Krissy's Hawaiian Party

Krissy is obsessed with "The Lava Song."  Earlier this summer when I was at the Dollar Tree, I saw a huge section of Hawaiian Party supplies.  The grass skirt all the way to the plates and napkins and table covers were from the Dollar Tree. I had the idea that she should have a Hawaiian party since she loves that song so much.  If you've never seen the video, you can watch it now!

While I've had all the party supplies for months, I was actually very behind planning the party.  The day before we were scheduled to celebrate, I decided to move the party from our house to Newburgh's Fortress of Fun.  They have a nice covered patio area that was perfect for hosting a lunch.  I also hadn't spent much time thinking about her cake.  I knew I wanted to try a new icing recipe (which was a slight fail), but that's as far as I had planned.

Her party took place this past Sunday.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Low 80s, partly cloudy, a nice breeze.  The park had so many areas to play that we had a hard time reeling the kids in for food/cake/gifts.

 Krissy said over and over the best part of her party was swinging :)

Kevin grilled burgers and we served them on Hawaiian buns.  I had made fruit and veggies plates paired with fruit dip and ranch.  I also mixed together a prepackaged Dole Asian salad.  (It's really good and I love all you have to do is assemble it!  You can find it with the prepackaged lettuce at Walmart.)  The flies were a bit pesky, but that's expected with food outdoors.

The new icing for Krissy's cake tasted fantastic.  It was buttery but light.  Only problem is it didn't have much consistency, and sitting outside just made it even softer.  So when it was time for cake, part of the icing had already melted and slid down the cake.  Normally that would really bother me, but I just said oh well and went along with it!  I made the cake topper out of a rice krispy treat covered in fondant... and lets just pretend she looks like the girl volcano in the video above ;) Ha!  (I owe her a better cake next year!)  She loved all her gifts too (although there aren't any pics from that part!)  She got a couple stuffed animals, some new clothes, and shopkins!

All my kids had a great day, so I guess we can call it a great party!  Thanks to everyone that came and made the day special for our little girl!

One of my favorite pics from the party - he scooped her up between posed pictures and wanted his picture with her :)

Krissy's Birthday Interview

Krissy is 4 years old today!

She is sweet but spunky. She won't talk to strangers and typically give them dirty looks if they talk to her.  She is attached to my hip and gets her feelings hurt if I go anywhere with out her.  She's always on the counter with me while I'm in the kitchen... whether it's doing dishes, dumping in ingredients for recipes, or putting groceries away, she's wanting to help.  She yells... a lot.  Mostly at Austin.  We're working on talking nicely to people we love.  She's our most adventurous eater and will try just about anything.  She's always had a tiny build and we get asked a lot if Austin is her twin.  Hayden & Allie were both taller when they turned 4 than she is. She wakes up weekly because of "growing pains". She rarely naps during these day, but goes to sleep really easily at night.  Her favorite past time is playing Barbies with Allie when she gets home from school.  I hear a lot that she looks just like me.  She also has the best laugh.  

We love you, Krissy!

(Interview was done 9/16/2016)
 
1.  How old are you going to be?
     This much (holds up 4 fingers)

2.  What do you want to be when you grow up?
      Um a butterfly

3.  What's your favorite food and least favorite food?
     {Favorite}  Broccoli
     {Least}  Umm the thing that's yucky on the chicken {I have no idea what she means!}

4.  What's your favorite song?
      The lava song {Disney Pixar's short film - The Lava Song}

6.  What are you really good at?
      Cleaning up

7.  Who is your best friend?
      Eleanor

8.  What's your favorite color?
      pink

9.  What's your favorite movie?
      Umm Angry Birds

10.  What's your favorite toy?
       Um a puppy

11.  If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?
       Um a mermaid
{Random story: Krissy got caught sneaking a peak of her birthday gifts.  She has told me for months she wanted a mermaid barbie like Allie has, so I got her one.  Well after she saw her gifts, she said she didn't want the barbie anymore... and today she's back to wanting a mermaid barbie!}
    
12.  If you could change your name, what would it be?
       Allie (giggles)  like you'd have two Allies

13.  What's your favorite holiday?
       Halloween

14.  What's your favorite animal?
       A cat  

15.  What's your favorite tv show?
       Curious George

16.  What makes you happy?
        Loving on you

17.  What makes you sad?
        Not loving on you

18.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
       My ni-nights, my little ni-ninight {She actually takes 3 baby blankets to bed with her and covers up with two "cozy ni-nights"}

