Cora is 5. For Realsies.

I remember putting a calendar together for Preston's mom around Christmastime.  I was putting everyone's birthday on the calendar, and I remember how stunned I felt when I put down that my littlest little girl was going to turn FIVE in April.  Crazy!  And now it has come and gone already.  My little Cora is five years old.    

The day before Cora's birthday, Grandma Zaugg came over for dinner.  Cora had decided that she wanted to have a Hello Kitty birthday.  I am not sure why, but I was all for it because there are a TON of Hello Kitty party supplies readily available.  Since it was a Hello Kitty birthday, I was going to make Corbie a Hello Kitty cake.  The only problem was, I had procrastinated the cake baking, and so I had to frost it about 5 minutes before we ate it.  Good thing Hello Kitty is not too hard to draw.  Even better that the 5-year-old only cares that the cake decoration it is made of FROSTING, and not how well it is done.  

Preston unfortunately had to work on Cora's actual birthday, so most of the festivities on the big day were left up to me.  Cora's friend party was planned for right after preschool on Cora's birthday.  Arden had been having a rough weekend with her new braces and was feeling bad about missing the party since she was still going to be at school.  I am a braces veteran and have a soft spot for braces-related suffing, so I caved in and took Arden out of school for a "long lunch" so she could come to the party.  She wore her Hello Kitty shirt for the occasion.  Cora was excited to have her big sister there!

Cora had a great morning at preschool, and got to wear the "Birthday Queen" crown.  After preschool, all of Cora's little friends came over for the party.  Since I had EIGHT 4- and 5-year olds on my hands, most of my time was spent playing party hostess and not enough time was spent playing party photographer.  I feel so bad, I didn't even get a picture with all the party guests. Oh well, we had fun and we will just have to have good memories of this birthday since I didn't preserve them on film...or on memory, or whatever.  

We had the traditional pizza lunch on our Hello Kitty plates and drank water from our Hello Kitty cups and wiped our hands with our Hello Kitty napkins.  Then we played "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty."  Here is Cora taking her turn.  She is either cheating really really bad or she is the best Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty player ev-er.  Hmmmmm.

Her little friend E had everyone laughing when she tried to pin Hello Kitty's bow on the partygoers instead of the poster.

 After that, we did a treasure hunt for Hello Kitty party favors (no pictures), and broke a Hello Kitty pinata (no pictures, but I had a good excuse for that.  I was using every once of my energy trying to make sure that the pinata was the only thing that got hit with the stick.  It was hard because Hello Kitty started slowly leaking candy pretty early on.  When a piece or two would fall out, everyone would try to run in and grab for the candy while the stick was still a-swingin'  We all survived somehow).

After the pinata, Arden was feeling sad because, well...I am not sure exactly why.  I know it had something to do with the fact that Cora was taking the "Birthday Queen" title a little bit far.  She was more like the "Birthday Tyrant."  Anyway, Arden ran up to her room.  All the cute little girlies followed her up the stairs, worried about her.  They decided that they would try to make her feel better by singing her a song.  They chose to sing (what else?) "Let it Go" to cheer her up at the top of their cute little voices.  It was so sweet! Arden decided to rejoin the party...partly because of the singing, partly because it was cupcake-and-ice cream time!

Like I said, I totally sucked at the photographer thing.  I tried to take a video of all Cora's cute little friends singing "Happy Birthday," but it turns out I hit the wrong button and only started recording when I thought I was stopping.  Duh.  So I pretty much missed the whole shebang.  I made Cora "pretend" she was blowing out the candles again, but you can see that she isn't very good at pretending.  Oh well.  Thanks anyways Corbs.

 Then it was PRESENT TIME!  Everyone was willing to help Cora unwrap and play with her loot.

Then the party was over.  Cora and Dax played with her new toys, while I tried to get everything cleaned up.  That night, Cora got to choose whatever she wanted to eat for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Haun.  Cora had seen how much fun Arden had sitting on the saddle at Texas Roadhouse on her birthday, so she wanted to do the same.  I told her that other restaurants would probably sing and give her ice cream too, but Cora loves her some steak and had her little heart set on that saddle.  So we found ourselves back at "the Roll Place," with the pretty birthday girl sitting on the birthday saddle, getting a birthday "Yee-HAW!"

