Lily Turns 4 Years Old!

Lily is now 4! She is so loved by so many that we actually have celebrated her birthday 3 times this year. The first celebration was on her actual birthday. I held a combined preschool/birthday party for Lily at our little apartment in Roosevelt. We learned about animals and played games around that theme. It was fun to have my mom there, even though she probably shouldn't have been because she was unknowingly fatally low on blood. What a trooper! We had fun! We own a mini parachute and I had all the girls bring their favorite stuffed animal and we bounced them on the parachute outside. Then, we used it as a picnic blanket and ate cake.

Speaking of cake, Lily picked out a cake design from a book that I had found at a yard sale for 25 cents. I followed the instructions, with a few of my own variations, and I think the cake turned out very cute.
Here's a snapshot of the teddy bear cake before it was presented to Lily.
We made monkey masks for an activity. The eyes have mini holes poked out, so the girls can see through the mask.
This was a little game of "I spy" that we played, using toilet paper rolls as our telescopes. I had posters of various animals taped to the walls around the room, and each girl took a turn finding an animal for everyone else to spy.

Below is a video of Lily's reaction to the balloons we scattered on the walls for her birthday. Steve and Uncle Geoff blew up the balloons and taped them to the walls the night before. So when Lily woke up, she had a happy birthday from the get-go. Amara calls the balloons "moons." Sorry that I was a little out of it and I filmed the first 1/2 of her reaction with my camera turned on an angle.

Children's Prayers

Amara the other night was saying goodnight prayers:

Steve prompting Amara: "Please bless..."

Amara: "Seep." (Sleep)

Steve: "And bless..."

Amara: "Unko Deezus" (Uncle Jesus) 

That was the first time I had heard that one.  Both Steve and I peeked at eachother and laughed silently.  It's one of those cherished moments that come as a blessing of teaching your children to pray.  In past prayers she's blessed several of her uncles (including "Uncle" Missy and "Uncle" Mandy (My brother's wives)).

Also, earlier Lily had asked in her prayers that all the dinosaurs could come alive again because right now they are just bones.  

Mothers Day Cards from Lily and Amara

Steve helped Lily and Amara write cards to me for Mother's Day.  Here's what the girls had to say:

From Amara:

Steve: Do you love mommy?

Amara: Yeah... Uh huh.

Steve: What does mommy give you?

Amara: Daddy!

From Lily:

"I love mother because...

You see her eyes.

My mother always loves me and I love her and everybody loves everybody.

She always knows my name and comes home with us.

I love her so much."

Then she drew a bunch of squiggles and scribbles.  When asked what a few of them were, here's what she said,

"It's my owl's toys."

"That's a big huge mountain!  It's my mother's mountain."

"Present I'm going to give to my owl."

"That's my name.  I tried to write my name, but it says nothing."

"Her [mom's] foot."

I just love my girls.  These cards are precious.   Thanks to all who wished me a happy mother's day.  Being a mother has been my biggest responsibility and privilege ever and I'm so thankful I have the opportunity to be one.  I like to tell people that I've found motherhood to be the job that I've always wanted, but never knew it until it happened.

"Sweat" and the "Wrong Thing."

Lily is potty trained, but she doesn't always want to interrupt her day to go and use the bathroom, so she holds it as long as she can, then sprints to the bathroom and in a frenzy she tries to remove her clothing to make it on the toilet in time.  I've been trying to command her to use the bathroom when I notice that she's holding it.  

One such instance happened the other day.  It was after lunch and I noticed Lily looking quite uncomfortable crossing her legs tightly, slightly bending over, and bouncing a little.  

"Go to the bathroom, Lily."  I told her.

"No thanks, Mom."  She replied.  "I think I'll just bounce and sweat."

I'm still laughing at that.

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The girl I babysit doesn't always listen to me.  One day I told her not to go in the bathroom and take out Lily's hair accessories without asking me.   A few minutes later, she was taking Lily's hair things again, so I told her, "Katie, when I ask you to do something and you don't listen, you're doing the wrong thing.  You need to ask me if you want those."

She responded, "Lani Christensen, can I do the wrong thing?"

50th Birthday Party for Mrs. Mapother!

Mom's kids all emailed me something to put in a birthday card to her.  

It made her cry, so I think we did our job.

Lily was just pretending, but Amara wasn't.

It was fun to throw a birthday celebration for my mom.  It being her 50th, it had to be memorable.  So, we had a festive birthday dinner, showered her with flowers and love notes, and topped it off with a yummy homemade cake.  It was fun.

~Mom's Birthday Menu~

Appetizer- Shrimp Cocktail

Drink- Pina Colada

Entree- Grilled Steak, Seafood Scampi, Broccoli, Rice, Rolls

Dessert- Caramel-Soaked Choco-Butterfinger Layer Cake with

Whip Cream Frosting and Caramel Drizzle!

You'll notice in the video below that Amara already has some whip cream on her lip, even though we haven't started to sing to Grandma yet.  We put a bowl over the cake to prevent the kids from getting into it again, but that was temporary.

This next video is Amara mistaking herself for Grandma and mistaking this for her very own 50th birthday, thus, her cake, her candle, her moment.

Mapother Reunion Slideshow

This past weekend, everyone (Joe, Missy, Malia, JJ, Micah, Mandy, Jaxon, April, Spencer, and Jake) came up for the Mapother Reunion.  We made many memories and had a lot of fun playing at the park.  We also took some family photos, went out to eat, and ate warm chocolate chip cookies.  Blissful weekend.  The slideshow has just about every picture that was snapped with mom's camera, so sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

FHE- God's Creations

We had a fun Family Home Evening about God's Creations.  For our activity, we took the camera outside and had Lily and Amara find 5 of God's Creations to snap photos of.  Here's what they found all on their own:

Dirt

Clouds

Flowers

Ants

Grass