Now Showing: 11-Year-Old Adah

Somehow we now have an eleven-year-old in the house. She's made a great start to fifth grade in a new school and had a nice group of fun girls to invite over for her birthday party. 

She chose to repeat the movie-themed birthday party of a few years ago, but this time with a more "grown-up" movie than Tinkerbell. We borrowed a projector and set up the family room for true big-screen viewing of "Mirror Mirror."

The concessions stand was supplemented by pizza, carrots, apple slices, and drinks in the kitchen.

Adah really wanted a root beer cake for her birthday. She'd had root beer cookies and had heard of a root beer cake, but none of us had ever had one, and I'd certainly never made one. I asked advice of a friend (the source of the root beer cookies), scoured the Internet for recipes, and finally settled on a root-beer-extract-heavy (versus using actual root beer, as some recipes called for) concoction. The only way to make the brown cake fit the cinema theme was to make it the foundation for a "movie screen" with birthday wishes.

 

 

It turns out that Adah and I were about the only ones that liked the root beer cake. We think that most of the party guests were sugared out by the concessions stand, but even post-party, Damon declared the cake "weird" and opted to not eat it. Adah thought it was "awesome," so I guess that's what really counts.

Adah's birthday was on a Tuesday this year, and since she's now a big 5th grader and has homework every night, we had her party on the Saturday before the actual day so that everyone could really kick back and relax. That means that when Tuesday rolled around, it was time for more celebrating!!

We usually make the kids get all ready for school before opening presents, but Adah did get to open one early since I gave her this blue shirt and wanted her to be able to wear it. Then, after everyone was dressed and ready to go, we let Adah open her other gifts, which included a book and pens & pencils from Nana and Gumpin* and a little pillow sewn by Maggie. Then we sent her on a brief treasure hunt with directional clues through the house...

 

. . . until she found her NEW BIKE in the garage!! She was getting too tall for her old bike and now she's got her first bike with multiple gears and hand brakes, which have taken a little adjustment, but provide a much-improved ride.

Adah is a great daughter. We're so happy to have her as the big sister in our family since she has become very responsible and helpful. She can do dishes and clean up the whole kitchen (and willingly chooses that job when there's a list of chores to be done), cook spaghetti, get herself to and from piano lessons, make her own breakfast, and always gets her homework finished without being asked.  She's growing in her understanding and testimony of the gospel and it's so wonderful to see her insight when we discuss the scriptures or to hear her share something that she's prayed about.

We're proud of the young lady she's becoming. She's really growing up. One of the first things she said on the morning of her birthday was, "Only one year until I go to Young Women!!"**

*Grandma and Grandpa were at our house earlier in the month and brought presents then. They gave her a painting of a horse and a drawing book.

**Young Women is our church's program for girls aged 12-18.

Can you dig it?

Gunnar invited several friends to come over for a construction-themed birthday party. We got to liberally use his favorite color, orange, and I enjoyed designing lots of road-sign & DIY-themed decorations.

 

All of the party-goers were given a hard hat and work apron and then got to select a small construction vehicle. 

Here's the birthday boy ready to go in the "party zone." I didn't get a picture of it, but on the table in front of Gunnar I placed some 9x13 pans full of corn meal and rice for the children to dig and drive around in with their construction vehicles. This is a favorite playtime activity of Gunnar's.

By far the biggest hit (literally) at the party, though, was this hammering station. Here the kids used play hammers to pound golf tee "nails" into styrofoam blocks that we covered in paper that looked like wood.

If I'd known how much they would like doing this I would have had more hammers and more blocks. Still, they managed to take turns and no one got their fingers smashed. (They were using plastic hammers after all.)

All the construction workers took a turn "driving" our dump truck.

 

Adah really wanted to look like she was sitting in the driver's seat.

 

Maggie really got into the festive construction spirit. Her shirt says, "Caution Big Sister," and she made a hair bow out of caution tape. This girl knows how to accessorize.

