I’ve needed to take a hiatus from this little blog of ours…so although there are a million things I could tell about in the last many months, I must make this news hop up onto our blogosphere today!
Selah has continued to love gymnastics and she is growing beautifully in the sport. Today, Brian and I BOTH got to be there to watch her, which is an extremely rare occurrence.
And all in one day she…
…did a lovely back-handspring on the trampoline (not her first time…she’s had that down for a few months, but here is a video of her doing it today)…
…landed a cartwheel on the “skinny” beam for the first time!
AND…..
…accomplished a HUGE goal….HER KIP!!!! The kip is apparently the bees knees…the stepping stone to a whole new world of skills in the gymnastics realm…or, in layman’s terms, it’s very exciting once they get it :). She has been SOOOO CLOSE for months, and apparently all she needed was both her parents there, cheering her on….(along with all of the other gymnastics girls’ moms, of course!!)
Also, shout out to her awesome coach for truly being an amazing teacher!!
We asked her what she would like to do to celebrate and after thinking a minute, the biggest thing she could come up with to celebrate was…wait for it…GO TO KING SOOPERS (which is a local grocery store)! LOL!!! She really wanted to pick out a special snack! (Plus, King Soopers has a “kid basket” where kids can go pick out a piece of fruit to eat for free..and it’s her favorite!!) So…I said, “Well why don’t we take you to pick out a special snack AND how about we go out to dinner…your choice?” Her mouth got huge and she said, “REALLY?!! BOTH??!!!!” Aaahhhh, I love my girl!! I love my girl who is thrilled with the simple pleasures of life and who is overjoyed at the thought of food. 🙂
Congratulations, Sweet Bean. Your strength and perseverance and endurance and joy are truly inspiring. Way to go, sweet one.
Our Selah Beth…5 years old! My goodness, she continues to grow into a beautiful little girl–yes, with her adorable freckled face, but more importantly in her heart towards God and others. We are so blessed to be her parents!! She has thrived this last year. She is still loving gymnastics, learned how to ride her bike without training wheels back in June, and is reading wonderfully. She is pure joy.
Six months before Selah’s birthday, she informed me, “Mom…I just REALLY want to have an olive birthday.”
“I’m sorry…what was that?? An OLIVE birthday? As in…an OLIVE???”
“Yes!”
Although I think God has gifted me with a little bit of creativity, the creative olive juices just weren’t flowin’. Every so often for the next few months, she would bring it up and each time I would try to come up with alternate ideas for her birthday… A month or two later she suddenly said, “Mom, I just really would like to have my birthday with Daddy.” {heart melt}
So in my spare time I tried to dream up what an olive joint birthday party with Brian could look like…Up until one sunny day in September when she said, “Mom, actually I think I’d like to have a princess party. With olive cupcakes. I want 5 olives on my cupcake since I’ll be 5. Well, make that 4 olives and a candle. Hmmm, maybe 3 olives and 2 candles…” Well alrighty then!! I had a little something to work with now!
She then continued on for about 5 minutes (I have it on video!) of every detail of this princess party, including a two story castle that everyone could climb through. It was going to be a knights and princesses party and Winnie the Pooh was going to be there for cupcakes. Cupcakes with olives.
So we settled on a Royal-themed party and decided to invite our close family friends who live in the city so Brian would have some friends there, too! My goodness, the party just came together quickly and splendidly… It will be a special memory forever…gathering some of our favorite people in one place and celebrating Selah and Brian!
The invitation read,
Calling all princesses and knights! Lady Selah has requested to celebrate her 5th birthday with her knight in shining armor, “Sir Daddy”.
The morning of her birthday, Selah woke up to a present tied to 5 purple balloons. When she finally opened it, she discovered a (light up!) Princess Crown with a “5” on it!
You all know Brian and how he is not the BIGGEST fan of being celebrated…but he was over-the-moon to share this special day with Selah. I should have thought of this years ago to trick him into being celebrated! 😉 Selah and I planned out a surprise for Brian and Elliott–armor that they could wear on the big day. Selah was thrilled to wear her purple princess dress (we got her that when she was 2! Ha!!) and she requested that I also wear a princess dress…and this was the closest thing I had in my closet! Here we are…the Royal Family! 🙂
A princess with tennis shoes…that’s my girl :).
