Ballerinas

Phoebe is taking a ballet class through the city Park and Rec department. I was afraid it would be too simple for her, but it's going well. The teacher is focusing on the names on the steps, and I think that's lovely.

Parents were invited to observe last week. I took several movies, including the following where the dancers practiced poise.



For those that are truly dedicated to watching Phoebe's dance class, here is a two minute clip of the teacher calling out steps and the girls doing their best to follow her directions.

ToddlerFit

I discovered a new workout, and I think it could be very popular. The required equipment is simple. Instead of donning colorful Zumba clothes or hauling large CrossFit paraphernalia, all you need is a toddler.

Teach this toddler that you will copy everything that they do. They wave, you wave. They jump, you jump. They do a series of yoga/pushups/floor crawls, you do all that too.

Your toddler will be delighted.

And you, if you follow this exercise regime long enough, will probably be sore.

Two Weeks, Two Boys, Two Talks

Both of our boys had the opportunity to give talks in Primary the last two weeks, first Peter, then Cooper. Bryan and I brainstormed about the subject with Peter, then left the talk writing up to him. After a Sunday morning full of encouraging, reminding, cajoling, pleading, choosing to laugh instead of yell at his complete refusal to even acknowledge what his talk was supposed to be about, he finally wrote it while sitting in Sacrament Meeting.

The boys had the same topic. Here's Peter's talk:

The Mission of the Church is to bring people to Christ

When Jesus was on the earth he created the Church. The Sixth Article of Faith says 

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

Apostles and Prophets are witnesses of Jesus Christ who receive revelation and hold the Priesthood keys. The Priesthood is the power of God that is used for blessing Heavenly Father's children and performing ordinances that allow us to return to Heavenly Father. The Fifth Article of Faith says

We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. 

It means that a Prophet that has been called of God can give the Priesthood to someone who is worthy. We need the Priesthood to get missionaries. Missionaries are young men and women who spread the gospel across the earth. The mission of the church is to have everyone a member of the Church. Church helps us prepare for Jesus Christ to come again. I bear my testimony that I know these things are true and in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Cooper's talk was the result of a discussion he and I had, then a subsequent interview Bryan conducted with him. I asked Bryan how much of the talk was Cooper's and he said, "The words were his, I just typed and asked questions."

The Mission of the Church is to Invite All People to Come Unto Christ

My talk today is about the mission of the Church is to invite all people to come unto Christ. To invite someone means to ask them if they would like to go somewhere. If you invite someone to church, you can invite anybody that you want. You should be a friend to the person you want to invite. The best way to invite someone to church is to ask them if they would like to go with you. You should be respectful and kind when you ask.

When you invite someone to go to church, the person getting asked gets to decide if they go or not. If they say no, you should still be their friend. You can say “maybe we can go another day” because they might want to go later.

When your friend decides to go to church, they might wonder what we do at church. You can show them that people sit nicely and calmly and listen to the speaker. Then in primary you can show them lessons about Jesus Christ, and sing songs and play games to learn about Jesus. You should help them feel welcome in Primary so they’ll be happy they came and will want to come back.

Once your friend has come to church, invite them again! We want everyone to be able to return to live with Jesus and be happy.

This is my testimony that I know the Church is true, that Heavenly Father loves us, and wants us to be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Phoebe's Fifth

A mere month and a half after her birthday party, Phoebe turned five. Since we had had such a big celebration in New Jersey, we kept it pretty low key on the actual day. First we trekked to a Stake Pancake breakfast. Phoebe was convinced the whole event was to celebrate her birthday. The food was free and the company good, but the heat was kind of oppressive, so we only stayed an hour.

When we got back home we gathered in the front room so Phoebe could open her gifts. It was a birthday full of sparkly markers and fancy coloring books (thanks Nana Cris and Grandpa Marc!),

 adorable Bitty Baby doll clothes (thanks Nana Shari and Papa Ron!), 

and a long requested Rapunzel costume (thanks to Bryan for travelling to multiple Costcos to find the right size).

 

Afterward, the big kids settled in for a birthday viewing of Lego Movie in 3D while Sophie and the grownups took a nap. Staying up late to decorate and wrap presents take its toll on healthy sleep.

A late lunch of McDonald's Happy Meals (because when you're five that sounds good), left plenty of room for some of the best ice cream we've had. Phoebe's birthday fell during the time that our oven wasn't totally functional, so I opted not to make a cake. Instead we went to Oberweis, a delicious creamery that goes to great lengths to make sure peanuts don't contaminate other flavors of ice cream. We all enjoyed some ice cream, but our birthday girl was treated to an entire banana split! She still talks about how awesome it was and can list the three flavors (strawberry, apple pie, and birthday cake) she choose.

Add in long-distance conversations with grandparents and her good friend from New Jersey, and Phoebe had a great day.

And now, as is our tradition, here are some of Phoebe's current favorites:
FAVORITE FOOD: Pancakes and waffles with strawberries on top

FAVORITE ANIMAL: Pony/unicorn "A Princess one, actually."

FAVORITE CANDY: Chocolate bar (with no peanuts)

FAVORITE BOOK: Fancy Nancy

FAVORITE COLOR: Gold! "It's fancier than pink, right?"

