Oh My Princess!

Today was the final official event signifying Tessa's 4th birthday. We drove down to Nana's house and had a party with the extended Wright family, although the Wrights of Lehi were too busy enjoying the sun in St. George to join us in cool, rainy Ogden - we were all jealous! Once again, Tessa got exactly the right gifts to make her little heart happy.

Every girl needs a castle that is almost as big as she is - it's big enough to hold all the princesses she has, plus a few Polly Pockets. Thanks, Nana and Aunt Laura!

Speaking of Polly Pockets, it's pretty easy to accumulate their clothes and accessories really quickly! Thank goodness the regular Polly Pockets and the Disney princess themed dolls are the same size so they can share all their clothes in their new castle. Thanks for adding to the collection, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Brad, Boston and Cameron!

Tessa also received some Shrinky-Dinks. She insisted on coloring them right when we got home and watching them bake and shrink. She wanted to hang them on the wall, so we taped them on a piece of paper and put them above her bed. To the left is her portrait of me (apparently she can tell it's me because she drew earrings, not that you can really tell).

Here is a closeup of the Shrinky-Dinks; they were Tinker Bell themed.


We also had cupcakes and played games and had a good time with our family. Tessa also received a Princess and the Frog playset from Uncle Andrew, Aunt Melisa, Olivia, Colin, and Kate that she absolutely loves. The bonus was that it came in the mail, because really who doesn't love getting a package in the mail?

The downside to the giant pink castle is that we had to get rid of something in the play area of our family room. We decided on the play kitchen. Tessa hasn't played with it regularly in about a year (she got it for her 2nd birthday) so we packed it away and it will be sold at our garage sale in two weeks. Along with every other toy in the house not geared towards ages 4 and up. But not the castle. Or anything pink. Pink stays.

Kindergarten Completed

William's last day of kindergarten was today. He had a great year and has come a long way. He doesn't seem as sensitive and emotional as he was at the beginning of school. I still remember how he had such a hard transition to school and I had to stand and wave at the bus until it was out of sight while he pressed his face against the window. He missed me, he said.

He doesn't seem to miss me as much and has gone happily to school since October or so. A lot of this has to do with his teacher. Ms. Renee is fantastic and did such a good job with William. We love her and will miss her next year!

Yesterday the kindergarten had their end of year program. They all sang a lot of songs - seriously, they could have cut the number of songs they sang in half and still been fine - and had a slide show with all the kids pictures. Ms. Renee's class had something extra to show us after all the other classes were dismissed - dancing! The kids learned how to do the Virginia Reel (I was working in the classroom the first day we taught it to them and am still recovering) and how to do some Hawaiian dances as well. Here is William with his poi ball:

He had some trouble with it, but they all did. And they were wearing their cowboy hats and bandanas in anticipation of the Virginia Reel, which Jay tried to get on video but it didn't turn out well. You can't really tell what's going on because they kept getting confused so it just looks like a lot of kids intermittantly clapping and jumping around.

So kindergarten is over. Next year will be a big year for William - first grade (and I'm kind of dreading it because I think he'll have a hard time adjusting to going to school all day, although maybe he'll surprise me) and a new school (they changed school configurations and boundaries in our district so the kids will be at a new school that will be K-5). Until then, summer awaits. If the temperature will ever get above 70.

0 for 2

Our plan to relive our youth via concerts this summer isn't going quite as we'd planned. Sting cancelled his concert last month and now we are waiting for Bono to heal from his emergency back surgery to find out if and when U2 will be playing in Salt Lake City.

That's what happens when the groups you are interested in seeing are fronted by middle-aged men. I just wish Bono had been a little more careful while rehearsing over in Germany. These things happen when you are turning 50, I guess.

It Takes a Village

I love our little neighborhood. We live in a cul-de-sac, which is so nice for letting kids play. We have wonderful neighbors who are good friends to us and to our children. It's really a nice place to live and we are very happy here.