Since we were entertaining a large group of girls and boys ages 3-13, we decided to fulfill Selah’s castle dream and rent a bounce house for the main party gig. Talk about bang for your buck! It was perfect for boys and girls alike of all ages. We had two crafts going on the side–shields the kids could paint (shout out to Grandpa Moberg for making these INCREDIBLE shields out of cardboard we had in the garage!!) and princess crowns that the girls could decorate. We also ordered inflatable swords for each kid both to joust with and bring home!
We are so RICH to have all of these treasured friends of ours in the same city!!!
Look at all these awesome kiddos!!Amazing friends!!
Selah really wanted to play “Pin-the-tail on the pony…no…wait…pin the tail on the…princess?” Hahaha! I suggested, “How about pin the crown on the princess?” 🙂 So I made up a Selah princess poster and then we surprised Brian with a “pin the helmet on the knight” poster! 🙂
I have to give credit to Grandpa and Grandma Moberg who cut up all of the fruits and veggies for lunch–without them, the party couldn’t have happened! I made a crown cake for Selah (which she helped me decorate) and a shield cake for Brian. Then I realized we wouldn’t have enough cake for everyone so I made a batch of cupcakes as well!
Then, just as Selah was putting candles on her cake, I remembered–THE OLIVES!!!!! Oh my goodness, I can’t BELIEVE we almost all forgot!!!! The pictures below are of me explaining to everyone why we were suddenly adding five OLIVES…of all things…to her birthday cake.
The paparazzi:
Brian got three candles. One for each decade of his life. 🙂 (And this may or may not be the last time that same equation would equal three…ahem…)
Look at all the thoughtful gifts Brian was lavished with…he’s drowning in pink and purple and princess nightgowns and jewelry and baby dolls…all his favorites. 😉 Selah convinced him to share some of them with her…and he totally obliged. What a man! #realmensharebirthdayswiththeirdaughters
The three amigos. These men and their families are our newest friends, and we are so enriched to have them in our lives.
This girl and her faces!!!!!!!!!! Here are some of my favorites from the day…
We were so unbelievably blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who love us. Such a special day!!
Happy Birthday to our Princess Selah and her “Sir Daddy”!!
(Note: I have had this post 99% done for a month and then…#LIFE. So without further ado*… now that school’s basically about to start again…I present to you…the kids’ last days of school!)
(* Did you know that is how “ado” is spelled???? I typed it “adieu” (because, duh) but decided to google it to save my mom from possibly needing to correct my mistaken grammar once again–only to discover it’s ADO! What the what??? WHO KNEW??? Add it to my list, Mom. But at least I caught it ;). )
#butistillthinkadieumakesmoresense
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Well that school year flew by!! Wasn’t it JUST August??
We had an awesome first year of Kindergarten and homeschool Kindergarten and Preschool!! And even though it was snowing the week before, we didn’t have our classic snowy last day of school this year :).
Elliott has a “choclit” store with his good friend Abi. They crush up rocks during recess and they turn into chocolate! I think he did fine job of managing his store…with the exception of one little rumor I heard through the Mommy-grapevine…apparently Elliott was denying his buddy Quinn (and fellow chocolate maker) bathroom breaks. Apparently there was a lot of work to be done and no time to waste! (And apparently there’s a lot more we need to teach Elliott about not implementing abusive working conditions!) #workshardlikedaddy #peopleneedtheirchocolate
I love the detail Elliott put into his self-portrait. Favorite shirt, favorite overalls, and he even included the adorable little heart that Abi gave him. It really looks exactly like that!
Elliott’s sweet teacher shared a little word about the things that she saw in each child. Here’s a short video with what she shared about Elliott!
We are so proud of our big man. He started the Magic Tree House series towards the end of the year and I would say that’s when he really got hooked on wanting to read ALL the time. Although writing’s not his favorite, he’s improved so much and can write simple little creative stories. The child is a math genius and Brian and I have both watched in awe as we try to challenge him in math and he just keeps accomplishing the challenge!
And Selah! Gah!! I’m teary eyed looking at these pictures…she is SO grown up!! What on earth??? She still has a full school year more until she starts kindergarten…I feel like she’s going to look like a teenager in a year!! (WAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!) (And, P.S. Those are her natural curls…I have NO idea how she had such an awesome hair day that day!!)
I can’t believe how much she’s grown up this year. Seriously. Stop.
