Em's Frozen Fourth

 

As soon as she had seen the movie Emma told us she really really wanted to have a Frozen party for her birthday.  Honestly I love that movie and so I was really excited she chose that theme.  She loves Elsa!!! Elsa is the first princess that has rivaled Ariel.  Since Christmas she has slept will Elsa along with Ariel every night.  I started looking up fun party ideas and came across a picture of a cardboard castle on Pinterest that a mom had made.  I told Deke we had to figure out a way to make Elsa's ice castle out of cardboard for her party.  Thank you Home Depot for giant sheets of cardboard, spray adhesive, and enormous amounts of glitter. We cut it out, painted, glittered and zip tied it together.  

 

 We got to the park early and got it set up.  When we brought Emma over and she saw it, the way her eyes lit up made me soooooooooo happy!!!!!! It was a moment I won't forget.  Just being able to make it all "come to life" for her was so fun for Deke and I.  We love projects and making things and have such a blast doing stuff like this for the kids.  

 The first activity was throwing snowballs at Marshmellow.  Thank you Bahama Bucks for the super fun and very affordable premade snowballs. 

 Some of the little girls thought it was too cold to throw and didn't want to do it.  All the boys were definitely game and Emma, Kate and Ellie had fun with it.

 Next we had made up some batches of "snow dough" which is pretty much just playdough with glitter in it and had the kids us different items to create their own snowmen....

 Playdough is always fun and the kids all made some great snowmen.  I love the one with the twigs sticking up for hair :)  By then everyone was itching to play in the castle! We had brought over all of the girls dress up clothes and everyone got dressed up and started playing Frozen princesses.

 

 A few minutes later we had brought a whole bunch of sewing batting and had Hunter and Avery help us throw it in small piles down into the castle like it was snowing.  To which came girly squeals of delight, "it's a blizzard!!! it's a snowstorm!!!!" they piled, tossed, collected and threw the "snow" until we called them for cake.   

We made Elsa crowns for the girls and Sven antlers for the boys....

 We made blue glass candy for the cake which was super easy and looked really cool.

 The birthday girl blowing out her candles....

  

 After cake and presents the rest of the party was spent playing the castle.  Emma was cracking us up the whole day.  I am not sure if it was the costume, the castle, or the fact that all the kids were calling her Elsa but she was definitely in character the entire party.  She walked in a regal way and kept holding her arms out like she was make snow or creating things out of snow.  At least three times she saved the princesses from Marshmellow and sealed the castle doors shut with ice.  Honestly when the girls started yelling, "Queen Elsa save us!" Emma completely went into Elsa mode and started swirling her hands around.  I could not stop smiling. I don't know if I have ever seen a happier kid than this little girl.  I know it sounds silly but I think for her it all seemed magical. 

 It wasn't the activities, the decorations or the cake it was their play and imagination in that castle that I think made it so special for her.  They played and played.  Moms came and stayed and an hour past the original party time we were all visiting and the castle play continued.  It was a great day.  I can't believe our sweet Emma is four.  She is my baby girl, my little shadow baby.  I love how she has transformed from this shy toddler to this social, outgoing preschooler.  She is so girly, happy, such a peacemaker.  She is so gentle and pretty much just adorable with her mannerisms and little voice.  We love you so much Miss E.  Happy Birthday!!!

The Basilisk

Pinewood derby time again and Hunter came up with another fun design for his car.  He is quite the "Potterhead" and loves all things Harry Potter. He wanted to make his car look like a snake and call it the Basilisk.  So he and Deke drew out a design, cut it, painted it and found some fun snake skin decals to put on it.  I thought it turned out really cool, I love the red eyes! 

He was super excited for the race and when we got there it was neat to see all the different cars the boys had made....

This year the girls were into the racing for about twenty minutes and then headed to the nursery to play with Hudson.  They sure are a cute cheering squad though :) :)

 

The basilisk started taking first place in all of its races and was a pretty darn speedy car.

 

My favorite part of this whole thing every year is watching how excited the boys get for each other watching their cars race.  I love to watch them talking about how cool each others cars look and cheering for each other.  This was Hunter and his best friend Tate's last year to do pinewood derby.  As I sat and watched them during the races it was crazy to me that it seems like I was just looking across at my little eight year old sitting there watching him experience this for the first time.  Now he and Tate sat as almost eleven year olds, the "older boys" of the group and I can't believe how fast his years in cub scouts have gone. 

I love this picture of the two of them.  They are such good friends and can't believe in a year they will both be in young mens and be receiving the priesthood.  It was neat to watch them cheering on and encouraging the other little guys doing the derby for the first time. 

Soon the races were done and they gave out the awards.  Hunter and The Basilisk were victorious!! Hunter grinned ear to ear and as we headed to the car he was talking about how sad he was that this was his last year.  I am too actually, I am glad that we get to look forward to this down the road with Hudson. 

 

 

We headed to get tacos and milkshakes to celebrate and I couldn't stop smiling at him.  It has been fun to learn about all this "boy stuff" with him, he makes it so fun.  Good racing dude, you are awesome!!

La Jolla Cove

We have not been to the beach in almost three years since our trip to Hawaii, so we headed out to La Jolla cove for the day to play in the sand and see the seals.

 The water was too cold to swim in but it was still a gorgeous day. Avery and Eden headed straight for the water and spent most of the trip jumping into it and splashing around.  Every time I would turn around Ave would be out just a little bit farther with a giant grin on her face.  The seals were so close and one came right up to the beach it was crazy.  We also got to see some baby ones sunning themselves on some rocks, they were cute.   It was Hudson's first time going to the beach and he was not a huge fan of walking in the sand.  He and Emma both definitely preferred to sit on the beach towel and fill their buckets on the side.

Hunter spent the ENTIRE time over on the rocks searching the tide pools for all different sorts of creatures.

Avery wanted to try anything and everything there was to do.  She and Eden took turns burying each other in the sand....

we wrote sand messages for daddy,

she attempted helping Em get over her fear of the water, (Emma was scared to death when the tide would come in and then rush back out.  She would start crying and panicking that it was "pulling her away")

 So they then gave that up and they worked together on a sand castle and searching for seashells.

I finally dragged Hudson down to the edge of the water.  I thought he would have loved it and been driving me crazy running right into it and not wanting to get out.  Wrong.  He just furrowed his eyebrows at the whole thing, started to fuss, looked up at me and said "up".  Apparently not yet a fan of the ocean.

Emma and I walked the beach and searched for shells, Kimbre and I also went seashell hunting.  I sat on the towel with magoo and we scooped sand into his bucket.  I laid down on the towel with him and we closed our eyes and listened to the water, I forgot how relaxing the sounds of the ocean are.  We had some snacks and watched the kids play.  Hunter ended up meeting a group of  friends and together they spent all afternoon finding and catching things.  He caught some hermit crabs, regular crabs, fish and got to touch some different sea anemones.  He was in heaven.

We played all day until it was too cold and then dragged our tired, sandy selves home for some pizza and games. Nothing cuter than a little sandy bum.

They're getting big.

So fast.  They are all growing up so fast.  I am enjoying every second of it, every new phase and all the great things that come with it, but I just really love all their ages right now.  Life is full and busy and they are each doing such different fun things.  It really is wonderful....they are really wonderful :) :)