Chloe is 4

Chloe is four today.  What a difference a year makes!  Three was rough for Chloe and rife with tantrums and the struggle to deal with her extreme emotions.  We saw so much growth.   As she neared four, we saw new found independence and a willingness to try things she might not be able to do.  This year she moved, started sharing a room with her sister, got a new brother, got rid of her pacifiers and delighted us with her charming and silly wit.  She is truly as adorable as she looks.  She is an amazing little friend and one of the most common things we are told about Chloe is how well she plays with others.  She is amazingly perceptive and we are seeing the emotions once so hard to control make way for deep empathy for others.   We are so proud of this little girl!

Yesterday we had her birthday party.  She chose frozen, like almost every other little girl her age:)  I cannot deny that I am pretty exhausted.  Marc was in Ireland all week so pulling this off took every once of energy, organization, and spare minute I had...and help from my sister;)  Birthday parties are my thing and because of our year, I've hired out the last three (which is REALLY amazingly stress free;), it felt good to get my mojo back;)  'cept I did forget to ask someone besides Marc to take pictures so we missed quite a bit;)

No close ups of the food- whoops.

The menu-

"We finish each others...SANDWICHES" (Jimmy Johns and PB and J's)

"Sven's Antlers" (Pretzels)
"Olaf's noses"  (carrots)
"Mmmm.  What's that smell?.....CHOCOLATE" (assorted chocolates
Melted snow (bottled water)
"Only Love can thaw a frozen heart"  (White chocolate dipped strawberries and undipped strawberries with top cut to resemble hearts)

Our Birthday Princess

Elsa Cake courtesy of my dear mom;)

We didn't get any pictures of the process, but as each girl came they "built snowman" out of Sculpy which I baked and turned into these snow globes for them to take home at the end of the party.  Thanks to Ava for being the big helper on this project;)

Next we went outside to do "ice painting"- Mix equal parts Epsom salt and hot water and let the kiddos paint.  It looks like just water on the page until it dries...

When dry, it looks like ice crystals...pretty amazing "magic" for little kiddos.

I filled my sensory table with "Instasnow" (get from amazon) and frozen figurines

We played pin the nose on Olaf...

Poor Olaf never got a nose in quite the right place;)

 Those cloth snowballs I invested in during advent came in very handy for our "throw snow balls at the snow monster game"...the each took 2-3 turns at this one;)

We took a break for a bit of food;)

Then I gave each of the girls a pair of frozen socks (from the Target dollar spot;) and told them they were special imagination socks.  "When you put them on they help you imagine that this living room floor was covered in ice by Elsa and we can ice skate"

We Freeze Ice Danced to frozen songs...probably the biggest hit of the entire party.  As sick as I am of the Frozen Sound track, it's pretty hard NOT to find 10 four year old's singing "Let it Go" at the top of their lungs absolutely adorable.

Cake TIME!

And finally some presents...we are stocked with every frozen good available, I am quite sure.

Instead of treat bags, we sent each kiddo home with their snow globes, socks, and these little jars of homemade play dough snowballs (white play dough with glitter and a bit of peppermint sent).

I am tired.  This was probably the most difficult parties I've ever pulled off because of Marc's travel schedule and I'd do it all over again in an instant.  My little girl was beaming and loved every moment.  These days are my favorite parts of motherhood (minus the clean up, of course;)!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Christian Willy!

It's Christian's 3rd birthday and he's HERE to celebrate.  We are elated!  ELATED, I tell you.

This little boy has turned our world upside down in countless ways.  He is a joyful soul with boundless energy.  I am SO proud to be his mama.

Christian has just started to show affinity to toys and characters and he has fallen in love with Elmo.

People ask if he understands what a birthday is...yes, he even knew to blow out his candle at the end of the song;)

He was quite pleased with himself!

 First, one must sample the frosting...

Soon, the cake was forgotten for the Sesame Street car cake toppers;)

His siblings got him an Elmo blanket and straw cup

He was pretty happy;)

Marc and I got him a black baby doll.

Christian spent the first two years of his life on the "baby" side of the creche. Even when he turned two and moved to the "big kid" side, he spent much of his day visiting because that is where Imelda, his favorite nanny, works.  He LOVES babies- both real ones and dolls.  I wanted to find a boy and with removable clothes for him to play with.  The best I could do was a life like newborn.