In case you can’t decode her writing, she wrote, “I like that I can write my name even my middle name.” Both my kids are slightly obsessed with punctuation, hence the comma and exclamation mark following her sentence ;). She wrote that sentence ALL on her own! I read her the prompt, turned around for a minute, and when I looked again she was done!
Selah is our fearless learner. She is not afraid to make mistakes so she just gives it her all. Her writing and stories are my FAVORITE…she just sounds out words and writes to her heart’s content…creating hilarious stories and beautiful, heart-felt letters to others.
You can’t have last-day-of-school pictures without some goofy ones thrown in there!
On our last home day we made ice cream. I used to do this with my fourth graders and it was a fun activity to do with the kids.
You add cream, sugar and vanilla to a plastic bag. Put it in a container with ice and salt and SHAKE IT UP! Add chocolate and sprinkles and scarf it down!
Our Big Man–compare and contrast!
Our Sweet Selah–compare and contrast!
We had A LOT of fun this year and can’t wait for the next school year! First grade and Pre-K, HERE WE COME!!!
It all started at the end of May, after several “false alarms.”
But this time, it was REALLY happening: Elliott’s bottom right tooth…WAS LOOSE!!!
And then on June 8th, Brian tucked Elliott into bed like normal. But no sooner had he left Elliott’s room than Elliott leaped out of bed and yelled, “MY TOOTH FELL OUT!!!!!”
These pictures tickle me so much!!! He is ELATED and can’t contain his excitement!! What a rite of passage!!! First lost tooth!!!!
And this little GIF that my phone created from the video after he lost it….oh man, I have watched this about 400 times!! It makes me laugh so hard!! Suz (my GIF buddy), this GIF is for you!!
So then last night I was out with some friends and came home late to find this…
A paper arrow path that led me from the kitchen into the craft room…and I found a decorated envelope addressed to me…with “new’s”! I opened it up and found a red card tucked inside that said…
His second tooth fell out while I was gone!! Who is this kid?!! He came up with that idea and executed it all on his own! I love him!!!
I tried to get a picture of his missing teeth just now. After a photo-bomb and a tickle from his little sister, we got some good ones :).
Well, happy first two missing teeth, Big Man!! The straw-sucking options are endless now!!!
He crossed two items off his bucket list before leaving the “5s”…
1. Getting stitches–OUCH!
If you think this picture is too graphic, be glad I didn’t show you the “before” picture!! 7 (blue!) stitches!
and 2. Learning to ride his bike without training wheels! Yahoo!!
If you’ve been following Elliott’s birthdays the last couple of years, you will know that ever since he was turning four, he has had his parties planned out for the next several years. This year, it was “Wood Crafts.” The way to this child’s heart is truly through wood crafts.
We’ve frequented The Home Depot’s free first-Saturday-of-the-month quite often as the kids love to build and paint. So when I found out they ALSO do *free* birthday parties, I tucked the idea in the back of my party brain for “the Wood Craft birthday year.”
Elliott and I sat down together in February and planned his party. Oh my, he is a boy after my own heart! I don’t know anyone else on the planet as thrilled as I am to surf through a hundred fonts and pick the best ones for our task, haha! But he sat on my lap and we surfed until he gasped with delight when he found the perfect one :). I love him :). We planned out the snacks and the treats and designed the invitations. He had a construction birthday when he turned 3, so I re-used the banners and signs! I just had to change some “3s” to “6s” and we were set!! WIN.
We arrived, set out the food, hung up our banners and waited for our guests to come!
There are SO many fun food ideas for construction parties! Elliott and I had a blast planning these out and making the signs for them! We had a refueling station, boulders, nuts + bolts, wrecking balls, and 2x4s (which Brian not-so-subtly pointed out that they are actually 1x1s…oh well!)!
The sweetest lady ran the birthday party. She was great with the kids. Before everyone arrived, she pulled out the ORIGINAL Home Depot Kids Apron (it is actually made of cloth!) with every pin of every project they’ve done! The kids were fascinated as they were sporting their aprons with their completed project pins proudly displayed.
Party guests arrived and got to sign a hard hat for Elliott! How cool!! Nice touch, Home Depot! 😉
The week before the party we talked to the coordinator and got to choose the wood craft we would be working on. He selected the helicopter. Karen from The Home Depot led the kids through each step.
