It's time for another party at Abby's preschool! With a bit of a break since her Preschool Christmas Party extravaganza I was ready to be a helpful parent in the classroom again. :-)
First order of party fun was to make Valentine's Day crowns.
Once all the stickers were put on the band of the crown the big hearts were attached. This craft surprisingly took a fair amount of time as each child was putting their craft together with a lot of thought and discussion.
Then we moved on to snack time with a treat! Ice cream and raspberry soda floats with a licorice straw. Nate's genes once again showed their dominance with Abby taking two bites and then deciding that she was done. I don't think my side of the family has EVER left ice cream on the table. :-)
A view of her finished crown.
With a few minutes remaining after the party (and before preschool was finished) the kids sang some songs. I love how into the song Abby is here.
(The song I mention in the picture above.)
A few weeks prior Abby's preschool did Donuts with Dad where Dads came to class for an hour or so and had donuts and juice with their kids and made a craft. This time the craft was a special Valentine's box to hold all of their Valentine's cards for the upcoming party. While Nate mentioned that lots of other kids did hearts or flowers or other sweet things, Nate and Abby made a shark! (I later found a sweet Valentine's Day card hidden inside the card from the two of them for me. Abby even signed her name!)
Abby was VERY proud of her shark and is here telling me about how I need to be careful with it or I might break it and then Abby would be very angry and frustrated with me. Message received!!!
This year's Valentine's were chosen by Abby herself and were Frozen cards (of course) with Skittles. Not homemade but we had fun putting them together regardless!
Happy 4th birthday, Abby! Watching you turn four has been such a fun experience. :-) You've given up naps completely, have started to rebel on quiet time, toss your head and put your hands on your hips when telling me stories that interest you, love to lick everything, have learned how to cackle laugh, are starting to prefer to spend your time with your friends rather with Mom and Dad, pretend to be Ms. Amy from preschool (your favorite pretend moment is yelling "Ms. Amy's class, please line up!" as you've heard this quite a bit from school), jump on all the furniture, and continue to thoroughly delight your Dad and I.
This year we kind of went on crazy train for your birthday as the week of your birthday was filled with lots and lots of activities. Monday we brought homemade cupcakes (which you helped make) to preschool to celebrate your birthday early, Tuesday was your actual birthday where we had family over for dinner, Wednesday was Donuts with Dad at preschool where you made a Valentine's box for all your valentines, Thursday was your friend's birthday party at the house, and Friday your preschool's Valentine's Day party. By the time Saturday rolled around I was thrilled with how the week's celebrations had gone for you but also very, very glad the week was over with. :-)
I figure we'll just make this a really, really, really long post and put all the celebrating pictures here.
TUESDAY: Actual birthday
A view of our decorations. Abby thought it was so pretty when she came out the morning of her birthday and saw them.
Blowing so hard to put our her candles. This cake was really neat! For Christmas Mom gave me a checkerboard cake pan and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. The cake on the inside turned out perfect! A wonderful checkerboard of white and pink. I was so excited that I kept putting off posting about Abby's birthday until I could find a picture of the inside of my cake that I was sure my Mom had taken. Four months later I find out that nope, no picture was taken and I'd been putting this post off for no reason. sigh.
Opening presents where Frozen was a big hit.
This blanket is so special to Nate and I and I hope Abby will think the same when she's older. Abby's Great Grandma Sylvia made this blanket for Abby before she passed away the previous summer. You could see the love in all the tiny, perfect stitches and it was such a thoughtful gift for the Libby/Eslinger family to make sure we got it.
WEDNESDAY - Donuts with Dad
Abby's preschool had an event where all the Dad's were invited to join them in class one morning for some refreshments but also to make a project. The project ended up being a box to hold all the kid's valentines that they'd receive during their Valentine's Day party later in the week. When Nate called me after leaving he said that Abby was awesome. All the other kids were wanting heart or flower shaped boxes but Abby wanted a shark box. Yes, a shark box. So, Nate being a great engineer of even cardboard paper helped Abby make her much desired shark valentine's box. I think the two had a great time together (Abby had such a good time she cried rare preschool tears when Nate needed to go) and I think they're both looking toward this event next year.
Nate putting together the shark while Abby makes a Valentine's Day card for me that would eventually be hidden inside.
She was SO proud of her shark!
THURSDAY - Friend birthday party
This year I decided to host a little calmer of an event from last year's kid extravaganza. (Which I'm glad I did as the weather was not as nice and we spent most of the time inside.) When I'd asked Abby what kind of birthday party she wanted she blew my mind when she thought for a minute and then very specifically asked for a Butterfly Tea Party Birthday Party. Say, what?! After much thought I randomly went out to Oriental Trading Company thinking they might have something that would fall under that description when I found not only a butterfly birthday party set but a tea party set as well. Pulled pieces from each set and Abby's desired birthday party theme was a go!! She even got to choose her own cake design (when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted she said she wanted an ice cream cake AND a pink cake. With two parties and two cake requests I had this one covered without a sweat.) We went to Dairy Queen where she picked out a Frozen design (of course) with blue and purple frosting which are her favorite colors right now. I think there was one small hiccup as the craft that I'd ordered (create your own stained glass butterflies to complete the butterfly part of the theme) I thought was done with contact paper (perfect for 3 and 4 year olds) but ended up requiring a glue paste. That was a mess. But they had fun!
The butterfly craft. I was so thankful for the tablecloth! And all the kids looked so tiny in Nate's t-shirts which we used to keep the glue as contained as possible.
Such concentration. And a view of the finished craft.
Happy birthday, Abby!
Letting Mom help her blow out the candles.
A table full of wonderful friends!
Every one was really excited to get in on the opening presents action. :-)
FRIDAY - Preschool Valentine's Day Party
Since I already blogged about this I figure a link to the post would be best. :-)
Thank you to all our friends and family for giving Abby such a wonderful birthday week of celebrating how wonderfully awesome she is!!!
And a quick post of her stats to show that she's still growing up and being a big girl. She's officially growing out of her 5T outfits and has some 6 outfits as I desperately try to wait to buy her more clothes until the weather truly warms up and we can more to shorts and t-shirts. :-) Here are Abby's 4 year stats: Height Weight Head CM Birth 19.5 in. 7 lbs. 0 oz. 1 Week 19.0 in. 6 lbs. 9 oz. 33 cm 2 Months 22.0 in. 11 lbs. 6 oz. 38 cm 4 Months 24.75 in. 15 lbs. 6 oz. 39.5 cm 6 Months 26.75 in. 18 lbs. 6 oz. 41.5 cm 9 Months 28.25 in. 21 lbs. 3 oz. 44 cm 12 Months 30.0 in. 23 lbs. 0 oz. 46.7 cm 15 Months 31.20 in. 26 lbs. 1 oz. 47.5 cm 18 Months 32.80 in. 28 lbs. 14 oz. 48 cm 2 Years 34.50 in. 31 lbs. 2 oz. 49.3 cm 2.5 Years 37.60 in. 31 lbs. 14 oz. 50.0 cm 3 Years 38.90 in. 35 lbs. 14 oz. -- 4 Years 42.30 in. 39 lbs. 15.86 oz. -- 92% for height and 82% for weight. Still a head above many others but her sweet heart is just as big!
