The Girls Summer Birthday Party! Featuring: Frozen & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

The adorable birthday girls! Elise as Elsa and Alina as Minnie Mouse

 

Elise's lovely Frozen birthday cake

Alina's fun Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake

The girls were overjoyed by their cakes, balloons and gifts!

Our attempt at getting the kids together for a photo...haha

Little party animals having fun

The bounce house at Party Place

Our girls had the greatest time celebrating their birthdays last weekend with one big summer birthday party extravaganza. We celebrated Elise turning 5-years-old and Alina turning 3-years-old. It's really hard to believe how fast the time has flown by. We decided to host at Party Place in Roseville rather than our home, as we've done for the past few years, and let me tell you it was well worth it. There was way more space for guests, plenty of fun activities for the kids and best of all, very little cleanup to do when the party ended. It was fun to watch all the kids bounce around entertaining themselves. There was a bounce house, air hockey table, slides, video games and even a movie room. The girls loved getting to spend time with their guests and especially all their little preschool friends. 

We had a double birthday theme going this year; Frozen and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Elise is all about Elsa, Olaf and Frozen (what kid isn't, right?) and wished upon a star for momma to bring  snowflakes and winter wonderland in the middle of July...wish granted. Alina has been obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse since she was a baby, and she still loves it just as much to this day as she did then. It's been well documented just how much she loves Mickey and Minnie. Nobody is allowed to dare pause the show or change the channel while she is watching. Of course, both girls insisted on dressing up as their favorite Disney characters, Elsa and Minnie Mouse. Momma made that wish a reality too, and they both looked super cute. They were also big fans of their birthday cakes! I loved their reactions upon seeing their cakes; they were beaming ear-to-ear. When it came time for everyone to sing happy birthday and eat the cake they were both so incredibly happy. The smiles continued throughout the day. What a fun celebration! Thanks again to everyone who shared the day with us. Happy 5th Birthday Elise and Happy 3rd Birthday Alina!

Enjoying birthday wishes with family and friends

The girls with their friends, plus the movie room

Little cousins playing a game of air hockey

Olaf and Frozen balloons

The two birthday girls opening gifts at home

Love Alina's excited expression here

The grandparents enjoying time with the birthday girls

Alina has just a slight Minnie Mouse obsession!

Happy Birthday Elise and Alina!

Two happy birthday girls enjoying their special party!

We just recently celebrated Elise's 5th and Alina's 3rd birthday with a very special Frozen / Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party at Party Place in Roseville. They celebrated with plenty of little preschool friends and family, and were all smiles and joyous on their very special day. The photo above was one of the few that I even took at the party, we were all too busy chatting with friends/family and just enjoying watching the kids play. I was glad to get one great shot capturing the joy in Elise's face while admiring her Frozen cake and Alina happily blowing out her candles. These girls enjoyed every moment of their party and even remarked to mom that, "It was the best party ever", that's a compliment I'll take in stride. Thanks so much to all our friends and family who helped make this day extra special for our two birthday girls! More photos to come soon.

Happy Fourth of July 2014!

Water slide fun at our neighbor's BBQ

The kids had a blast; look at those sweet smiles

Getting started with the sparklers

The smoke bombs were the biggest hit

Cousins playing in the smoke bombs

Pink clouds before sunset on Fourth of July

Sparklers and glow sticks warriors

Glow stick war competitors

The firework show

Family fun on Fourth of July 2014

Let the sparks fly

The end of a very fun evening. Happy Fourth of July!

Early Independence Day Fun

Watching fireworks, and fun with glow sticks

We celebrated Independence Day early (on the 3rd), by gathering up all five little cousins in the back of Papa's truck to watch the El Dorado Hills firework show from a nearby hilltop. We were a bit far from the actual firework display, so while mom got some decent photos on zoom, the kids honestly had more fun playing with each other and their glow sticks. The little troopers made it through the whole show before crashing out, and the late night fun continued on the following night for July 4th festivities. Stay tuned!

Happy 5th Birthday Elise!

Elise at Five Years Old!

Happy 5th birthday to our lovely little Elise! We are so proud of our smart and feisty yet loving little girl. She has more will and determination than we could have ever imagined. She is driven to succeed and do well in life and we are so thankful for her determined little spirit. She's had her own opinion since before she could talk and her dream at five-years-old is to grow up and become an artist. She loves preschool and all of her school friends. Her best preschool friend is Halynne and she tells us many stories of all the adventures that they have at recess. Ms. Maria, her teacher, is her favorite person in the world right now and she gives her a nice long hug every single day after school. She loves to read, draw, swim, and ride her bike. She just learned how to swim underwater and it was one of her proudest moments. She is a very adventurous eater. She will try anything you put on her plate and she especially loves her cauliflower, broccoli, avocado, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggs, bananas and watermelon. Her favorite thing to do on weekends, aside from bike rides, is to go on day trips, and travel to new places. She has so much energy and thrives on those full busy days where we just go, go, go. She's usually the last to tire out on a busy day, and yes, she still fights sleep, but it has gotten much better. She's become a big helper around the house too. She loves to help dust, sweep and put away her laundry. She also loves to help mom out in the kitchen cooking up new recipes. She is such a joy to have around and we are so proud of all the milestones that she has accomplished in the last year. Happy birthday sweet Elise!

Celebrating her birthday at John's Incredible Pizza

Elise is Almost Five!

