Sweet Lucy is 3!

Lucy just turned 3!  She's got such a spunky, fun, loving, and feisty personality.  We all just love her to pieces!

What a great day!  We just played, read some of her favorite books, and later I let her choose a movie.  She wanted to watch Despicable Me 2.  "Vedo vedo vedo"...she loves saying what the minions say, over and over and over again.  In the morning, we let Lucy open one present, which was a cute necklace and a bunch of leggings.  She was in her underwear and trying them all on.  "I look like a disco ball!" she said.  Lol!  Where does she come up with these things?  When I asked Lucy what she wanted to eat for lunch, she knew exactly what she wanted!  She replied with a big smile on her face "bubblegum!"  I told her we would have plenty of gum later.  Then we got ready the rest of the way for her birthday and decorated.  She took a nap for a while, which was good.  She decided long ago that she wanted to have a gumball machine birthday (when Cal was gearing up to plan his birthday), and it turned out to be a fun theme to go with.

We made a gumball machine cake for Lucy.  I decorated it the night before...when the kids were asleep.  It didn't turn out very well.  I tried using marshmallow fondant this time, but I think I'm a fondant failure.  I like the good old fashioned buttercream piping out stars and letters and borders and flowers better.  Mine just never turns out right.  But, the marshmallow frosting at least tasted better than the regular fondant.  When I was done, I put it on a higher counter, and thought it would be okay.  In the morning, I told Cal and Lucy if they touched it they wouldn't get any cake and ice-cream at the party.  I had them repeat to me back what would happen if they did it so they were clear on it.  So when I was getting out of the shower, I heard some whispering and running feet.  They ran into their bedroom and had gumballs in their mouths.  I knew exactly what they were doing...those stinkers strike again!  They ripped pieces of fondant off the cake and stuck their fingers in the frosting to try it and pulled some gumballs out.  "It is really good, mom!"  So, they didn't get any cake.  Not even Lucy got any of her birthday cake.  And she was so excited about her pink cake.  Lucky for her, Daddy gave her a little ice cream.  I so wanted to cave in and give her some, but was proud I didn't, like I do sometimes.  She and Cal have got to learn.  But I still feel bad!  Another cake bites the dust...haha!

Grandma Sue and Dan sent Lucy a Cabbage Patch doll for her birthday.  When she was opening the box, she pulled out the bubble wrap and exclaimed excitedly, "Cal, I got bubble wrap!"  Then Emma pointed out the cute doll with a kitty shirt and Lucy loved that thing and carried it around with her, even during her birthday song and cake & ice-cream.  I still love the smell of those things.

For her party,  we decorated a little bit.  We used some polka dot glitter lanterns, and wrapped balloons in cellophane and tied with strings to make them look like giant gumballs.  We made some little party favors too for the guests to take home.  We made little gumball machines and filled them with punch balloons, ball and string game, and bubblegum of course.  We had some of her little friends over.  "My nursery friends" she calls them.  Johnny, Danny, Sophie, Caleb, Danica and of course Cal and Emma were the party guests.  As they were coming in, they played with her little ball popper and Fisher Price gumball machine toy. And we had a bunch of balloons for them to bop around.  Then we did a little craft.  I had different colors of ink pads out and printed off pictures of gumball machines.  They stamped their fingers in the ink to make prints to look like gumballs.  It was fun to see everyone's different takes, and how all of the kids' pictures were cute but so unique.  Then we played Go Go Gumball, a spoon and gumball relay race game.  The big kids went first to show the little ones how to do it, because they were a little hesitant at first.  But then they really got into it and enjoyed it.  After that game, we played "Pin the Bubble Gum on Lucy".  We gave each kid a small balloon and had them try to get the closest to her mouth.  They thought that was pretty fun!  Then we had some dinner.  We ate pizza, per Lucy's request with "bubble gum machine" fruits and vegetables and had Kool-Aid to drink.  Then we played another game where the kids had to pull off small balloons off a gumball machine and one had a sticker on the back.  The friend who got that special balloon got a prize.  After that, it was time to sing to Miss Lucy and eat cake and ice-cream.  She loved watching the candles burning and kept reminding her friends she got to blow out the candles.  But a few of the younger ones helped her blow them out, which made her a little upset, but she got over it.  She didn't get any cake, as I mentioned earlier, but ate some ice cream.  After cake and ice-cream, we did presents.  Lucy was very excited about this portion of course.  Emma helped her and she got some fun things.  She did a pretty good job telling people thank you.  We did have one birthday meltdown...Lucy wanted to put on her new fairy princess dress and I asked her to wait.  She took off all of her clothes and tried to put it on, when I told her to put them over her clothes.  So she was in her room crying for a bit, but then came back again.  All in all, though, it was a great party, and she had a wonderful time!  That night, we looked at her baby book, and played with her new toys.  Her favorite thing was a Minnie Mouse snowglobe bath toy.  "This is my new best toy!" she keeps saying.  Little cutie.

