Kylie's Florida Birthday Party

Kylie won't be 6 for a few weeks and we'll have just arrived in CA for her actual birthday, so I wanted her to have a little party here with a few of her friends before we left. As usual, I contemplated how many kids to invite and what age because many of MY friends have young kids. She chose a few friends from church, another family who home schools and some of our military friends. We chose NOT to invite the soccer team. There are 9 girls on the team including Kylie and Ava and that would have been way too many kids. Everything I've read for party planning suggests one kid per age the child is turning, so we kinda got closer this year. We chose to have her party at the location in which the girls do gymnastics, and they have a limit on how many kids can come with their packaged rate, so that helped narrow down the number of kids as well.

I think Jonathan was more excited about going than the girls, and that is probably because they go to gymnastics every week. They did let the kids run around the gym for an hour and play on any of the equipment they wanted and the girls liked being able to just run and use equipment they've never been on before.

Excuse the quality of these photos. I'm going to whine briefly on how I want a new camera. I'm sure I could adjust my point and shoot for inside where its darker and the kids are moving fast, but I think that would all just fix itself with a better camera. Okay, that's it.

Jonathan practicing his mount onto a balance beam.

Kylie climbing a rope.

Juliet on top of some thing I have no idea what it is.

Jonathan doing a back flip on the trampoline. See, I told you he was excited!

Kylie and Keri running their little hearts out towards the vault.

The foam pit was the best "attraction" by far.

Ava running from across the room and jumping into the pit.

Kylie's turn.

We got to see Ava do some of her skills on the balance beam. She did quite well! Jonathan was shocked and I told him she better be learning something since we pay for this every month. :)

My girls getting into the chalk. Did anyone else even look at it? No. At times you'd think I was raising boys.

Juliet and A'lyn on the trampoline.

Juliet hanging from a high bar. She wasn't too thrilled, but she hung on tight!

More of daddys antics on the high bar.

After the kids had an hour of playing, it was time for cake, ice cream and presents. I went the, well not cheaper, rather quicker cake route. Kylie wanted a Care Bears theme so I went to Publix and ordered a cake. It wasn't nearly as cute as the brochure, but Kylie liked it. I've always made the girls' cakes, but with this move, we didn't have time nor was my house in any state for baking. I wanted to do ice cream and Candace suggested I do ice cream cups and boy was that easy! Thanks for the hot tip!

Ava and Maya

Sisters Carolyn and Isabella.

Keri-a fellow home schooled little girl.

Juliet and A'lyn. These 2 are so cute together.

Of course its hard to get 2 year olds to look at the camera at the same time.

Leah (also home schooled) and Devon. He was about as excited as Jonathan to be showing off his mad gymnastics skillz!

Addie and Camryn. Camryn is known for her "special" camera faces. I gave her plenty of opportunities to smile and this is what she gave me. :)

Jonathan and I got Kylie a new 20 inch bike for her birthday this year. She wasn't very excited in front of everyone when we gave it to her (she also clammed up when we all sang "happy birthday") but she does love it.

Here's a quick video. You can see at the end she runs over Jonathan's foot.

Big Girl Seat

We got Ava a big girl booster seat last week. She likes being able to sit in the back of the van with Kylie, but of course more "sisterly love" occurs back there...hitting, toy stealing, etc. Their singing voices have also seemed to get a lot louder now that they are in closer proximity to each other.

Headed to soccer practice.

My babies are getting so big!

Locks of Love

Kylie has such gorgeous hair! I know women pay good money to have hair like hers, and now a child without hair will be able to use Kylie's for a wig.

I had brought the donating idea up to Kylie a little while back and when it came down to doing it, she didn't want to cut her hair. As it got longer and sometimes a pain to work with, I put the bug in her ear again about donating it to a sick child who didn't have pretty hair anymore. She liked the thought of that and finally said she was willing to do it so I looked online to see what the requirements were. Different organizations require different lengths, and I knew I wanted to have it donated to children. Wigs for Kids wants 12 inches and Locks of Love wants 10, so we went with that. She didn't have enough to do 12 and since we are moving in a few weeks, I wanted Candace to cut it (Candace cut my hair a few years back when I donated it to Pantene and wouldn't dare have anyone else cut Kylie's hair). And to be honest, I don't think I could let her hair grow another 2 inches before having it cut.

