Project 52: February 1-7

Sunday Snapshot:

 

We were at Grandma and Tank's watching the super bowl. It was sweet that Elliana climbed up with her cousin Harper and they were "reading" Grandma's books together.

 

This girl has "Tangled" on the brain!!!   

The yellow circles are of course the floating lanterns and she is stepping back to look at her painting just like Rapunzel does in the movie. 

Raelynn is showing a big interest in art and creating things lately.  I was so pleased when she took the green and put it down on the bottom of the paper and said it was grass!  I don't know when that is "supposed" to click in a kid's brain, but I was happy it has already clicked in hers.  She loves painting and drawing people any chance she can get.

We had some decorations out from the birthday party and the girls wanted to twirl up in Rapunzel's "hair"

 

 

I took the girls out on some errands this week and we stopped by the Sweet Tooth Fairy for the first time.  The cupcakes taste much better than the girls behaved:)  If it is your first time in they will give you a free little treat! Elliana was licking the cupcake wrapper it was so yummy!

 

 

 

 

Walked in to see this sight this week! When did he get so big?!

 

 

 

 

The grass was growing pretty tall under the play set.  I told the kids they could cut and rip it out.  That turned into such a long time of them playing and using their imaginations.  It was great! 

 

 

My dear friend Ally was visiting from out of town so we went to the zoo this week! Her sister and their kids all joined.  Always a fun time to get together with them.

 

I didn't know it, but my friend snapped these photos of me and the kids while we were at the zoo.  It isn't often I get a picture of me with all the kids and never is it one that is perfectly candid like this.  Thank you Ally for capturing these moments without me knowing and sharing them with me.  These two photos are truly a treasure to me.

 

This week we started a new tradition called "Friday Night Meatballs".  It is a way for us to be intentional about opening our home to others and deepening relationships with those in our lives.  Each week on Friday night we will make spaghetti and meatballs.  Each week we hope to have one or more families over to share our meal with us.  Writing this on the last day in March, we have done this for two full months now and it has blessed us tremendously to have different friends gather with us to eat a meal and fellowship.

This week we eight adults and seven children!

Each week Raelynn has helped me by folding the napkins and putting the silverware out

 

 

 

 

On Saturday I took this beauty to get her 4 year pictures taken.  She did such a great job of sitting and posing and smiling.  She is so beautiful!

Tot School: Purple cat

This is Purple Cat week from our Brown Bear Brown Bear unit.  We did this several months ago and I'm finally getting it published! I don't It was a fun week!

 



 

When Raelynn was learning to spell her name I would give her lots of letters and tell her to pick out the letters of her name.  Even today, now that she can write her name, she still does it backward sometimes.

We have Three Little Kittens!

 

We watched and read The Three Little Kittens a lot this week and then the kids loved acting it out themselves and singing the song

 

Fun trip to Grandma's to feed the cat and drink purple kool aid

I had Declan stamp the dot marker on top of little marks I made on the paper then he was to put the little plastic animals on the dots.  He did great!

covered Barney the purple dinosaur with stickers

 

Raelynn is 4!

FOUR?! How can this be? I know I will be saying this every year....but really.  I mean really how can my first born be four years old? 

 

This year Raelynn's birthday fell on a Saturday so we planned to have her party on her actual birth day.  We had rented the ramadas at the park and planned to have the party there.  But the Lord decided to send us rain all weekend so plans were changed.  But regardless of last minute changes, it was a very fun day and all came together well!

 

 

What better way to come out of your room than through streamers?!

Raelynn chose "the donkey place" aka Someburros for her birthday breakfast.  We have finally figured out that not only does she love the chips and hot sauce there, but they have gum balls!

Yes, her little brother DID blow the candle out while she was smiling for her picture! Isn't that such a brother thing to do? She handled it well and the candle was re lit for the birthday girl to blow out:)

 

 

 

 

 

Originally with the party planned at the park, we thought the kids would play on the playground equipment and it would be an "easy" party....but then last minute when it is changed to the house I had to come up with some things to do because if you can only imagine a bunch of toddlers with nothing to do, it could get quite interesting. 

