Archive for July, 2013

Mermaid Party!!!

Saturday, July 13th, 2013

Well, Serenity’s birthday had a perfectly wonderful start!  When she went outside to see the party for the first time she whispered to me “This is the best party I could possibly have!”  I love her enthusiasm and sweetness.  I completely loved designing the party, even if I woke up at 3am and couldn’t go back to sleep until I went downstairs and finished my party printables.  =)

**Free party planning consultations for anybody that came to read the birthday post!  Party planning is so much fun!  Love you guys!

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Serenity and Donovan immediately started begging to dig into the new sand we got for the treasure hunt, but they had to wait for the guests to arrive!  I buried gems, shells, and pearl necklaces in the sandboxes for the little mermaids to find!  Along with a big jar of glitter to make the sand fancy.  I think everyone loved this, even the big kids.  I’m glad I thought to have baggies and labels so everyone took home their treasures.  Usually I have so many goodies that get forgotten so I went label crazy this time!

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As people arrived this year they got to dress up as mermaids!  The kids got tails I made with pretty fabric!  The fabric is very glittery, so our house has been purple all month.  Serenity and Donovan love their tails.  I made Serenity’s first to make sure the design worked, and the entire rest of that day Donovan asked where his was so I had to get busy and finish a second one!  I also made mermaid wands with starfish on top.  I had the felt and beads for that on hand so it was a free project!

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We had the water blob again, and it was a big hit with the kids even though it sprung a leak very early this year.  I think I needed more duct tape!  This time I filled it with foam shapes, glitter and food coloring.  Mrs. McBride suggested that at our Bubble Party last year. =)  The mermaids splashed and rolled around on that.  It was giggly fun!

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Everyone got to decorate a little mermaid treasure chest.  The lesson learned there was that glitter glue is immensely popular!

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I sewed a canopy out of beautiful blue organza and ribbons that I got at my favorite fabric store in San Jose.  The kids have enjoyed playing with this for a couple of weeks, but everyone was too busy running around to really play with it at the party.  The Mermaid Mansion sure looked cute though =)  It will probably hang in Serenity’s room as a little reading/snuggling nook.

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The Mermaid Splash was so much fun!  I’m so glad Serenity likes sprinklers at last!  It kept the kids cool and happy while they were outside!  Dad did such a good job building it.  I’m kind of proud of how it was decorated.  I used extra ribbon wands from her rainbow third birthday, and leftover sponge balls from Donovan’s ball and bath party last year!

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Dad also designed and built an awesome mermaid shell chair!  It is so pretty and made a perfect photo opportunity for our mermaids!

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Jennifer designed and made most of the food, and it was amazing!  Serenity told me that she wanted mermaid food, and Jen came up with a complete list of delicious and adorable food for mermaids!  She made octopuses with marshmallows and candy melts, clams with pearls out of Madelines and yogurt raisins, dolphin muffins, and starfish-shaped watermelon.  We also had seaweed (grapes on skewers), crab legs (carrot sticks and tomatoes on skewers), sea water (sprite and blue gatorade), shark’s teeth (cheese cut into triangles) and fish.  We ordered blue sea turtles from the donut shop, which made both of my children extremely happy.  I got too many, so we sent one home with each child.  So maybe I got just enough =)  Serenity also told us that she needed a cake that was blue inside and out.  Jennifer made this amazing cake!  Amazing and delicious.  I’m lucky less than a quarter of it is left. Starfish really likes mermaid cake.  =)

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Fishing was a lot of fun again!  Everyone is starting to get pretty good at it, even Donovan managed to hook his puzzle all by himself!  I had labeled grocery sacks with everyone’s names and the things that they should collect during the party, so hopefully everyone made it home with all their treasures!

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After cake and fishing we opened presents. Serenity got so many wonderful things!  She’s been working her way through them all afternoon and her enthusiasm hasn’t waned a bit!  She’s a lucky lucky girl.  And I’m a lucky Mama.  She thanked me for an awesome party and said I was the best Mama she could possibly have.  Lucky me =)

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Favorite Pictures =)

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

Here are some of my favorite pics of Serenity that didn’t make it in the other posts =)

August 2012

August 2012

 

Serenity at the Back to School Bubble Party

Serenity at the Back to School Bubble Party

At the Pumpkin Patch October 2012

At the Pumpkin Patch October 2012

November 2012

November 2012

December 2012, in a beautiful dress Mimi bought Raegan.

December 2012, in a beautiful dress Mimi bought Raegan.

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Pics from our December Family Photoshoot with Heather Warren.  I love these pictures, her big happy smile!

Pics from our December Family Photoshoot with Heather Warren. I love these pictures, her big happy smile!

