My Little Princess is Four Years Old

Holy moly, Cora is four!  This year she was really excited to have her very first "friends party."  She started planning it months ago, about the time we started planning Arden's party.  She finally told me she wanted a "Cinderella and Ariel party," which I decided meant "princess party." 

 

Arden had a soccer game that kind of overlapped with the party, so it was just me and the princesses at first.  I was a little worried, but I actually had a blast with these little sweeties!  First, we all chose a crown to decorate with stick-on jewels.  These girls had so much fun with it and their crowns all turned out beautifully!

After that, we had a little treasure hunt for some little plastic necklaces.  I was planning on doing this outside, but the weather wasn't cooperating so I had to improvise. I hid them in Cora's room, so it really didn't take too long for the princesses to find them.  Oh well.  Here they all are, complete with crowns and necklaces! How cute are they?  too bad I couldn't quite find a picture where they are all looking at me.  This is as close as I could get:

After that, the pizza guy arrived!  Princesses love their pizza.  Particularly pepperoni pizza.  My pretty princess prefers pepperoni.

Post-pizza, Cora persistently pleaded to open her plethora of presents.  I patiently prodded her to postpone the presents until her papa appeared.  Pleasingly, papa presented himself promptly, and the pink and purple packages were presented to the princess who was pleased with the unwrapping process.  Then, we proceeded to the piñata portion of the party.  (okay, I will stop now).

The piñata was a butterfly.  Butterflies are supposed to be fragile, but not this one.  All the princesses whacked it pretty good, but it wasn't giving up the candy, so I let Dax have at it.  The kid has some experience with piñatas and he was ruthless with the poor butterfly.  Still, it would not die.  Finally, Preston had to take charge and it even took him quite a few smacks to send the candy flying. 

We started to run out of time, so we quickly headed upstairs for cake and ice cream!  I had thrown this cake together pretty late the night before, and I thought I was all done with it and was showing it to Preston when I realized I had frosted a "3" on the cake instead of a "4."  Oops.  I guess I just really can't believe my baby is really FOUR YEARS OLD!  I had to scrape the 3 off and redo it, but the princesses didn't really care. 

Here is Cora's picture with her lamb.  She is still on the small side of four, especially when compared to Dax, but she has grown up a lot this last year!   

 

 Sisters!

 Here are some of Cora's favorite things:

Favorite color:  Pink
Favorite food:  Steak or graham crackers
Favorite thing to do:  Paint
Favorite TV show:  Peppa Pig
Favorite dessert:  Cake with pink frosting
If Cora could be any animal, she would be:  A leopard, because they can scare you!
When Cora grows up she wants to be:  An airplane flyer
Favorite song:  Bine Bine Bean (this is really "Fine by Me" by Andy Grammer, which she has loved since the first time she heard it.  When she first heard it for some reason she though he was saying Bine Bine Bean (whatever that means), instead of "Fine by Me," and she won't listen to me when I try to correct her.  She also really likes "Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift  (like, ever!)
Favorite restaurant:  "The Roll Place."  (Texas Roadhouse)

She is so spunky and snuggly and sweet.  Preston calls her "Sweet and Sour," since she can be totally sweet one minute and completely sour the next.  This girl likes having things her own way!   We are so proud of her and how much she has learned.  She is so much fun and we are so lucky to have her in our family.  Happy Birthday Corbster!

Spring Break Staycation

The kids had a whole entire week off for spring break this year.  Wahoo!  Vacation, right?  Unfortunately, Preston started a new job only a few weeks ago, so he didn't feel like he should take a week off so soon.  Bummer.  Staycation it is.  

So...what to do, what to do.  Monday was easy.  My sweet Grandma was having a hard time Easter weekend, so we headed over there on Monday to bring her lunch and make sure she was doing okay.  She was feeling better but was kind of tired so we didn't stay too long.  So...now what to do, what to do?  It is raining.  I have three little kids...there is a movie theater over there!  Movie!  As we drive up, I am noticing that there is only ONE kids movie playing, and it is called "The Croods."  Doesn't sound very good, does it?  As I am scowling at the marquee the kids are bouncing up and down and giggling and asking if they can have popcorn.  I realize there will be some major whining if I tell them we aren't going to the movies anymore...so....The Croods it is!  Actually, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be!  It was really kind of cute, after a slow start.  If you are stuck in the middle of a rainy afternoon with a bunch of small kids, shell out the $$ and see it.  You will survive and the kids will love it.

