Katherine's Fourth Birthday

Our sweet Katherine celebrated her fourth birthday with a mermaid party. I was having a hard time helping her come up with ideas for her birthday, and on a whim mentioned that Elisabeth had a mermaid theme for her fourth birthday, and Katherine jumped on board and we went with it. I was able to mostly duplicate Elisabeth's party just changing up a few things, and with a crazy month with homeschool, and being out of town the week before her birthday, I'm glad I wasn't working from scratch getting it planned.

We picked out a mermaid pinata, and the girls happily filled it for me with candy, mermaid pencils and grow your own sea creatures. 

The mermaid cupcakes I made for Elisabeth's fourth birthday are one of my favorite birthday dessert I've done, so I was excited to get to do them again for Kate's birthday. They're not hard to make (except getting the chocolate mermaid tails out of the molds without breaking them), but I think they look so cute when they're finished. 

Katherine helped me decorate them on Saturday morning.

We also made clamshell cookies. They're easy but super fun. 

Katherine couldn't wait for party to start. She talked about her birthday nonstop and wanted to invite everyone she knew. 

She wore an adorable mermaid costume passed down to her from Kamryn and Addisyn. 

She was most excited that Cousin Abigail was able to celebrate with us.

We all love our Little Mermaid. 

When the party started, I sent everyone outside to play. It was a warm, sunny day. I had some outdoor activities planned, so I thought it would be best to keep everyone corralled outside until we started those. 

The girls jumped on the trampoline. 

Several of Katherine's friends have older brothers, and Nathan and Samuel were happy they all came too. They played football in the backyard. 

They are a great group of boys!

Our first activity was pin the tail on the mermaid. 

After that, the kids participated in and Under the Sea relay race. They hopped in a mermaid tail, crab walked, and then dug for pears in a bucket of seashells. 

It was entertaining for everyone. 

Finally, we had a pull string pinata. 

Katherine is such a good friend. She plays with anyone she's around and is always making new friends. She was surrounded by some great friends at her party. 

After the games, the sweaty kids came in for snacks and cake. For snacks, we had fruit, cookies, cupcakes, jello cups, cheese and crackers, goldfish and mini corndogs. 

We sang to the birthday girl who beamed throughout the entire song, and then everyone enjoyed snacks. 

Her excitement for all things in life is one of my very favorite things about her. 

After snacks it was present time- her favorite part, ha! She was happy to open all her gifts, but I think she was equally happy to be the center of attention during it all. She was putting on a show for everyone by the time she finished opening her presents. 

Her reactions to her gifts were priceless, especially the toy phone that she hoards anytime we're at the Miller's house. 

After presents, a few kids stayed and played with some of her new toys. The mermaid tattoo pens were a big hit. 

Katherine loves her Papa Joe. He's one of her very favorite people. 

She spent the rest of the evening playing with all her new toys and soaking up all the birthday attention. 

Sunday morning was the day of her actual birthday. For breakfast she asked for monkey bread, and we sang to her again. 

Then she got ready for church (notice the phone). We went to church and out to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa.

Then she came home and opened a few more presents. We got her a "big girl" scooter for her birthday, and we had to try it out by riding to the pond for part of the afternoon.

Katherine is a joy. Watching my baby grow up is the most bittersweet thing. I'll miss her being three but I know she's going to be an awesome four year old. 
 

FOUR Years Old

Katherine Grace, 

You are FOUR years old! At four, you are a happy, bubbly, chatty,  outgoing, affectionate, bright and sensitive girl. You are almost always smiling and talking or singing, and you dance or skip everywhere you go.

Your favorite things right now are your siblings, dance and gymnastics, hugs and kisses, dresses, sparkly shoes, Miraculous Ladybug, princesses, playing games and putting on shows. You are a girly girl who loves to dress up and do your makeup and hair. You always pick out your own clothes and dresses and recently have started insisting that you fix your own hair. 

You are almost always happy and smiling. You get excited about everything and always want to know what our plans are. You are hardly ever shy and always willing to make a new friend. You'll play with anyone- older, younger, boy or girl, you can easily adapt your play to whoever is with you. I think that's such a great strength of yours. You consider all of Elisabeth's friends to be yours too and scoot yourself right in when they're playing. But you also gravitate toward younger toddlers and like to mother them. Your best friends are Laura, Emmanuel, and Amelia. 

You talk and sing constantly. If we're not playing music or an audio book in the car, you're asking questions or talking about something. You often use a dramatic tone and talk with your hands in a way that makes you sound like a teenager. 

You always ask us to play games with you. You also like to play babies (especially with your little "cubbles" bear). When you're with friends you ask to play "family." You easily adapt your play to whoever you're playing with. You'll play Legos with Nathan, school and gymnastics with Elisabeth, and Power Rangers with Samuel.

Right now you're taking dance and gymnastics classes. You say your favorite activity is dance. You also enjoy going to Cubbies and our homeschool co-op. You've outgrown your separation anxiety (unless you're in a brand new place and you don't know what to expect). You always happily skip into your class rooms these days. 

Your favorite foods are mac and cheese, meatballs, strawberries, grapes, grilled cheese sandwiches, Danimals smoothies and peanut butter crackers. You usually refuse to eat vegetables. We're working on it. At four years old you are 39.4 inches tall and weigh 32 lbs. You're wearing a size 4T in clothes and size 10 shoe. 

We're not doing any formal schooling with you this year (besides homeschool co-op a couple of times a month), but recently, you've been very interested in learning and writing your letters. I've learned by the fourth kid that there's no reason to stress or push you, but you've done it all on your own. Often, you'll write a bunch of random letters and then ask me what they say, ha! You're also asking me how to spell things. You enjoy coloring and making cards and pictures for all your friends and family. 

