Hylie's New Bike

A few weeks before Hylie's birthday, Geoff took her to the store to pick out a bike.  She was pretty excited and wanted to make sure she got all the bells and whistles with it--you know, a bike bell, a sparkly helmet, a flower basket, and no girl-bike is complete without handle bar streamers!

Don't let this picture fool you...Eliana was stationary unless someone was pushing or pulling her, ha ha!

She's getting the hang of things, but some practice is definitely in order!

Super-Hero Birthday Party

For about a month now, Hylie and I have been having fun planning her very own 'Super-Hero Birthday Party'.  Quite frankly, I don't know where the theme idea came from...most of her show and book choices involve fairies and princesses, but that's what she requested and I thought the idea had a bunch of possibilities, so I went with it.

Truly, I had a ton of fun planning and preparing everything, especially since Hylie had her hand in so much of it.  And the big day was a huge success--but it was exhausting trying to keep up with 10 little kids and pack in all the activities!

When the kids arrived, they each got to pick a cape, logo, and mask to decorate.

Then they each came outside to take a picture flying through the sky.

 Hylie helped construct the buildings for the backdrop

Eliana jumped on the sheet in hopes to get some actual air for her shot

There is no down-time when super-heroes are about! 

After a pizza lunch, Hylie demonstrated how to use all the super-hero tools so the kids could go outside and defeat all the villains.  My favorite quote of the party happened after all the kids got outside and were sitting at their assigned stations, there was a lull for about 1.7 seconds so a little boy piped up and asked, "Can we start saving the world now?"  ha ha!

They used Popsicle stick catapults (that Hylie helped make) to poison this monster with pom-poms.

These robots had shaving cream goo all over them, but these super-heroes stopped them from contaminating the city with their ooze.

Hylie drew some robots that were taking over a castle.

The kiddos had marshmallow shooters to knock down the robots...but apparently when it's above 80 degrees, marshmallows get too soft and squishy to actually shoot...so this activity was a bit of a flop.

 But we ended things big with a pinata

 This pinata was so tough, that after it got a pretty good beating from all these crime-fighters, it took two Dads to free all the candy!

I laughed that the cake ended up looking like "Cousin It" with a crown...

but it tasted pretty yummy, so I'm okay with that!  But anything tastes good after saving the world, right?

Hylie's 5th Birthday

On August 17th Hylie couldn't wait to get out of bed and celebrate her birthday!  I was glad she woke up happy, because the night before I made the mistake of pointing out it was her last night of being four--all of a sudden alligator tears were dripping down her face as she cried, "But I like being four!"

We started the day out by opening gifts and then the rest of the day was spent enjoying all her new things!  (And she also pointed out that 5 doesn't feel that different from 4.)

She LOVES this Lite-Brite set from Grandma and Grandpa!

For her birthday, Hylie asked if she could have "a fishbowl with a fish in it".  I giggled that she clarified (more than once) that she wanted the bowl to have a fish in it--maybe she's realized that I'm pretty anti-pets.  I will admit, I looked into the "Hexbug Aquabot"... but, I caved and got a little tank and quickly explained that it was only fishless for now because she was going to pick out her own little fishy after dinner.

Lillian was fascinated by the helium balloon! 

For dinner, Mom was given the day off because we headed to Culver's for some yummy food including their delicious custard.

She pretended the spoon was her candle while we sang "Happy Birthday"

After dinner, Hylie was very excited to pick out her new pet fish.  She found a beautiful Beta fish and named 'her' Emma.

Yep, she's still in the 95th percentile!

We are so excited to see what 5 will bring.  Lots of big things right around the corner with kindergarten and a ballet class!  We love you, Hylie!  We love all the fun, excitement, and craziness you bring to life!

Kindergarten Orientation

Hylie couldn't be more excited or more ready for kindergarten!  She got to go to the school, check out her classroom, meet her teacher, and participate in kindergarten screening.  All went extremely well, the first day of school is coming up fast!

 Trying out her school supplies in her assigned chair in her classroom

With her teacher, Ms. Bangee 

Lillian 10 months

As I was opening this blog to add some posts, the song "The Beat Goes On" started running through my mind.  Time just doesn't stand still, it's hard to blink sometimes.

Yes, Lillian is already 10 months, but there are some things she is not trying to rush: teething, hair growth, and crawling!  Ha!  But she is continuing to grow and develop.  She is eating more and more solid foods and has mastered the sign for "more" to let us know she wants the vittles to keep coming.  Every once in a while she'll sign all done, but after her 5th or 6th helping of strawberries, Mom usually lets Lillian know it's time to be all done.  (The diaper-changer should have a say in these things, right?) She makes me giggle at the dinner table, because for every first bite of food, Lillian barely opens her lips so just a little taste of what's in store for her makes it into her mouth.  Once she's had an itty-bitty taste, she then willingly opens her mouth so the entire spoon can sail on in.  So far she hasn't protested any food, so the fact she 'tests' each food first intrigues me.

If her mouth isn't busy eating, she is making the cutest sounds from "ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da" to blowing raspberries and clicking her tongue.  She also will put anything and everything in her mouth which is NOT a fun game for this mama.

When music is turned on, you'll see her little body move around and if you sing a familiar song that has hand motions, every once in a while you might be lucky enough to catch her patting her legs or touching her toes!

Even though she's not crawling, Lillian still manages to get around.  I'll put her on the floor with toys, but if she sees something more interesting (like a piece of lint on the carpet or some abandoned papers) she'll work her way over to that spot!

La de da de de, la de da de da...

Our Little Dancer

Hylie took a 'creative movement' dance class this summer and LOVED it!  Tuesdays could never come fast enough for her.  It was the first time Hylie took a class without Mom staying with her and we both handled it like champs!

The highlight of her dance experience was last week when Hylie got to perform on a stage for an audience.  Actually, she performed BESIDE a stage for an audience.  It rained just before the show started and after they wiped off the dance area, they deemed it too slippery for dancers.  Hylie didn't seem to mind one bit.  She enjoyed every second of her experience and did a great job dancing and performing.  She's super excited to start ballet this fall, which means lots more dancing to come!

Check out the dance video here!