Little beauty Elise at almost five-years-old

Having fun on the swing

Sisters bonding...and smiles

Sister hugs are the absolute best

Elise will be turning five-years-old in just a few days! I still can't believe how much she's learned and matured in these five short years. I took some photos this past weekend and stopped in my tracks when looking back through them on the computer. I no longer see a little girl and instead a sweet young lady, who is yearning to grow up and dress her prettiest at all times. I have to admit, that I got teary eyed seeing how beautiful she looked in these photos. She is still very much a child and has those adorable childlike qualities, but we are also slowly seeing aspects of her maturity and growth. Aside from being very tall for her age, she now has what I like to call the "grown-up voice", she talks in complex sentences and now tells stories dispersing the occasional colloquialisms throughout (for some reason this makes me feel as if she is five going on fifteen). She also makes very intelligent inferences from the things we say, and spelling things out won't always get past her anymore.

Our girl can read all by herself now and she only needs help with big words. I hope Kindergarten will be challenging enough, because she has aced every single one of those simple 1-4 letter site words. She is so inquisitive about the world and how things work; she's a definite thinker. She is still a little ball of emotion though! I will say that she has come a very long way from the tantrum laden days of past, but she is still quite emotionally driven and strives for perfection and order (according to her interpretation). All this said, I see a very sweet and very determined young lady at the core of it all. I am so proud of her for all the things she has accomplished in these last five years. She is setting a great example for little Alina to follow, and she is even helping teach her how to read small words. I am so grateful for both of our sweet girls, and for the very special bond that they share.

Sharing secrets

Serious look, but I love it as I see a glimpse of her baby face

All smiles, she brings so much joy to our lives

Summer of Birthday Parties and Fun

Everyone loves a Star Wars party, the force was with Alina!

Alina found a set of Mickey Mouse gloves, she was in heaven

Fun at the Fountains, they met Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder

A very happy birthday to Grandma!

Having fun at Colton's first birthday

Enjoying cupcakes at Anchor's Super Mario swim party

Water Play on Father's Day!

Father's Day fun at Sun Splash water park in Roseville

The girls first kayaking trip at Lake Natoma in Folsom

We had two full weekends of fun celebrating Father's Day this year. Last weekend, Daddy came up with perfect activity to do on a sweltering 100+ degree Sacramento Valley summer day; Sunsplash Water Park in Roseville. We drive past the place all the time and the girls point and exclaim, "look, a castle" or "woohoo, water slides", so they've definitely showed interest in going. They both learned how to swim last summer on their own, but we didn't take them enough afterwards, so they are at a point this summer where they are learning all over again. Elise is really close to swimming and will even jump in the water now, but Alina has clammed up since last year and needs to be held in the water to feel comfortable. They had a great time at Sunsplash, but it took a while before we could get them on the water slides. By the end of the day, they both went down the slides on their own! It was pretty fun to watch the progression from initial hesitance and uncertainty to full blown water slide thrill seeking fun. They had a great time and daddy really enjoyed the day with his girls. Happy Father's Day!

On actual Father's Day weekend, Dad was out of town, so Mom took over and showed the girls a weekend of fun. Momma and Grandma took the girls on their very first kayaking trip out at Lake Natoma in Folsom. They did really well and were little troopers, as we spent most of the afternoon out on the lake. We took them to the small island in the middle of Lake Natoma where they got to feed some geese and ducks. They really enjoyed that part, and they also loved getting to help with the oars and row the kayaks. It was a fun experience, and we hope to take them again soon.

The girls Father's Day artwork for daddy, so sweet

Sunshine and Soccer

The girls during their first soccer practice

The girls started soccer this month and it has been pretty interesting to watch. I knew Alina was a little young for it, but we decided to enroll her as we figured she would see Elise playing and follow her lead. Well, not so much, but overall I think they had fun learning and getting acquainted with the game. They definitely looked the part, but the moment it was game time Alina disappeared off the field and started trying to relocate goals, take multiple water breaks, wander off onto the nearby playground, kick the ball off into the distance and not come back, you get the drift. Elise, on the other hand, showed more motivation and stayed on the field longer, she even made a few goals during a couple games (YAY!), but at the same time she was running off the field chasing dragonflies and running out mid-game to take water breaks and express how tired and hot she was. It was the biggest exercise in parental self-restraint ever, but fun nonetheless. At the end of the day, I feel like we have success on our hands because they both asked to continue playing soccer in the fall. To be continued...

They actually stayed on the field for this entire practice

High fives after game day - Alina was "exploring"

Sleepy Girls, Crafts, Silliness and Smiles

Elise fast asleep and deep in the realm of dreamland

Sleeping Beauty, Alina all snuggled up

Little cuties playing, plus Alina's favorite toddler books

Every so often, the girls will sleep in after a busy and fun Saturday. Mom and dad love these rare occasions, mainly because of the extra sleep it allows us, but also because we get to peek in on them fast asleep, looking so cozy and content while dancing throughout the realm of little girl dreamland. They look so cute all snuggled up and dozed off. They are usually happiest when they get to sleep in a bit, so no complaints from mom and dad!   

After spending most of May on-the-go, we relaxed last weekend and the girls got to play in their rooms and just enjoy each others company. Elise's room is usually the happening place. Alina makes her way in there in the morning, so they can both play together. It's usually dolls, dress-up or tug-of-war (yes, we are still learning the art of sharing). Alina really enjoys when we read books to her, and her toddler favorites; Goodnight Moon, Peek-a-Who?, and The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, still make her laugh and smile to this day. Elise is really into arts and crafts now, and recently asked to make a collage. I held on to an old Disney desk calendar, which was perfect for collage worthy photos. Elise chose all her own Disney photos and even designed most the layout. She really enjoyed the process. Momma did most of the work on Alina's, but she had input on the photos we used. They turned out great. Elise even asked to bring hers to school for show-and-tell. Disney collage success.

Elise's first Disney collage, she was so proud

Cute girls being silly, favorite sandals and one MESSY room

Alina's adorable Disney collage, super cute!