Today was a good example of why we love where we live so much. The morning was cool and rainy - really rainy. It cleared up this afternoon and by 3:30 pm was nice and sunny. Most of the preschool kids were out playing - riding their bikes and scooters, climbing on the rocks in our front yard, watering my friend Melissa's flowers. By 3:50 or so the older kids were all home from school. In one yard we had a mini-baseball game going on. William decided not to play baseball so we ran around playing with a water toy and hiding behind a tent in another yard. And Melissa (she's the fun mom in the cul-de-sac) opened up the back of her van and put on a video for the preschoolers to watch. She even popped popcorn.

I love that she found mini-camp chairs for the kids to sit in while they watched their show:

She even put the popcorn in little plastic nacho trays so they could all have their own serving:

After the video was over and the popcorn was gone, the little kids all got out of the van and ran around the yard, squirting each other with water and having a blast. I hated to break up the fun at 5:30 to feed my minions their dinner, but all good things must come to an end. Luckily we have whole summer to have fun with our friends.

When we first moved into our house, we only had one neighbor. Within a year the other houses in our cul-de-sac were built and occupied. There were only a few kids (we only had 18 month old Henry when we moved in and had William a year later) around. Now we have lots, with lots kids in each age group available for fun and games.

It's so nice to have good friends and neighbors. We all watch out for each other's children and help each other keep an eye on things. I'm a big believer that "it takes a village to raise a child". Thank goodness we live in such a wonderful village.

Real Hyde Park

For the title of this post to make sense, you have to pronounce Real like Reee-all; as in professional soccer teams Real Madrid and Real Salt Lake. OK, now that that's clear -

Soccer season is over. It's been a fun year for the boys. They both had really good coaches who worked hard to teach them the fundamentals of soccer. William was in the U6 age group, which is basically 5 on 5 with no goalie. The kids do alot of chasing the ball around in packs. William was much more engaged in the games this year - he scored quite a few goals, including two in today's game. Here is one of them:



I got another video that I won't share, mainly because I was cheering for him and sounded incredibly shrill. Anyway, it was fun to see how much the kids improved over the course of the season. Go Tigers!

Henry was in the U10 league this year. He played with kids who were older and he didn't score any goals this year, but he had a good time and learned alot. He played on a really good team; they went undefeated for the season. It's good for him to play with older kids; he can really learn from them. He's not the fastest kid on the team (he may actually be the slowest) but he tries really hard, which at this age makes up for the lack of speed. He has developed some pretty good soccer skills; see his footwork below (but ignore the fact that he lost the ball at the end):



So another soccer season is over. Tessa is technically eligible to play next year (as long as they are 5 before July 31st, they are OK) but I've told her she can play in kindergarten. I think soccer is a great thing for kids, but I'm hesitant to have three kids in soccer unless I absolutely have to. It's been hard enough with two; we feel like we cram errands and yard work and whatever else needs to be done on Saturdays around soccer games. That doesn't even take into account mid-week games, several of which Jay missed due to work commitments. We'll see if she's even interested in soccer when she's in kindergarten; she rarely sat and watched the games and spent most of her time playing on the nearby playgrounds.

Up next - baseball, starting in June. But we have a few weeks off. I think we'll use it to catch our breath.

Pretty, Pretty Princess

How is it that I had never heard of the game Pretty, Pretty Princess until this week? I guess because we've never been in the market for a princess-themed, jewelry dress-up, perfect for a 4 year old girl game before.

Tessa loves this game! We play it multiple times a day. Unfortunately, she's at the age where losing is frustrating, as in "I'm going to throw my princess jewelry across the room" frustrating. This happened on Sunday afternoon, when Jay beat her handily. When she threw a fit, throwing plastic jewelry all around the living room, she lost her Pretty, Pretty Princess privilege for Monday. She wasn't happy with this development. She carried the game around hopefully all morning, asking me if I was sure she had lost her privilege. Her lip quivered. Tears ran down her cheeks. But I persevered, because really how will she learn?

Today she got her Pretty, Pretty Princess game privilege back. So we played. And played. And played. It was a rainy day so we played a lot.

