Seriously Folks - She's only 5

I loved having the photo booth set up.  After all of the kids had left, Ivy put on one of her dress up costumes with all of the jewelry.  She then came down and asked me if I could take some pictures of her.  She cracked me up posing and smiling for her pictures.  Talk about a grown up 5 year old cutie.

Some Favorite Faces

Here are a few favorite family faces from a little shoot after the party.  There is Jade, Axel, Harrison and Matthew.  Too too cute.

She may be 5 but it was her 1st Party

So this year was Ivy’s first friend party.  And that little girl knows how to do BIG.  There were a dozen little girls and boys at our house for two hours.  If I would have let her, Ivy would have invited at least a dozen more.  But, I could only handle so many.

Ivy selected the theme “Princess Bubblegum” because, as you can guess there are “Princess Bubblegum” paper goods and party favors at every party store.  Oh wait, there isn’t a thing with such a random and totally Ivy theme.  So we had to create on our own…

We started out with an invitation that pretty much shouted “IVY”.

Then we decorated for the party.  My mom created the favor bags and the banner.  We gathered everything we could find in bright pink and lime green.  

While we waiting for all the kids to arrive, we played Dance Central on the Kinect.   And then the party started.  We played lots of games and decorated foam crowns and monster visors from Oriental Trading.  Then we started playing games.  The first game was “pin the bubble on Ivy” (much like “pin the tail on the donkey” but with a tiny balloon and a 20×30 blow up of Ivy pretending to blow.

The thing that we learned is very very important, should you choose to play the game at a party of your own.  Tell the kids to keep their hands up as they walk to the wall.  How do I know that that is so important?  Well, Ivy didn’t keep her hands up and SMACKED right into the wall.  She had a bloody nose off and on for the rest of her party.  It was awesome.

Once she quit bleeding, we played Musical Chairs and Unwrap the Parcel.   The kids had a great time playing the games.  And were excited for cake and ice cream.

After that we took pictures of everyone with their crown or visor.  Poor little Ivy had a bit of a swollen nose.  (Darn wall).  We finished the party with a pinata that was far too hard for little five-year olds to break.  But they had fun with it and loved gathering the gum that filled the princess crown pinata.

We packed a LOT into a 2 hour party.  But with five-year olds, their attention span is not very long.  In fact, musical chairs seemed to lose their interest if they were among the early outs.  Lesson learned.

In the end, it was a lot of fun, a fair amount of work (it could have been a bigger production) but it was manageable and Ivy loved it.   I feel badly that I couldn’t let her invite everyone that she wanted.  I actually like the idea of only being able to invite as many kids as you are old.   Maybe next year I’ll be able to hold my ground a little better.

*** PS – The banner and gift tags were made by my mom with the help of a Cricut.  The cake was made by Sandy of Sandies Candies.

Mystical Princess Photo Shoot

For Ivy's birthday invitations, I decided to do a little themed photoshoot.  Both girls wanted to dress up as princesses.  Ivy was Princess Bubblegum and Jade was Queen Heaven.

Sometimes I am blown away by the beauty and sweetness in their faces.  I always want to remember how much fun they have together when they want to.  The sweet hugs and kind words that are said between two sisters that love each other are some of my favorite moments as a mom.

I needed to make a picture of her blowing a bubble.  These are some of my favorite out takes.

A New Year's Eve Worth Mentioning

As I go through and get caught up on my posts, I realized I had neglected New Year's Eve.  How could I forget New Year's Eve, you ask?  Well, I didn't take a single picture.  Not one.  And since my memories are visually stimulated, I missed this one fun night.

In the past we spend New Year's Eve celebrating with my family.  But this year, my folks were in California with Tom's family so we were on our own.

My work is on the calendar year, so end of quarter is also the last day of the year.  It sucks but it is how our family has gotten to celebrate New Year's Eve for the past 6 years.  But this year turned out differently.  I was able to completely close our quarter by the 30th.  On the 31st there was not a single order that I needed to track or locate.  It was awesome.

We went to Dan and Angela's for a very fun family oriented party.  Everyone played games.  Everyone ate lots of yummy food.  Everyone laughed and had a blast.  Ivy played dress up (because that is what she does every single chance she gets).

It was a great night and very different than what we typically do.

Ivy's Birthday

Ivy is five – and all day she reminded us that it was her birthday and that she is five.  Oh the list of things that she can and will do now that she’s five!  I’m crossing my fingers that her “now that I’m five I’m going to do whatever you ask me to do” really does happen.

We went on a field trip with Jade’s second grade class.

