SLOANE TURNS SEVEN

Our first baby turned seven last month! She's in second grade now as of a couple of weeks ago, and it still feels strange whenever that leaves my mouth. Second grade was when I started to have some of my more distinctive memories, and it is so striking that I now have a daughter this age that is amassing her own set of memories which will shape and form her. 

She is a dreamer, a thinker, a great-idea-haver. She loves her friends and her sister, directs games, tells stories, and has a blossoming artist's perspective. She can sit for hours listening to me read a book aloud, and also loves playing volleyball, tennis and doing BJJ more recently. She is kind, silly, and often gets deep in thought or a task and won't be easily pulled away. She plays with kids who aren't included and cries at almost every movie.  What a girl we have. 

On her birthday we spent the morning having a pool party with her friends, and then in the afternoon she got her ears pierced (!) followed by dinner with my parents, my sister and her kids, who happened to be here on Sloane's birthday (which is so rare!). I loved getting to celebrate Sloane with everyone, and there's a video below that summarizes our day. 

LOGAN TURNS FOUR

I love this girl, I love talking to her, I love talk about her. She is so funny and extremely boisterous. When she is upset about something, she'll be upset about it long and loud.  When she gets her mind set on helping you, she'll help you whether you like it or not.  She is a quick learner, learning as she does the thing.  She is determined and she knows what she likes and doesn't like, and is not shy about telling you. She no longer wakes up several times in the middle of the night - thankthelord - but she does sneak into our bed early in the morning to get another snooze and snuggle in, and it is one of my favorite things about my day.  

She turned FOUR last month, and we were so pleased to be able to celebrate her.  She requested a pool party with friends, a balloon game, and banana cupcakes (she was fine with the chocolate and vanilla ones we ended up with) and that she got! Along with a surprise big present of this balance bike, which she has been practicing on diligently since. 

She was just as pleased with the red balloons as she was with the bike and played with these balloons for a solid half hour by herself while I set up for her party. 

The birthday girl got to have her breakfast on the unicorn float. 

Sloane's present to Logan was this shirt that she designed. Isn't it great? Logan loved it. That's Logan's face looking at the gift giver. 

Logan recently changed daycare to one that is closer to us and it's been a good transition overall, but she misses her friends at her old daycare.  Happily, a few of them got to come to the party, including Logan's BFF Avery.

We ended the party with a balloon game that Logan requested wherein everyone keeps the balloon in the air while the music is going and then has to grab it and freeze when the music stops. Balloon games are always such a hit with kids! 

I'm still processing the fact that my youngest is four and occasionally mourning the end of the toddler era, but getting to know how amazing she is at this stage is easing all that into sweet memories. I'm caressing the present with all my might and I'm so grateful we get to have her as part of our family. 

2019 SUMMER KICK OFF POOL PARTY

We had our summer kick-off party this past weekend, and it was such a fun and relaxing time with friends. I didn't get a lot of footage because I was too busy enjoying myself, but here is a compilation of some clips I did get, all to Kishi Bashi's "m'lover" song - which I'm obsessed with!

ALL DAHLED UP - VIDEO!

Here's a video of the literary party!

ALL DAHLED UP PARTY

And baack to our literary party update! I posted about our fox costumes here, and I want to make sure to document the party from that day.  I loved Roald Dahl books and loved reading through some of my favorites with Sloane and Logan. How glorious it is to get giddily happy about books in this way and have other people be that way as well! For this year's party, we had each family who wanted to attend sign up for a book to read, bringing a food from their book, and give a brief presentation about the book, i.e. acting out a scene, telling their favorite part. Some photos below:

Mignon found these labels and fashioned them onto chocolate bars to make Wonka bars! And one of them had a golden ticket :)

The girls and I had just finished reading "The Twits" earlier that week so we especially appreciated Martha has Mrs. Twit and her little monkey. 

Look at these ladies! This was the party planning committee this year and I love their sparky, book-loving, silly, creative beings with all my heart. 

I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of the tree that my cousin Lois did, but I got this one here of the peach that Martha did up...with holes for picture taking shenanigans!

Our fox family! I love the little chicken and duck we got for our baby foxes. 

The Clinches as "The Minpins"

Robinsons as "The Twits"

Campbells as "Boy" (specifically, "The Mouse Plot")

Moons as "The Enormous Crocodile" 

Kims as "James and the Giant Peach" 

Stubblefields as "James and the Giant Peach"

Wards as "Danny, the Champion of the World"

Parks as "The BFG"

Leary's as "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Agabas as "Matilda"

Welch's as "Matilda" 

Capeheart's as "The Magic Finger"

Banisters as "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Hurray for everyone! 

And a few photos that Martha took of Ken and me