First step: sanding
Second step: put on goggles, assemble and hammer
Side note: Do you see Selah in this bottom right picture? She is TOTALLY in to being a statue, especially when someone is taking a picture. When I saw this picture I laughed out loud…especially with her “I heart my truck” tattoo on her hand…it’s the perfect photo bomb–LOL!!!
And, done!
Look at these cute kids and their helicopters!! What a blast!!!!
He just couldn’t wait to open presents, so we did that next :).
When Elliott and I were planning out the party, he jumped at the idea of doing some sort of “build-your-own” dessert. He opted for Dirt Cups which, ironically enough, I’m not sure he’s ever eaten before?? I explained what they were and he was super thrilled at the idea. So was this baker-challenged Mama!! They were SO easy and a huge hit with the kids. I gathered all the kids when it was dessert time and excitedly explained to them that Elliott really wanted mud for his birthday treat, so we dug some up from our back yard for all the kids to eat! It was a CLASSIC kid reaction: “EEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!” they all screeched in unison. I went on to show them the dirt, the rocks, the 2x4s, the pebbles and the worms they could put on their mud cups! They laughed and squealed and “eewwweed” some more…until it was time to eat! Then all I heard was, “Mmmm, this is delicious!!” So cute. I love kids!!!
The kids each got to take home their helicopters, a Home Depot apron, and these simple favor boxes filled with a couple tattoos and sticker and a construction vehicle eraser.
Elliott got a few more celebrations as well…dinner at Red Robin one night, birthday treats for his class another day, and of course–his actual birth day celebrations!
Okay this moment completely cracked me up!! He has been eagerly awaiting the moment the Red Robin peeps would sing to him for his birthday…and then he got all shy on us! And pretended like he didn’t even notice they were singing to him! I guess it was super important that he re-fold his menu in THAT particular moment, hahahah!! I love him! 🙂
But he didn’t have a problem scarfing down his ice cream as soon as those singing people left him alone!
Birthday day: presents from Erika, Grandma & Grandpa, Selah, Mommy and Daddy, a birthday cake-shaped pancake with 6 candles, the park, and Grandpa’s famous mud pie!
The kids could hardly contain their joy opening an envelope each day:
Cutting down Finding the perfect tree at Home Depot and decorating it!
The kids decorated their own Christmas apron to wear while crafting the rest of the month! They also made pretty cute handprint baby Jesus in a manger dough ornaments.
Breakfast in Bethlehem!!
Snowman pancakes day!!
Play in the snow day!!
Elliott and Daddy took a last-minute airplane/road trip so I sent the Christmas countdown activity with him. The show must go on!! And creative Daddy even brought Christmas lights to adorn the inside of the new truck they picked up.
The kids’ first sewing lesson: Finger Puppet Nativity Set
I hid 6 plastic bags filled with Nativity puzzle pieces around the house and the kids had to find them all and put them together. It was HILARIOUS watching them search. They even got a flashlight out to help them ;).
No mess glitter stickers (those things are AWESOME!!!) that we turned into thank you cards and, of course, playdough cupcakes to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.
Cookie decorating at our friends’ house!
Christmas light tour, complete with a scavenger hunt list of things to find outside!
Bass Pro Shop with cousins!
Zoo Lights with friends!! Selfie with a giraffe? Check.
FRIENDS!!! Oh the joy!!!!
Search your stockings for new CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!!!!
Super special presents from Erika!!
Christmas Eve Day…Elliott and Selah both got to open one present and we also opened a family present: a new game to play!
Christmas Eve Eve…Church and Teppanyaki!
Christmas Day…We had a white-ish Christmas!
Day-after Christmas with my family! Everyone is all together!
Is anyone else already counting down until next Christmas like our kids??
It’s a virtual Christmas card kind of year! It’s been such a joy having many of your Christmas cards roll in the past few weeks…here’s ours rolling in to your inbox!!
