Bowling with Teresa

We took Robert and Teresa bowling for Teresa's birthday (its not until Aug. 31, but we'll be on vacation in sunny Myrtle Beach!) We had a blast! We went up to a place called Strikz in Frisco.

We bowled, we ate, we played games.Everyone seemed to have a really good time. Lea was in heaven rolling balls, playing with Teresa.
Lea and Teresa at the bowling alley

Teresa's awesome rental shoes.


I actually won a game of bowling. I don't think I've ever beat Dan before.

Even Lea did pretty well. Of course she had the benefit of bumpers. This bowling alley had them come up automatically when it was Lea's turn. Pretty cool and high tech. They also had a metal frame that helped Lea bowl. She put the ball up and pushed it down a ramp. She did pretty well. Although when I helped her I forgot to move the metal stand for the second frame and the ball would inevitably go right through the hole the first ball left. Bright, Mommy!
Dan helps Lea bowl with a metal frame made just for kiddos.

The group shot.

After bowling we played a few games. It was half price day at the arcade so we got WAY too many credits, but we had fun with reckless abandon. Daddy's favorite was Deal or No Deal and ended up with a pile of tickets. I liked the snowmobile game. Lea and Teresa and Robert all played a car race game, but Lea ended up going the wrong direction.
Here is Lea at the Wack-a-mole

And we ended up with 358 tickets. I bargained with the ticket taker to get us 2 bears (valued at 200 tickets each) so that Lea and Teresa could have matching bears. Teresa chose purple and Lea chose yellow (until the way home when she said she wanted purple like Teresa, but now she's happy with yellow.)

We've started ballet class

Lea took her first official Ballet class yesterday (Tuesday Aug. 19). We went for one trial ballet class two weeks ago to make sure she liked it. She did. They did a lot of little kid games, like a princess walk and walking like a bear (downward dog on the go) and jumping like a frog. The best, I thought was "going on a bear hunt." Its a song where you "walk through the forest" so you take big steps sweeping pretend grass out of the way, then "travel in the canoe" where you pretend to paddle, then "go over the bridge" so you walk on tip toe, and so on and so on. Then you find the bear, which in this instance was a little stuffed bear the teacher had put up on a shelf. Lea said "Oh, its just a stuffed bear." It was so funny to me. She even went over to the teacher and said "Its just a stuffed bear."

Lea getting ready for the tryout class.

Pretty ballerina waiting for class on her carpet.



Lea interacted with the other girls very cutely. That's what I think will be best about the class is having friends she sees every week.




I went with Lea to the tryout class, but did not get to go to the first class. It is something that can get Daddy and Lea out of the house, so I'm not supposed to go, but boy did I want to. She's so adorable with her hair pulled back in her LEAtard. I explained it was called a leotard, and she ran to Daddy and said "This is my LEAtard." And she loves the ballet shoes! I talk to little footsies every night and they say they love the ballet shoes too!

The class seems to end with ribbons on sticks. Dan got some pictures of the girls twirling their ribbons. And there is some video of that too. All the video is from the tryout class.

Her teacher's name is Miss Amanda who seems very good with the girls. She said to us after the tryout class, "If they didn't cry it was a success." I like a woman with low expectations. Seriously, what she meant was that Lea was kind of shy and I'm sure there's been a melt down or two on the floor. There was one little girl at the tryout class (the last class of the summer session) who would NOT do anything without her mom, so I joined in a bit to get Lea going, but removed myself halfway through. Since I wouldn't be there every week, I felt it important not to set a precedent. Dan said at the first real class she was hesitant on some things, but got involved in the big stuff. Sounds like next week she will get to stand next to Miss Amanda so she can help her be less shy about moving around. But if we stick with it... Rather, as we stick with it, we have 9 months to go. And a recital in June. I don't expect it to be more than the little girls waving their ribbons on sticks around, but perhaps I will be surprised! I am excited about our first recital of any sort.





video link if the above playlist does not work

The Big 3 Ring Circus Party

Lea's 3rd Birthday (3 ring circus!) was a complete success. We had so much fun. As usual, Mommy had grand plans and Daddy made them all come to reality. We had a make shift big top. A cardboard box circus train and an acrobat course. Mommy's vision realized thanks to Daddy's hard work!

