Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Happy Birthday Rebekah

Today is the day. Rebekah's first real birthday party. I thought a Rapunzel party would be perfect for her. The movie came out just days before her birthday last year. We saw it and we all fell in love with the movie. Soon after Rebekah decided to change her name to Rapunzel as seen here and here. She is back to Rebekah now, but still loves Rapunzel.

I had about 3 hours to decorate while Rebekah was at preschool. I got most of my ideas here and here. I braided a yarn for the door and Emma had drawn a welcome sign (notice the magic sun-flower).
I printed out these sun_buntings and ran it through the sewing machine (a great way to attach them together for hanging. I also added these golden stars from my Christmas decorations.
I found these cute paper lantern lights at Five Below and decorated with lots of purple and yellow balloons. There's another magic sun-flower on the table (just a golden poinsettia). I had hoped to do some sidewalk chalk drawing for decoration and for an activity, but it turned out to be a cold and rainy day. Oh well.
As the kids arrived I had coloring_pages set up. I also had music playing from the movie and some of the kids couldn't help but dancing.
After everyone arrived we made these cute Pascal_blowers. The kids loved it!! We followed that by a fun game of "pin the frying_pan on Flynn Rider".
After the games we took a trip to the "Snugly Duckling" for some snacks. Like the frying pans? I included apples for Maximus. I loved the idea of braided_bread for Rapunzel's hair, but decided to do it much simpler. I bought 2 cans of Pillsbury french bread, cut each into 5 parts, then each of those into 3 parts to braid together. They were a big hit.
At last it was time for the cake. It took me a few long nights to create it. And the tower started collapsing in on itself (it was a little taller). However it is all cake (with a ice cream cone on top) and completely egg free. It would have held together better with some royal icing, but we wouldn't want the birthday girl to go to the hospital on her birthday.
After opening presents it was time to hand out the goody bags. I used the same sun buntings to label the bags. I made these cute bookmarks and loved the idea of including "Rapunzel's Paints" in each bag (found at the dollar store).

After all that partying I was too pooped to make dinner. We went out to Red Robin for Rebekah's free birthday meal followed by a very large ice cream sundae. Happy Birthday sweetie!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Leaf jumping

Great day. Great weather. Time to do some chores before it gets too cold. Clay raked the leaves in our yard and then invited the girls to come jump in it. Rebekah loved it!! However, Emma was being a bit timid and didn't want to actually land in the leaves. She was afraid of "daddy long-legs".


Sorry, the video is sideways...
We also had a 2nd Thanksgiving. We had actual Thanksgiving with our friends the Rosenlunds and their family. This year I wanted my own leftovers, so I bought the smallest turkey I could find, did some potatoes, stuffing, yams, broccoli and cranberry sauce, and washed it all down with some sparkling grape juice. Now we will have left overs for days...

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Piano Recital

Emma had another piano recital tonight. She played Snake Charmer, Malaguena, and Hedwig's Theme. She invited her 4th grade teacher and her music teacher. They were very impressed. She did a great job!

I have a video of her performance but the file is too big and I can't figure out how to edit it into a supported file format.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Another day off

The girls had another day off of school. Teacher work day or something. So, I thought about what to do to keep them busy. I remembered they each got free passes to Sport Bounce from their dentist for being cavity free at their check-up. Problem solved. :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

DC Zoo

The girls had the day off from school, so we took them out to the zoo. We invited Emma's friend, Elena and her sister Anya to join us. It was a great day. Not too hot. The animals seemed to be more active than normal. This spoonbill bird thought we were going to feed him and flew right at us!



We watched the orangutan climbing on the "O-line" above our heads. Check out the giant anteater.



The girls loved seeing the panda!


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Hiking the Trail

Fall is a great time of year to go hiking. Clay wanted to finish another section of the Appalachian Trail, so we drove north to the town of Pen Mar, right on the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland (get it? Pen Mar). Clay dropped off his car on one end and then we dropped him off at the other end of the section he planned to hike. The girls and I drove back home.

Here are some of the photos he took: