A Rapunzel Birthday Party

FeBrUaRy PaRt 2



February 25th

Julia’s Birthday landed on a Saturday this year. Spencer couldn’t get the Saturday off and because of this we had to move up all of the celebrations to the day before her actual birthday so that her daddy could be there.
It’s funny how a little girl’s mind works and works you. She would say things like: “I’ve never had a Beauty and The Beast party before” or I Would love a Sleeping Beauty party.
Her 2-year old party had a princess theme that pretty much covered all the princesses. I had no fresh ideas to come up with and was getting kind of desperate.
Then, a month ago, after seeing the movie Tangled with me she decided she wanted a tangled birthday party. I agreed on Tangled before she could change her mind again.
I made the invites myself. After all Julia is not your traditional blond hair Tangled, so I had to design a special invite for her. Here is what I came up with.

After that, the question was what I was going to do for the cake. I can’t stand the thought of paying any money for a store cake when I can do it myself. I’ll admit I did spend hours researching on internet for ideas which surprisingly were not that many except how to make Rapunzel’s tower out of cake? I am not that good with cake. I mean Spencer has to bake the cake and then I’ll decorate it but stacking cake together just didn’t appeal to my better senses.
So as I was having one of my sleepless nights an idea came to my mind Rice krispy. Yes! I was thinking how much I wanted to eat some and somehow I was thinking also about Julia’s party and it all clicked. I decided to build the Rapunzel’s tower out of Rice Krispy treats. I set up myself to do it.
The week before her party I made banners to hang just like the scene in the movie and also made my cup cake toppers out of the sun shape from the movie as well. Blue Jell-O in clear cups decorated with oranges halves and topped with purple paper for their sails
This was a lot of work, but then again is BIG Birthday #5. That only comes once in a life time and boy she has earned it.
Also part of her few party requests was a piñata. I went to the store to buy one and did you know they are $40. The entire budget would have been gone, not to mention the toys and candy you have to buy. So again I went cheap and decided to build my own. Watch different videos on YouTube on how to build a piñata, so completely thanks to those people who take the time to video tape themselves.
I can go on and on about all the details but I just better show you. Here is what the party turn out like.


We had a friend party and a family party. We took her, six of her friends and Josh to Boondocks which is a fun center with arcade games. The kids loved it. They behaved so amazing taking turns, waiting and listening to me. It was unbelievable.
We went bowling, into the Kiddie Cove (Jungle Gym), Played random games. Julia even won 400 tickets out of one of the machines which got each one of her friends a pretty decent treat to take home.
As we were rushing to the car I forgot my purse and left it there. Spencer took his watch off to help me buckle up 8 kids into the car and forgot it on top of the car.
The party was supposed to be over at 3:30, we arrived home 3:38. How embarrassing! At least I know the kids had fun.
We got home and opened presents, had some cupcakes, juice boxes, Jell-O and we said by to our dear friends.

Did I mentioned that Julia loves opening presents. Her friends were so thoughtful and sweet thank you so much for being so sweet.

At 4:00 it was party time all over again. Now it was the family’s turn. All her favorite cousins came to our house and made this day more special for her. We played games; burst opened the piñata and opened presents. Julia loved all the attention and the fact that she got to blow up candles twice.
After the party was over it was already 7:00 pm. She requested Spanish food as her treat for her birthday and that’s how we ended our day

The next time it was her third time opening presents. Some presents from Josh Andrew, Lito and Lito(my parents), Tia Vilma and Aunt Kathy. By the end of two days she received a Rapunzel’s dolls in three different sizes and was in love with every single one of her toys.
On her actual Birthday we spent most of day cleaning and rearranging her room to make space for the new toys, specially a big vanity that my mom got her. Also we went to ToysRus to use a gift card that Jeffrey sent her and to wear a crown and balloon all around the store. She was so thrilled to pick a toy and paid for it herself. She felt like a grown up is what she told me
Thank you all for making this little girl so happy. She was in Heaven during her birthday. I just hope I can make life for her that special always.