I put together some circus posters, that I am rather proud of, to decorate the fence. I found some posters on a college collection website and changed out the text for the toddler/pre-school theme.
Circus Posters slideshow


The party began with some outside play. We put together our pre-school sized acrobat course and, when completed, the kids got a sticker. Leo ended up with 6 stickers. The stickers were a hit! Here, Lea leads Molly and Anna on the "tightrope" as Dylan watches and waits her turn.

The tumbling area was the second stop on the course. This was not too popular until I sat down and helped the kids flip over, then many of the kids were tickled to roll over.

Last on the course was the trapeze swing, the most popular stop. Daddy pushes Lea on the trapeze swing

This was the most popular and has become a permanent fixture in our back yard. Lea still loves it. While both Lea and Leo tried to push the boundaries by pulling up a chair and jumping off, (which we quickly put the kibosh on) they were content to be swung by Dan. He could get them pretty high (as seen in the videos at the end). The kids loved the swing.



In between acrobat course play, the kids ran around in the circus train, painted and put together by Daddy. He did such a great job putting this fun play area together. Grandpa Dan bought us great inflatable animals for our menagerie. Lea, Leo and Dylan played a game of runaway monkey (also in the videos at the bottom).

Dylan and Lea peek out of the Circus Train

Lea and Dylan in the Circus Train

The managerie


And once all our guests arrived and had some outside play time, we made our way inside for the best puppet show ever. Mia and her friend Lucy put on a wonderful marionette puppet show with the help of Leo (who helped set up the different scenes). The kiddos sat perfectly for the show with help from some hulless popcorn snacks and juice bags, but mostly I think parents and kids sat enraptured by the great show. Mia and Lucy used a combination of dolls, stuffed animals and crafted puppets to do Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Teddy Bear Picnic and more verses to the Itsy Bitsy Spider than anyone knew (well I guess the girls knew them, but I was amazed!). My favorite of their puppets was the glow worm which was a large plastic tube (like a can for tennis balls) with yellow pipe cleaners inside for the glow. That one really struck me as inventive, but all of the puppets were great. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Super Bear. Lea is quick to remind me of Super Bear. Super Bear was baby bear who kept wanting to fly around and interrupt things. This was a cute addition and transition throughout the show. The little kids really loved super bear and his super hero call of "Su-u-u-per Bear"
The Puppeteers in front of their adoring audience

The puppeteers Lucy and Mia with their stage hand Leo.


Aunt Teresa got Lea a "3" ribbon that she wore with pride.

Aunt Bonny and Lalanya got in the spirit of the party with clown noses. Bonny and Lalanya brought lots of clown paraphernalia. The noses were a big hit. We also got a flower that squirted water. Dan and I had Lea convinced that it just blew air for a while, but she got wise somehow and we made it a pool toy. Lea squirts it at us when we "smell the flower," but it also makes a good fountain.

Lea and Lucy with clown noses.


After the puppet show it was time for presents and cake. That went swiftly and wonderfully. Lea got wonderful presents from everyone. Thank you so much to everyone. We've had so much fun with all the presents.
Lea with one of her fabulous presents. Sleeping Beauty and her pretty dresses.

Lea in her new Tinkerbell hat blowing out her candle.


And finally (if you're 3) it was time to swim. I put swimming on the invitation because I knew that the kids would see the pool while playing outside, and we swam last year. I was very worried it was too much to ask of the guests and fretted that the moms would leave before swimming, but everyone was all for swimming. The kids asked a few times "is it time to swim yet?" All the kids got in the pool, and many parents too. Who knew our little pool would hold so many people? It was so fun to swim with everyone and I was thrilled that everyone was excited about it. Really what better way is there to spend a July afternoon?

The look of joy on Daddy's face as he soaks in monkey soup
We had a blast. The next day, when it was just me and Lea in the pool, I asked, "do you like the pool better like this or filled with your friends?" "With friends," Lea quickly answered.

The kids played around out of the pool too. Here are Kris, Lea and Wilder playing with the new water channel table.


Lea (and mommy) had a perfect 3rd birthday. We really had so much fun. It all happened very fast and I kept losing my camera, so thanks to the people who helped me put together these photos. Nothing shows how much fun Lea had better than this photo of Lea running with the reckless abandon of being three.


Here is the Video Playlist. It covers the gamut of the party.