January 2013, modeling clothes from her fabulous shopping expedition with Aunt Jen and Raegan

January 2013, modeling clothes from her fabulous shopping expedition with Aunt Jen and Raegan

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More modeling January 2012

More modeling January 2012

 

March 2013

March 2013

February 2013

February 2013

 

Enjoying her mermaid donuts for her school birthday celebration

Enjoying her mermaid donuts for her school birthday celebration May 2013

 

Serenity’s Favorite Activities, Games and Shows

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

Serenity’s Favorite Activities:

Serenity loves so many things!  She’s enthusiastic, curious, and adventurous.  I love that about her. =)  She told me this morning that taking mermaid pictures was so thrilling!  Her enthusiasm is contagious =)  Here are some of my favorite pictures of her favorite things to do!

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Little Computer:  Serenity loves playing computer games.  Her favorite apps are the various Cookie and Cake Doodles, Monkey Words, Lunchbox and Preschool, and the Toca Tea Party type apps.  She still loves Starfall, SuperWhy, and Nick Jr. on the regular computer.  And she’s added some Disney Jr. Games, like Sophia the First

 

Play-doh: She still loves play-doh.  We’ve tried a few new activities this year, like using a big pile of play-doh for a landscape and using little animal figures to walk through the snow and make homes and stories about.

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Crafts:  She likes so many crafts I can hardly list it.  She loves beading necklaces, painting, using stickers.  She got a couple of sticker activity books this year and adored them.  Daisy the Donut Fairy and Camilla the Cupcake Fairy!  She’s really good with scissors now, and sometimes will just cut her own designs out of paper.  We’ve made lots of fun things, and she brings tons of cool things home from school and camp.  I’ve taken pictures and kept an alarming number of items already.  But we love it!

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Her first kiwi crate craft!  Grandma got us two gift subscriptions to kiwi crate this year, and we LOVED it!

Her first kiwi crate craft! Grandma got us two gift subscriptions to kiwi crate this year, and we LOVED it!

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Workbooks (esp. mazes, logic puzzles): Serenity can enjoy a whole morning by herself with a new workbook.  Kelly gave her a set of Kumon workbooks that included a maze book, and she sat down and said she had to do her work and went through nearly the entire thing in a day.  We have also gotten a few Lollipop Logic puzzle books, and it’s amazing watching her use logic to figure them out!  She loves astonishing us with what she can do!  Eric has even been teaching her mind bender logic puzzles, and she really can do them herself!

 

Gymnastics and Dance (making up her own): We took lessons briefly in both gymnastics and dance, and she loved both of them.  I think next year we will pick one thing and stick with it for an entire year and see what she thinks about that.  Right now she is working on her cartwheels, and she practices it nearly every day.  It’s so much fun to see how much she’s progressed.  She can do backbends really well now, and even walk in them!  And she does jumping somersaults onto the bed.  And headstands, and handstands!  She even kicked up into a handstand against the wall.  Just amazing, and something I could never do!  She loves making up dances too.  She twirls and leaps, and is so adorable.  And graceful!

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We made her valentines this year =)  Cut out the hearts, used liquid watercolors and droppers to paint them, and then sewed them together into necklaces!  It took several steps, I was so proud!

We made her valentines this year =) Cut out the hearts, used liquid watercolors and droppers to paint them, and then sewed them together into necklaces! It took several steps, I was so proud!

We try to do an activity for kindness day every Friday.  Serenity helped to sew and fill corn bags for Grandma and Little Casey. She's very careful with the sewing machine.

We try to do an activity for kindness day every Friday. Serenity helped to sew and fill corn bags for Grandma and Little Casey. She’s very careful with the sewing machine.

Frisbee:  She just learned this recently with the frisbee we got in the Kumon set, but she loves it!

 

Nature (picking flowers, leaves, making piles or hideouts.)  Serenity loves to be outside.  She doesn’t need any company, she’s happy to make up her own stories and games.  She’ll pick flowers and decorate the trees, she’ll pick leaves and make piles and collections.  She loves to perch on top of the playhouse and pretend to be a fairy.  She pretends to make her own website, usually nilla.com, and she’ll make up games or activities for it.  She loves to hike in the woods and dig in the garden.  She loves to climb trees and is really proud when she does!  She just loves nature and being outdoors!  She still loves swinging and can spend half an hour at Papa’s getting pushed in the pink swing.  She can use a big swing but we usually have the baby swing up still since that’s easier for Donovan.

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We made bird feeders with pine cones and birdseed.  Perfect for Nature Girl!

We made bird feeders with pine cones and birdseed. Perfect for Nature Girl!

She loves picking bouquets

She loves picking bouquets

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She picked dozens of blossoms off the clematis and decorated the maple tree

She picked dozens of blossoms off the clematis and decorated the maple tree

She made a pirate hideout =)  I had just pruned the maple and crepe myrtle and she used all the branches to weave this shelter.

She made a pirate hideout =) I had just pruned the maple and crepe myrtle and she used all the branches to weave this shelter.

Science Experiments:  We did a lot of these, especially right after her birthday last year.  She’ll ask to repeat the vinegar and baking soda with food color experiments once a month or so.  We’ve done the milk and oil with food coloring, some experiments with ice blocks, and lots of other things.  She got a science kit for Christmas and we’ve slowly worked our way through some ph experiments with citric acid or baking soda and purple cabbage as a ph indicator.

