House of Estrogen

The Party That Persevered

Against all odds (and possibly against all rational thought), we kept to the schedule of holding Addison's birthday party yesterday. There were many discussions of postponing it, but there was really no available date that worked. Plus, Addie was in birthday party countdown mode, and you can't easily explain a change in countdown to a four year old. Despite my mom's broken hip and subsequent surgery on Wednesday, Addison's strep throat diagnosis on Thursday, Elise's screaming migraine on Friday, and my spending every moment those days caring for my dad rather than prepping for the party, we charged forth.

Addison's birthday is 8 days before Christmas... a pretty crappy date as birthdays go. I know in the future we will need to have a serious separation of birthday and Christmas. As of now, she hasn't figured out her rotten lot in life, so we went with a gingerbread decorating party. A bit Christmasy, yes, but what kid doesn't love decorating gingerbread?

We started out with gingerbread coloring pages.

Then, we moved on to gingerbread crafts.

Then, just when they were beginning to think there wasn't any actual gingerbread involved in this party, we moved on to decorating the real gingerbread men and houses.

No child left without an excellent sugar high.

After they were done with their masterpieces, I provided a shock to their systems - a little bit of fruit and veggies with lunch.

No birthday is complete without a cake though, so we topped off the sugarfest with a cute gingerbread cake.

Then, the birthday girl opened presents, and said thank yous and good-byes to friends.

It has been a stressful, chaotic week, but having Addison's birthday party injected a much needed bit of fun and levity! I'm glad we decided to stick with it. After friends left and the gingerbread crumbs were swept away, I headed to the hospital to pick up my mom since she had been discharged. No rest for the weary!

Letter to Elise, age 11

Dear Elise,

As I have been thinking about this letter to you (over the last two months since your actual birthday), I realized I could sum it all up in one word: change. Your life is all about change right now... change at a lightning fast pace. I'm not sure any of us have figured out how to keep up. We're just hanging on for the ride.

I just looked back at last year's letter and was shocked by how much you have changed in just a year. The little girl is gone, and now the daughter before me is a tall, curvy, braces-wearing tween who reads the Hunger Games and walks around with iPod earbuds growing out of her ears.

You are growing taller and fumbling your way through puberty daily. There are tears involved with most everything these days. Yesterday morning, Nina came into our room and said, "Elise is crying." Your dad responded, "It's morning. That's what Elise does in the mornings." Unfortunately for you, As with every stage in your life, you will be our guinea pig to figure out how to parent tweens and teens. Bear with us. I'm sure we'll make mistakes along the way. You have matured so much in the past year though. I think you'll find a way to have patience with us (or at the very least, tolerate us). Your words, decisions, and actions all show a level of maturity that wasn't there just twelve months ago... in between the tears, that is.

School is going well, but it is another area of your life that is changing rapidly. You were recently reevaluated for learning disabilities and eligibility for services at school. You tested at least "average" for absolutely every test which is a huge change from three years ago. You "graduated" out of your Individualized Education Plan (IEP) which had you spending time with the writing lab teacher three times per week. Your teachers were thrilled with your progress. As a parent, I had mixed emotions. While I was excited and proud that you're doing so well in school, I have a little anxiety about losing the extra help. The resource teachers have been so wonderful in giving you the extra support you needed. It is a little hard to let go of that safety net even though all the teachers are confident you don't need it any more. You had mixed feelings about it as well. In the big picture though, I know this is a GOOD thing. It means you are meeting grade level expectations on your own, and that is huge. You have had a wonderful teacher this year, but unfortunately, she is moving over the Christmas holiday, and you'll have a new teacher when you return from break. That makes me a little anxious as well, but I have confidence that you'll keep working hard and succeeding.

The one subject we certainly never need to worry about with you is reading. You always have your nose in a book. Even if we just have a five minute drive somewhere, you make sure you grab a book before we leave the house, so you can read in the car. You have a fierce love of books, particularly the fantasy genre. You love Rick Riordin, Suzanne Collins, J.K. Rowling, and Brandon Mull. For Halloween this year, you had so much fun being Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. It seemed so fitting that you chose a literary character. Books are your escape and your love. You are having a ball being a junior librarian this year at school. It is the perfect job for you.

The next big step in school is middle school. You and I toured one school together recently, and I have toured another on my own. After touring both, I felt strongly that the one you and I both saw was the better school for you. It is small, personable, and just gave me a good vibe. The other school was huge, chaotic, and felt like it would be easy to get lost in the crowd (literally and figuratively). It just didn't seem like a good fit. You want to tour both though to make your own decision, and I respect that. I'm just crossing my fingers that you'll come away with the same impressions that I did. We both really loved the first school, so I do know we agreed on that one.

Jump rope still plays a huge role in your life. You have practice 2-3 days per week and performances or workshops almost every weekend. You love it, and I cherish seeing the spark in your eyes as you talk about it and celebrate accomplishments. You chose to stay on the performance team this year instead of trying out for the competition team. As much as you love jump rope, I think you wanted to avoid the extra pressure that comes along with competition. That is probably a good choice for your personality. You love the fun of performances but don't have a very competitive nature. Jump rope is really a happy place for you. This year, you don't have a tight knit group of friends at school. You get along with people fine, but you don't have the close relationships you might like to have. You said to me one day, "One reason I love jump rope is that I feel like I fit in so well there. I have something in common with everybody, and I have so many friends there."  I can't think of anything more important than a group like that as you head into middle school. Regardless of the ups and downs of middle school social life, you know you'll have your jump rope friends by your side. That is priceless.

You are still involved with Girl Scouts although this year there seem to be a lot of scheduling conflicts between Girl Scouts and jump rope. Jump rope usually wins out. The troop is still important to you though, and I'm glad you're sticking with it. I think Girl Scouts can be another place for you to maintain good friends during the turbulent middle school years. Can you tell I'm just a wee bit anxious about middle school?  I'll try not to make you too nervous about it as I quietly gnaw on my fingernails off your first couple weeks of school.

Overall, I think you're in a good spot right now. You are coping well with the change all around you. You are holding your own at school and have found a hobby you love. You are growing and maturing rapidly. I have a feeling this year is just the beginning of a lot of change over the next few years, and I have no idea if your dad and I are ready for it. I think you are though.

Happy belated 11th birthday, Elise!

Love,

Mama

San Antonio, Part 1: Babies, Water Slides, Caves, and a Birthday

Our San Antonio trip was essentially divided into three separate trips in three different locations. That seems the easiest way to divide up my blog posts as well, so here is part one. We started off the trip at my aunt and uncle's house where the girls played in the pool with Texas-style pool toys - duck decoys and cap guns.

Then we had fun playing with our new sweet baby cousins. They are 8 months old, but this is the first chance we've had to meet them.

This picture makes me want a fourth. J.C. would never go for it though.

These little girlies crack me up. They couldn't be more different. One is a total tank, and the other is a petite little thing. Their personalities are total opposites too. Miss Chunk is clearly in charge.

Nina got hold of my camera and took this fabulous photo of my aunt with one of them. Nice, eh?

Of course, the very next shot was this lovely one of a worm in the garage. This is classic Nina.

From there, we headed North to New Braunfels, Texas. If you ever need a place to stay in New Braunfels, I highly recommend the Float Inn, a gorgeous condo on the Comal River. It was beautifully decorated, and the owner was such a nice hostess. This picture was taken on the balcony. Check out that blue water of the spring-fed Comal River!  We didn't do any tubing in the river on this trip, but the girls loved watching the tubers and paddle boarders go by.

The condo is directly across the street from Schlitterbahn which has been voted the world's best waterpark for 15 years in a row. It is truly amazing. I'm not sure I can even begin to explain it. There are three separate parks. Blastenhoff and Surfenburg are connected by the world's longest lazy river that runs between the two. It has an "aquaveyor" which is like a conveyor belt that takes you and your tube up hill. In Blastenhoff, there are uphill water coasters (The Master Blaster is the world's best water park ride) that are crazy fun. In the original Schlitterbahn section (which you can get to by tram), a lot of the rides are fed by water from the Comal River, and some of the rides dump you out in the river at the end. This video from the travel channel describes it all better than I can.

I didn't take many pictures at Schlitterbahn because without a waterproof camera, who has time for pictures?  You'll just have to trust me that we had a ball!