I loved making Gunnar's birthday cake. It's what I consider a "traditional" birthday cake--3 layers of chocolate cake with my mom's killer chocolate frosting--with a backhoe and bulldozer digging into it. It was easy to make and tasted delicious.

And it made for a happy birthday boy and mom.

 

 

Now We Are Six

Gunnar-man turned 6 on October 3rd!  This little guy is growing up so much and we're so happy he's in our family. His boy-ness adds a definite twist to all the femininity in the air at our house.

Although there was a birthday party scheduled after school, Gunnar got to open family presents in the morning.

Nana and Gumpin (my parents) sent him two National Geographic Kids books about animals. Gunnar LOVES them. This kid just soaks up any and every animal fact he hears, so he just loves the photos and facts in these books.

We gave him some Legos.

We also gave him a skateboard and gave him one-time special permission to try it out in the hallway. Not bad for a first try.

 

Gunnar is having a great start to kindergarten. He's a model student--sitting still, keeping his hands to himself, raising his hand to talk, following directions quickly, completing his work, and just generally following the rules. He's progressing in his reading and improving his handwriting. I've always known Gunnar was a good boy, but he can be a bit wild and crazy at times, so seeing him adapt to the rules and routines of a classroom has been a source of great pride for me.

When we moved to California last year, Gunnar could have enrolled in kindergarten because the birthday deadline was different from what it is in Washington. However, I didn't feel that he was ready. This issue became a point of disagreement between the school district in Milpitas and us, and was one of the main reasons that we moved to a new city and school district this summer. Seeing Gunnar be so successful in school so far has just reinforced to me that we made the right decision in not sending him to kindergarten last year. He knew his ABCs, numbers, and tons of animal facts last year, but I don't think he was quite so ready to keep his spot on the rug and wait for recess to run and jump. Now that he's six, school is super!

Gunnar continues to be enthralled with tigers, dinosaurs, and prehistoric animals. He's a great bike-rider and has also been learning to roller blade. He's making friends at school and is a fun friend to his sisters at home. We sure love him.

Our Little Lady(bug) Turns Three

This fuzzy little girl turned THREE at the end of May!

Her birthday was on a Saturday, so everyone was in their jammies for opening a few pre-party presents. In fact, they stayed in their PJs until after lunch. Knowing that they'd be putting on swimming suits for the party, I just couldn't convince them to get dressed any sooner.

Holly LOVES Hello Kitty. This is a MegaBlocks (like Legos) Hello Kitty schoolhouse that we gave her. It was a big hit.

. . . as were the other fun things she got later at her pool party. Her Wangsgard cousins & uncle and her preschool friends' family came to our neighborhood pool for swimming, hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, and birthday cake. I was apparently too busy swimming to take any pictures of the pool or any of the party-goers.

Well, here's one of Holly's buddy Danielle watching the gift-opening. Here Holly was opening an Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked DVD from Grandma and Grandpa. That movie got such serious playtime in the weeks following her birthday that at one point I had to ban it until July! The kids all love it.

Holly loves ladybugs, so I made her a ladybug cake. (If I remember correctly) I baked three 8-inch rounds and used two layers for the body. Then I cut the third cake in half and trimmed it to make the 2-layer head. I found chocolate-dipped Oreos for the spots and covered the head with crushed Oreo crumbs. Marshmallow-and-mini-chocolate-chip eyes & straw antennae finished the job.

Oh, and the frosting was a regular buttercream that I colored with a little food coloring and strawberry freezer jam. So, the cake was chocolate with a strawberry frosting. Yum! And, it was the perfect combination of three things Holly loves: chocolate, ladybugs, and pink.

The birthday girl blew out all her candles, & we all had a wonderful time celebrating our little Holly.

 

Maggie's Baptism: Eight IS Great!

