Anika’s 4th Birthday

Today our precious Ani is 4 years old.  She has been so excited for her birthday to come and the last week that was all she talked about every day.  Presents never really crossed her mind because all she wanted was a tea party and a barbie cake.  So every day and many times a day she would ask me if it was time for her tea party and if I was going to make the cake soon.  Finally, yesterday we had family over for a little tea party with appetizers, tea, hot chocolate and cake.  I don’t know who was more excited about the barbie cake, me or her.   It turned out way better I ever expected.  My main thing though is for the cake to taste good even if it doesn’t look that nice and this one was both so I was really happy.  It was a strawberry cake with an almond pound cake bottom and it was so moist and yummy.  The frosting was also pretty good which I’m always skeptical about because I hate the super sugary and rich frostings.  It had frozen strawberries and whipping cream mixed in it so it was lighter and had the real strawberry taste to it.  I actually bought a can of store bought frosting because I was worried mine would turn out too runny to spread the cake with and I had one taste of it and threw it in the garbage.  How can anyone say those frostings are any good?  Yuck!  Anyway, it turned out beautifully, probably my best cake so far and Anika was really excited about it.  She was pretty excited to open her gifts too.  She got a sturdier jogging stroller for 2 dolls from us.  I thought since she’s going to see me a lot with our jogging stroller these days she would like to play mommy too.  Her and Emily really liked it and were both pushing it around the house together.  The problem was when Kason got the wind of it and then it was fighting over the stroller from then on.  He loves pushing it around so we might get a small stroller from Jessica so they can both have one.  Ani also got a really pretty dress from nana and a toy with little babies, and  a cinderella carriage from Emily and she was really excited about all of them.  She has really grown a lot lately and seems so much taller.  Ani is also getting so much more interested in school stuff.  When I have a chance in the afternoons we do preschool lessons and activities which we call school and some days she’d be just waiting for us to start school already.  She loves to learn new things right now and is pretty good with phonics and letters, just the math part is a bit hard for her but then again she doesn’t need to know everything before she goes to school.  I am glad that she has an extra year before she goes to school since her birthday is past the Sept. 1st cut-off day, because she can slowly learn all the skills other kids have to learn in a year.  I can already tell it will help her confidence a lot too.  Anika also loves her little friends.  It’s too bad there aren’t many girls her age at our church, it’s mostly boys so I’m really thankful Ani has Emily to play with.  They are so cute together and such good friends already.  Somehow their personalities just click or something because they very rarely even argue or fight.  I really hope they stay close as they grow older.  My cousin (whose name – Sarlota is Anika’s middle name) was my best friend growing up and she was so special to me, like a sister I didn’t have so I’d love for Ani to have that.  It’s hard to be the only girl sometimes and other times it’s nice because that girl is so much more treasured.

our tea party can start

excited to start

opening her big present

aunt Judith is our regular guest for parties and kids love her

Kason’s turn

playing with the new toys

the new dress from nana

the strawberry barbie cake

Kason was just about to bite into it. :)

Fall is here

What can be better than walks in the beautiful fall weather with the leaves changing all around?  Our favorite spot for fall hiking is Duluth and the North Shore but this year we didn’t attempt going there.  It is a bit too far and Kason and Ani are both at a hard age for hiking very long.  So we went to Ehren’s parents’ cabin this weekend instead and from there we went to Itasca state park for some hiking.  We underestimated a little how far the 2 little kids can go, especially with Kason missing a nap and so the last mile or so there was a lot of carrying Kason and Anika but we made it.  The weather was beautiful and the colors were so pretty all around.  I just love going to the woods or any kind of hiking, so it was great even though I had a little cold all weekend.  Here are some pictures we took.  The sun was a bit too bright most of the time for our camera so some pictures did not turn out so nice.

doing puzzles at the cabin

done – the glow in the dark puzzle

on top of a fire lookout tower – a bit scary for Ani at the top and super windy but a great view

one of the views from the top

Ani got to ride on daddy a lot, her skinny legs could not keep up very well

Kason tried to keep up with his big brother and climbed up on every rock and tree Kade did. He’s growing up way too fast.

Ani and I

lakeview at the cabin

a little project to use some of the leaves we picked

my 2 babies – a rare moment of both of them being content without me holding them

Kade’s birthday and start of school

Here are some pictures to show that Kade finally got to have his birthday.  It’s not easy for him to watch all of his friends from school have their birthdays before his, but this is probably the first year he’s been very patient and not even asking for any special presents or anything  He sure is growing up.  We had a little party for him at the bowling alley and he had a great time with that.  Some of his best buddies were able to come and bowl with him so he was really enjoying it.  It’s hard to believe he’s in 2nd grade now.  The transition went very well last week and he only got teary- eyed once, the night before the first day of school.  He’s always been very shy with new things and scared he wouldn’t be able to figure something out like he’s supposed to so he was a bit scared to go on the bus and be around strange kids, but the first day of school he was all ready to go.  He loves his teacher and so far is really liking everything.  He’s so easy to get ready for school, which really helps me in the craziness of the mornings.  The bus comes around 7:20 and Kade gets up a few minutes before 7, gets dressed, eats his breakfast and is waiting for the clock to turn to 7:20 so he can go.  I don’t think our Ani will follow his quick example.

So, with the school year starting our craziness during the week is too.  I got my daycare license 2 weeks ago and with that 2 infants to watch which is taking a lot of my energy.  Ehren has been great with helping once he gets home because some days I’m just spent by the time he gets home.  2 families whose kids I watched until now stopped coming so one infant is to replace them and the other is my niece, Emily’s sister Aveah.  The 3 kiddos (Kason, Ani and Emily) are so great and play very nice together, but it will for sure be a huge adjustment for the babies.  Anika is such a good little mommy.  She just has it in her, actually way more than I ever did at her age.    Ani helps me a lot and always wants to cheer the crying babies up.  It doesn’t even faze her that she can’t calm them down most of the time and just keeps trying.  Monday nights I go to a preschool class with Anika which I know she’ll really enjoy and Wednesday nights I’ll be helping at church with Cubbies, which is pretty much like a long Sunday school hour for 3-4 year olds.  So I think we are not going to plan much for any of our weekends because it will be plenty busy during the week.  Whenever I have some time during nap time, I also do little preschool lessons with Anika because I want to be intentional with her about learning.  Since she misses the birthday cut-off for school she would need 2 years of preschool and I didn’t want to do that.  I think one will be plenty for her, but I know she’s ready to learn so I want to do that with her.  So far she’s been doing really good and we do things like letters, phonics, vocabulary, numbers and math.

By the way, I almost forgot to write about our big success with Kason. He got potty trained in a couple of weeks.  At first I thought there is no way he’ll get it because he didn’t care if he peed in his underwear but it only took a few times and he would not do it again.  He’s been staying dry most nights so far too and just surprised both of us.  He loves being praised for going potty and is so proud.  Even though it’s been a few weeks I still love our good job hugs afterwards.  He does get a little scared with pooping even though he’s gone plenty of times and sometimes holds it for too long so he gets a little constipated but I hope it will pass soon.  So it feels like all of our kids are growing up.  No more babies in our house – I mean that are ours.  I feel honored when someone entrusts me with their precious little ones, but I am also glad I get to hand them off to their parents at the end of the day and just keep our precious 3.  It’s a sure baby fix

one of my original cakes :)

ready for the cake

I was so busy trying to occupy Kason that I totally forgot to take pictures of the boys bowling. Oops.

Kade’s desk in his classroom

and his locker

ready to go

waiting for the first bus ride

just a cute picture of our big Kason