And here is a link for all the photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/girlygirl449/Birthday72708242PM?authkey=ZZHDiqN2Oi0

A birthday Friday with fun and family

Friday July 25th was Lea's actual birthday and I wanted to do something special. So where did we take her? The doctor, despite my own good advice to other mothers of not taking your kid for their check up on the actual birthday because shots on such a day are just not right. But I asked when I made the appointment if she would receive shots. I was told no. They lied. But overall it went ok. We read books, learned what an otoscope is (thanks to a pooh bear book) and were told that she is perfectly fine, but perhaps not getting enough calcium so eat cheese, yogurt and don't drink whole milk. Then the fun started.

I wanted to go somewhere for lunch where Lea would have fun, but Mommy choked a bit on the thought of going to Chuck E Cheese (especially because Lea ate pizza the night before, sure we'll use that excuse). So the next best thing? Chuck E Cheese for grown ups. We took Grandma to lunch at Dave and Busters. Lea had a blast. We got in a booth and wanted to order and Lea was actually bouncing in her seat saying "please can we go play, please, please please, can we go, can we go, please?" So we went and played. The biggest hit with Lea was a horse race game where the little horses moved on the track as you rolled a ball in one of 6 holes (walk, trot or run would move him one to 4 spaces). It was great when we played against each other because one of us one tickets, but when other people sat down, there was not chance of tickets so we moved on to ski ball and race car driving. Lea did not like the race car that moved as we dove and bumped as we ran over things. We ended up with an expensive, but good lunch and enough tickets to get a little car that rides on a puzzle track AND a Tinkerbell coloring puzzle. She also got a pink fluffy pen just because it was her birthday. She had a blast and didn't want to leave. The lights, the sounds, enticing to those of us who are not 3. But home we went for a much needed nap.

After nap there was some cake creating, cake messing up, crying over broken cake, cake salvage but that is a previous post. We're not dwelling on that are we? tee hee.

After we got the cake situated, Grandpa Dan joined us and Grandma Lynn for dinner. Daddy made a beautiful grilled pork roast on the grill with a cedar plank and orange glaze. YUM!

Now Mommy couldn't sleeps so when Lea woke up at 5:45 Mommy was already up and ready to go. We played and made paper hats for our little evening party. Everyone was thrilled to have paper hats to wear (ha!).

We found that opening the wonderful gifts that Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Grandpa shower upon Lea at the birthday party is more than little attention spans can handle so we've instituted the Family Birthday the night before the party. It seems to be a great tradition that I hope to continue for... well, for forever! It allows us to spend some real quality time with the Grandfolks where as at the chaos of the party we do not really get to spend quality time with anyone and Lea's attentions are greatly diverted. Lea is also able to enjoy her presents more if she can play with them a bit as soon as she opens them.
Lea opens a card from Grandpa filled with change to put in her blue cow (Babe the Blue Ox) bank.


Lea gets paint from Grandpa


One thing Lea has asked for almost all year is a pair of red handled scissors. One of Dan's customers let Lea use scissors while Dan was working and ever since it has been a frequent request and learning the chant of "I'm not old enough for scissors." Well 3 seemed to be old enough for safety scissors so Lea now has scissors. She tried to open her gifts with them. It was very cute she toted them around and wouldn't let them out of her sight (at least until a bigger cooler present was opened). But she was responsible, in a video below you will see her stop what she is doing and put her scissors on the table. What a good girl!
Using scissors

Lea attempts to open presents with her new red handled scissors

Lea opens presents with her new red handled scissors

Mommy set her own cursed fate (and Daddy's as well) by buying Lea a key board. (Note to Kris in reference to when I bought drums for Wilder — payback is, as they say a bitch and I did it to myself!). While Lea has a slight musical inclination it is most just a jumble of keys and tempos from wild button pushing. I've got a kids book from the library on how to play so we'll see if she's a natural and picks anything up from the simple books. 

And behold, a microphone too. But will Lea sing? No, she just plays like the Captain to my Tennille. She constantly wants Daddy and Mommy to sing her a song. Grandpa put together a pretty good lounge act as seen in the following video play list.



Opening the keyboard

Playing the keyboard


Lea got so many super presents. She is well spoiled by her grandparents (and parents? maybe a little.) We all had fun playing with Lea's presents. And the game ended in a rousing game of Candyland. Lea got two games, Candyland and Hungry Hungry Hippos for her birthday. She has the attention span for about half of a game, but we can get through a whole game. She's very good at taking turns. We'd tried out playing Yahtzee with her one rainy Saturday and she did well with turns, but it didn't quite hold her interest like gumdrop mountains and the chocolate swamp. 