19.  What do you love about having brothers and a sister?
       Loving them

20.  What's the best thing that happened when you were 3?
       Played with Barbie Mermaids

Krissy's 4 Year Pics

On the 15th, I stole Krissy for the evening and took her to my favorite garden for some birthday pictures.  She was so excited to go and kept talking about "having special time with mommy."  She isn't camera shy and I think these pictures capture her sweet side perfectly!  We opted for just one outfit because we knew the sun was setting fast. 150ish pictures later, these are my fave :)

Being Your Child's Advocate

(Our attempt at a kid picture at Holiday World wasn't what I call a success! Ha!)

When I got into parenting about 8 years ago, being my child's advocate was something no one really prepared me for.  I'm one who tends to shy away from controversy, I like everyone to be happy, and have been guilty of people-pleasing way more than I care to acknowledge (because we want to be  liked, right?!)

There were two defining moments in my parenting days that launched me into this idea of being my kids advocates.  #1 was when Allie was born with a foot deformity.  Every well check, I brought it up with the doctor, but never pushed - I just took what he said ("It will correct itself... give it time")  and accepted that, even though I knew he was wrong.  8 months after her birth he finally decided I needed to see a specialist and the specialist told me she should have been seen at birth.  And then came the mommy guilt.  I knew I should have spoken up earlier.

#2 was when Krissy was a baby.  She had a severe spitting up problem.  She couldn't keep a bottle down, and I spent my early days with her drenched in baby spit up all.day.long.  When I'd bring it up with the pediatrician (we still had the same one from my incident with Allie), he was very dismissive.  He told me all baby's spit up, and it was normal.  I knew he was wrong, but he wouldn't listen to me.  About the time Krissy was 10 months old, I decided I was done being dismissed by a know-it-all doctor.  I remember my mom telling me, "If you don't speak up for her, no one else will!"  We switched pediatricians, and we haven't looked back.  The new pediatrician was so concerned because I was concerned.  We did several tests (blood and stool) on Krissy and found everything to be normal.  The new pediatrician felt that she probably had a lactose intolerance.  And she thought it was something she'd outgrow.  And she was right.  Most of Krissy's first year I fed her lactose based formulas, and that explains why she wasn't able to keep them down. 

I've gotten better about sticking up for my kids over the years.  Let me also add in, I'm not the parent that blames behavior issues on the teacher, or bad grades on the teacher.  I don't think my kids are always right.  With that being said, I've found myself this last week playing a full time job of my child's advocate.

Last Friday before school, when the kids were getting ready to get on the bus, they had to stop for a car that didn't stop for the bus.  The stop arm was out, lights were flashing, and on the car went.  I've never liked the idea of them crossing the usually busy street to get on the bus, so I called the man in charge of school transportation in our county.  I told him what happened and asked what he could do.  I didn't get an immediate fix to this, so I called our bus driver {whom we love}, and asked that when she turned around from picking up the last stop, if she could just make us her last pick up, so they kids didn't have to cross the street.  She agreed and that's what's being done now.  All it takes is one car not paying attention, and not stopping, for their to be deadly consequences, and I didn't take the matter lightly.

Second incident is with Hayden's teacher.  It seems as though his teacher thinks of school as more of a day care and the kids are watching tv shows, play games,  having free time, and snack times several times a day.  There are school books that have never been opened in his class, and school has been in session for over a month.  There's hardly any learning going on and no excuse for it in my book.  I can't tell you the results of my advocating because the school principal hasn't gotten back with me on setting up an appointment with him.  I have no idea what the outcome will be, but I know there has to be a change or Hayden will pay the price next year when he goes to 3rd grade.  So I'm continuing to push.

Third incident is with our church.  On Wednesday, Allie decided she was ready to be baptized.  She declared, "I only have the devil in my heart and I want Jesus in my heart!"  Baptism is something we've talked a lot about over the years, and I know she's ready and she is doing it for the right reasons.  The issue is the church says Allie needs to take their children's baptism class (in November) before she can be baptized.  Hayden did the class.  It was lovely, and the couple that teaches it is wonderful.  But it didn't teach him anything he didn't already know.   And why should the church say no, she's not ready until she's taken the class?  Adults don't have to take a baptism class, so why do they think a child has to take a class to be ready.  I've left messages with a pastor and he hasn't returned my calls, but this afternoon I'm going to go above him and on to the next person until we can get this little girl baptized!

