Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Snow Day!

The snow really came down last night and this morning.  Lots of schools were closed and I'm sure the roads were a mess.  But, Leiden had school!  So she bundled up and went along.  When she got home, we all went outside to play!  Little Mimi kept sinking into the snow and falling.  And her little snowpants are too little, so the snow just went in her boots.


We I built a snowman, which I haven't done in years.  A lot of years.  And it's not as easy as all the little snowmen in yards would have you believe.


Mimi just felt that it put the snow in a more convenient position to eat.


I was trying to get Mimi to stand by the snowman for the picture, so I said, "Go put your arms around him for squeezes," and she did.


Yay for snow days!  I can't believe February is already over, and for that matter, Happy Leap Day!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Mimi was being funny after her nap, today.  That is after she stopped crying--that's one of Mimi's 'sick' hallmarks:  she cries when she wakes up from naps.  Not in the mornings, just at naptime.  I don't get it.
 
 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Mac's First Primary Talk

Mac gave her first Primary talk this morning.  She did a great job, although I'm not sure how well she was heard.  Mimi has come down with a bad cold, and I feel like I'm getting one, so we stayed home and came to church just for Mac's talk.

Here is the text:
   D&C 83:10  says,  I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.”  This scripture means that Heavenly Father promises that he will bless us if we choose the right.  Every day I make choices.  When I choose the right, I know that Heavenly Father will bless me.
   The scriptures teach me about different choices I can make.  Heavenly Father promises amazing blessings if I choose to pay my tithing.  He has promised to bless me if I choose to obey my parents.  He has promised to bless me with a healthy body if I choose to eat good foods and stay away from things that can hurt my body.  Heavenly Father has promised me that if I choose the right, I will be happy.  When we choose the right, we can feel the Spirit.
   I want to get the blessings Heavenly Father has promised me.  I want to choose the right so I can be happy.  I am thankful that I can make choices and learn to choose the right.

Leiden also gave the scripture and prayer today, so it was the Macdonald opening exercises in Primary today.  And then Mimi and I were happy to go home and sit.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Mac's Party!

Oh, what a cute party!  It turned out so great.  And I got some GREAT pictures of Mac.  Obviously, this is a very Mac-centric day--the other girls were there, but I took so many pictures I had to weed out a lot.

Here is the finished cake, complete with bunting.  What a boring cake.  Teeheehee!


Here's the table, with the package for the game, favors, and the cake. 


We hung balloons outside so people would know there was a party going on here! 


Mac looked SO CUTE in her little dress.  I don't know if there are any clear shots of it, but it turned out just like I imagined.  Love that.  And I love this little face! 


And this one is so sweet. 


I did her hair in knots and then tied rainbow colored ribbons in them.  So special for a special day. 


Mac enjoyed the art project, which turned out so well.  The little ribbon rainbows are just perfect. 


This is my favorite of the day.  I think I'll blow it up and frame it.  Really, it's just right.  It's very exciting to be turning 4!


Blogger won't upload my video of singing and blowing out candles, so you can see it on Youtube.


The cake turned out perfect for a party of 3-4 year olds.  The presentation was just right and it looked awesome.  I used a recipe from Whisk Kid, and the cake tasted good.  But I would not, under any circumstances, make this frosting again.  It was like eating butter.  And sometimes that sounds good, but really, it's not.  I should have just used a good crusting decorator icing.  I think only one of the kids finished all the frosting on her slice.  Ugh.


The ribbon wands were a hit after the Pass the Package game.  There were screaming little girls running all around the house with ribbons streaming behind them.  Awesome.  


Little Camryn came, who just got a new baby sister this week. 


Maya and Bryn came. 


And Mac loved being the center of attention--What a star! 


I am so happy with how the day turned out.  Our ward was having ward temple day this morning, with lunch after, and I had debated not going.  Eventually late last night I decided I had prepped enough and decided to go.  I'm glad I did, and the party went off with hardly a glitch.  I think this will be the final time this year...Happy Birthday, Machara!  Welcome to the world of 4!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Party Planning

A rainbow party is actually really fun to prepare for.  And time intensive.  I had a lot to do because I would almost always rather do/make something myself than buy it.  So I had a party dress to make, a cake to bake, favors to make, games to plan, decorations to prepare, and crafts to gather materials for.  Whew!  Today was busy.  Because I always wait until the last minute.  It's an awesome trait of mine.

The cake is a rainbow layer cake.  I love how the colors turned out.  And luckily, the color of the batter =the color of the cake.  It doesn't change in the heat.


They will be covered with white frosting to look very unassuming.  Can't wait to slice it. 


We blew up tons of balloons and put them in rainbow order all around the sun room. 


Last night I made scented play doh with Kool-Aid.  Then helped out the colors a little with added food coloring.  I was worried about the food coloring bleeding onto hands and tables, but found that because the food coloring is put in before the dough is cooked, it becomes colorfast.  I still wouldn't play with it on a white couch, though.  You never know. 


I made tissue poms in the rainbow colors and hung most of them from the ceiling fans. 


The craft is ribbon rainbows, which I have high hopes for. 