That night when I was tucking her in, she said several times "I love you, Mommy!" in her deep voice.  It was so sweet.  I love this little lady!

All about Lucy at 3 years old...

Lucy is so fun!  She is always making us smile and laugh and has something cute to say.  A recent thing she says every time she gets some hand sanitizer is "Mmm, it smells like princess castle!"  Every time.  And the way she says it kills us.

She's got the cutest little face!  We love her sweet smiles and great personality.  What a pretty girl she is!

She is a feisty and stubborn girl, too!  Lucy has her mind made up about what she wants and will do anything to get it.  She can be huge drama sometimes, especially when she's tired.  When she gets this way, you cannot reason with her, she will just wail.  You just have to throw her in bed and she eventually calms down and falls asleep.

She is a terrible sleeper.  She still wakes up like 2 to 4 times a night, and each time we take her back to her bed, unless we don't hear or feel her, which happens sometimes.  She crawls right in with us and I don't know it until I wake up.

Lucy loves piggy back rides, being tickled, hugs, kisses, and all kinds of affection.  "Mommy/Daddy, you can't tickle me!!" she teases as she encourages us to chase after her to tickle her.

Lucy loves playing with baby dolls.  They are her favorite!  She has a great imagination and I love to overhear her role play with Cal or by herself.

She loves her siblings, whether it's playing with Emma, scheming with Cal, or snuggling Covey, she loves them all.

Lucy is Daddy's little sweetie and she just loves her Dad, and he loves her too.  He lights up when he sees her and loves to play with her.

Favorite songs - "I am Like A Star Shining Brightly" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"

Favorite shows on TV/Movies - "Doc McStuffins", "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood", Mickey and Minnie Mouse and "Despicable Me 2", any Disney Princess show.

Favorite food - cottage cheese (or any type of cheese).

Favorite color - pink, of course!

Favorite game - Ring Around the Rosie, Hide and Go Seek, the Dice Game.

Favorite book - "I Love You Songs" and "My First Colors Book"

At her 3 year appointment, Lucy was 36.5 lbs. and 31 inches tall.  

Happy birthday, sweetheart!  We love you!!!

Je t'aime moi

This year's Valentine's day was special...it actually wasn't just one fun-filled day, but several!

The weekend before Valentine's Day, Dave and I got to go out together.  We first went to Sweet Katee's bakery and picked out a treat for each other.  Dave got a cinnamon roll for me and I got a brownie for him.  We saved them for after the date and shared them with the kids because they were enormous!  We then went to the Aspen House for dinner.  Dave got salmon and I got chicken alfredo.  It was delicious!  And fun, like always just to be together and not worry about trying to keep the kids on their best behavior or entertaining them.  I love that we can just focus on each other.  I love my Dave.  He is always making me laugh and smile and feel good about myself.

    

We made Valentine's to send to all of the fam.  This year, we did glow stick valentines, and Barbie and Hot Wheels from a box.  Not very creative this year, but they were fun and that's what the kids wanted!

On Thursday, we had Emma's party at her school.  Her teacher asked me to plan some games and activities for it.  I'm kind of like the unofficial room mom.  :)  It was fun!  We went with a fish theme, an o"fish"al Valentine's Party and it turned out really well, only we only had 45 minutes and didn't get to everything.  First, we played "Pin the fishy kiss on Mr. Craigie".  The kids got a kick out of that and thought it was hilarious!  Then we played "The Great Bait Race", a relay race where the kids had to run gummy worms on a spoon to a bowl on the other side and fill up their team's bowl first.  Then we had a cupcake bar and they got to decorate cupcakes with all kinds of fishy things - gummy fish, goldfish crackers, pretzel sticks, sprinkles.  They loved it!