Here is a snapshot of our family as 2016 comes to a close:
SELAH
Selah turned 4 this year continues to bring immense amounts of joy into each of our lives. Her heartfelt prayers take our breath away every time she opens her mouth. She is one thankful, thoughtful, caring little girl. Although she still wants to be a doctor, she’s recently added “princess” and “having a baby in her tummy” to the top career paths when she grows up. She adores babies, loves pretending to be a baby, and is not only constantly taking care of her “Bitty Baby” but also continually teaching me how to take care of her baby properly. She is a “smeller.” The child smells EV-REE-THING that she encounters, from paper to new clothes to food. I’ve worked hard to set parameters on what she should and should not be smelling (read: “placing a Sharpie near your nostril and breathing in deeply is NOT okay”) but I’ll admit that when I found her head buried in a public restroom toilet, I almost plugged her nose permanently. She will do just about anything to get you to laugh, including tickling you until you stop what you’re doing to tickle her back! She is loving gymnastics and also started ballet this year, and yet still is begging us to let her play soccer with her big brother in addition to those two sports! Fortunately for her, Elliott’s soccer coach has invited her to join the class a couple of times…and she’s always in her ballet attire…so that’s pretty cute :). Brian and I can hardly stand how adorable she is in that little pink leotard with a “knob” (as she calls it) in her hair! She has had two “mini” performances so far and has LOVED having her friend Stella in class with her! (And now if I can just get her to stop hanging on the ballet bars as if they were gymnastics bars!!)
And here she is in ballet attire…playing soccer in knee high fuzzy boots. That’s our girl!
Some of our favorite Selah sayings:
“It’s pretty froggy out there!” (Every time it’s foggy outside.)
“Oh your hair smells like it’s pretty hot!” (After giving me a hug directly after I had blow dried my hair.)
“Mommy, I know three names for you: Mommy, Mom and Susanne. And I know three names for Daddy: Daddy, Dad and Sweet Face.”
ELLIOTT
Elliott turned 5 this year continues to keep us on our toes every minute that he is awake! He is a talker and a verbal processor and an explainer…so there is rarely a quiet moment in our house! He is also an official reader! Wow. This was the first year that I could not leave Christmas lists out. A few months ago I was typing an email and he came up behind me and just started reading it out loud! So I officially have to be careful about EVERYTHING… Multiple times a day I hear Elliott say to Selah, “Would you like me to read that book for you?” or “I can read for that you, Selah!” It warms my heart. He is still incredibly passionate about crafting and creates art constantly. He drew a picture a few months ago that he was so proud of that he asked if we could frame it. So he and Brian built a frame together and it is now hanging in his room! He has held firm to the birthday party plan (for the next 4 years) that he created 2 years ago. That boy…he’s a planner alright. And he is very thorough about EVERYTHING. After lots of pleading from him I finally taught him how to write his name in cursive a few weeks ago, and now we find his cursive name everywhere. He is loving playing soccer this year, loves his two days at school and loves his three days at home. Basically, the child loves life!
A couple of our favorite Elliott sayings:
“Kapends on what happens…” instead of “depends on…”
Every type of invitation is a “valentation” to Elliott.
“Can I shop her?” (wondering if he can push Selah in the shopping cart.)
BRIAN
Brian has a job that he LOVES, which is enough to take the cake for our entire year. He is basically working as an in-house consultant for a good friend who truly values his giftings and insights and has let him soar with his ideas. And soar, he has. He has pushed the company really far forward in just a few short months but the best part is–he loves going to work. He is also entertaining himself by buying and selling trucks which thrills him and absolutely amazes me!
SUSANNE
I am grateful every day that I get to do two of the things I know I was created for: being a mom and being a teacher! I am thoroughly enjoying my three days a week that I get to homeschool the kids. The two days of driving all over the state to get them to school and gymnastics aren’t as much my favorite, but I am so thankful that the kids are thriving on those days. Colorado is finally starting to feel like “home” (again!) and I am so thankful for the LACK of transition in the past year. This is the most settled we’ve been since we got married, and although I’m not counting on it to last forever, I’ll take it for now :).
Well, we tried to keep it simple this year and therefore brought two ponies to our house for Selah’s 4th birthday! #palmtoforehead #itried #ilovecelebrating!!!!!
Sometime you’ll have to ask me how the story unraveled, but I’ll just say somewhere in the middle of the story Selah became unwavering in her conviction about wanting an animal birthday party. When I asked her what was most important to her about an animal birthday she replied, “Well, I’d like to do a giraffe craft…and another giraffe craft…and I want a giraffe to come to my birthday.”
So…after a lot of thinking and chatting, we settled on ponies. MUCH simpler than giraffes, right?!! Right.