Schlitterbahn was Elise's eleventh birthday celebration. When we were completely worn out and waterlogged, we came back to the condo for birthday cake from Naegelin's Bakery, the oldest bakery in Texas. I loved the jump rope on it.

The next day, we had planned for another full day at Schlitterbahn, but it rained and rained and rained and rained some more. It never rains in South Texas, but apparently the one rainy day of the year was that day. (Note to self... never buy two-day amusement park tickets for the last two days the amusement park is open for the year without looking at the weather forecast first.) We were all disappointed but made the best of the day anyway. We headed down to the Natural Bridge Caverns. The tour was a bit too long for Addie's four year old attention span, but the rest of us all enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we head back down to San Antonio for part two of our Texas vacation!

A Girly-Girl 8th Birthday Party

In my recent blog post about Addie's birthday party, I listed my four rules for a successful birthday party. Let's see how I did with Nina's party.

1. Not in my house - check. We had it at a nail salon and restaurant
2. Small - check. Four girls plus Elise and Nina - the perfect size. We were limited by the six kid sized chairs in the salon, so there was no wiggle room on the guest list.
3. Not making the cake - check. I bought the same delish cupcakes that I bought for Addie's party.
4. No bags o' crap party favors. Hmmm... I may have gone off course a little on this one, but they weren't bad - just a lip gloss, a hair feather, nail polish, and a lollipop.

I loved seeing all their faces.

They were anxiously excited,

happy,

and perfectly relaxed.

They got manicures,

and pedicures

while watching videos in the massage chairs.

J.C. felt a little out of place, but he waited patiently

until we were all done.

After nails, it was time for lunch and cupcakes.

Check it out... the nail polish cupcake toppers doubled as part of the party favors!

Yum!

All said, it was a fun morning for these eight-going-on-sixteen year olds. Happy Birthday, Nina!

Move Over Bakerella, You've Got Competition!

Or, uh, maybe not. Nina received a cake pop maker yesterday for her birthday. We all had fun making and eating them, but somehow I don't think we'll be giving Bakerella a run for her money any time soon.

Bakerella:

House of Estrogen:

Nina came downstairs this morning and proclaimed, "Bakerella, we are not!"

Amen, sister.

Build-a-Bear Birthday Bash

Sometimes when I start to write a birthday party post, I get that nagging feeling that I'm somehow failing as a mommy blogger. I've never done a Royal Ball, an Alice in Wonderland Party, a Barnyard Party, or a Fairy Ballerina Party. There seems to be an unwritten rule in the mommy blogging world that birthday parties are required to be over-the-top at-home celebrations complete with a decadent dessert table, elaborate theming and personalized water bottles or lemonade in mason jars. (Click on those party links to see what I'm talking about.) I'm not sure how this trend started, but clearly there is a need to one-up everyone else in the blogging world when it comes to birthday parties. While I admire the creativity and effort put into these parties, I can't help but think, "You have GOT to be kidding me!!! Who has time for that? Do you have a life? What is the world coming to?" Seriously, when you are spending as much on a 2 year old's birthday party that most people spend on a wedding, there is something very, very wrong.

Or maybe I'm just jealous.

Anyway, when planning a party, I am the anti-mommy-blogger. I'm pretty sure I'm doing it all wrong, but it works for me. These are my rules for a successful non-blog-worthy party.

1. The party must not be in my house. I don't want kids in the house. I don't want parents in the house. I don't want to clean up the house in anticipation of the party. I don't want to clean up the house after the party. That is too much work. The party must be somewhere away from my house where someone else is in charge of decorating, entertainment, and clean up. Mommy bloggers everywhere are cringing as they read this. This goes against every fiber of their soul.
2. The party must be small. I don't need my kids getting birthday presents from 25 kids. We have too much crap in the house as it is.
3. I do not make the cake. I know how to decorate cakes. I used to be good at decorating cakes, but who has time for that?  Cakes will be store bought.
4. I do not give out "bags o' crap" party favors. I know other people suffer from the "too much crap in the house" syndrome as well, and they don't need junky dollar store goodies cluttering up their house any more than I do.

So, in keeping with my party rules, Addison had a Build-a-Bear party for her 4th birthday.

Invitations were sent via Evite. I give it a thumbs up for free, easy, and more likely to get an RSVP. A real mommy blogger would rather give up her dSLR than send an evite, but that's how I roll.