It was a fun day!  Here are a few things about Cora the 5-year old:

Favorite color:  Pink or purple or red
Favorite breakfast:  Nutella toast
Favorite lunch:  Chicken Nuggets
Favorite dinner:  Pizza or Steak
Favorite movie:  Frozen
Favorite TV show:  Paw Patrol or My Little Ponies
Favorite thing to do:  Play with my toys, or go to my friends houses (she would always rather do play dates at her friends' houses, instead of here.  She thinks our house is sooo boring).
Favorite song:  "Oh Lellow Lellow daffodil" (song she learned at preschool...actually it is "Yellow," but I like the way she sings it better.)
Favorite animal:  Kitty cat
What she wants to be when she grows up:  I don't know!  I'm only five! (eye roll).
Favorite treat:  Frosting
What would you buy if you had a million dollars:  Lots of candy!

Happy Birthday, my little Corbiecakes!    Please stop growing up so fast.

More Teeth Stuff

It was bound to happen and now it has...my boy lost his first tooth!  He didn't even tell me it was loose until that morning, and by lunchtime it was out!

The great big permanent tooth is already coming up.  Oh, man!  I am going to miss that baby tooth smile!   This gap-tooth one is pretty cute too, I guess.

Lets all keep our fingers crossed that THESE permanent teeth will come in straight.

Arden's Baptism

Arden was baptized last Saturday!  We are so proud of her.  Arden was lucky to have lots of family and friends who made time on a busy Saturday to share her special day.  Wish I would have taken some pictures of all of them...oops.  At least I got a lot of pictures of Arden.

I tried to get a good pic to put with the little invitation we sent, but Arden wasn't really in the mood to pose.  We eventually got a couple of okay smiles out of her, and she looked beautiful in her dress (from Costco!).

 And here she is on the big day itself:

 Proud daddy:

(I was also proud that her hair stayed put through it all!  We beat Preston out of the dressing rooms!)

Brace Face

Back when Arden was about 2 years old, we brought her to the dentist for her very first appointment.  The dentist looked in her cute little mouth, got a concerned look on his face and said, "Hmmmmmm..."  

Not good, right?  

Turns out Arden's cute little mouth is too little.  The dentist could tell back in toddler-hood that when permanent teeth started trying to find themselves some room in there, the results were not going to be pretty.  He advised us to start saving our money for some pretty serious orthodontia.  Yay!  Just what every mom of a 2-year old wants to hear, right?

Well, fast-forward 6 or so years, and the dentist's prophecy is coming true.  Arden's two front teeth came in relatively straight, but the ones next to those had nowhere to go, and started coming in a row in front of the rest.  Just what every little girl wants, right?  Rows of teeth!  Like a shark!  

The dentist reminded us (again) at our last appointment that we should take Arden in to an orthodontist as soon as possible maybe they could get started on her early.  So off we went.  One of Arden's good friends actually got braces a couple of months ago, and Arden was SUPEREXCITED about the idea that she might be able to get some too. The x-rays of Arden's teeth showed that the permanent teeth waiting in the wings were already jostling for room, and pointing every which way but where they were supposed to.  So, the orthodontist granted Arden her wish and STRONGLY recommended two phases of braces, with phase one starting as soon as possible.  Of course he did!  Arden couldn't wait.

Last Thursday, I told Arden that it was the day she was going to get her braces, and the girl actually clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

Weirdo.

I tried to warn her that braces are not all fun and games.  In fact, there are no fun or games involved at all.  She didn't care.  She was excited for some silvery teeth jewelry!  Here she is, in the office while I was arranging the not-so-fun business of paying for the shiny little torture devices.  I thought I had better get one more picture of the braces-free smile I wouldn't see for a while.

The very nice dental assistant got Arden all prepped:

She sent Arden to rinse and I had to get just ONE more picture of the excited-to-be-getting braces Arden, because I had the sneaking feeling that this might be the last time I got see her.

I was right.  The very next thing they did was stick a HUMONGOUS rubber contraption in my baby's mouth that stretched her lips farther than they were meant to be stretched and exposed every surface in her little mouth that you were never meant to see.  You can tell that the enthusiasm has drained out of her eyes and been replaced by apprehension:

At this point I reached over to pat Arden's hand and ask if she was okay.  She grabbed hold of my hand in a death grip and didn't let go for the next half an hour or so.  Luckily for her, the orthodontist promised to work quickly to release her from the lip-stretching device as soon as possible.  It couldn't be fast enough for either of us, I am pretty sure.  My poor Arden!

After what I am pretty sure will go down in Arden's memory as one of the longest half-hours of her life, the brackets were on.  Smile, Arden!  Somehow, the smile isn't quite reaching to her eyes, is it?