Bottom line, sometimes it's hard to go against the flow, and against what "professionals" tell you is the norm, or the right way.  But regret for not doing what your mommy intuition tells you to do is even harder to deal with!  So, my charge to all you moms reading this... you know what's best for your kids.  No matter how awkward/hard/embarassing it is, stand up for those little people you get to mother!

Update

It made me laugh how many people have commented on my lack of blogging lately!  I'll be honest, we are starting this new season of life and it's BUSY!  I'm still trying to figure out how to balance my time.  Those of you that have multiple kids involved in multiple activities where parents are expected to participate and donate (their time and talents) get what I mean!  And we only have two kids in school that are involved in extracurricular activities... so Lord have mercy on me, I can only imagine what our normal chaos will be when they are all in school!

I normally get a little down time during the afternoon when the kids nap.  Sometimes Krissy naps, sometimes she sits in her room for 20-30 mins and decides she's not tired.  But regardless, I've been using this time to do a little cardio workout DVD, and work on projects (sewing/baking/crafting).  I need to add blogging to that mix because I don't want to look back on these years and it be a big blur!  Here are some headliners from the last few weeks:

Hayden joined scouts.  He did this 2 years ago, loved it, but us parents were totally over it.  3+ meetings a month, plus lots of weekend activities left us overwhelmed.  It also didn't help we were leading Hayden's den and knew nothing about scouting!  So, Hayden said over and over when school started he wanted to join again.  We agreed to it, but Kevin and I promised each other we weren't taking any leadership spots this time, though we've been asked several times!  He's a few weeks in, things are going much better, and we are gearing up for popcorn sales that start in 9 days!

Allie is cheering for Castle Youth Football League.  She's got the full uniform, pom-poms, huge bow, and has had weekly practices to learn cheers.  She cheers at a game every Saturday.  The season only lasts through October, but she's LOVING it!  She asks if she can do cartwheels though Walmart, and the only time she's gotten in trouble at school was for doing cartwheels in the classroom.  The girl just wants to tumble and I think it's adorable!

Krissy is turning 4 next week!  Is this really possible?  We are having a little family party on Sunday and will take her out for a special morning of fun followed by lunch on her actual birthday.  We just did some pictures tonight and I can't wait to share them with you!

Austin is such a ham.  He makes us laugh all day.  Right now we are working on keeping hands to yourself.  (Krissy is working on that too.)  He also insists everyone gets hugs before they leave. 

I joined the mom's Wednesday bible study group at our church.  It meets every week for a couple hours and we are going through the study on Missional Motherhood.  It's been really good for me to get ready and get out of the house and make some new friends.  The kids get to go to a little class where they do projects and hear bible stories and they enjoy it too.

We sold our van.  It was nice having the van, the expedition, and the truck, but we are trying to get debt free (except the house) and we both felt like selling a vehicle was the right move. 

I'm volunteering in Allie's class once a week.

Kevin was on day shift these past two weeks and it's thrown off our usual 2nd shift schedule.

I've had two good friends come in town this month that I've got to visit with.  I really enjoy these girls and the fact we've been friends for 20+ years!

We went to Holiday World last weekend for Kevin's work party.  This was the first time our whole family has gone.  The kids are asking, "When can we go back?"

This month I've made strawberry cupcakes, homemade bread and butter, chocolate chip cookies (2 times), pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, salted caramel macrons, yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing, and sugar cookies. I love baking sweets AND eating sweets but I'm trying to cut back on my sugar consumption, so I gave away most of what I baked!

I am doing a wedding cupcake/cake order for a friend in a couple weeks.  It's amazing to me how many people still think of me when they need a cake.   It's truly flattering.  But, I get all kinds of anxiety about whether or not a cake order will be up to par and whether or not it meets their expectations.  So, I've decided to bake for the fun of it (my kids birthday cakes, cakes for parties I host, teacher and bus driver gifts, and on the rare occasion of baby showers for close friends, etc).  I have a dream that one day when all the kids are in school I may find time to start taking orders again.  I really do love baking, but right now, taking orders isn't doable most weeks.

Ok, so that's kind of the gist of what's been going on.  I have an ongoing list of blog ideas on my phone that I may finally write up... or expand more on some of the things I mentioned above.  Be looking for Krissy's birthday posts starting next week!