Tuesday I had to go to work, but the kids had fun playing with my sister Val.  Arden was especially excited since she usually has to miss out on playtime with Val since she is at school.  After work me and the kids played at the park for like two solid hours.  The good thing about April is that parks are still a novelty.  Around August or September the kids are a little tired of the slides and the swings, but in April, it is hours of fun! 

Wednesday...we headed up to Weber County (since their spring break was the week before ours) to the Dinosaur Park.  It was a beautiful day, and it was just nice to be outside.  Did I bring my camera?  Nope.  I knew Dax would have fun but I was a little worried that Arden would be bored since she is subjected to quite a lot of dinosaur stuff by her little bro.  Lucky for me, they were handing out "field guides," at the ticket counter.  The field guides listed a few dinosaurs to look for and had some questions to fill out about each of them.  Arden had a great time running around and checking each dinosaur we saw to see if it was one of the ones in her little book.  Cora just likes to follow Dax around and listen to him spout his dino-knowledge.  He is pretty amazing.  Here is an example of Dax's lecturing to Corbie: "Coh-wa, this is an Ankylosaw-wus.  Ankylosaw-wuses are herbivores.  Dey have lots of armor on dere bodies and dey lived in the Cretaceous.  Dey could kill predators with the clubs on da end of dere tails."  (Lately, he asks me about which period each dinosaur lived in.  Like I know.  Good thing the internet can tell me.  Dax knows that T-Rex lived in the Cretaceous period and Allosaurus lived in the Jurassic, so it is very important to him to know which period the other dinosaurs lived in so he can know which of his favorite carnivores he should picture eating them).

The next day I wanted to do something we had NEVER done before.  Hmmmm...what to do, what to do?  I looked out the window, and there it was.  Antelope Island!  I think the last time I was out there I was Arden's age.  I had no idea what is out there except bison, but hey, the kids like bison, let's go!

First, we walked through the Visitors Center and picked up maps.  Next we headed out and find ourselves a scenic spot and had some lunch.  I even brought my camera!  I took this picture while sitting at the picnic table:

 After lunch, we drove by some bison and watched them eat for a while.  Riveting. Next we headed down to the "beach."  Okay, it IS technically a beach in that land and water meet, but this wasn't exactly the kind of beach I was wishing for on my spring break.  Oh well, it will have to do.  And seriously, my kids could stand around and throw rocks into water for HOURS.  I am not sure what the fascination is, but wow. I think they each threw about 72,349 rocks into that lake.  Somehow, there were still always more rocks left to throw.

After I finally ripped them away from their rock-throwing, we took a little drive around.  We saw some more bison, this time, NEXT to the beach.  Purty:

Then we saw a couple of actual antelope!  On Antelope Island!  Arden had the camera and was very excited about this picture she took.  See, there is a teeny tiny Antelope in the middle there. Anyhoo...

Next we drove over to the ranch (who knew there was a ranch?  Not me!  Well, now I do...)  There were lots of old buildings to look at, and the kids got to practice their lasoo-ing!

 Rope 'em Dax!

Cora got ahold of the camera and took a lot of pictures of fence posts and fingers, but she took one of me, so here it is, to prove I was here too!

After we were done ranching, we headed out on a little hike.  Arden REALLY wanted to hike up to the top of the island.  Unfortunately, Arden and Cora were wearing flip flops.  I told her we would hike up the trail a little while and then just turn around and come back when we got tired.  We got pretty high!  Lots of other hikers were impressed with the kids' mad hiking skills.

If we ever head out that way again, for sure we will bring our real shoes and see if we can summit!  I am sure the view from up there would be awesome.  After the hike it was getting kind of late and we had to be back for opening day for the Salt Lake Bees (yay!  Baseball means summertime is almost here!)  We headed back across the causeway, but had to pull over and take one more picture of the mountains reflected in the water.

I actually did bring my camera to the baseball game, but I just didn't take any pictures with it.  :)  Friday was rainy again, so our outing was limited to the McDonalds playland.  Obviously no pictures. 

