Brynlee's Cinderella Birthday

Brynlee has been talking about how she was going to have a pink and blue Cinderella birthday party for months. Ever since she went to her friend's party in March she has been talking about her birthday that would be in June. Her enthusiasm really got me excited for the event and I had a lot of fun planning her little birthday party this year. I think everyone who came had a lot of fun. The hardest part for me was deciding who to invite. Joel didn't have big birthday parties when he was growing up so he thought the whole thing was a little bit too much. But you only turn three once per lifetime and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to celebrate and throw a party for my girl. We ended up inviting three girls from church and five of Brynlee's cousins. We gave all of them an invitation inviting them to attend a royal ball in honor of Brynlee's third birthday and it had this picture on it.

I started off Brylee's birthday party by having everyone come inside. There we found a sign from the Evil Stepmother with instructions of three different things everyone had to do before they could go to the ball. The first thing they had to do was to decorate a crown. I made them out of some foam and a poster board and I had the kids put their name on them and use watercolors to decorate the back.

Next everyone had to feed our chickens. Basically they just had to throw some chicken feed into the cage. The best part about this is that it kept all of the chickens in their cage and away from all the party guests.

Then we had to use some fairy princess sponges and fill up a big bucket of water. I had everyone work together to get water in the big bucket. As soon as it was full (well, at least it was almost half way full) the royal train came to take everyone to the ball.

Joel took everyone for a train ride for a while around our yard. Everyone loved that part. Eventually he brought everyone up to the Royal Castle. Joel ended up making this huge castle out of ply wood and setting it up in our front yard. I just wanted him to use the old reading castle that he made when I was teaching school but he insisted that we needed something bigger so he made this giant pink one. (And he told me I was going a little bit overboard for a three year olds birthday party. HaHa.) I had fun helping him to paint it one night while the girls were sleeping. I am hoping he can make it into a playhouse now because we are not really sure what to do with it. I wanted to have it hidden under some blankets so everyone would be surprised when we pulled up in the train; but it was way too big to hide.

As soon as everyone walked into the castle I had some Cinderella music playing. And what do you do at a ball? You dance of course. So we all danced and did the limbo. Then we danced to Brynlee's favorite song that we do at the library, We are the Dinosaurs.

After that we had to knock down our beloved castle pinata that we made. I hid a glass slipper in there that they had to find. Unfortunately the slipper got broken in the process of breaking the pinata open. Brynlee and I tried to make a pinata with paper mache and a balloon but we tried it two different times and both times our balloon popped. The first time it popped right as I was putting on the last piece of paper mache and the second time it popped when I was half way done with the second layer. It was a lot of work, not to mention it was really messy so we scrapped that idea and instead I made a pinata out of an old diaper box. It was really strong this time. I think each of the kids got like 20 hits and they barely made a dent in it. They did knock off all of decorations so then we had a plain old diaper box floating through the air that we were trying to knock down. I helped Annalyn hit it and we got a hole in it, but eventually we had to have my brother Josh come in and finish the job. It took him several hits to get some of the candy out and then we just dumped the box over and let everyone come get the candy.

After all of the excitement with the pinata, it was time for cake and ice cream. This was one of the parts Brynlee had been talking about the most. She really wanted a Cinderella birthday cake. My grandma helped me make one. In fact, I have to give her almost all of the credit because she did most of the work. I wish I had a better picture of the cake but it looked pretty good. At least, Brynlee was super impressed, and she was our main critic. We also made several little doll cakes and she got her own little doll cupcake. She loved that. In the end there was too much going on and she didn't really eat any of it. Annalyn ate all of her cake though. She even licked her bowl so she would be sure to get every last bit.

After cake and ice cream, Brynlee opened up all of her presents. She was really spoiled with all of the gifts. She got some dolls, nail polish, lots of dress up clothes, some bubble things, a game, and a little four wheeler from my dad.

As soon as all of the presents were unwrapped, everyone went on another train ride and then played in the front yard until it was time to go home. We had lots of fun. I sure am glad I got to share this day with so many great people. Especially with my two little princesses. My little fairy princess, and my Cinderella princess. Thanks to everyone who came.

Brynlee is THREE!

It is crazy to me how much my little girl has grown this last year. She has experienced so many new things and learned so much. She is constantly amazing me with the things she knows and the things she can do. She is such a blessing and a fun ray of sunshine in my life. What did I ever do without her? Here are a few pictures of just how much she has grown in the last three years. Here she is at 1 month, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 27 months, 30 months, 33 months, and 3 years.

 Here are some fun facts about Brynlee now that she is three. This time I asked her all of the questions so here is what she thinks.

Age: 3
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Movie: Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony
Best Friend: Cinderella
Favorite thing to do: Watch the computer
Favorite thing to do outside: Ride in the train
Favorite Food: French Fries
Favorite Song: I am a Child of God
Favorite toy to play with: a pink one
Favorite game: Hide and Go Seek
Favorite animal: Chickens
Favorite thing to do with your family: Jump on the trampoline
Height: 3 ft. 2(1/4) in (74%)
Weight: 33.4lbs (73%)

Here are some famous Brynlee quotes.

"I is in charge"
"You wanna go to a timeout mom?"
"I am going to count to 10, you had better listen."
"You is in big trouble dad. You better get in here right now mister."
This one is usually said while she is doing something she shouldn't be doing. "Shhhh, don't tell anyone."
"I is doing anything."
"I don't know about that."
"I am super Brynlee. I is going to save the day"
"Come out, come out, wherever you are."

Brynlee can't make the S sound and a lot of the words that start with S come out with an F sound instead. She says stuff like, fecial (special), foon (spoon), farkles (sparkles) fwimming (swimming), and frinkles (sprinkles) She can't make the Z sound either and substitutes it with an L sound. She says things like loo (zoo), lumba (zumba), Lady (my parent's dog Zadie), and lebra (zebra).  