Now Hungry Hungry Hippos is a different story. To Lea the HIppos are not a game, but an opportunity to control these Hippo's snack time. Lea renamed one of them Zaboo (from Zaboomafoo on PBS). We played last night (July 31) and I learned that Lea is very controlling. My poor Hippo (Not Zaboo the orange HIppo) could eat no snacks. Mommy could not flip the balls into play or as Lea says "snacks." The poor Hippos just sat there looking at the snacks. I tried to explain that the box says they are "hungry, HUNGRY Hippos." The Hippos want to eat, let the poor Hippos eat their snacks. No, Lea said. So we sat there with a stalemate, Hippos remained Hungry, Mommy with nothing to do. Then I shook the whole board up and started smacking my Hippo around and she got some snacks. That got Lea into the spirit of the game and things were better. Poor underfed HIppos.

But candyland as a last game of Birthday was a fun idea. Grandma and Grandpa played and Daddy helped keep things going. It moved along swiftly and Lea got the jist of it right away. Keeping track of who her man was ended up being the most challenging aspect... that and remaining focused. But it was a lot of fun. 

We ended the night with Grandpa's culinary invention the cupcookie. Pre-made cookie dough in a muffin tin makes a cupcookie. They are great and soft (unless mommy over cooks them!). So a cupcookie with a candle, some schlopp schlopp ice cream and whipped cream and turning 3 was complete. At least for a day. For tomorrow we party with the 3 year old set.

The cake fiasco

Now I know that the birthday event was not about me, but I have a story to tell. The truth about the cake needs to be told. I'll get it out of the way so we can focus on Birthday posting.

Dan had early on suggested we just make a box cake mix. It would be easy, we could make is square and it might even look like a circus tent if you cut it right. Simple. Well, then I got involved. Once I started talking about fondant Dan washed his hands of the whole process (at least until he had to shove them elbows deep into frosting and be my knight in white frosting and totally save our cake!) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

A co-worker who shall remain nameless, Amy, is an enabler. (Sure, sure, you're saying its easy to blame as many people as I want in hindsight, but we all know Mommy overdrive is responsible.) Amy (in a truly kind and gracious gesture) handed off some baking implements from a cake class she'd taken. She enjoyed it, had succeeded in some cake decorating and had no desire to pursue it, so would I, being the creative genius that I am, like to give it a try, its fun. Well it came with a book and ideas that all looked so easy. (Well, they didn't all look easy. The cupcakes with individual animal heads sculpted out of fondant that my mom kept oohing and ahhing at did not look easy, so I could have made it more difficult for my self I guess.)

So I thought I'd give it a shot. I even practiced, but we know where that led with the bowling cake. It turned out fine so long as it was served to people who love me. I thought I'd learned my lesson, I had not. In my defense I didn't even try to make my own fondant like I did the first time. I was simplifying.

We baked the cakes early, let them cool, even froze them a bit so they would be easy to work with. And when you play with fondant, you don't really have to frost pretty. So we didn't.

The beginning of the downfall.


The challenge was the point on the top of the tent. I had some engineering ideas. The short story is that they all involved cutting the 4th cake into triangles. The even shorter story is none of them worked. They didn't stay and as they fell off the top, they took half the cake with it. So here we were with a cake that wouldn't stay together, fondant cut and starting to harden that I couldn't get to hold the cake in anyway.
Fondant strips removed once from the cake as it fell apart the first go round.


Dan to the rescue holding the cake together.


I was literally in a ball on the kitchen floor beginning to cry when my knight in white frosting showed up, used his strong hand to whip that cake into shape and patched it together with the already cut fondant.

The patchwork cake


It worked. It just needed to be prettied up. So on the morning of the party, did I prepare as I should have for the arrival of 10 munchkins? No, I went across the Metroplex in search of primary color fondant. The first place I'd bought it was out of stock, so I drove to Rockwall. If I'd used my noodle I would have realized that more than one chain of stores must sell the stuff, but I was on a mission, so to Rockwall I went. Fondant retrieved, some lessons learned, the second layer of stripes went on well and the cake turned out well enough to receive compliments at the party. I tried not to tell the story to everyone who walked in the door, but several got this long winded version of the cake fiasco and Dan as my savior in all things pastry.

The saved cake.


Lea didn't know the difference and didn't really care. It was cake no matter what it looked like.


In the throws of my breakdown I told Dan and my mom to stop me if I ever spoke of baking our own cake again. As we fell asleep that night, I said "if I ever do it again, I'll know to put a base layer of fondant on before anything else." Dan just sighed and rolled over.