Holland Kay turns TWO!

Where does the time go? I say that with each passing birthday, but it never ceases to amaze me. In my mind, it was just yesterday that I snuggled my little babies for the first time in the hospital. How can they keep growing like this? It's wonderful and bittersweet all at the same time.

OK, I will stop being all sentimental and get to the pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa Chaney, Aunt Anne, Uncle Kyle, and cousins Ethan, Leah, and Camden, and Aunt Tonya, Uncle Chris, and cousin Griffin were all in attendance for the "Bubble Guppy" themed festivities! We missed Nana and Papa Kay and Uncle Brett and look forward to seeing them soon.

The menu included foods Holland will (usually?) eat: pizza, carrot sticks, fruit, cupcakes, and ice cream.  Yum!  There was play time: 

Holland regaled Aunt Anne with her extensive knowledge of animal sounds!

 And present opening:

Holland loves her new Dora doll from Anne and Kyle and the kids

A princess nightgown! Too cute!

Her helper-cousins really wanted her to unwrap FASTER.

This Team Umizoomi shape toy was a HUGE hit with Holland. By the end of the evening, she had mastered it, sorting each shape where it goes, even matching the colors and naming the shapes - even "octagon"!

A pretty new (smocked!) dress from Grandma

A cool book with lots of fun pictures from Griffin and his family

Here's Holland with her big bro, playing with her new shape toy. She loves it!  Notice that missing tooth on Danny... that's a subject for another post.

She also received a fun water/sand table from Nana and Papa. We can't wait until warmer weather to try it out! I know she will love it.  Hurry up, warm weather!

After presents, it was time for cake. Holland was extremely leery of the candles. She was OK when they were far away from her, but the closer I pushed her cupcake...

The more concerned she became! She wouldn't even look at it.

I pushed the cupcake back a little bit, and she felt better. She gave it her best trying to blow out her candles:

And eventually got some help from her cousins.

She didn't need any help at all eating her Bubble Guppy cupcake, though, and asked for seconds on the ice cream.  Atta girl!

Yum!

We can't believe our sweet baby is two years old.  We are so grateful for a Heavenly Father who knew just what this family needed.  She is a bright light in our home and makes us smile every day. She is smart and funny and very, very spunky. She sings along with her bedtime songs, including "I am a Child of God," "Old MacDonald," "I Love to See the Temple," "Twinkle, Twinkle," and many more. She can put her shoes on herself and loves to walk, run, jump, and climb. She's a sucker for Dora, Team Umizoomi, and the Bubble Guppies. She speaks in long complete sentences and knows her animal sounds, how to count to 11, lots of colors, and a good chunk of the alphabet.  She gives the sweetest hugs and says, "I love you." How we love her, too!

Happy birthday, Holland! We love you more than words can say.

Day of LOVE!

Once again, I was able to help out in Daniel's class for the Valentine party. Such fun!  There was bag decorating:

And a balloon tennis game (this was my station, although not my idea - very cute!):

A party isn't a party in kindergarten unless there is sugar. Once again, the kids decorated and ate some cookies.  You can never have too many sprinkles.  Just ask a kindergartner!

There was a cute story:

And a bowling game:

Everyone had fun, and especially me. I love spending time in my kids' classrooms.

We had a fun celebration at home, too, with candy treats for the kids and Chipotle for dinner. Yum!  Daniel and Mason made us valentines - here is one from Danny:

Valentines Day is one of my favorites. I love having something to look forward to after Christmas, and who can resist a day about LOVE? I sure love my little chicks and had fun celebrating with them.

First ponies

After nearly two years of waiting,  Holland finally has enough hair for pony tails!  Check it out:

And for some serious cuteness, check out these tiny boots and skinny jeans:

Holland loves having "ponies" and asks for them frequently. Of course, she also pulls out the elastics, but that's to be expected, I suppose. She usually sits patiently on the bathroom counter while I fix her hair, which is so fun. I dearly love this girl. She makes me smile every day.

Pippa

We have officially entered the world of pet ownership.  In early February, our cat Pippa joined the family.  Welcome, Pippa!

How we came to get a cat is a long story, but the short version is that the kids were really wanting a pet, and considering all the options, a cat seemed like the easiest thing for me to manage (as I knew I would be doing all the work). Brandon, being the gem that he is, acquiesced, albeit with reservations. And to his credit, he has handled it with as much positivity as he could muster.  Just don't ask him to pet her, or call her by name, or come anywhere near the litter box.