The clincher was (as I talked through the party options) Brian saying, “Ponies!!?? It’s every little girl’s dream to have a pony birthday party!!!” Done. 🙂
The night before her actual birthday, we celebrated Brian’s and her birthday together at Red Robin. On the way home, her balloon popped which (obviously) caused major birthday drama. Thankfully, Grandpa came to the rescue…he mended her broken balloon into a teeny tiny new balloon :).
On her actual birthday, she opened up some presents and then Brian and I took her out to breakfast at her breakfast place of choice, which also happens to be MY favorite breakfast place :). Our pager number was #4!! She was very bold about telling everyone it was her birthday, and when the manager sat us she asked, “Are you going to put candles in my pancakes?” The manager was very sweet and said, “Hmmm…well let me see what I can do!” And Selah said, “FOUR candles. Pink and purple.” I elbowed her urgently with each demand request whispering, “PLEASE!! Say PLEASE!!” She was a girl on a mission alright! Then when the waitress came by to take the order she said, “Can you make my pancake into a dog?” And she said she could try to do Mickey Mouse. The manager, the waitress and two other women brought her plate out with four pink and purple candles sticking out of a Mickey Mouse shaped chocolate-chip pancake, singing Happy Birthday so sweetly. I held back tears as Selah did what she always does when put on the spot: buries her face into me. Sweet girl. She was so blessed!!
That night, my family had the monthly/quarterly birthday celebration so she had a little party that night with Nonna and Grandpa and her cousins. She got a CAMERA from Grandpa and Nonna and I’ll just say…she hasn’t put it down since!! When I found her that night all ready for bed, in her bed, taking pictures (of her ceiling?) I texted my mom the picture on the right and said, “She hasn’t put the camera since she opened it!” And my mom responded, “Like mother, like daughter!” Haha, she is totally right!!! I hadn’t even seen it ;).
Her actual birthday party was the following weekend. Some of her favorite friends arrived for a morning filled with everything ponies!
“Trot this way to Selah’s birthday!”
Here’s a little funny for you: we decided to hold the party entirely in our back yard and I was praying for WEEKS that the weather would be nice and that it wouldn’t be too windy as the party was mid-October. WELL, not only was the weather NICE, but it was SO HOT that we ended up needing to move the party inside!! HA! So our son, whose birthday is in the SPRING, had to last minute reschedule his party because there was a blizzard on the original party day, while our daughter, whose birthday is in the FALL had to move her party inside due to extreme heat. Oh my. I love Colorado :).
We had all sorts of crafts and activities set up in the backyard for the kids:
“Rope a Pony” (Pony built in about 5 and a half minutes by Selah’s awesome daddy!)Pony crafts! Everyone got to decorate paper horses and stick a magnet on the back for their fridges. There were also lots of pony coloring pages that kept kids busy along with a Playdough Pony Play station!
Grooming station: complete with nail polish, nail files, and horse tattoos.
Those of you who have been around our kids know one thing: they are both terrified of “slightly timid” around animals. Yet both of them requested an animal birthday when they turned four. So we honestly had no idea how she was going to do around the ponies, as even hearing the word “dog” can send her into a tailspin. But here is her very first time climbing up onto her birthday pony…and as you can see, she looks like a natural :).
The little farm that brought the ponies also brought another one to “groom”. The kids could brush her and braid her mane and put bows in it. They had a blast!
The “lead” cowboy who brought the ponies was just awesome and really got into the party. At one point he said, “Do you girls want to paint the pony’s nails??” I looked at him with big eyes, but he insisted…”Come on over! Let’s paint her hoof!” You saw it here first, folks:
The next time you see a pony walking around with pink, purple and blue nail polish on his front hooves…you’ll know he was the pony at Selah’s party!
Do you see the braids and the ribbons in the pony’s hair??? I love it. 🙂
Every kid had tons of time to ride the one pony and to groom the other. Selah was the most excited to ride the pony over and over and at one point she insisted on mounting him all on her own. On the left, she’s telling Brian to let go of her…and then she got up all on her own! Look how proud she is :).
We are so blessed to be the parents of this beautiful, horse-riding 4 year old little girl!!
Look at this sweet group of friends :).
Once the ponies left, we played “Pin-the-tail-on-the-pony” (obviously). 🙂
And by then everyone was so hot and sunburned that we opted to move the rest of the party inside!