You know what though, Addie had a ball, and her friends did too. That's the goal right? Kids having fun? Or perhaps I missed an email about the goal.

They picked out bears,

and outfits,

and stuffed and groomed them.

J.C. got his baby fix by holding this little guy.

Of course, no House of Estrogen event is complete without an injury. Nina jumped up and bumped her head on a shelf. Poor kid.

It is pretty much impossible to get a picture of a bunch of 3-4 year olds without a lot of forced grins. Lovely.

After Build-a-Bear, we headed over to the food court for pizza and cupcakes. I'm pretty sure "food court at a birthday party" is mommy blogger code for "over my dead body". They are four though. What do they care if they have a juice box or mason jar?

My two nods to mommy blogging cuteness were the cupcakes and Addie's shirt. Of course, I can't take credit for either. Cupcake toppers were from Etsy seller Paper Owl Party Design.

Addie's shirt was by Etsy seller Criss Cross Creations. Nice scraped nose and goose-egg on her forehead, eh?

I think the party was a success. It was outside the house. There were only 5 guests. I didn't make the cake, and the party favors were the bears. Check, check, check, and check! Addie had a blast and had no idea that she should have been expecting personalized water bottles and color coordinated m&m's and lollipops. Score!

Happy Birthday Addison! May all your wishes come true.

 

 

 

Four... With Attitude

Letter to Addison, 4 years

Dear Addison,

This weekend you turned four. One might expect me to feel sad or nostalgic that my baby is growing up. I do feel that in some ways. For the most part though, we are absolutely thrilled that you are four because it means the end of three and a half. I could use those euphemisms that parenting books use to describe you like "spirited" or "strong willed", but your dad I have more often used words like "demon child", "the one with the horns growing out of her head", "YOUR child", and "the evil one". You have seriously given us a run for our money. We thought we had learned a few things about stubborn preschoolers through Nina. Apparently she was just the intro class. Now you have come along to really show us who is boss.

Your modus operandi seems to be "I am three. Hear me roar", and do we ever. The yelling, the tantrums, the obstinance, the defiance... you win the prize for all of it. We've resorted to the most off-the-wall discipline techniques like squirting you with a water bottle in the car when you won't stay buckled. I don't think we'll win any parenting awards for that one, but for right now, it is the only thing that works.

Perhaps we were too cocky and thought we had figured out this whole parenting gig after two kids. Clearly, we haven't. You have proven that.

So, now that you are four, can you give us a break from the 3.5 year old attitude? We're begging you!

Under all the spunk and defiance, you are a sweet, loving, wonderful daughter. You definitely keep us on our toes, but we love you the world over. You love to snuggle up to us to read bedtime stories. You give running hugs and forehead kisses.

Last week, you declared that I was the "best mommy in the jungle!"  (Yes, I know we don't live in a jungle, but I'll take the compliment anyway). Although you remind me daily that you aren't a baby any more, you will still cuddle up in my lap when you are tired.

Despite spending many hours being dragged between ice skating (Nina) and jump rope (Elise), you are starting to form your own interests too. You love to go hiking and biking. You make frequent requests for family bike rides.

You have enjoyed playing soccer, but we're going to take a little break from that. You try desperately to jump rope but don't quite have the hand/foot coordination thing figured out yet. You love playing with dolls, pestering Nina, stealing Elise's things, working puzzles, and running around the house like we've injected you with caffeine. You are a lover of all things Yo Gabba Gabba.

You have certainly made your place in this family. Although you push boundaries and test us to the extremes, we can't imagine life without you. You are our sweet baby girl, and I can't wait to see what changes age four will bring.

I love you! Happy fourth birthday!

Love,

Mama

A Tenth Birthday Blow-out

Somehow this week, I've ended up in three different conversations about Elise's hotel birthday party. Considering it happened over a month ago, I figured it was high time I blogged about it.

Apparently to some, "hotel party" conjures up images of hoards of rambunctious kids running wild and unsupervised through the hotel, a keg, a trashed hotel room, and a pedophile lurking in every corner just waiting to snatch a birthday party attendee.

I think those people went to too many wild high school and college hotel parties. A 10 year old's hotel birthday party could be nothing further from that. It is fun, innocent, well-supervised, and no more expensive than your typical Build-a-Bear, bounce house, or ice skating party. Turning ten seems like a big deal, so I thought a hotel party would be a fun way to celebrate.