You rarely nap these days, maybe once a week if I can tell you're really tired. You go to bed easily at night though and usually sleep from about 8:30pm to 7:00ish in the morning. Sometimes you'll complain that you're lonely and need a sibling to sleep with you, and since they're all pretty much wrapped around your finger, they'll oblige. 

Anytime anyone leaves, you ask for a huggy and a kissy. It's adorable, and there will be tears if you miss that hug and kiss. You have such a way about making everyone you're around feel special and loved. It's one of your greatest strength.

You are independent and brave, always willing to try new things. I think part of it is because you don't want to be left behind by your older siblings. You can play really well by yourself, but you do always prefer a sibling or friend to play with you when they're available. 

Katherine Grace, I always call you the cherry on top of our family. You are a joy and a delight. You remind us to find joy in the simple things, you keep us from taking life too seriously, and you always, always make us smile. You are one of my greatest gifts, Sweet Girl. It's an honor to watch you grow and learn and share your happy spirit with others.

 

San Antonio Anniversary Vacation

 Matt and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary back in May, and even though it was a few months late, we got to celebrate with a few days in San Antonio with two of our best friends and anniversary twins. Since we share an anniversary with the Shondelmyers, we have a tradition to take an anniversary trip together every five years. Our go to vacation is a cruise, but things were obviously more complicated this year. We had the hardest time coming up with what to do since so many options were unavailable. We finally settled on a few days in San Antonio. We figured Texas would be one of the least likely destinations to close down or have restrictions. 

We said goodbye to our kiddos on Tuesday night and left early on Wednesday morning for an adults only, relaxing, fun vacation. We stopped in Waco for lunch and to browse at Magnolia Market. It was fun to browse and walk around for a bit, but Brooke and I both agreed that we don't have much of a desire to visit again. 

We arrived in San Anotonio late on Wednesday afternoon and checked into our hotel. Then we set off for some exploring. We walked along the River Walk and posed for a picture at the Alamo. 

We planned to have dinner on the river and for our first night we all decided we had to have some Mexican food. We found a fun Mexican place and enjoyed adult conversation and a beautiful view.

After dinner we walked around the mall for awhile. Matt insisted we walk around the Lego store even when we didn't have children with us. 

We also took a sunset river boat cruise and ended the night with ice cream for dessert.

Thursday morning we slept in and relaxed before hitting up some shopping at the Mexican market. We walked around, browsed, and snacked on fresh churros for a few hours

We walked back to our hotel for lunch. There was a cute little bakery across the street where we found some delicious food. I'm glad we spotted it and decided to stop. That chocolate mousse cake was one of the most delicious desserts I've ever eaten. Brooke and I were a little obsessed with it. 

After lunch we conned the guys into a trip to Ikea. They were thrilled, ha! I hadn't been to an Ikea since I was pregnant with Katherine, so I was overdue. We walked around, visited, picked up a few odds and ends, and laughed at the guys' bored, silly poses. 

After Ikea, we drove across the street to the movie theater to watch an adult movie with no kids- that also hasn't happened in years. We watched Free Guy. It was a good choice for a relaxing afternoon. We were entertained for sure. 

After the movie, we drove back to the River Walk for dinner. During our river boat cruise, the tour guide hyped up another Mexican restaurant, so we decided to try that for dinner. 

It was a great recommendation! Our food (especially the queso) was wonderful, and the view was pretty awesome too.

Friday morning we drove over to Fredericksburg for the day. It's such a cute town with a huge main street lined with adorable shops and restaurants. We walked around and browsed in the shops for a few hours and found lunch at a yummy German restaurant. After we had shopped out, we drove back to get ready for dinner.

We booked a reservation at the Chart House which is a rotating restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas. Dinner that evening was probably my favorite part of our whole vacation. We got drinks at the bar while we waited for our table, and then enjoyed a leisurely dinner with great company and conversation. The food was great (well, except for Matt's steak- I wasn't impressed with it), but the rest of it was wonderful. Our dinner took over two hours, but we didn't mind. I so enjoyed visiting with our dear friends about life now and what we think it might look like in the future. We were also happy our dinner took awhile because we got to see the sunset at the top of the tower.

During dinner we talked about our 10 year trip. Our big boys were five at the time, Samuel was three and Elisabeth and the twins were one. Katherine wasn't even in the conversation. I remember talking on our cruise about how we couldn't believe our boys would be ten on our next anniversary trip and here we are unable to fathom having teenagers on our 20th anniversary. 

We've come a long way from meeting as engaged couples attending that young married Sunday school class sixteen years ago. These sweet friends are such blessings to us.

After dinner on Friday night we went back to our hotel room to watch a movie together. Matt slept through it, but I'm so glad Brooke and Corey recommended Togo to us. It was a great movie. I want to watch it again with the kids. 

Saturday, we drug Brooke and Corey to Fiesta Texas with us for the day to ride some roller coasters. It was a busy Saturday, but we were still able to ride all the major coasters. Our favorite was the Iron Rattler. Matt and I agreed that it's our all time Six Flags favorite coaster. So fun!

We never get to ride coasters together anymore because we're always split up riding with the kids. Matt misses hearing my screams, I think. We had a fun time getting to experience them all together.

We stopped for pizza when we left the park and drove back to the hotel for much needed showers and to watch the OSU game together. I didn't make it past half time- Six Flags wore me out, ha!

We drove home on Sunday ready to see our kids again and to jump back into work/parenting life again. We did have a little fun on the drive home and spent some time exploring Buccees to pick up some surprises for the kids. 

 The escape from reality to relax, play, and spend quality time together was glorious. Is it time to start planning our 20th anniversary trip yet?