Happy Birthday Brynlee

Brynlee Turned 4 Today!

Brynlee has been so excited for her birthday...if you are around her much you have been hearing about her birthday or have been asked on several occasions if she had turned 4 yet. She could hardly wait to be able to hold up four fingers and to catch up to her friends who were already 4. Early in the week Brynlee had asked me what a celebration was, I told her it was like a big party for a special event. She told me that she wanted a celebration for her birthday instead of a party. So, here are some details of her celebration.

Per her requested we celebrated her birthday Rapunzel style after the movie Tangled. I wasn't planning on doing much for her birthday and had only decided a week ago to have friends over, so I jumped online and found a few great ideas for her party. I usually don't make links to posts and mention much about what we do, but I would feel bad about not sharing the sites that I found information from, so here is some information. Disney had a whole website with activities and party ideas, even free invitations and a cake idea, I used most of them. I also found a few other sites that blogged about their parties as well. They were a big help. I spent a lot of time decorating the house, but it didn't cost much. Brynlee liked it a lot...but in the long run I might have gone overboard a bit. The party was for 4 yr olds, and lasted an hour and a half- so, anyway...lots of work for a short party. We just might keep the decorations up for awhile or move the Martha Stewart pom poms into the girls room for a bit.

Sorry the photos are so small. I was having problems uploading larger ones and I am not that good at taking photos so...we get what we get.

When the kids came they colored on coloring sheets from the movie and then we had a contest to see who could draw the best Flynn Rider nose. The kids drew a nose on a wanted poster and then hung their wanted poster up in the room. Most of the noses would have looked better on a jack-o-lantern vs. Flynn Rider, but that's what you get when you have 4 yr old artists.

Next, they played pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider's face. It was funny watching the kids place this because they had never really played pin the tail on the donkey, so it was fun watching them figure it out.

We needed to get some of their wiggles out so we headed outside. We lucked out on our Idaho weather and had sun shine which made it nice for a tug-of-war. One website had suggested braiding yellow rope and using it as Rapunzel's hair, but that sounded like way too much work so we used one of Luke's old climbing ropes instead. The kids had also never really played this before and it was funny watching them...they had a lot of fun and did a great job. At one point they all ended up on the ground pulling each other back and forth.

Next we headed to the pinata. We have a tradition in our family that on Birthday's and other get togethers we usually have a pinata. No party is complete without one at our house. Some of the kids had been at Brynlee's last years party where we had a pinata for her Dora Party, and they were all ready for it this year. They did a better job at it this time around, but we still stepped in and helped a little in order to get the candy out.

(This was the poor pinata after the party)

After all the "sugary candy" was picked up we headed inside for some healthy snacks. I placed strawberries, grapes, cheese, crackers, and carrots in two skillets that I had. (I also saw this online)

The kids quickly ate this up and then moved on to the cake, cupcakes, and presents. Brynlee's cake was more of a decoration than anything else. It was from the Disney website as well, so I just copied it. It wasn't hard, it just didn't look as nice as the one online, but people could tell what it was so that was good.

Before the kids went home we gave them party favor bags, I didn't get a photo of them but they included a thank you bag with bubbles, a pencil, and a set of watercolor paints that had a print I modge podged on that I found here as well.

Phew, well that was the party. We were tired after that, so after the kids went home Brynlee, Chloe, and I curled up in the basement and watched Tangled.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. You make everyday an adventure and exciting.

What we've been up to

I have a lot of updates to cover. I was shocked to see how long it had been since I had updated the blog. Sorry.

Since I last wrote anything, Luke has traveled to Italy to compete in the World Ski mountaineer Championships. He did well. He placed 19th overall against the other competitors and was the first US finisher in the events he competed in. Job well done Luke. He also competed at the Wasatch Powder Keg and won first place. Good job again, Luke.

After getting home from Italy, Luke then finished up preparations to go to Peru with Idaho Condor on a humanitarian trip. He spent time there over spring break with a large group that provided medical and dental services to remote villages around Cuzco, Peru.

Now that he is home, we are in training mode for running. Let's hope spring decides to come soon so it will be funner to run outside.

Brynlee took ski lessons this year. I was a little worried about her riding the lift without Luke or I but she was fine. It was fun watching her learn to ski. By the end of the lessons she was going all by herself and wanted to straight-line it for the bottom of the chairlift, from the top. For being sometimes timed, she was a little too fearless.

Chlöe is getting so big SO FAST. She will be 7 months old on the 13th. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. She is still an awesome little girl, I love her to pieces. She is so easy going and happy. She has rolled over a few times but is mostly mastering the art of sitting and drooling.

For Christmas Luke bought me a new DSLR camera! I couldn't believe it, and I am so thankful for him and that he was willing to spoil me and get me a nice camera. It has been fun taking good photos of the girls. Hopefully I'll get better, but for now these are some fun photos of the girls I have played with. It's fun being able to take photos of them together, while they like each other :)

Weather

The weather looked like this outside today.....

So with a little help from my sous-chef...

We made this....

That looked like this...

....taste tester approved.

Effect International

A Busy New Year

Saturday morning of New Years we took the girls skiing up to Pebble. Even though it was very chilly outside, Brynlee was quite a trooper and enjoyed going skiing.

Thank goodness for a ski harness. Dad makes a good Brynlee Lift.

Bynlee skiing down and practicing her "Pizza"

Luke and Brynlee on the chair lift

The First weekend of the New Year, Luke skied in the US National Ski Mountaineer Championship race that was held in Jackson Hole, WY. He has been racing in ski mountaineering for several years, but this year his fitness level and ski gear were in line and he was able to pull out a great race. He finished third overall, but was the second American to cross the finish. This race was also a qualifier for the US Skimo team. The first three American finishers would qualify to be on the national team that would compete in February in Italy. Luke is very excited and will be heading off to Italy next month! We are super excited for him, and even though I will not be going over...we will be supporting him from home base.

Here are a few photos of the end of the race. I was not able to make it to the start, just the end of the race. If you go to http://www.powdermag.com/features/news/skiers-in-tights/ there is a feature article and it describes the race a bit as well as showing them climbing Corbet's.

Here is Luke finishing the race, Stoked and in Lycra.

Brynlee was making snow angels as we waited for Luke to finish.

The day following the National Championship race, Targhee also held a skimo race that was a qualifier for the US Skimo team. Luke raced it as well and came in fourth overall, third American. It was a very chilly morning. Here is a photo of the sun burning off the morning fog at Targhee. I was hiding in the lodge, believe me it was cold.

The starting Line,

The race is on, skiing up the mountain...

and up...

Girls waiting in the lodge, keeping warm.

Finished 4th overall.

Good race, Very cold, frozen face. Now to train for world's in Itally.

Chlöe is growing up so fast. She is 4 months old now and I feel bad that I haven't taken as many photos of her as I did Brynlee. It breaks my heart that I can't turn back time and have those moments again to take photos of her cute little face. SO I have vowed to take more photos! I am leaving my camera out and taking photos weekly.

Here are a few photos of Chlöe sitting up in her new big girl chair. I love this thing!

I started giving her a little bit of rice cereal, which she loved. Here is her first food experience. As you can see, she was very happy about the experience.

Brynlee is now loving the camera and also had to have a photo taken. Who can blame her, she is dang cute.

We were given this cute little bunny hat by a good friend. All I can say is stinken cute! Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!!!!