Arden's lips were actually bleeding from the stretching torture, so they gave her a chapstick and a smoothie certificate to try and make it up to her.  We grabbed the swag and got the heck out of there.  Here is a genuine smile of relief that we were out of the building:

Turns out the smoothie was a good idea.  Not only did they put braces on this poor girl, but they put something called "Bite Turbos" on her back teeth.  They said they were there because Arden's top teeth were touching her bottom brackets, and she was going to knock them off when she chewed if they didn't put the Turbos in.  Turns out, they also prevent Arden from closing her back teeth all the way together.  Huh.  How is she supposed to chew anything?

We couldn't figure it out, so here is her lunch for the next day:  Yogurt tubes, applesauce, and pudding.  Yup, we are back to baby food.

It was kind of a rough couple of days for poor Arden.  Any lingering excitement she had about her braces completely evaporated as she read the list of "forbidden" foods, which included some of her very favorite things, like popcorn and any sticky candy.  Is life really worth living if you can't eat Hi Chews?

It has been a few days now and Arden is starting to get the hang of chewing in different places, but we are a still having a lot of soup and yogurt and stuff.

Hopefully she gets used to them soon.  Hang in there baby!

I Am Too Old To Begin The Training....

I mentioned in an earlier post  that Dax is currently going through a moderate-to-serious obsession with Star Wars.  This obsession leads my boy to do some unusual things.  

For example:  Dax can be found most days wearing a single black glove.  If you ask him WHY he is wearing a single black glove inside the house, he will first look at you like you might be asking one of theee stupidest questions ever asked, and then reply, "Becaaaause this is my robot hand.  My real hand got cut off by Darth Vader."  Duh?

Dax is also often found humming and/or singing Star Wars music.  Usually quite loudly.  He especially likes to hum such music while....let's say....enjoying some private time in the bathroom.  Not just our bathroom at home, ANY bathroom.  We were at a Wendy's recently, and I walked Dax down to the men's room and waited outside in the hallway while he did his bidness.  The humming started off low, but soon Dax was singing the Star Wars Theme at the top of his lungs, and not only could I hear it out in the hallway, but I am pretty sure that anyone sitting in the half of the restaurant nearest the restrooms could hear it as well:  "Buuuuh buuh, buhbuhbuh BUUUUUH buh, buhbuhbuh BUUUUUH buh, buhbuhbuhbuuuuuuuuh."  That's my boy.

Dax also likes to act out his favorite parts of the Star Wars movies.  If he can't find anyone to help him, he just acts out all of the parts himself.  I am totally kicking myself for not catching on video an epic performance of his I saw the other day.  He was acting out the final battle of Episode 6...you know, when Luke and Darth Vader have a big light saber battle in front of the Emperor?  Dax was actually pretty good at light sabering with himself, one saber in each hand.  He would pause the fighting occasionally to insert some dialogue, "Fahder, I feel the good in you."  (then, in a deeper voice), "You underestimate the power of the dark side!"  This scene went on for quite a while. I was the most impressed with the Oscar-worthy performance of the part where Luke is getting blasted with the blue lightning from the Emperor.  Dax was on the ground, writhing around and kicking his legs, yelling "AAAAH, FATHER, PLEEEEASE, HELP MEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!"  The he jumped up, curled his fingers in front of him, emperor-style, and said menacingly, "Now, young Skywalker.  You will DIE!"  Then he dropped back to the ground and writhed around some more, then quickly jumped back up, gave one Darth Vader-y breath, and yelled "NOOOO!" He then grabbed a nearby teddy bear (who now represented the Emperor), held the teddy bear over his head, ran over to the railing, and threw the teddy bear over.  He then slumped to the ground, wheezing. 

Mind. Blown.

In spite of his amazing ability to be a one-man-lightsaber battle, he does prefer to have someone else to duel with.  The girls have both been hit in the fingers a time or two and don't usually want to play, so the honor generally falls to me.  Guess who gets to be the Jedi and who has to play the part of the evil Sith?  

Dax looks pretty serious in the above picture, but it is only because he is humming the Imperial March as loud as he can hum.  He impressively switches between theme music and light saber sound effects during our duels:

"Psssh!  Psssh!  Vroooom!"

"I'll Never Join YOU!"

 Sometimes I get to talk too.  "Obi-Wan has taught you well."

The light saber battle usually ends when Dax gets a little too excited and accidentally comes too close to hitting my fingers (or my head).  I guess I am kind of a wussy when it comes to light saber battles.

But I don't want to have to walk around with one black glove on all the time.

Sprinter Break!