Julia
Julia is the sweetest and most sensitive girl I’ve ever seen. I feel so blessed to have a girl so in touch with the spirit. She is kind and gentle, always looking out for everyone around her.
We’ve been talking about this big birthday of hers for days. Especially because at 5 we think she is ready for CHORES. You would think she was mad, but boy she was so excited to help mommy that I almost started crying. A little girl so willing to help out around the house is definitely a blessing. Every day she came out with ideas about different chores she could do, some were really though ones that I have trouble doing myself.
Loves to do:
-Play with her doll house and put every single doll in it
-play with Josh
-to draw, every piece of art work she does is truly impressive
-preschool, but can’t wait to the big kid school
-to sing. She has invented several different versions of a family song, where everybody in our family gets named.
-tumbling. She can do cartwheels now, head stands, startle rolls and she is very close to doing splits and back flips
-loves to play Mario on the Wii with her daddy. Mommy just can’t do it right
-loves to put up shows and skits involving princesses, Josh and dragons
-Loves to take care of her little brother AD. Make faces to him, feed him, and pick him up. She has even changed his diaper all by herself
Hates to do:
There is nothing that I can say this girl hates to do. Like I said before she is a very content and easy going child
Julia you are amazing child. We are so blessed to be your parents. You make our job too easy sometimes. We are glad you chose us to guide you every step of the way and be sure we’ll always do our best to make you feel how truly special you are.

February 1st part

February here and almost gone already!
This is the first time that Julia has become aware of Valentine’s. Every day after school she’d asked me when we were going to put our decorations up. She asked her grandma Smith the same thing.
So finally for Family night we made some hearts that contained the things we love about each other and decorated our kitchen with it. We also made some pink frosted cookies. I have to admit that I am not a big Valentine’s fan. It comes and goes so fast any ways there’s not much time to enjoy it.

Julia had her first Parent teacher conference. I made Spencer come with me. There is just something special about the “firsts”, even if it was something as simple as a preschool conference.
Teacher Britney loves Julia. She told us what we already knew about her personality. That she is very kind and always fair with everybody and that she is a big helper and quite the artist.
Julia has a very broad imagination, which she is passing onto Josh. I hear them play with her little house and the things they tell each other are just so funny. Josh is always the dad and Julia plays different roles.
Anyways the teacher tells me she was asking them questions to make up a story, so the kids filled in the empty spaces.
One night I was: In my bed
When: a Dragon came to wake me up
I said: Dragon I am trying to fall sleep, but kept bothering me
Then: the Dragon took off for a ride
The Dragon name was: mommy
So cute story until the name part right? Spencer made fun of me, but it was a really good story and it all made sense. Reminded me of the sleeping problem she had until about a year ago. Wonder if this is how she dealt with it, by imagining something funny like a dragon visiting her.
After our interview we just felt so proud of our Juls. She has grown so much and is becoming a very smart young girl.
Oh and by the way President Obama I'll have to disagree with your State of the Union Address referring to the next person on Mars. He said it was a 5th grader, I say she is still in Preschool

Valentine’s Day came in a breeze. We were so blessed to have Spencer all for us that day. We went to lunch together to Crown Burgers and after that we visited MY toy store a.k.a.: Lowe’s.
We came home after a delicious lunch and started working on dinner. The kids and I made a heart shaped pepperoni pizza and had pink 7up. The kids were so sweet they set up the table for me.
We had red wine vines for dessert and called it a day.
I was not planning on getting the kids anything for Valentine’s. We had more than enough with the candy that Julia brought from her preschool. But I went to the Dollar store and got them coloring books. My gosh, their smiles were priceless. Spencer got me roses and my favorite treats which included chocolate milk, cream cheese pastries and a bag of Costco’s trail mix. He got Season 6 of the Office. I was tired of watching seasons 1-5 over and over again.
I love my family and they are the ones that make days like February 14th so special.
I have been going crazy this last couple of weeks trying to get Julia’s birthday all planned and ready to go. I always invent my own stuff which is great but it takes me forever to get finished, we’ll see how this turns out