The other party favor, which is also part of the game, are rainbow ribbon wands.  Each wand has 7 ribbons streaming from it.  They were all wrapped up 7 times--each layer wrapped in a different color of the rainbow ribbon, with the first layer being a rainbow ribbon.  The game is played like hot potato, but whoever has the present when the music stops gets to unwrap a layer. 


Like I said, I take on way too much, but I am so excited for Mac's first friend party!  Wish us luck, tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

It snowed yesterday, and I should have gotten the kids out then, as the snow was perfect for snowmen, but there you go.  They went out this afternoon and played.
 


Brad brought home five boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.  They are so delicious.  I think part of the allure, while they are really tasty, is that you only get them once a year!  It makes them even more irresistible.  Mimi couldn't figure out what was going on.  We let her try four of the different kinds.  She kept looking at us like, "Really?  I can eat this one?"  She was pretty excited. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

School Birthday Favors

Mac was super excited to take her little 'treats' to school to hand out for her birthday.  I re-used the 'o-fish-ally' idea for goldfish!  Her teachers thought it was so cute, and they were astounded to hear that I find all these cute ideas on blogs.  I am not generally the creative one, I can just duplicate others' creativity!

They sang to her during class, and she got to wear a special birthday crown. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Celebrating Mac's Birthday!

Because we missed Mac's actual birthday, we're celebrating today!  Brad took the day off work, and Leiden has the day off school for Presidents' Day.  Special waffles started us off.


Mac got MORE presents--from us and Grandmere. 


Mac's funny new swimsuit.  It's actually a little too small, so we're going to exchange it. 


For a couple weeks, now, the girls have wanted to go to the Children's Museum and see their new exhibit, 'Grossology'.  We made a stop in the water room, first. 

Leiden was watching a girl make ENORMOUS bubbles. 
 

There were only so many bubble wands, so Mac improvised.  Mimi was dashing about, thrilled that we were letting her play in the water.  They even had sinks.


Grossology was about all the frankly gross things about our bodies.  There were sections on noses, burps, vomiting, body odors, body parts, skin, etc.  You name it, it was there.  Mac is climbing on a section of skin that had cuts and bruises and all kinds of gross things. 


Mimi loved playing with giant body parts as part of a giant table made like the game 'Operation'. 


For all that Leiden wanted to go see the exhibit, she was holed up over in a corner most of the time, reading a book!  And what an education she received! 

Here we are, singing to the Birthday Girl.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Today we headed home.  We went out to take some pictures because we've been sadly neglecting a camera these last few days.  I literally felt like a part of my life was missing without snapping pictures all the time.

The ocean is so lovely here.  Bright blue, and crystal clear.
 


We really were here! 


The flights home seemed to last forever because we were missing these little munchkins. 


Thank you so much, Grandma, for watching them and taking care of them.  We had such a great time and have gotten a little bit of warm to hopefully last us through till it warms up here!  Snow is in the forecast here at home, so we'll see if we brought winter back to Minnesota!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Today we wandered down the road to the Ocean Club, where Daniel Craig as James Bond filmed part of Casino Royale.  Brad wanted to take a picture of himself tying his shoe like Bond does, but then felt kind of silly thinking about doing it in front of the doormen.  It, too, is a very nice place to stay--without all the ostentatious-ness of Atlantis.  Which probably explains why they chose Bond to stay at the Ocean Club, and not at Atlantis!  He is a man of class.

We wandered down the beach to swim, and it is so lovely. The water is the classic Caribbean blue, and the sands are white and clean. We were GOING to swim, but the water was cold! I waded in about knee deep, Brad a little deeper, but we were not interested in the swimming we had planned on! So back to the water slides it was.  This time, the almost vertical drop was in pitch darkness, and I didn’t scream at all! I was really surprised, though, at how my heart got going while we were waiting in line!

We were interested in finding some food that was a little more authentic (and a little cheaper!) that what was offered at the hotel, so we walked across the bridge and found a restaurant to have conch fritters and peas n’ rice.  Peas n’ rice are good.  Conch fritters?  Conch is way too rubbery for my tastes, not to mention the gristly hard bits you run into throughout.  But I tried them, and Brad did too!  Tonight we went to dinner with one of Brad’s coworkers and his wife, which was fun.  Afterwards, there was a free concert with a soprano, tenor, and bass singing in one of the lobbies, with the aquarium in the background.  A very nice last evening.  Today was Mac’s birthday, so we called her during the day and wished her Happy Birthday.  We’ll celebrate a little more when we get home!


The girls at home celebrated today without us!  Grandma made cupcakes with them--all three of them helped.  Mac put tons of candles in her cupcake, which made Leiden upset.  Leiden didn't think Mac should put any more than 4 candles in.  I suppose it does go against the laws of Birthday. 


Leiden gave Mac a new Fancy Nancy book, and was kind enough to read it to her. 


Grandma broke out presents, as well.  Both Mac and Mimi got goggles (Mac is so excited), water shoes, a shirt, and hair clips.  Grandma reported that Leiden was a little out of sorts about all the gifts going to what seemed like everyone but her.  Telling her that in May she'll be the one to get presents didn't seem to help a whole lot.


Hopefully the goggles will encourage faces in the water--we seem to be entering a phase where water on her face is undesirable. 
 


This evening the girls enjoyed some playtime and then some down time after jammies were on. 
 

Happy Birthday, sweet Mac!  We'll see you soon!