The week actually went pretty smoothly.  The kids got along pretty well for the most part, and we all had a pretty good time.  Bring on summer!

Easterific

Easter has come and gone again!  Easter lasted a few days for us, and officially started when the two littles had their Easter Egg hunts at preschool.  Cora got to go first.  She found lots of candy during the hunt, and was super-super-SUPER-excited to eat her "Hard Boyed Eggs" for lunch.  She colored them herself during class, one pink, one blue.  She took great pride in peeling the shell off alone too...teeny tiny piece by teeny tiny piece.  Dax was beside himself that he had to wait a whole entire day to get his little hands on some Easter candy and some "Harboid Eggs." 

 

Dax and Cora fought and argued about whether or not Cora should give Dax one of her eggs to eat for lunch.  After much begging and whining and yelling on Dax's part, Cora finally agreed to let Dax have the blue one.  Wow, how nice and selfless of her!  Actually, she had finished peeling her own pink egg by then, taken a few bites and discovered that it didn't taste like candy at ALL.  Dax excitedly pulled the shell off of his egg, took a few bites and discovered the same thing.  I ended up throwing most of these once-coveted eggs in the garbage (I don't really like them either unless they are in potato salad).  They had chicken nuggets for lunch.



Unbelievably to me, we repeated the scene again the next day, with Dax bringing home two eggs and Cora begging and whining to have one for lunch while Dax peeled the other.  I reminded them that these were the very same kind of eggs that they had tried and failed to eat the day before.  They pretty much ignored me and fought until Dax finally conceded and gave an egg to Cora.  They both excitedly peeled an egg, covered it with salt, took a couple of bites and asked for hot dogs instead. 

The Saturday before Easter we headed to the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt.  Finally, Arden was getting the chance to participate!  I ended up not getting a good picture of her mad egg hunting skills since they split the kids up by age group and I ended up following the 3-to-4 year olds.  Here is an action shot of the 1-minute-frenzy:

 Aaaaaand, the loot!

The rest of Saturday was spent making the tiniest dent in our springtime yard work. 

 

At laa-ast, it was Easter morning!  The bunny didn't bring too much candy to the kids since he knew they had already been on several candy hunts and still had another one coming.  He did bring some books, and Dax was very happy about his "Here Comes T-Rex Cottontail" book (awesome, right?)

                                        

 Cora was more about the CAN-DAY:

Dax and Cora pretty much plowed through the 10 or so pieces of candy the bunny left them, and both of them told me they didn't feel so good at some point during the day.

Arden for some reason woke up a little grouchy on the beautiful Easter morning, and I didn't get a good picture of her with her basket.  After the kids were all ready for church, I herded them outside and made them pose for some Easter pictures.  I was kind of bummed that my cherry tree hadn't blossomed and my daffodils hadn't bloomed but at least the sun was shining and there was no snow!  Here is my beautiful Cora holding a very small purple flower.  So stinkin' sweet!

Here is my Dax!  Notice his haircut?  He has a buzz because it is pretty impressive how close to his scalp he was able to cut his own hair with a pair of green plastic safety scissors and 30 seconds to himself. But at least he has a big smile!

 

Here is Arden.  She is angry with me for making her wear her Easter dress on Easter.  Her Easter dress that SHE chose at the store specifically to BE her EASTER dress. How dare I ask her to please wear it to church on Easter?  I KNOW, I am a completely unreasonable and borderline psychotic for making such an outrageous demand.  And on top of that, I now have the guts to ask her to SMILE?  Whatever.

 



Aaanyway, church helped.  It was nice to forget about the bunnies and the dresses and think about the real meaning behind Easter.  Everyone came home in a much better mood.  We headed over to my mom's for dinner and the final egg hunt of the year.  I finally got a shot of Arden in action (and Preston too):

Now we have a basket full of eggs and a face full of smiles. 

Dax is pretty sure he has won!  And wow, he is just a little bit excited and a lot sugared up. 

 

After the egg hunt, I tried to bribe my kids to give me all of their Cadbury eggs, but they are getting smarter as they get older and I didn't end up with nearly as many as I usually do.  I still have time though...I think tomorrow I will start offering to clean up some rooms in exchange for some cream eggs. 

 

Don't judge me.