Her favorite item is the crown:
She was so excited to regain her game privilege that she called all her stuffed animal friends to watch. She set them up in front of the game so that they wouldn't miss any of the action. From left to right, we have Koala, Butterfly Bear, and Tasha:

I just think this picture is cute. Jay certainly rocks the plastic earrings and crown, doesn't he?

So, come to visit at your own risk. If you are sitting down for any length of time, Tessa will bat her eyelashes and ask you to play Pretty, Pretty Princess with her. Just don't win too often or you'll be fishing your jewelry out from behind the couch.

Mother's Day

Jay always goes to a lot of trouble to make sure that I have a nice Mother's Day. He always has the kids get me a nice, usually funny card. He buys me a gift; often it is a gift certificate for a massage which I love since it's something that I would never spend money on for myself. He writes me a lovely note and lets me know how much I'm appreciated. He does other things, too - cooks dinner and gets up with the kids - but he does those all the time so I don't think of them as "Mother's Day treats". I am grateful, though, to have a husband who values what I do as a mother and shows me every day that he appreciates and loves me.

I'm never sure what to get my mom. This year I settled on a card with the promise of a lunch out together when she comes to visit in July. I am really bad about buying and sending gifts and am not very original as far as thinking of something fun. Even so, it's always nice to talk to my mom and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Same for my mother-in-law; she's wonderful and I appreciate her so much.

Church is always a treat on Mother's Day. The children sing a few songs, which is a big hit with everyone. This was Tessa's first year singing and she did more looking around than singing but it was cute. Henry and William sang a little; they weren't very excited about singing in front of the congregation. Our ward had a few of the high school seniors (who are in our Sunday School class) speak about motherhood, which was nice. The gift this year was a CD of inspirational songs. It was nice; I much prefer something like this to flowers. One year they gave out long-stem roses and after I received mine, William said (loudly), "It's too bad you aren't a big fan of roses." Which is true, but no one needed to know that.

To all the women that I know, Happy Mother's Day.

Say What?

That is all.

Four Years Ago Today....

...our princess was born.

She had a bunch of hair, and still does:
Henry liked her from the beginning:

William, well, not so much:

By her first birthday, she was providing lots of entertainment:

Here she is at age two - bangs were a good look for her until I managed to mess them up:

By age three she was in full princess-loving mode:

Today she is a sweet and loving little girl, unless she's whining and bossing us around:

Happy Birthday, Tessa! We love you!

The Princess Celebration

We decided to have Tessa's little birthday party today after church. It just seemed easier - Henry and Jay are both gone around 8 am for school and work and we aren't all together again until dinnertime. So we opened presents and had her birthday cake today. Here are a few pictures:

She had to have a Tiana-themed cake. I think it's pretty. No, I didn't make it:
She got a backpack filled with books and a pair of sunglasses and Polly Pockets:

Grandma sent a Princess and the Frog Wii game:

The boys played a rousing game of Pretty, Pretty Princess with Tessa. William actually played twice! It's a cute game - thanks Aunt Carol, Uncle Philip, Emily, and Sydney:

She also got a Little Mermaid-themed bath castle toy. She's looking forward to some extra bath time tonight!

I know, I know - it's all princess. That's how we roll around here. When I was buying her gifts, the checkout clerk said, "Did you find enough princess stuff?" Ha ha. But she loves it. Jay and I figure she's got a bit more time to be princess obsessed until she graduates to something else (Barbies? I don't know...what do older girls like?) so we're happy to indulge her a bit.

Another reason for her Sunday birthday celebration is that she's having a little party - if you count a few friends coming over for bubble-blowing, sidewalk chalk, and cupcakes a party - tomorrow afternoon and then is taking more cupcakes to preschool on Tuesday. It just seemed like a good idea to spread the wealth a bit.

Coming tomorrow - a short pictoral retrospective of Tessa's life. And if you've forgotten, she had a ton of hair when she was born. I'm sure you can't wait to see.