Lailey's 5th Birthday Tea

Birthdays are so fun! Especially when you're turning five and want a tea party. After Christmas, Lailey and I began our usual birthday brainstorming...what are we going to do this year? Since receiving a mini porcelain tea set from my sister for Christmas, she has tea parties almost daily. Her dolls and even Maddox are regular guests. She begs me to make her real tea (which I do occasionally) and she sits on the hard floor with a big towel and pours tea with milk and sugar and drinks it to her heart's content. I was excited when she decided on a tea party for her birthday, because I love tea too.  To begin planning, I cautiously showed her some ideas on Pinterest to see what she would like. I say "cautiously" because even grown-ups (no one I know!) can get sucked into the world of birthday parties on Pinterest. Some folks like to spend hundreds of $$$ on birthday parties for kids. I love special birthday parties, but no need for a huge price tag. Kids don't care! Okay, done with that.

I did decide to do some fun food stuff but keep the decorations really simple. The table would be the main focus with all the dishes and food, and that would be lovely I decided. Cheese and crackers, tea sandwiches (pb & honey, cut into little flowers), crumpets w/ blueberry butter (recipe here), fruit, and tea of course, hot and iced. Oh, and cupcakes for dessert. I can cook well, but for my tiny kitchen, that's a lot of food prep, so I took a short cut and used a strawberry cake mix but made cream cheese icing myself. It was so worth it. I LOVE cream cheese icing and everyone else did too. 

The birthday girl's favorite tea cup

Now, how did Lailey know to ask for crumpets? Well, I'm not entirely sure, except that Davey was joking with her one day awhile back about having a proper tea party with "tea and crumpets" (said in a hoity-toity British accent), and I guess she remembered it. I honestly didn't even know what they were. Check out the link above for pictures and a description, since I didn't get any pictures of mine. Oops!

The tea was "Passion Berry" from Teavana. Lailey picked it because it was a dark pink color when brewed. I sweetened it a little with honey since I didn't know if the kids would like it plain, the way we usually drink it. For the iced tea I made "Opus Rouge," which was delicious too. The cups are actually from England and they belonged to my mom, which made it really special. I was a bit nervous using fine china with kids, but they did really well. One of the reasons we had the party inside is because I have carpet and I hoped that would cushion the fall of any of the dishes.

Lailey enjoying her tea and looking way too grown up.

I said "smile!" and this is what I got. That's my kid!

All the guests were asked to dress up and bring along their favorite doll or stuffed animal (or, in Eli's case, his Spiderman). The toys had tea with a mini tea set while we had ours. Everyone looked so cute all dressed up.

Lailey with Eli, her friend from Classical Conversations (homeschool group)

Maddox enjoying his cupcake (he likes tea too!)

Ella and Stormy

Brookelyn and Camille

Mia

Eli

Zadee

So after all the proper manners and sitting still, it was outside for...piñata time! Lailey really wanted a piñata for her birthday, so being the DIY person I am, I looked up instructions on how to make one. I could have done it, but I ultimately decided that spending $12.99 on Amazon was a great price compared to the hours I would have spent. It's true: time is money. 

Davey giving instructions. Giving kids a stick and telling them to swing is dangerous!

Side note: our neighbors had a baby shower that day, hence all the cars. I love the streamers in the tree. It cracks me up!

Birthday girl goes first. We chose to forego the blindfold since the kids were so young.

That's one determined kid!

Smallest to biggest...Maddox next.

Zadee's turn

Then Mia

Ella takes a swing

Camille up to bat (Lailey and Mia have lost interest in the background)

Stormy gets her chance.

Once all the kids tried (or "whopped it" as Maddox likes to say), Davey knew he'd have to break it since they hadn't even made a dent. Three hits and...the stick broke! Haha. That was a solid piñata! He just dumped the candy on the ground and let them have it.

Everyone had a lovely time, and as you can see, lots of memories were made. It was such a fun "big girl" way to celebrate turning five.

Snow Jam 2014

Well, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to the snow that hit Hotlanta this week. Whether it's the reasons behind the state of emergency on the freeways (no, it's not because some Southerners can't drive in snow), the few thousand students who had to spend the night at their schools, the baby born on I-285, a life saved, or the countless stories of kindness by strangers and businesses and restaurants (love Chick-fil-A!), there has been a LOT of media about it this week. I almost posted these photos the other day, but felt strange, knowing that while we were romping in the snow, only a few hundred yards from our warm house, others were stuck on the interstates for 5, 11, 16, or 24+ hours. So I waited. And prayed for the folks out there. Even though you won't hear as much about all the good things that happened because of the snow, I know it's happening, and I believe God answered my prayers and those of others. 