He was just amazed at how lifelike he was.

Quickly he decided to change his diaper...

This is the moment he discovered that this doll is anatomically correct...

He found it hysterical.

Happy Birthday, buddy.  You amaze us every day.  You are so intelligent, I am sure you'll have us running in circles in your teenage years.  Your laugh has turned the roughest days right.  Your resilience and perseverance in learning are inspiring.  In six months, you've begun to master the English language, learned to fully dress and undress yourself, learned colors and numbers, and countless songs.  You even threw potty training in this week before turning three- done, for the most part, on your own in two days.  I can't help but wonder how you'll continue to astound us in the year ahead.  You are simply remarkable.  We love you more than words can describe.

Chloe's Third Birthday

Apologies to my far away family for taking so long to get this posted;)  It totally feeds parental guilt about the third child being neglected...but I had a party and I have pictures....and I actually have had this post titled and saved SINCE June, but the pictures were lost in computer land, otherwise known as the cloud that my husband had to remind me of...oh and I have been moving...and now the excuses will stop because really if it gets on the blog at all, I think I win.

Chloe turned three on June 15.  It was a Saturday and so the day of her party, as well.  I always think it's an extra special thing for kids when their birthday party is on the actual day of their birth.  Chloe certainly was excited!

Chloe has been obsessed with Rainbows for a while.  Shortly after Ava's birthday she already started mentioning her own party and insisted on it being a Rainbow party.  How can happiness not simply abound when your dealing with rainbows?

Woo Hoo...let's get this party started!

I am THREE!!!

All three in their rainbow attire...(I am sure other mamas will understand this is the best of the 10 pictures I took trying to get them all looking an smiling...)

Rainbow table set and ready...

This rainbow is smiling, because the children will soon follow her to the her end....

Thank you Costco..

My friend Janan and I made rainbow ribbons

Craft table set up for arrival activity....paint dots and colors, with a decorate me table cloth and plenty of rainbow and unicorn pictures.

The stairs were so happy, we were tempted to leave the balloons up forever.

Ava made a welcome sign for Chloe's party;)

Me and my girls at the welcome table.  As guest arrived, they could come and decorate the table cloth or color pictures to take home...

Meanwhile, Jana decorated their nails and toes as rainbows.

 Once everyone arrived, we handed out rainbow ribbons and danced to rainbow music...Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Rainbow, etc.

This girl LOVES to dance

Next we did a balloon pop.  Each child popped a balloon and got to keep what prize came out

I had rainbow bracelets and balls in the balloons and the girls liked the prizes, but only a few liked the actual popping;)

Next we followed Ms. Rainbow to find her end and reach the pot of gold

I just used a really thick rainbow yarn and weaved it through a small obstacle course

Some kids followed better than others;)

But at the end they all got a bag of gold (chocolate gold coins)

Our little rainbow chasers;)

Then we made rainbow necklaces.  This was a "hit"- Chloe did not want to sit down and loudly yelled "I don't want a necklace."  Thank goodness Grandma stepped in and where Grandma is, Chloe is...to the necklace ended up being liked after all and she still wears it;)

Party hat time...

She'd been SOO excited to blow out candles it was hard to wait for the end of the song!!!!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

This smile says it all;) But little did she know there was more!!  Chloe has had an imaginary rainbow house ever since we started talking about the move.  It must be her way of dealing with the change.  It's been fun to hear all about this house and the pink car that she drives there;)  It's a pretty happy, fun place to imagine and so grandma, brought it to life...

I don't quite think she knew what to do at first, she was pretty amazed...

but she moved in quickly;)

Chloe means verdant or vibrant and she certainly is.  Our prayer for her this year is to continue to learn to manage her emotions that often overwhelm her.  She has the ability to completely change the dynamic of a room based on her mood.  We pray she grows to utilize that strength to encourage and uplift and not to bring down.  We are thankful for her imagination, her silly ways, her love of music, books, and her family.  We pray this year she understands the love of God in a deeper way than storybooks and that her heart is open to hear his voice in her life.