Elliana playing "pin the hair on Rapunzel"

 

Instead of a piñata this year we did "pop Max's apple" which was balloons filled with a couple pieces of candy and a whistle

 

 

lunch time! We get the party subs from Walmart and are always so happy with them!

 

 

 

Raelynn playing "pin the nose on Flynn Rider"

Raelynn had been so set on an Elsa cake for her birthday until about two weeks prior to her birthday when she saw Tangled with her aunt Marissa.  She is hooked! It's all she wanted to watch and talk about the 'long hair girl' and Declan loved Pascal the 'frog' who is really a chameleon.  Marissa had two copies of the movie, so Raelynn was so fortunate to get the extra copy for her birthday.  I think she was quite pleased! The look on her face when she opened it was priceless!

 

The birthday girl with her Rapunzel cake!
(which is super easy to make!)

and the moment she had been waiting for....

After the party and naps we went to Joe's Farmgrill for dinner and to a local frozen yogurt place for dessert. 

 

 

 Another year older so another set of questions:

1. Favorite Color: yellow
2. Favorite Toy: Rapunzel
3. Favorite Food: Popcorn
4. One food I don't like is: eggs
5. Favorite thing to watch on TV is: Rapunzel
6. I am really good at: drawing
7. My favorite holiday is: my birthday and costumes on Halloween
8. The snack I like best is: goldfish
9. My favorite thing to drink is: apple juice on an airplane (I got her some on the plane ride from MI)
10. The coolest person on the earth is: Rapunzel (and after prompting that she isn't really on the earth she said Jackson)
11. My favorite song: Now I see the Light (from Tangled)
12. The book I love right now is: Toy Story or Fox in Socks
13. My best friend is: Garrett
14. My favorite game is: candyland
15. My favorite thing to learn in school is: drawing
16. Something Mom and Dad always say is: "Maybe I can spend the night at Mimi's"
17. At night, I like to sleep with: my white horse
18. My favorite place to go is: Disneyland (she's only been there once at age 2)
19. If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go: to the beach
20. My best memory is: "when I don't have problems" or "a fun time at the park when I helped Elliana up"
21. When I was little I used to: go to grandma's
22. When I grow up, I want to: have a birthday
23. Three words that describe me are: "no" "thank you" and "don't say that"

Oh Raelynn.  Such a joy she is.  There is simply never a dull moment with her.  Ever.  She is pretty much non stop talking, especially and mostly in the car.  In the past couple months she has actually really started slowing down and it's taking us by surprise.  She requests to draw all the time.  She will sit in the chair and color and draw for a while.  She loves to cut with scissors and glue with the glue stick.  She loves to "craft" and make things. 
Raelynn is a spunky girl and has an iron strong will.  She has truly been a challenge and we know that will probably not be going away.  God has given her a lot of determination inside her and I can only pray that He would help us as we try to guide her to use it for His glory. 
Raelynn loves to sing and dance.  We love having dance parties and she can often be heard singing songs that go like this "Jesus died Savior for my crucifixion  and righteousness" and we can't help but smile. 
She is asking more and more meaningful questions and really thinks about the answers we give.  She is so smart and keeps up thinking and always on our toes.  always.
Raelynn is tender hearted toward those younger than her.  She loves to help and really goes over the top when she does.  She is on her best behavior and happiest when she is helping someone or doing something that she thinks is helpful and has thought of on her own.  If she is asked to do it, well that may be a slightly different story.  But not always:)  She can handle responsibility and it is wonderful to see her thrive on it.  God has given her such a strong memory which will serve her through her lifetime.  She is able to memorize scripture and catechism questions and then can help her younger siblings with them too.
Confident, brave, strong, loud, silly, helpful, loving, and forgiving.  We love every bit of her.