For kicks, I thought I would give a comparison of a hotel slumber party to an a typical at-home slumber party.

Days leading up to the party

hotel:

Make cupcakes, gather up party supplies, and throw everything in the car.

 home: Make cupcakes, gather up supplies, and spend hours cleaning, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, decluttering, and getting your house ready for company.

4:00 p.m.

hotel: Children arrive, put on swimsuits, and have a blast in the hotel pool while waiting for the pizza to arrive.

home: Children arrive and run around your house like complete maniacs while waiting for the pizza to arrive. (Don't believe me? Check out the video here from Elise's birthday party two years ago.)

5:30 p.m.

hotel: serve pizza in the lobby where the manager's reception is going on. The girls can help themselves to delicious warm baked chips and dip, lemonade, Sprite, or Shirley Temples from the reception.

home: serve pizza along with a bag of chips and juice boxes.

6:30 p.m.

hotel: After pizza, cupcakes, and opening presents, the girls hang out in the lobby looking at the fish swimming in the pond while the manager kindly offers to help you clean up the mess.

home: After pizza, cupcakes, and opening presents, the girls once again are running wild around the house while you are stuck cleaning up all the mess.

7:00 p.m.

hotel: It is back to the pool for another quick swim to tire out the girls, so they won't be up all night.

home: You have to plan, purchase supplies for, and lead the girls in a craft project to occupy time.

8:00 p.m.

hotel: The girls play musical pedicures and you apply glitter tattoos. Every time you apply one, you smile at the fact that the glitter is landing on a hotel towel, and you will not have to vacuum after you're done. (As a side note, the glitter tattoos were a HUGE hit. If you have a 7-13 year old girl on your Christmas list, I highly recommend them. Here's a link)

home: The girls play musical pedicures and you apply glitter tattoos. Every time you apply one, you groan at the thought of glitter being tracked all over the house.

9:00 p.m. 

hotel: The girls organize a dance contest and watch TV in the bedroom of the suite. They go to bed at a reasonable time after being worn out from the swimming. You get a good night's sleep in the living room of the suite.

home: The girls organize a dance contest and watch TV in whatever room in the house you have decided will hold six girls. They stay up ridiculously late giggling despite your many warnings to settle down and go to sleep. Even though you are in your own bed, you don't get much sleep with the girls keeping you up all night.

 

 9:00 a.m.

hotel: You and the girls pack up your belongings and head downstairs for a fabulous breakfast buffet - made-to-order omelets, bacon, sausage, biscuits, muffins, donuts, cereal, fruit, waffles, and any type of juice you could ever want. There is no complaining about the choices. Everyone fills up and thoroughly enjoys their breakfast. There is no clean-up because the hotel busses the tables.

home: You either get dressed quickly to run out to pick up donuts, or you dirty up a bunch of pots and pans making bacon and pancakes. Everyone gets fed, and then you get to wash dishes.

10:00 a.m.

hotel: Parents arrive in the lobby to pick up their kids. You load things in the car, check out, and you are completely done with project birthday party.

home: Parents arrive to pick up their kids. You spend the rest of the day washing dishes, cleaning up the clutter, vacuuming up glitter, and yelling at the birthday girl, "Get over here and help me clean up! It was YOUR friends who made this mess!"

All said and done, it was a fun, exciting, easy, reasonably priced way to celebrate ten years. I highly recommend it!

Cupcakes, Lessons Learned

1. Most bakers will not recreate a copyrighted design unless they have a license for it. If the birthday party theme is not Dora, Barbie, Star Wars, or Hello Kitty, forget finding a cake.
2. The same is true for Etsy cupcake topper makers. No license, no make.
3. Cupcake toppers can be made fairly easily with supplies from Michael's and stickers from Target.
4. When a frosting receipe calls for Crisco, don't substitute margarine. Trust me. Just don't do it.
5. One large tub of store-bought frosting to replace the failed homemade frosting is not enough for 24 cupcakes.
6. Store-bought frosting is too thin for proper cupcake piping.
7. I have completely lost my cake decorating mojo. Gone. I can still bake, but all decorating assignments will be contracted out from this birthday party on.