With that intro, here are my pictures of the "Snow Jam," an hour away from the traffic mess, where the fervent - and I do mean fervent - prayers of one sweet 4 yo girl were answered when the white flakes started coming down.

Whether it's drums or otherwise, this child loves sticks!

See that little tongue?

The Maddox snarl

How we make snow angels before there's enough on the ground.

She was so happy! 

Just a boy and his sticks

Again with the snarl

Wheeeee!

Apparently that bite didn't taste so good.

Checking out the icicles - a rare sight for them.

It snowed a good part of Tuesday into the night, and we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow the next morning. After a good breakfast, we were off to go sledding.

Davey's 2-dimensional snowman since the snow wouldn't roll up!

Being silly sharing pretzel chips

Neighbors and snow buddies

We really wanted a happy fun picture of the three kiddos in the snow, but Maddox suddenly became very sullen. I figured he was tired and hungry, but he usually smiles for pictures. Despite Davey and Uncle Nick's goofy attempts, he would not smile. And he wouldn't tell us why, which was odd since he's usually so vocal about everything.

Maddox was so done.

Poor kid was miserable (we didn't know why until later).
But wouldn't you LOVE eyelashes like that?

Getting worse.

Uh oh.

Trying to make him laugh.

Well, come to find out, when we got back to the house, his little feet were half frozen and red when I got his shoes off. They were pretty dry, but I think having two pairs of socks in his boots had made them too snug and probably hindered circulation a bit. I felt so bad, but I had no idea and he didn't tell us what was wrong until right before I got him back to the house and I asked him if his feet hurt. Davey quickly warmed them by the heater in the garage we've been using for the dogs and he was fine. Even extremely talkative boys sometimes forget their words. 

Christmas Day 2013

Most every Christmas, I try to watch "It's a Wonderful Life." It's probably one of my favorite movies ever, not just in the holiday genre. It reminds me that no matter how "crazy" I might feel at times - and goodness I have my moments - I am so blessed. Not just by material things, though I adore our little house. Not just because of my husband, who I grow to love him more all the time. Not just my precious kids, who I thank God for every day and never take for granted. Not just my job, since I am one of those who gets to "do what I love and get paid for it." I am blessed because of HIS goodness, love, and mercy, that came wrapped up in swaddling clothes to be Emmanuel, God with us. I don't want to ever get over it. This year, more than ever, we got to really talk about the true meaning of Christmas with Lailey since she understands so much more. I really want to instill in my kids that the beauty of Christmas is from knowing Jesus, who is our greatest gift. 

Speaking of kids, I don't know how Christmas could be any more fun than with a 4-yo and 2-yo! Oh wait, add in the hubs who loves Christmas and traditions just about as much as they do, and it's always a blast.

This year I tried something new and started a new tradition (new for us, not for lots of other folks). The something new was that Lailey and I decorated wrapping paper (see picture at the top of post). I wanted all my gifts to be "brown paper packages tied up with string." And I had that song running through my head most of December.

The new tradition, which Lailey ended up taking on, was that the wise men from our nativity "traveled" around our living room during the season of advent (this is not a new idea, just new to us). Since she is old enough to understand the Biblical  accuracy of this concept, I felt it fitting. (If you're wondering, the wise men were not there the night Jesus was born; see Matthew 2)  I didn't have too many places to move them since I was nervous that Maddox would get a hold of them and break them, but they still made it around. It was fun to have her move them and explain it to me.

On Christmas morning, after our fun time opening gifts, Grandpa came over for brunch. He also came with presents!

This was actually from Maddox's birthday, but still he loves it.

First ride

Getting the hang of it

Lailey wanted to keep up with the big kids.
I LOVE that we live in a neighborhood where the kids still play outdoors a lot.

Her first and most special baby doll, Lucy, got a ride too.

If you can endure the almost five minutes of video, this highlights some of the musical fun we had during the Christmas season. If you can't take 5 minutes, go to the end to see Lailey's little bit about what she wants for Christmas. I did not tell her to say this, in fact, I was doing dishes when she just started talking about it and I grabbed the camera and asked her to tell me again in hopes of capturing the innocence and truth of her words. Enjoy!

Waffle Cone Christmas Trees

I found this idea on Pinterest awhile back and decided to give it a go today. Icing, sugar, candy, sprinkles, the perfect activity in my 4-year-old's mind. 

As to be expected, only slightly more icing and candy ended up on the waffle cone than in her mouth. A nice aspect of this activity was that she could really do it mostly herself. I only smoothed out the icing a bit at the end to help the candy stick, but even that wasn't necessary. Then she got to shake the sprinkles onto the iced trees (over the sink) which she enjoyed. 

All in all, a fun memory! Now to let them dry so she can eat them. Ah, waiting. Such a hard lesson. (P.S. You don't have to let them dry, but this was my way of spacing out the sugar intake. 😉)