Maya turns 4 - Birthday Party!

This month Maya turned 4 years old. She is quite spunky, loves to be in charge (and hates it when she's not), can be very sweet and responsible, still loves to dance and sing, is the most princessy princess in all the land, can spell her name (and "boo"), and surprises us daily with her knowledge. She is very curious and asks a LOT of questions. "Mom, can you show me a picture of the inside of an octopus? What does a brain look like? What is inside of our bones? What happens when there is a hurricane?" Google helps me out a lot.

We had a small family party for her on the evening of her birthday with gifts, dinner, and cake. She asked for Macaroni and Cheese Soup (yay velveeta!.....). She is so excited to be 4, she tells everyone she sees, "I'm four now!" - including the FedEx guy leaving a package on our doorstep.

This year we treated her with her first official birthday party. We kept it pretty small and the kids had a great time! Since she loves to draw and color, we decided to do an Art themed birthday.

 The morning of her birthday she set out her outfit. She got the wings from a family friend.

I set out some fruit and other snacks in lots of colors (art!) for the cute girls coming over.

The main activity of the party was to paint their own canvas. 

There was a dance party, of course. 

Painting was a hit! Everybody got to choose a few colors and smear it all around.

A little spot of paint landed on Maya's face when I opened a bottle. I'm glad it wasn't much higher!

After painting and snacks we did face drawing with watercolor crayons. 

The final activity was to decorate their own cupcakes. I made rainbow cupcakes with whipped cream cheese frosting (and only put 3 candles on it to begin with. Denial much?). I put them on a painter's palette with different sprinkles in the paint holes. The girls loved decorating them and then eating the frosting! The cupcakes mostly went in the trashcan. :( 

The finished painting projects! Turned out so cute and fun!

Maya got a lot of art themed presents as well. She got this easel from Nana and Papa and loves it.

Maya's talents are really flourishing and she is a very fun girl to watch grow up! Happy birthday, sweet girl!!

Halloween 2016

We had quite a fun Halloween this year, with a lot of festivities and trick or treating! Maya and Brianna went trick or treating 4 times: the ward trunk or treat, Ryan's work, Treatsylvania at Lee Martinez Farm, and finally on Halloween night.

Maya dressed up as a Ballerina Skeleton (every time she told somebody what she was, she did a little twirl afterwards) and Brianna was a Cowgirl Skeleton.

This was our first makeup attempt. We were late for the trunk or treat and it was a little rushed, but still turned out cute.

For playgroup the Tuesday before Halloween we had a fun Halloween craft and a pinata. The kids loved it!

They did not, however, know how to really SMACK a pinata. Most of them did gentle taps, but they still thought it was cool.

One afternoon we made Halloween sugar cookies. I like to put the sprinkles on before we bake them, so they still look cute but we don't have to take the time to frost them.

Maya got pouty for a minute with Brianna got to do the rolling.

We found a cute decoration kit for a pumpkins from Target. And...Brianna is silly.

Treatsylvania was the Saturday before Halloween. We went with our friends, the Cooks. They have a cute little boy, and he was dressed up as a Cowboy. This is make-up attempt #2. We got some great watercolor crayons that work well for drawing on skin!

Maya was silent all night long. She didn't say "trick or treat" one time. She was acting really tired and not with it...it made more since once when we got home and were taking off her make-up that we discovered she had a fever.

The night before Halloween we decorated and carved our pumpkins. 

On Halloween Day Maya had a Halloween party at preschool that families were invited to. Brianna had a great time, but made it obvious she is not old enough for school yet! They had fun crafts and treats.

This is Maya's class. Her entire class. 3 cute blondies!

The last 30 minutes were spent in the gym doing gymnastics.

That evening my mom and dad came over for the festivities. We (I) have a tradition of making Jack O' Lantern pizza on Halloween. After dinner we did the make-up on the girls (final attempt turned out awesome I think!) and then Ryan and my dad took them trick or treating.

We didn't get a ton of trick or treaters at our door, but when they came, Brianna was all about handing out the candy. 

I love holidays with kids! 

October and Fall!

It has been an eventful month! The weather is still fantastically warm, and I'm trying to enjoy it more than wish it felt more crisp in the air. 

We have enjoyed many fall-time activities this month, along with Halloween crafts and fun too.

Our neighbor has a crab apple tree. Maya and Brianna were enjoying collecting the apples even though they were rotting and yucky.

For play group on the 11th we went to a pumpkin patch and got to take a hay ride!

See? Great weather!! One day we were hanging out at home not doing much, and Maya said, "Hey, Mom. Let's go do something. Like a bike ride!" So we strapped on helmets and went for a ride around the neighborhood - well, I walked (without a helmet). It is a whole new level when they start being so independent and not needing to ride in the stroller all the time anymore. 

The maple in our backyard has turned a magnificent shade of fiery red.

We had the cultural celebration for the temple dedication. What a night! As a young woman leader I was blessed to get to assist in the practices and other parts of getting ready for the performance. It was really fun (albeit stressful and annoying at times when the kids were super disrespectful to the leaders trying to get stuff done) and something I will remember forever.

We did have one relatively chilly day, and we had tea to warm us up!

Ryan and I attended the temple the first Saturday after it had opened. It is so beautiful inside and having it in our home town, just a couple of miles away from our house, made the whole experience even sweeter.

We have a huge amount of leaves to clean up after the fiery maple started dropping its embers!