All day today was asking "when is Candace going to be here" so she could cut her hair and I know she didn't take a nap because she was so excited. I think overall Jonathan was the most traumatized but at the end of the day, her cut is cute and no tears were shed, not even by daddy. I thought I may be a little upset by it, but I think since she's donating it, and she likes the length and looks cute, it didn't bother me at all!

The hair before.

Jonathan telling her its okay if she wants to back out. :)

Lets do this! I love the faces!

Her 10 inch braid!

Candace giving it some shape.

Jonathan brushing through it.

Sassy pants and her new cut.

Side view.

Thanks to my awesome friend Candace who has taught me to NEVER cut your own child's hair (proud to say I've never made that mistake) and that you don't DYE your hair, you COLOR it. You DYE Easter Eggs.

Juliet's 1st Hair Cut

If Jonathan says "babe, I think we need to cut Juliet's hair", then you know its time to do something with the mullet. Candace has been bugging me for months to be able to get her hands on Juliet's golden locks and today was finally the day. At first Juliet wasn't wanting anything to do with it, but Candace bribed her with a treat and she easily gave in. After a few snips she said "no hurt" (now we know why she was reluctant) and she looks as sassy as ever!

"Kitchen hair at its finest"~Candace

This is serious business!

Candace introducing Juliet to "product".

The final touches. Jonathan kindly piped in "because you don't have enough to do in the mornings..." My blow dryer already goes constantly, so what's one more cute little head of hair.

Ta Da! Candace didn't have to cut much off, she just evened it out and added a few layers.

She's 2 and 1/2!

I have photos on my night stand...one with Kylie the day she was 2 and 1/2 and one with Ava too, so of course I have to be fair. This one will be in a frame in the near future along with her sisters. It was taken this past Saturday, the 10th.

Does THIS prove to you we are done having kids?

Since we have renters for our house (yay!), I decided it was time to get rid of Juliet's crib and changing table. We have yet to transition her to a big girl bed because she is in the tiniest room in our house and there was no way we could shove a twin bed and dresser in there and make anyone believe it was big enough for a child's room. I had her crib, changing table, dresser, rocking chair and an armoire in her room and it still looked spacious. Last week I put the items up on craigslist and within 3 hours, I had a couple at my house wanting to buy them! Jonathan had no idea so when he got home, he had to take it apart. Thanks honey! I know you came home to look at houses in Vegas online, but instead you helped me get some spending money.

Here is everything laid out in my front yard.


Me: "Honey, why don't you go change out of your flight suit. I can carry this stuff outside."
J: "Its okay babe, I got it."


I didn't really have time to mourn my loss. It happened so fast, and we're on "house mode" these days that we don't really think about anything else.


Here's Juliet's new set up-the good ol' Pack & Play. When we get to Vegas, she gets to share a room with Ava and take Kylie's old bed. Yes everyone, we are DONE having kids!

Don't you DARE bring that in my house!

Oh great! Now my child likes to catch lizards. Were frogs not good enough? How on earth was that possible? Aren't those little creatures supposed to be fast!?!?

She's so proud of herself.


YUCK!

I'm going to miss this!

Now I'm not a huge fan of the south. I'm a California girl to the core! The weather is muggy and we can only open our house for a few weeks in the spring and fall. Our AC bill goes through the roof in the summer (I know, not like it'll be any better in Vegas...but its DRY heat) and this town has a STINKY smell every now and then depending upon which way the winds blow. However, I do absolutely love our proximity to the BEACH and when we are stuck in the desert again in a few weeks, we won't have that luxury. I know we'll squeeze in as many trips as we can in these next few weeks, and last week was our first beach run of the season. We went with Candace and her crew of 3 girls as well as Kelly and her little one Emily. It wasn't a "chillin' in a chair sippin' on a nice cool beverage" kind of day, but it was still fun and the kids loved it!

Here's my awesome friend Candace, no kidding, wrestling with her 15 month old twins Taryn and Ashlyn. These girls wanted nothing to do with the fence Candace toted down to the beach. Instead they raced off to the water and had the time of their lives!


Ava likes to go off by herself and enjoy the waves crashing on the shore. She's done it every summer we've lived here.


Juliet trying to fight off 2 little girls who truly know how to hold their own!


A quick smile, and a soggy diaper.


Look at them hold hands. Again, their sweet moments are few and far between.