Hot dogs for the main course and Hay Bales, Trail Mix, and Ranch on the sides…
And then, of course, the CAKE. Selah really wanted cupcakes which I was super thankful for…I am terrible at making cakes, but I can turn cupcakes into just about anything!!!
Since I was taking pictures she had to hide behind Brian while everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her. But she warmed up when it was time to blow those candles out!
The favors consisted of a little pony, a horse tattoo, horse stickers, rainbow stickers (because “rainbow” is Selah’s fifth favorite color, after purple, pink, blue and green). The girls also got some ponytail holders for “their” ponies…
It was a wonderful day celebrating our sweet 4 year old!! Thank you, Lord, for this precious gift of a daughter!!!
From what I recall, this might have been the very first time she was on a playground that had something that was “hangable”. I remember that she RAN towards that slide, grabbed onto the top part, and turned into half monkey ;).
Actually, she’s always been part monkey. Crawling at 6 months, climbing up onto things and standing supported at 7…she’s just always been our little monkey. She loves to HANG and SWING and CLIMB. So just before she turned two, we took a “Mommy and Me” gymnastics class, and I’ll never forget the first time she saw those bars and just RAN over to them to let her monkey self free.
Fast forward two years…and it is still clear that she and gymnastics are like peanut butter and jelly. They just go together. We don’t know how long she’ll love it, but for now she does and so we’re letting her have a hay day.
Shortly after she turned 3, she learned how to do a pull-over all by herself.
And then she was invited to be part of a “big girls” gymnastics class that was more challenging. When the “big girls” gymnastics teacher talked to me about Selah having her join the class, I stammered back, “Umm, she JUST turned 3………” “I know! She’ll do wonderfully,” she replied.
So we sat and sat and sat on the decision…for 8 months. As much as I do think she’s a natural gymnast, she is also a GOOFBALL and the silliest little girl that ever existed. I was concerned the class would be too challenging and not enough fun. I’m CERTAINLY not in a hurry for her to grow up!!!! There’s PLENTY of time for that later!!!
But finally in July it felt like all of the pieces fit together just right and I felt a lot of peace about moving her to the great, big, unknown “downstairs” gymnastics class. And wow…WOW…has she thrived!!! There is still PLENTY of fun being had by this little 3 year old and I am honestly kind of shocked at how well she is thriving down there.
We have always had a rope for our basement jungle gym, but when she moved to the big girl class, we replaced our rope with a thicker, more-climbable one so she could actually climb it (our thin one wasn’t really climbable we realized). She was instantly enamoured with the idea of climbing our new rope, and she practiced ALL the time for a few days until she finally could climb it to the top! We were (obviously) SUPER impressed, and then we challenged her to climb it to the top, climb down, and without touching the ground to climb it back up to the top. So one night after doing that about 400 hundred times in a row, I casually said, “So, for your next challenge, you should try climbing the rope and then doing a pull-up.” Of course, I was thinking maybe she’d give that challenge a shot in the next day or two, but without hesitating, she LEAPT off my lap and jumped up onto the rope and DID IT!!! I just can’t believe her strength.
In her new class, they do some strength exercises along with skills. She climbs the rope (it’s two stories high!!!), does stomach leg lifts (hanging from a ladder with her back to the wall, she pulls her feet up to her face), pull-ups and jumps onto mats.
Here she is on her very first day!!!Blowing me a kiss on her first day!
She loves every bit of it, and has gotten A TON of “Wow Cards.” Although a “Wow Card” is just a piece of paper that lists her accomplishment, it is practically a gold medal in these girls’ sights.
On Elliott’s first day of school, she climbed the big rope halfway to the top. She got a “Wow Card,” and we celebrated!
Hot cocoa and a game of checkers!
Just two days later, she made it all the way to the top!! That was a BIG accomplishment!!
There she goes!!!
Although she’s gotten tons of Wow Cards, here is another one of her BIG accomplishments, and her newest favorite gymnastics skill:
And here she had just learned to do a “Squat on”!
Her most recent accomplishment is being able to do 10 “Up and Overs” in a row, which means that she does a pull-up on a bar, and pulls her legs up and over the bar, drops down without touching the ground, and repeats. Ten times. WOW. I am seriously impressed!!
We have no idea if she will love gymnastics for five more minutes or twenty-five more years, but either way, she’s having a blast with it right now!
