James' First Birthday

Our sweet James turned one on May 24th.  We had a fun safari party for him and his little friend Emily Jane.

Emily Jane was due a week after James but came early so she is 6 days older!  They both love animals so we thought it would be fun to have a party together.

I made him a rhinoceros smash cake to go with the shirt I made him.

And some cupcakes with cute safari toppers for everyone.

Dear James,

Happy birthday to our happy boy!

You have been such a fun, easy going baby.  You are very curious, smart and strong!  You have recently shown a love and animals and start to laugh and cry when you see them because you love them so much.  You love your sister and always want to be with her.  You are a good eater and a good sleeper.  You like to get up very early- 5:30am!  You had started taking a few steps on your birthday and have it mastered now!  You a a very rough and tumble boy and we can't wait to see what you'll do with it.  You smile for everyone and are a kind, tenderhearted boy.  We love you so much and feel so blessed to have you in our family!

-Mom and Dad

Princess Night

A couple weeks ago Culver's had princess and superhero night!  We love any excuse to eat burgers and custard and we knew that our little princess would love to dress up- so off we went!

A few of our neighbors came as well and we all had a good time :)  Elise's favorite part was saying hello to their mascot, Scoopie.  You could say she is now a Scoopie Groupie.  

Playgroup at Yo Mama's

A few months ago our ward had playgroup at a local frozen yogurt shop called Yo Mama's. It was a lot of fun!

They got to each make a craft, which this week was a butterfly.  Perfect for Elise!  

They each got to wear some story glasses.  Elise picked these fun red ones!  She looks so cute in them!

Elise and some friends from the ward listening to the story.

And, of course, some ice cream!  It was a very yummy playgroup.  We'll definitely sign up to do it again!

Easter 2014

We had a wonderful Easter this year.  We did our traditional Easter egg hunt with our neighbors here at chambers court.  Elise knew just what to do and was very good and finding her eggs. 

Here she is showing her basket!  She doesn't look like it, but she was thrilled with all the goodies and treasures inside.

Here is what the Easter bunny left for us the next morning!  Each of the kids got new outfits for church and a bunch of fun things like candy, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, bath drops, kites, paint and some other fun things.  The kids have been enjoying them outside ever since.

Elise looked so beautiful in her Easter dress, you know that I had to take lots of pictures!

James was actually very good at finding eggs and stealing the candy inside.  We had to be very good about watching him and seeing what was in his mouth.  The kids also got fun packages from Grandma Marie and among other things, got some cute outfits. James is wearing his in the picture above and the green one below is what Elise got. 

It was a very fun weekend and we had a great time!  My kids are all seeming so big and it's fun to see Elise get really into the holidays and all the traditions that come with them.

 

Potty Training

After 3 failed attempts at trying to potty train Elise, we finally found something that worked!

While our shopping one day I saw this little frog potty.  It was the same one that our neighbor had for her little girl and Elise thought it was fun.  It was on sale, so I bought it. I had no plans of using it that day, but Elise took it out of the bag herself and asked to use it!  We set it up and she finally went!  If I had know from day #1 that all I needed to do was buy this silly potty, I would have!

(She was thrilled I was taking pictures of her)

 

This proved to me that she KNEW what to do, she simply didn't want to do it on the toilet for some reason.  We've had accidents here and there but for the most part, from the moment the frog potty came home with us it has been smooth sailing.  She has already mastered the potty's at stores and even using the gutter when we're outside with no close potty's to be found (sorry neighbors!). 

We are so proud of Elise!  Once she was trained she wanted NOTHING to do with diapers/pull-ups etc.  We put her in pull ups at night for the first week she was trained and she insisted she didn't need them.  She has been true to her word! Way to go Elise!

Ballet Class!

In addition to soccer, we also put Elise in a ballet class.  She really, really loved it.  She was in there with several friends which I know helped!

Here she is with her friends Tinzley, Abigail, Zoe and Elise.

Her class was at a nearby school and in the cafeteria.  She loved to get in there and run around with all the other girls.  Parents were only allowed in to watch the first class so I didn't get to see much!  

She really looked forward to her class. Every day she would ask if she had ballet.  Too bad it was only once a week!

Anytime we ask her to show us a chasse' she has to do her warm up first.  She is such a fun little dancer and loves to perform.  We love watching her.  It's been so fun to have her in this class!

Elise starts soccer!

This spring we enrolled Elise in a county rec. soccer class.  It was the Mighty Mites soccer class and she had a lot of fun! 

She liked going each week and getting to play with Coach Dan.  He was a really great teacher and very fun and patient with the kids. I imagine if you have 30 3-4year olds in a room you'd have to be!

Her first week she would sometimes get sad or shy about it but she made a good little friend named Alaina (pictured above in the white) and it made all the difference!

She really enjoyed doing running drills or dribbling with the class!

She did get better by the end of the class.  She really enjoyed playing with the other kids but the funny part is that when they'd play a scrimmage soccer game she didn't like it!  She had a hard time with the fact that there was only one ball and they had to try to take it from each other- sweet girl!  We will definitely enroll her again.  It was so fun to see her get out there and show her stuff!