We went to Tokyo for a Teppan dinner.

We opened presents.

We read her book and called it a night.

Happy Birthday Ivy Rose!

Baby Lydia's Blessing Day

Here are some super sweet pictures of Baby Lydia on her special blessing day.

1 Month old Lydia

I am having so much fun taking pictures of my new little niece.  On Christmas day she wasn't in the most cooperative mood but she was still adorable for the few pictures i was able to get of her.  My favorite 1 month old picture of Baby Lydia was when Grandpa Wayne was holding her.  I love the love and tenderness that is so apparent in his face.

Sanford Family Christmas Exchange

After the rest of the cousins arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's house, we had the cousin gift exchange.  The girls had a blast playing with their cousins.

Grandpa Wayne came over and enjoyed having a little friend on his shoulder. :)

Santa-centric

Christmas Eve came to an end after we read the Nativity, The Night Before Christmas and hung their stockings.

The girls slept peacefully and woke in great moods ready for a morning of opening presents.

From Santa the family got an XBOX Kinect and we each got a game for it.  The girls didn't get very excited about it until they learned what fun they could have with the kinect.

Grandpa and Grandma gave the girls a new "wii motion" remote.  It was pretty cute that their pajamas matched their new remotes.

The girls gave each other webkins and were so excited that they both thought of the same thing to give each other.

Grandpa and Grandma also gave our family tickets to see "Mary Poppins" this fall at Capital Theater.  We are extremely excited for it.

Christmas Eve Outing

This year we went to Brigham City for Christmas Eve.  Brigham City has two Christmas attractions that are very fun to see.  There is a house at the end of a street that celebrates the holiday by displaying large wood cutouts of Disney characters.  They also have music playing.  The girls loved getting to see all of the different characters.

I wonder how their neighbors feel about having their street becoming a holiday attraction.  Plus, the cutouts have expanded beyond their own yard into both of their neighbor's yards.

After we went by the "holiday house" we went to the other great Christmas attraction.  The Lights at Willard Bay.  The lights are great and the kids love them.  After we drove through the lights we went over to the concessions for hot chocolate and SANTA!

Santa promised them that they would be by the house if they promised to go to bed when it was time.  I'm not sure what Grandpa and Grandma asked for nor what Santa promised them.

Annie

My parents love taking my girls to musicals. Which is something that I really loved doing when I was growing up.  I have very fond memories of season passes to the DeJong concert hall at BYU.  It was a highly anticipated event every other month.  We'd go with my family, my cousins and my grandparents.  It gave me an amazing foundation in the arts.  I am so grateful that my parents are continuing to build the foundation with my girls.

Right before Christmas, they went up to "Annie" in Heber.  Daddy Warbucks is a long time family friend, so the girls got to go backstage for pictures afterwards.

They had so much fun and were very thankful to Grandma and Grandpa for taking them.

Thanks again, Mom and Dad.

Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma

My folks were headed to California to spend time with Tom and Anne for Christmas, and it was our year to spend Christmas with Scott's family.  So on the Saturday before, Mom and Dad came over for Thai food and Christmas presents.

The girls were so excited about their Christmas present that I had to capture the excitement in "The Best Christmas Gift EVER!!!"

Way too much fun to be had by all of our family this year - looking forward to lots of mini golf, bumper cars and the water park.

Snowball fight

Saturday snow storms are my favorite because the are the ones that the girls get to play in the very most.  They get to help daddy snow blow/shovel the walks and then the get to build big beautiful snowmen.  They also get to have fresh snowball fights.  (I'm not a huge snowball fight fan unless it is fresh and powdery snow that doesn't hurt).  The best part of a snowball fight is when I manage to capture the perfect facial expressions that say....

"I'm gonna get you, dad!"

"Think I have a chance of winning this challenge?"

"Aw, man, come on dad, I'm a girl.  A headshot?  Really?"

Gotta love a snowball fight.

By the way, Ivy was pretending to be involved in the fight too, but she spent the better part of the time hiding.

"Apple School's" Christmas Program

Ivy is the perfect little Christmas elf.  You've heard me talk about how she reminds me of Lucy Little?  Well, I'm thinking a Christmas elf is the next best fit.

Ivy had one line in her Christmas program and said "The dolls are all lined up and ready".  Although I'm not sure what they were lined up for, she did a great job on it.  Unfortunately her positioning on the stage made it difficult to take great pictures or any pictures of her while she was standing at the mic.

We were really proud of her and what a great job she did.

Afterwards, we went to JW's with Grandpa and Grandma for some really big hamburgers.