Peter Pan Party, Year Two

When I asked Natalie what kind of party she wanted for her fourth birthday she said Peter Pan.  Peter Pan? Really, again?  Well, okay.  She's kind of obsessed with Peter Pan.  So much that he's her make believe friend, usually hanging around following her around while she plays.  She is often Wendy (whom she is also in love with) and Maggie gets to be either John or Michael.

I was planning on attempting to make a pirate ship cake with Peter Pan figurines aboard but one day Natalie informed that she wanted a special cake and even drew a picture of it for me on her doodle pad.  "I want yellow frosting all over it.  And I want little blue flowers all around it.  And Peter, Wendy, John, Michael on top of it."

No pirate ship?  Sounds good to me!  Papa and I love that you designed your own cake and we did our best to follow your sketch.

First thing she said was, "Where's John and Michael?"  Well, I tried to find everyone but no one makes John and Michael figurines so we added Tinker Bell instead.  She was content with this.

Auntie Marney found this wonderful "Wendy dress"for Natalie and surprised her with it for her birthday.

 "Everyone is going to think I am Wendy!"

 Our Wendy girl.

We had 6 friends join us for the birthday celebration.  Everyone wore their jammies (remember the children were asleep in their nursery when Peter Pan came and stole them away to Never Land.)

Our dear friends, Emily and Dave, dressed like Peter Pan and Wendy and surprised Natalie.  She was so shy at first and wouldn't even go up to them but I think inside she really liked it.  She did finally warm up since all her friends were having fun with Peter and Wendy.

And here is the crew, minus Maggie who was still waking up from her nap and trying to take everything in.

We played Peter Pan Says, decorated spy glasses, drew and colored our "Shadows", walked the plank (aka jump off the coffee table--a fav I think), ate cake and ice cream, opened presents, and then went on a treasure hunt--another fav.  It was so fun celebrating with Natalie and boy was I worn out at the end of it!

The Wendys.

Here's to flying to new heights, Natalie, "with happy thoughts and faith and trust, and a sprinkling of Tinker Bell's pixie dust."  Love you!

It's Official--she's four!

I really like how my friend always shares progressive pics of her kiddos on their birthdays and so I've adopted this too.  So fun to see how kids change and grow.

Baby Natalie

 One year old Natalie

Two year old Natalie

Three year old Natalie

Four year old Natalie

 You are smart, lovely, emotional, talented, and wonderfully ours.  We love you.  Happy Birthday!

One of a Kind Dad

An Airplane by Natalie

Finding the Perfect Tree for 2011

We were planning on going to get our tree the first weekend of December but the Sunday after Thanksgiving was sunny and beautiful and in a split second decision we rallied the troops and set off for our favorite tree farm.  Dusty got all three carseats to fit in the back of the truck, believe it or not.  Cozy.

Getting ready to scour the hillside.

I'm so thankful that we decided to go on a sunny, 50 degree day rather than the following weekend which was windy, cold, and snowing because our children still whined and cried despite the easy-going, beautiful weather.  Being cold would have just increased the discord.  You might expect everything to look like this on the trip as I did:

When in fact, is was more like this the majority of the time:

Remember Maggie last year? Well, she didn't fair much better this year and this time we also had Sabrina chiming in with her.  We were still looking for that perfect tree when the three small people decided they needed a snack so we trekked back to the truck.

On the second trip out Dusty ended up carrying the two year old (who refused to walk anymore) on his back while I carried Sabrina and Natalie happily ran around.

 The chosen one.

Dusty carrying the two year old and the tree back up the hill.

The outdoorsy one.

Thankful for the beautiful weather and scenery.

Here's hoping next year will be Maggie's magic year and Sabrina, well we'll just have to wait and see.  Trying to start family traditions can be hard sometimes.  I just want cutting down our tree to be a fun, cry-free experience one day. : )