My mom works with a lady who was looking to re-home her cat, Angel, due to allergic asthma issues.  I went and checked her out, and she was really a sweet little cat, only about a year old.  We thought about it, and I went back and picked her up 2 weeks later.  Welcome to the chaos, cat.

The kids named her Pippa, which seems to fit her well. She has a very sweet, laid back personality. She  is very social and surprisingly unafraid of rambunctious kids. Perfect!  

We have been working at training Pippa to stay off the tables or counters. I don't think the previous owner was very diligent in that regard.  A little squirt bottle of water has done the trick, as far as we know. We just hope she isn't rolling around on the tables when we aren't home.  Shhh, don't bring this up to Brandon.

I waited to post about Pippa until we were sure we are keeping her. At this point, I think it's safe to say she is part of the family. All told, it has been a fairly smooth adjustment, although we did learn that we have to put the baby gate at the top of the stairs to keep her from coming in our rooms at night or scratching at the door. So far, it's working.  Fingers crossed!

Mason and Holland like Pippa, too, but for some reason most of my pictures are of Daniel. He is really the pet lover in this family and is very sweet and loving with her. Holland took about two weeks to warm up (during which time period she would shriek with fear whenever Pippa approached her).  Thank goodness that phase passed! I was worried.

So, there you have it! We have a cat.

Winter Party with the Penguins

While I'm at it, let's cover some more parties.  The Penguin class had a winter party, and as you may guess, it was loads of fun!

There was a card-making activity, which was really cute.  They made snowman cards out of those cotton makeup removal pads.

This time, I was in charge of a game.  I made this "pin the carrot on the snowman" game, which went over pretty well.  I taught the kids to sing "Once There Was a Snowman" and once they had it down, we sang that as we turned the blindfolded kids around.  I used a winter scarf as a blindfold, it was a hit.  Here are some action shots, taken by another mommy:

Recognize these movements? "Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, TALL!"

We ended with story time, which seems customary.

Did I mention the cookies?  There were cookies.  Of course!  And here's the cutest cookie muncher of all.

Another fun day with the Penguins!  I just love being able to visit my kids in their classes and I'm grateful to my good girlfriends who watch Holland so I can be there.  Here's to a merry winter!

Penguin fall party!

Did I really never cover this? Man. I'm behind.

The morning Penguin class is a fun group.  And there are two Daniels!  Ah, Danny. I know just how it is. There were always 2 or 3 Jennifers in every class I was ever in.  I was Jenny C. for the majority of my life. Sometimes I was even Jenny Ch.! So many Jennys...  Anyway, I digress.

What did we do at the party?  There was cookie decorating. And cookie eating.  This is always a super popular even with the kindergarten crowd.  Here's Danny, with his bud Sammy.

Mmmm.  Cookies. I'll say this, though.  Black icing is really not a good idea, in general.

There was some sort of guessing game with cups.  I am sketchy on the details, since I was working another station, but judging from the smiles, this must have been fun.

This was my station: Harvest Bingo.  Good times!  These kids are pretty good at Bingo.

 Don't I look excited about Bingo?  I was.

We wrapped things up with story time.  I read the kids "If You Give a Moose a Muffin," which is a family favorite.  Look at these cute little Penguins!

Such good listeners!

And this one is my favorite.  Thanks, Daniel, for letting me party with you.  Let's do it again!

Fall partying with the second graders

Mason's second grade class had a fall party and I was glad to be able to attend and help out.  It was fun - and a little hectic!  But I am pretty sure that's par for the course when it comes to elementary school parties.

There were several stations. I worked at the craft station, where kids decorated foam pumpkins with fall stickers and letters. Here's Macey, working hard on his pumpkin!  By the time the last group of kids made it to our station, it was pretty difficult to find the right letters to spell out what you wanted.  The chances of finding all the letters for "Thanksgiving" or "Halloween" were about zero.  I was encouraging kids to just spell out their names, or maybe "Happy Fall." :-)

There was a snack station, of course.

And two game stations: musical chairs...

and pin the nose on the scarecrow.

It was fun to be with Mason during the day.  He is always so happy to see me at school and give the best hugs. Love you, bud!