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Dress Up Stuff:  She has a clothes rack full of dress up stuff, and I love seeing her dance around the house in the ensemble of her choice.  It’s so cute!  She loves to invite friends up to see her dress up stuff, and once she had all her cousins over and they all dressed up!

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Legos: Still using our wonderful Duplo collection.  We have all the little figures like zookeepers, policemen, and people that we’ve decided are people in our family.  So she loves making houses and gardens for Lego Serenity, Lego Donovan and Lego Mama and Daddy.

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Soccer: We signed her up for two sessions of soccer this time.  She likes the games like Red Light Green Light, and the various soccer games like Alien Tag (where you kick soccer balls at the teachers who are flying around in hula hoops.)  She’s not really excited by the competition aspect when she tried the older classes.  People taking away her ball does not make her very happy.  But she has fun with the games!  A few times, a game made her cry, like fox and farmer where you have a scarf for a tail and someone tries to take your tail.  She just sobbed over that one, although she did agree to try it the next time, and she did great then.

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School:  Serenity absolutely loves her school and her teachers.  Although I’m not sure how she’ll take it next year when Ms. Parent and Mrs. McBride aren’t her teachers!  Her most often asked question about school last year was why she didn’t get to go every day, especially pizza day. She is really looking forward to going five days a week next year, and Mama has almost resigned herself to the fact that she’ll be gone so long.  She loves science, patterns, and reading.  She has made a lot of friends this year, and has had actual playdates where she really plays with her friends!  She will yell “Lorelai!” and give her hugs when she sees her like it’s been a year since they’ve last met instead of just a few hours.  Mrs. McBride told me that she’s been playing a lot with Harper and that they’ve formed a special bond.  I’m so glad to see her so happily playing with other children!
Party Planning:  Serenity loves helping me get ready for parties!  For the Valentine party this year she helped me make and decorate a hundred foam cookie cutouts.  She helped brainstorm ideas for her mermaid party this year.  She loves to help!
Hide and Seek: Serenity has gotten really good at hide and seek this year!  She doesn’t always call out to tell you where she is!  And she has found some excellent hiding places, including on the shelf in the linen closet, where once she hid for a good 15 minutes!  And once she hid inside the slipcover of the couch!  I don’t think I would have found that one if she hadn’t giggled!

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A class project =)

A class project =)

Party Planning:  Serenity loves helping me get ready for parties!  For the Valentine party this year she helped me make and decorate a hundred foam cookie cutouts.  She helped brainstorm ideas for her mermaid party this year.  She loves to help!

A random Tuesday party =)

A random Tuesday party =)

Serenity decided we needed a hat party =)

Serenity decided we needed a hat party =)

Hide and Seek: Serenity has gotten really good at hide and seek this year!  She doesn’t always call out to tell you where she is!  And she has found some excellent hiding places, including on the shelf in the linen closet, where once she hid for a good 15 minutes!  And once she hid inside the slipcover of the couch!  I don’t think I would have found that one if she hadn’t giggled!

Making up silly songs:  We don’t listen to music as often as we should.  Usually it’s just Laurie Berkner.  But Serenity loves to make up silly songs and will sing them all day long =)  Once, when we were going to California, she sang “We’re going to California…in the moonlight…”  She had to change the lyrics all day long as the sun came up. =)

 

Snuggles and sleeping with DZ:  Serenity is like a heat seeking missile in her sleep.  She cuddles and snuggles right next to you.  It’s so cozy!  Lately Donovan has been sleeping in her room, and she loves having the company.

 

Favorite Shows:

Dora, esp Dora Mermaid

Still Loves Tad Leapfrog DVDs

Strawberry Shortcake DVD

Backyardigans (more often when DZ chooses it, but she likes it too.)
Favorite Games:

Obstacles: We played this one a lot!  You have to use your imagination and a pile of object cards to somehow get past obstacles like rivers, lava, and lions.  It’s a blast and so interesting to see what creative solutions are proposed!

Busy Busy Airport: This game involves rolling dice and flying passengers all over the house to various destinations.  Serenity got it out a few times so she and Donovan could just zoom their planes around the house.  =)

Magic

Castle Panic

Guess Who

Rush Hour

Eeboo Fairytale Spinner: Another creative game.  Serenity tends to pick the same pieces, especially the princess and the fairy, to write her stories about.  But the stories are all different!

Boochie: This is like bocce ball, except you play it indoors.  You throw balls and hoops and try to get them near the orange ball.  But you have to throw in funny ways, like behind your back, laying down, jumping on one foot, and other silly actions that get us all giggling!

Serenity made this perler bead craft all by herself!  There was no pattern or anything!  And I didn't help!

Serenity made this perler bead craft all by herself! There was no pattern or anything! And I didn’t help!

Dressing up as a pirate =)

Dressing up as a pirate =)