Brynlee likes to have "teap" (tea) parties all the time. They usually start with a prayer and sometimes she makes everyone wear a bib while we eat and drink our "teap."

Every time Brynlee says the prayer she blesses the salt. We have no idea why but the salt around here has lots of blessings.

Brynlee thinks ketchup should always be pink. I made some fry sauce one day by mixing my ketchup with some Mayo so now Brynlee thinks we should do this all the time. She also discovered that ketchup mixed with ranch is also pink. Apparently is tastes good too. We had hotdogs for lunch a few days ago and as Brynlee was saying the prayer she blessed the hotdogs, the salt, the ketchup, and the ranch. Then she gasped and said "mom, we forgot the ranch." I didn't put ranch on the table and she was astounded. She ran to the fridge right then and got the ranch before she was even done with the prayer.

I was telling Brynlee the other day that we needed to go to the zoo. She got really excited about that idea and she started to list off all of the different animals she would see. "Yeah, I is going to see a lion, a tiger, a bear, a hippo, an elephant, a dinosaur, and a crocodile." She didn't believe me when I told her that dinosaurs are not alive anymore.

A few weeks ago I was changing my shirt. I had an undershirt on but I got the top shirt dirty. As I was changing Brynlee walked in, looked at me and said "I like your armpits mom."
This totally caught me off guard. She likes my armpits? "You Do?" I asked. 
"Yeah, they look beautiful," she responded. I couldn't think of a descent response to such a declaration. "Oh, well thank you," is all I could say. "You is welcome," Brynlee said as she walked off to go play. 
What a kid. I guess it is good to know that I have beautiful armpits. 


My sister Heather wrote this on her facebook page the other day about a conversation she had with Brynlee. "I'm wearing a pair of ripped skinnies today. At the library my little neice Brynlee counted up my holes and told me I had four owies on my legs and bragged that she didn't have any on her dress. Maybe next time I see her I'll wear a dress, sweats, glitter shoes, and a pair of butterfly wings so we can be twins. I'd bet she'd approve of my outfit then for sure!" Yeah, that sounds like a typical outfit Brynlee would wear. 

Brynlee loves all things pink and sparkly. She loves to play outside but she hates to get dirty. She loves to jump on the trampoline and play with her friends and family. She loves to give people hugs and kisses and she thinks everyone is her best friend. She would spend the whole day watching videos on YouTube if I would let her. She is good at helping me when I need help and playing with her sister Annalyn. Brynlee loves to read books and she has a great imagination. She likes to line up all of her toys and play with them. She is frequently carrying a pink baby hippo or a baby pink dinosaur in the palm of her hand. They are both really nice and she has me hold one of them all of the time. 


We sure do love this little girl and we love watching her grow up and learn new things. Happy Birthday Brynlee!

May Madness

May was another fun and crazy month for our family. We started out the month by celebrating May Day with Brynlee's cousins. Brynlee had fun playing with Madison and we made a card to give Grandma Hirtle. The next day Brynlee ended up getting pink eye so we stayed in the house for a few days. I thought everyone else avoided getting it until Annalyn woke up from her nap at the beginning of church. Hopefully we didn't expose anyone there to pink eye. I would not have taken her if I knew she had it. Luckily my mom still didn't mind taking her because because Joel and I both had to teach lessons. My mom just made sure no one else touched her.

During the month of May; I got my wisdom teeth out, celebrated Mother's Day, Joel went camping, and we watched Alesha graduate from high school. We went to play at the park, we played in the sprinkler, and we celebrated Memorial day and had lots of fun spending time with family. My cousin and her family came down for Alesha's graduation but they only got to stay for a few days. While they were here we spent lots of time at Grandma's house hanging out with them. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows on the fire and had fun playing games. My brother Brian and his wife Heather came down for the weekend and we had a memorial day barbecue with them at Grandma Verna's house. It was lots of fun.

Annalyn has finally taken off this month and boy is she into everything. I feel like she skipped walking and went right to running. I thought she was busy before but lately she is real handful. Although for the last week she has been super clingy. I can hardly put her down. I think she is teething and going through a growth spurt. She has also taken two naps a day that last two hours each. Normally her morning nap is no longer than an hour. I get lots of things done when she is sleeping so I can't complain but I just hope she is not so whiney and clingy for long.

Brynlee is as busy and as funny as ever. Oh, that girl makes me laugh. It seems like she is constantly going on some adventure in her mind. She loves to play with me and is constantly turning me into a princess and telling me that she is my best friend ever. She has been playing Zombies with my cousin Ryder a lot lately so lately she has been pretending to be a "Lombie" all the time at home. She turns three next month and she is super excited for her birthday. She has been waiting for it for months. She wants a pink and blue Cinderella party.

Joel is still as busy as ever with projects and work. They started hay harvest so there are lots of long hours at work. He comes home at five whenever he can so at least this jobs isn't near as time consuming as when he was a mechanic on the farm. He has also been busy keeping the lawn mowed and putting in the garden. He is almost done working on fixing our van and he has been helping the neighbor fix a truck.

As for me; I have still been doing Zumba as much as possible, taking care of my busy girls, and trying to keep my house from getting destroyed. My goal for the next month is to get rid of all the clutter and to deep clean everything. I started making Brynlee do chores every morning this month and it is really helping. I finished Annalyn's baby book, now I just need to order it and pay for it.

May was really a good month. I can't wait for the summer. Brynlee had been so anxious to play outside in the water more and go swimming in our little pool so I can't wait until we can. Not to mention, now my parents are done working and my siblings are done with school.