I Can Now Stop and Breathe!

Cici turned 4 this past Sunday, and her birthday turned into a weekend extravaganza. On Friday morning she had a princess birthday party with her friends. Since I waited until the last minute to prepare, I was up all Thursday night buying the food (heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit and dip platter, princess punch) and party favors (rings, necklaces, bracelets, lipgloss), preparing the decorations (big flower pom poms), baking the cake (two-tiered circular pink cake with tiara on top), cutting out and sewing together the felt princess head wreaths each girl would get to decorate, making the princess ribbon dance wands, and setting up the games (pin the kiss on the frog, princess and the pea game, pass the poison apple, and search for cinderella's slipper). But it was worth it. Cici loved her party, and I think all of the girls had a lot of fun!

On Saturday we went as a family to McDonald's after Will's soccer game. Cici had been begging for the past week to go since the girl Happy Meal toys were Barbie themed. She was very excited that she got the exact toy she wanted (a mirror compact with comb)! I spent the rest of the day shopping for her presents before and after the General Relief Society Broadcast. I am grateful Macy's is open until 10 on the weekends! I got it in my head that I wanted her to be able to open a present of a new dress in the morning to wear to church since her birthday was on a Sunday. I went to the mall in the afternoon and couldn't find anything I liked except for an okay dress at Macy's. I decided not to buy it and look at Target after the broadcast. Well Target had nothing and by that time it was 9:45. I hurried back to the mall just in time to buy the dress before the stored closed.

Sunday night Cici and Will got to make edible princess wands (an activity that we didn't have enough time for at her party), we had Cici's birthday dinner (french dip sandwiches, Doritos, and rootbeer) and opened presents. It was a great weekend but she is definantly not getting such a fuss made over her next year : )

A couple of weekends ago my parents threw a little party for Cici at their house since they knew they would be in Europe for her big day. I think 3 parties is enough for 1 little girl!

(Can you tell how excited she is - she got exactly what she wanted!)

Cici's Big Week

Cicialy has been having a very exciting week full of momentous milestones. The first was starting ballet. For the past year Cici has been considering carefully what activity she would like to participate in when she got old enough. She threw out several ideas, thought about it, discarded a few, and then came up with the final three: ballet, gymnastics (especially after the olympics last summer), and ice skating (inspired from the Minnie Mouse vs. Daisy Duck scene in a Mickey Mouse Christmas). Throughout it all though ballet seemed to be the clear winner in her mind. She always wants to check out ballet books from the library and twirls around the house constantly. We tried out gymnastics this summer when a friend from church was taking it too, but despite having fun she wanted to take ballet this fall instead. So, ballet it is! On Tuesday morning you could just tell how excited she was, and it was so cute how she kept saying, "Mom, I'm just a little bit nervous." She did great and the next day asked if it was time for ballet again. I don't know if she'll be able to handle waiting a whole week inbetween classes.


And then today Cici started preschool! 3 other moms and I have formed a preschool where we take turns teaching using the "Mother Goose" curriculum. She goes twice a week for 2 and 1/2 hours each time. There are 2 girls and 2 boys in the class so it worked out pretty well. I'll let you know how it goes when its my week to teach. She seemed to have enjoyed herself this morning. Now with Kindergarten, Preschool, ballet, and soccer for Will coming up we are pretty busy and loving it!