Andrew 7 months

Yes, Andrew turned 7 months 3 weeks ago, but I just haven’t been in the mood or have had the time for blogging. I pulled my back, I haven’t been getting much sleep because of my thyroid and I just feel like a zombie all day long. I think that should excuse me for slacking on the posts.
Today is the magic night when I just had one report to do for my shops, the kids were good all day long and I have nothing else that I have to do before Spencer gets home from work.7 Big months, He is already passed the ½ a year mark and getting closer to the year, my goodness time goes by so fast.

7 months and 7 things he loves to do:

1) He loves his 4 oz evenflo bottle. He hates the bigger bottles and would not trade them for anything in the world.

2) He loves his food, although hard cereals or other things are considered disgusting. He makes the silliest faces whenever I put cheerios on his lips and even gags if I leave them too close to his mouth.

3) Loves his little bounce-a-roo. Can stay sitting there for long time until he seems me wander off and starts to cry

4) A.D loves his mobile. Josh thinks is hilarious when Andrew starts grabbing a pulling the thing and he makes it bounce all over the place. Of course that just encourages A.D who pulls the poor mobile even harder to entertain his brother.
Sometimes when he gets under the ceiling fan on our living room he gets over excited trying to reach it thinking it is his mobile

5) Loves to bang on things, you name it, the floor, his toys, the high chair, ME. He has busy hands

6) Loves to rock back and forth on his knees. He won’t crawl yet, but he is pretty close

7) He loves to suck on his lips. Top, bottom and sometimes if you are lucky you'll see a double lip combo.

How blessed is our family to have this little boy be part of it. He makes us all smile every day.
He is used to be such a good sleeper until I decided to give him the flu shot and ever since he is been waking up at least once at night, which I am not enjoying much. It takes me forever to fall back asleep.

Andrew is so attentive. He stares attentively whenever we are around and watches you very carefully. His voice is definitely making an appearance. I’ll be doing something in the kitchen and all the sudden I hear a growl from him on the other side of the room, which usually follows after an attempt to attack the cat

He can’t crawl yet, but between scooting backwards, turning and rolling over he goes and gets what he wants. Makes me wonder how much concentration and planning it requires of him. So I have to say he is definitely mobile in that way.

He really wouldn’t trade his bottle for the world. This are the bottles that Julia cried about every time I gave to her, Josh tried them for a couple of months before disliking them, but they are this little boy’s treasure. It is the only bottle he would take, which just makes my work harder because 4 oz of milk are gone in a blink with this guy

His two bottom teeth have made an apparition and you can actually see them. He loves to play with those choppers and spends a long time biting his own fingers with them.

He is a great kid. Whenever I go to places he is content and happy, never screams and is just so mellow. I don’t think people believe me when I tell them that all he wants at home is his mama

Josh and him had started a new friendship which is definitely bugging Julia. Andrew loves when Josh makes some silly baby noises and the second that Josh is close he just growls at him and starts to attack him. This is the same behavior Josh had with me when he was this age.
Poor Julia feels out of the loop and keeps insisting that as soon as I get feeling better she would like a baby sister. I am baby hungry again and it is for a little girl too. So I guess we’ll have to be patient together.

I can leave Andrew in the boy’s room because they don’t have any small toys that he could chock on while I was folding cloths in my room. Then all the sudden I hear him cry, it was his I am stuck kind of cry. I go to the room to check on him and he is not there. I asked Julia if she had taken him somewhere else, she nods. This boy of mine had crawl under Josh’s bed and got stuck. I didn’t see him because he got passed the bed skirt which completely covered him. How did he do it, I don’t know since there is just a little space between Josh’s bed and the floor but there you have it something to remember.

Happy birth month little bug, I’ll post again in a couple of weeks I guess sometime in March since there are only 28 days in February.