Last week was spring break for the kids.  While everyone else was heading south, we were heading north. Up to the cabin since, well...it is already paid for.  It had felt so much like spring for the last few weeks, but we decided that we would try to squeeze in one last weekend of winter.  Weird, right?  Winter on Spring break.  Sprinter!  (because "Wing" just doesn't make sense).  

We left on Thursday evening as soon as Preston got home from work.  It had been a particularly rough afternoon of packing.  The kids were good on the drive though, with the help of some movies from the library and a stop for dinner in Logan.  We made it up to the cabin just in time for bedtime.  Thankfully, Preston sensed that I was already at the end of my tether, and took over most of the bedtime duties.  Hooray for Preston! Of course, with all of the kids together in the same room, the actual sleeping didn't occur until a few hours later, but we try to let them have fun as long as they stay reasonably quiet and stay downstairs.  Its vacation, right? 

The next day while Preston was telecommuting from the cabin, the kids and I went for one more sledding session.  The snow was melting in a lot of places, but one of our favorite sledding runs was still covered.  We took a few trips down and then Dax wanted to climb his favorite nearby hill.  I am not sure why he feels the need to climbs this particular hill, except for the usual "because it is there."  Sometimes Arden will join him up there, but Cora has never attempted the climb.  Until now.  She quickly found out that it is not as easy as it looks.  In this picture you can see Dax waaay up the hill, and Cora "resting" (i.e. bursting into tears of exhaustion and frustration) at the bottom.  

 With a little bit of help, Cora eventually made it to the top.  Nice view!

We headed back to the cabin and decided that we needed to head to the store so that we could make some Cadbury Egg Cookies...our first batch of the season if you can believe it.  In the parking lot of the store, the kids discovered some carved bears in a big tree stump and wanted their pictures taken.  Aren't they cute?

 They especially liked the bear that was sticking his tongue out.  They decided to join him:

We made an entire batch of cookies, and not a single one survived the weekend.  Actually, my mom and dad showed up just as the cookies were coming out of the oven!

The next day, Preston and I finally got around to taking Arden skiing for her birthday.  We headed up to "Ski the Beav" on the second-to-last weekend of the ski season there.  The forecast called for clouds and afternoon rain, but it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day!  It had been a couple of months since we had been to Beaver Mountain, and Arden's favorite new development was a terrain park they had put in near the Little Beaver ski lift.  There was a tunnel!  Here is Arden, skiing through:

Arden is quite a good little skier now, though she usually still just heads straight down the hill.  I take a few (well, a LOT) more turns per run than she does, but we all meet up at the bottom to ride the lift up together:

Preston had forgotten his sunglasses.  He wasn't too worried about it because of the clouds in the forecast, but with all the sun things were pretty bright.  I told Preston to smile, but he couldn't even look at me because the sun was so bright.  He actually sunburned his eyeballs and will hopefully learned his lesson to never ski goggles-less again.

It is so pretty up at the top.  Here is me and my ski buddy Arden.  I am getting a little better at it, this was my third time!  I am actually kind of sad that I have to wait clear until December or so to go skiing again.  I will probably have forgotten everything I have learned!  I am planning on taking another lesson or two at the beginning of next ski season...I would love to learn how to turn without using my snowplow.  When my legs start getting tired, my tips seem to want to cross over each other...never good.  

We skied ALL day, and were all pretty tired when we headed back to the cabin.  Bye Beaver Mountain!

My awesome mom and dad had pizza all ready for us.  We chowed down on pizza and cookies.  After dinner, Arden wanted to play her first game of Monopoly.  My mom and I played along.  Arden lacks the killer instinct, and I had all but wiped her out when bedtime rolled around.  I had forgotten how long it takes to play that game.

We headed to church the next morning, then pretty much spent a lazy day hanging around inside since the promised rain had finally showed up.  We watched movies, we did crafts, we read books, we played games.  It was nice.  It snowed a couple of inches Sunday night.  I love the feeling of being snug and warm (and full of cookies) inside the cabin on a windy, snowy night.  Especially after the kids are in bed :)

On Monday we headed home since Preston and I both had to work Tuesday.  With all the rain and snow melting onto the dirt roads, our poor car looked like this:

Preston would say the highlight of the trip occurred on the way home when we stopped for some Aggie Ice Cream in Logan.  He always wants to stop on the way home, but it is usually a Sunday or a holiday and the place is closed.  Ice cream dreams fulfilled!  The shakes are my favorite.

Another fun weekend!  This week soccer is starting, and I have to figure out how to get three kids to practices on the same night tomorrow, then three games on Saturday.

Wish us luck!