A Birthday Tea Party

Maya chose to have a dress up tea party with her friends to celebrate turning six.  We invited a couple girls from her kindergarten class and a couple girls that she went to daycare with (who brought along some siblings) and ended up with 9 girls.  It was a great group of kids and I think they had a blast!

The girls and I got everything set up the night before - dollar store hats, tea cups and flowers.  What more do you need for a tea party?

Everyone wore their favorite princess dress (there were quite a few Elsa's) and sat at the table for tea and lunch.  Maya was SO excited to surprise everyone with dirt cake.  We put flowers in it and left it on the table during the meal so there was a bit of confusion when we told them they would be eating dirt for their dessert.  

Laurel has found her true partner in crime in Lyla.  Who else would show up to a tea party as a superhero and prefer to play light sabers to tea??  They go to school together and have known each other since they were born since Laney and Maya have also been friends since they were babies.  Maya spent the whole morning telling Laurel she couldn't wear Batgirl to the party because she had to be a princess, which Laurel wasn't happy with.  You can't imagine how excited she was to see Lyla show up as Supergirl - there was NO way she was going to put on a princess dress at that point.

We rented a big Cinderella bouncy house, which as a huge hit!  Nothing like bouncing away all your energy.  Two of Maya's new friends from kindergarten.  She did a great job playing with both old and new friends and making sure everyone felt included and got to know each other.

"The Siblings"  :-)  It is pretty fun to have friends that have two girls the same ages as Maya and Laurel.  Luckily they all get along great which makes get togethers so easy!

What to Wear

I'm pretty sure I have posted about Laurel's strong opinions on her attire before, but I just have to add these.  Nothing has changed and sometimes it makes it very difficult to get out of the house in the morning.

Her newest favorite outfit is what she has deemed "running clothes".  The outfits are made up with some sort of shockingly colorful/neon running capris and shirt and running shoes with no socks.  I'm trying to break the no sock habit though - now that it is summer sweaty feet and running shoes are not a good combination.  I caved and went to buy her a couple more of these outfits because the daily argument about not allowing her to wear the same outfit every day for a week was becoming very old.

And if she is not wearing running clothes, she accessorizes to the extreme.  Who else would pick bunny ears and a crown?  I let her wear them to the store and she received SO many compliments - apparently she knows more than I do :-)

A Daisy Girl Scout

A friend of mine, who has a daughter Maya's age convinced me to join her in leading a daisy girl scout troop.  I was a little hesitant due to the time commitment, but we are almost through the first year and it has been a complete blast.  We just registered to take it on another year!  Maya has really, really enjoyed it and she has really grown a lot since starting.  I really think it is helping her become more confident in herself and she is making some great friends along the way.  Here are some of the recent activities:

Horse farm:  we got to go visit and horse farm and learn how to take care of them.  The girls got to brush and groom a horse, lead a horse around the circle and ride one.  Laurel got to join on this outing and we all had such a great time.

Maya and Zoe - they took turns leading and riding.

Laurel's turn!

Facepainting - of course, they chose to get the same thing so they were matching.

Maya earned her pet badge!

Our little Daisy troop (and a couple horses).

The girls did amazing at selling cookies and reached their goal.  As a reward they chose to go to Build-A-Bear.

Maya washing and brushing her new Elsa bear.

The girls and their prizes!

We did an Amazing Race outing with the troop.  The girls teamed up and had to answer clues and do challenges in order to move on to the next station.  They learned all about supporting and protecting the salmon in our local streams and rivers.  Such a fun experience.

Maya, Sage and Zoe

Matching seeds to the type of plant they will grow

We visited a fire station for a tour to learn about "Respecting Authority".  They gave us a tour, talked about fire safety and let the girls climb into the fire truck.  This was another one that Laurel got to join.

The girls sold a ton of cookies this year and they all did such a great job!  They set a goal and tracked the cookies they sold in order to reach that goal. They worked hard to learn about money and how to make change.  Here are pictures from some of the booth sales we did.  This was one area where it became very clear that Maya was growing confidence.  Initially she had no interest in asking people leaving the store if they wanted to buy cookies, but once she watched the other girls doing it she jumped right in.  I was so impressed with her!

A Mothers Day Hike

The weather was gorgeous on mothers day and we decided to venture out for a hike.  We didn't have our act together in time to head to the mountains, but there is a local one that is perfect for the girls - right around 2.5 miles round trip so they are both able to make it the whole way without help.  Even Laurel who usually begins to complain that her legs are tired 5 minutes in!  There were lots of little critters to check out and a nice river to sit by for a breather.  The girls spent some time having stick and leaf boat races, building rock structures and checking out the small fish.  It was a great day!

Twins!

M: Mommy, we are twins. We have the same dress, leggings, socks, shoes and pony tails.

L: And we both have eyelashes!!!

Laurel's Birthday

The celebrating began with a special birthday girl crown at school.

Then the lucky girl had two separate birthday parties.  The first was a really fun art party with some of her friends and cousins.  Based on Laurel's love of sea life, the instructors created a fantastic art project for them to create.  Such a fun day!

Notice the tongue - that is how you can tell she is in full concentration mode

A plate full of cookies for the kid who doesn't like cake - and a goofy look she makes when she is trying not to be embarrassed by all the attention.

A group of little artists and their creations!

Then we had the family over to celebrate both Laurel's birthday and Easter.  It was a great afternoon filled with:

Lightsaber wars, Laurel's newest obsession - 

 An Easter Egg hunt -

 Bubbles (and a bouncy house) - 

A picnic dinner (excuse the blurry pics, my phone doesn't work well indoors) -

 And birthday ice cream sundaes -

Four!!!

It is hard to believe that my spunky little girl is already four years old!  She has made life SO fun and always keeps us guessing.  It has been such an experience to watch her personality grow and to realize how completely different she is than me.  Maya is so similar to me that I can usually figure out what she is thinking... Laurel, not so much.  It can be a bit challenging, but I am really learning to love the different perspectives.

Some of my favorite things about four year old Laurel:

- Her energy.  If she is going anywhere, she tends to run there.  She doesn't do well just sitting still and is known to pace around a room in circles.  Until she is tired.  Then it is like someone turned a switch and she refuses to take another step and wants to be carried.  That has made for some fun adventures (can you sense the sarcasm?).

- Our morning snuggles.  Laurel is an early riser and almost every morning she makes her way into our room, usually between 6:30 and 6:45.  Rey is typically at the gym so she climbs into bed with me and we spend some time together snuggling, checking out the weather forecast and chatting about the day to come.  It is probably my favorite time of the day.

- Her sense of humor.  She is constantly making us laugh with her make-believe play, her jokes and her stories.

- How thoughtful she is.  Her valentines day card for us said,  I love you because: - you pray for me at night time! - you read books to me! - you give me hugs and kisses! - you take me to do fun things! She really thinks through what she wants to say.

- She still loves her art, although has a streak of perfectionism that can sometimes make it challenging to complete a project.  We are working on understanding that not everything has be exactly perfect and it is a good thing when everything does things a little differently.

- She has quite the little temper and I have learned that sometimes it is best to give her a little time and space in order to work it out herself.