Maggie turned 8 on 13 January 2013. It was a Sunday and she decided to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on that very day. In our church, children must be at least 8 years old to be baptized, because at that age they are capable of discerning between right and wrong and can make the baptismal covenant to keep the commandments and follow Jesus Christ. We are so proud of Maggie's decision to be a follower of Christ and become an official member of the Church. She was baptized by her dad.

Maggie's teacher from school, Mrs. Kim, accepted Maggie's invitation to come to the baptismal service. She lives near our church building and is friends with some of the church members who are also teachers in the school district. We were so happy that she came to support Maggie on this special day. Maggie really likes Mrs. Kim and is having a great 2nd grade year in her classroom. 

Audra is a friend from Maggie's first school in Milpitas. When Maggie moved to her current school, we didn't think we'd see her again. However, when Adah began learning the flute in a district band class, Audra's older sister was there learning the trumpet, so we ran into Audra after the first class! I have since become friends with Audra's mom and Adah is friends with her older sister. We were happy to have Audra and her mom join us for Maggie's baptism.

Lots of friends from primary came to witness the baptism and wish Maggie well. She got a candy lei from one family. . .

. . . and all the kids wrote her notes on the chalkboard in the adjoining classroom.

And, of course, all our California family was also there to watch Maggie take this important step. Holly got cozy with Grandma and was sacked out by the end of the service. (Maybe she found my talk boring.) Grandpa also came, as well as Uncle Jotham and Aunt Dana and kids, and Uncle Jed and Aunt Joette and kids. And we were so happy to have the Potters there from Washington. Uncle Jed and Brother Potter were able to help Damon confirm Maggie.

After the baptismal service at the church, the whole family, the Potters, and Audra & her mom, came to our house for a pasta buffet and double birthday cakes! We figured we needed a lot of cake to feed all those people, so we put four candles on each cake (photos did not turn out) to get the required eight. Maggie also got to open all her gifts from the family during this party. It was a really fun evening.

Before everyone went home, we tried to get a photo of all the cousins together. (Keep in mind that these are cousins from the McMillan and Wangsgard side, so technically not all of them are cousins with each other--just cousins to my kids.) As you can see, trying to get 10 children ages 10, 9, 8, 6, 6, 5, 3, 3, 2, and 2 months to all sit still and smile nicely for the camera was pretty tricky. And, again, the photography job was pretty lousy anyway. Still, you get the idea of how much fun and craziness must have been happening at our house as we celebrated Maggie's birthday and baptism.

A little better. . .

Almost. . .

but not quite. : )

FYI: The kids (from the top) are Holly, Cassie, Braden, & Christian; Anya, Kiera, & Adah; Gunnar, Kara, & Maggie.

Eight is Great! (And Maggie is, too.)

Maggie invited several friends from her church primary class to come and "get crafty" at her birthday party on January 12 (the day before her actual birthday).  Everyone made collages on clipboards and also painted metal washers with fingernail polish to create necklace pendants. This was the QUIETEST group of little girls I've ever been around. They hardly made a peep and just worked away at their little projects.

We designed Maggie's cake to look like an artist's palette. You see that, right?

  

 Opening gifts:

The best gift was that our friends, the Potters, drove down from Washington to be with us for the weekend to celebrate Maggie's birthday and attend her baptism. They arrived just as the party was starting and stayed until Monday morning. We wish their visit could have been longer, but they squeezed us into their busy family holiday travels and preparations to leave on their mission in March.

Making a wish:

At eight, Maggie is still a cheerful addition to our family, making us laugh with her dancing and lip syncing (Tangled songs are her specialty these days). She's still playing the violin, right now as the youngest student in a school district group class. Her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Kim, is always sharing funny stories that Maggie likes to repeat to us. Maggie's excelling in school with 100% spelling tests every week and reading at a 5th grade level! We're so proud of all her hard work in school, the help and attention she gives to her younger siblings (she's great at reading to them), and in seeing her learn the gospel and make good choices.  We love you, Maggie. Happy Birthday!