guide I put together on my book blog:
Emily's Summer Reading Guide

Mary Poppins Comes to Visit!

So I did fairly good at posting daily in May, but totally failed this past week.  It's been hectic, and I've been tired.  It takes a lot of mental energy for me to blog, and sometimes at the end of the day, I just don't have it in me.

So let's play a little catch up, because it was a big weekend around here with Isla's third birthday and her Mary Poppins themed party!

My mom could not make it to Isla's party.  She had considered coming to Isla's party dressed and in character as Mary Poppins, but it wasn't going to work out.  So instead she came a couple of days early to surprise the girls...and she decided to dress like Mary Poppins then!

She came to our door and rang the doorbell, looking just like Mary Poppins with a carpetbag and umbrella.  Then she quoted a whole scene from the movie with an English accent!  I wish I would have gotten video of it.  Audrey thought it was hilarious.  Isla was shy and unsure, but later she talked about it as if she liked it.

On Mary Poppins' arrival day, Audrey was the only brave enough to pose for a picture.

Mary Poppins came bearing gifts, which she magically pulled out of her carpetbag.

The next day, before Mary Poppins left, we managed to get the birthday girl to semi-cooperate for a few pictures.

Thanks, Nana, for coming to visit and for creating such a fun memory for the girls!!