Friday, was the real Valentine's day, Emma had school off.  We made blackberry cheesecake muffins for breakfast and then the kids and I played (and cleaned) all day and just had fun.  I gave them some foam hearts and we came up with so many games and activities with them.  They made puzzles, we played hot lava, musical hearts, and they created many of their own games.  It was fun to see how many things they did with them!  I love hearing them giggle and laugh and play well together.  This weekend was so great for that and they only got into a few small fights!  :)  We also made some fish valentines out of construction paper hearts and googly eyes to take to a retirement and rehabilitation center here in town.  That was another activity we had planned for the school party, but didn't get around to that.  So we made them all.  Then that afternoon, Dave got home and brought me a cute rose and card.  Oh, I love him!  Then I took Cal and Emma (Lucy started not feeling well, so Daddy stayed home with her) to the nursing home and delivered those and some chocolate hearts or goldfish crackers which had these cute little tags on them.  I only snapped one picture there, but it was a great experience for the kids.  Emma was a little hesitant to get close to these people, but Cal was very outgoing and got more used to going around and giving the Valentine's out and wishing them a happy Valentine's day as we went on.  It was sweet to watch them, and I really wanted them to do this to get more comfortable around people that are different than them and also to think about others who are lonely instead of just themselves that day.  We really brought lots of smiles to the people, in fact, one man who couldn't walk very well, came out again and found us and told the kids they made his day and made him so happy!  I think that made them feel good.

That afternoon, we made some brownies for our ward Valentine's party.  Emma invited her friend Erika to come with us, and Cal and Covey came, but Lucy stayed home not feeling very well with Daddy.  We had a baked potato/chili bar with salads, and yummy love potion punch.  They had a heart hunt for the kids, where they would go around and look for paper hearts to win prizes, they had a big card making table set up with tons of stuff to make cute cards for others, heart guessing game, they played musical chairs, and we had a brownie bake-off.  We made peanut butter fudge brownies, which are always good!  Our ward knows how to throw a party!  The best part was when we were playing musical chairs, and of course they were playing country music.  Cal played one round, but then covered his ears and told me he was going to go outside so he didn't have to listen to the country music.  My friend came in a few minutes later snickering and telling me that she just heard the funniest thing!  She said she went out into the hall and noticed Cal was just sitting on the couch by himself and she asked him if he was okay and if he wanted to go back in the gym. He told her that he was out there on purpose so he wouldn't have to listen to the country music.  She said she almost died laughing, and not being a country fan herself, could relate!  We told him when we moved here he had better get used to it because that's about all there is.  That or NPR.  We'll take NPR.  We stopped at Burger King to get some food for Dave and Lucy, since they couldn't come with us.  Lucy was sad she couldn't come, but the BK crown made it all better!

We had our family Valentine date on Saturday, since our ward party was on Friday.  This year, we did a "Night in Paris" theme.  For their gift this year, we gave them a new outfit, since Paris is the fashion capitol of the world.  They were excited and loved them.  The kids and Dave helped cook and decorate that afternoon to get ready.  We made little paper eiffel towers for the table, and Emma put together a bouquet for the table out of fake flowers I had on hand.  We all greeted each other the French way, by giving a kiss to each other on each cheek and then we sat down for dinner.  We savored a five course meal - first we started off with sparkling cider then had fruit (apples and grapes), then cheese and bread (gruyere and Normandy style camberet cheese and a crusty baguette), and then nicoise salad, then quiche Lorraine, and for dessert, chocolate mousse macaroon pie.  While we were eating, we learned some basic French words, like "bonjour", ", "mademoiselle", and "monsieur", and phrases like "my name is ..." and looked up some the kids wanted to know how to say.  The most memorable?  They wanted to know how to say some body parts, so we looked that up.  Cal started laughing and said he wanted to learn how to say bottom, so we looked that up and found out it was "dairy aire".  They thought that was so funny and Dave and I always just thought that was slang or something.  Interesting.  It was a good dinner though, and nice to sit down longer and enjoy a little more time instead of the usual dinner rush.  Then we read a book called "Ollie & Moon", a children's book where the setting was in France and featured real photographs of Paris, but the characters were cartoons.  It was pretty cute.  After that, we watched a movie.  We were going to watch "Ratatouille", but didn't have it on Netflix, Flixster or Vudu (Disney is very picky!), so we ended up watching the "Tale of Despereaux" which Cal gave two thumbs down, Emma gave one thumb down and one thumb up, and Lucy wasn't really paying that much attention to.  It was okay.  But it was a magnifique night!  Je t'aime my family!

I'm definitely not a food photographer, so this doesn't at all look appetizing.  But it was, minus the camberet cheese, bleh!

Emma remembered Cov had a "beret" from Grandma Di and had to put it on him!