FAVORITE SHOW: My Little Pony

FAVORITE MOVIE: Frozen
FAVORITE SONG: Angels We Have Heard on High and Hark the Herald Angels Sing
FAVORITE BOARD GAME: My Little Pony Memory

FAVORITE CARD GAME: Minnie Mouse Go Fish
FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Pretty Princess Rescue on pbskids.org  and "my Princess video game" (on the 3DS)
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Swim in a pool and go to Disneyland
FAVORITE MEMORY FROM BEING 4: My friends and my birthday party
FAVORITE PLACE: Paris! And Disneyland
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: Writing

FRIENDS: Anna, Stella, Grisette, Kate, Hamza, Jeffery, Theo, Alexa, Elsa, Karina, Olivia, Jensen, Andrew

Leaves Are Falling All Around

We discovered that the city where we live will vacuum up tidy leaf piles from the curb. These collections started this week. The trees in front of our house haven't dropped many leaves, so I didn't think we needed to participate this time. Then I took a closer look and realized that, even though other lawns were much worse, our lawn could still use a little care.

Yesterday I spent a few hours raking the front yard. The lawn is due for a trim, so my work was more like combing through thick tangled hair than raking. I didn't completely finish, but it looked much nicer than when I started. When Bryan got home I let him know what I had done.

Me: I don't know if you noticed since it's dark, but I raked the leaves.

Bryan: I wondered who had done that. Did you use the blower?

Me: (stunned silence, then) We have a blower?!

Apparently it was in the garage and it came with the house.

At least I got some great exercise...

Bookish

Not Rapunzel

A word of advice: the next time you go to have your long hair trimmed, make sure the person holding the scissors understands how short you want to go. Otherwise the four inches you meant to remove will turn into seven.

You may be shocked when you see the final result.

And your five-old might say, "It's okay Mom, hair grows back."

That's my advice for today.

The Costumed Pianists

Shortly after we moved to Illinois I started asking around for a piano teacher. I learned that the Primary pianist in our ward teaches and, though she already had a tight schedule, agreed to take both Peter and Cooper on as students. They started at the end of August and last Friday they had their first piano recital.

Peter still hates performing, but he seems to really enjoy playing the piano. Cooper enjoys performing, but spends most of his rehearsal time complaining that he never asked to take piano lessons. Oh well.

Cooper's song is first, then Peter's. And if you listen closely, you can hear Phoebe singing along to Peter's song, which is a good indication of how often he played it.

Phoebe's Fancy Fete

On the last Saturday in July, a bright and sweltering day, we celebrated Phoebe's fifth birthday. For years she had asked for a princess party. Then, just a few months before the party, she decided she would rather have a Paris party. I responded with something like, "You do love Paris. Kind of like Fancy Nancy loves Paris. What if we did a Fancy Nancy in Paris party?" She excitedly agreed and that was the beginning of several hours spent scouring boards on Pinterest looking for Fancy Nancy party ideas.

Our location was an open green space with a handful of picnic tables. It's just inside the gates of the gated community in which we lived in New Jersey. We discovered a walking path that led from our party place to a park just outside the gate. We started the party by playing at the park, then, when everyone had arrived, we hiked the path together to unveil our fancy setup.

The party went from 11am until 1pm. I agonized over how to organize the games and the food. No one opens presents at New Jersey parties, so we couldn't count on that as an activity. Finally, we settled on this:

• play at the park
• read Fancy Nancy
• eat pizza at the King's Crown (from the first book)
• get fancy
• play games
• decorate and eat cupcakes

And that's just what we did.

Some of the kids knew Fancy Nancy so well that they were yelling out details before I read them. During our setup I had placed all the tutus on a picnic table and covered them with a tablecloth. When we finished our pizza, grapes, carrots, and juice boxes, I told the kids it was time to get fancy. I walked over and threw off the cover and heard a collective gasp at the sight of all that tulle.

Then we all got fancy. The girls wore tutus, bracelets, necklaces, and tiaras. The boys wore white top hats, bow ties, and stick-on mustaches.

Sophie is modeling our girl look, sans tiara.

And here is Peter excitedly showing the boy look, sans mustache. Actually, no one wore a mustache for very long, but it was fun in theory.

We used the tree to hang our awesome Eiffel Tower shower curtain. It was much less expensive than a print that size would have been. Then Bryan created a fishing line triangle between the tree and two out-of-order tall black lamps he had lashed to the end of each row of picnic tables. Bryan (because I was too short) then tied upside balloons to the wire. It looked very fancy.

Here's the birthday girl, wearing her own special birthday crown.

After letting the kids run around in their sweet swag, I gathered them together for a quick French lesson. We learned how to say thank you, pardon, good day, and goodbye in the fanciest language Phoebe is aware of.

Next was a game of Is It Fancy? I told them to listen closely to the items I would list. If it was something plain they should crouch down, but if it was something fancy they should jump high in the air. They loved this game! Just in case you were curious, cupcakes are fancier than muffins, unicorns are fancier than horses, and skipping is fancier than walking, according to the kids.

After that we played a fancy version of Simon Says.

At this point it was getting really hot, so I ushered the kids over to the table for a less-sweat inducing activity. They decorated spectacular spectacles. In other words, they stuck stickers to inexpensive sunglasses.

Then we moved to a dizzying game of stick the bow on Nancy. We used dollar store mini gift bows and a poster-sized printout of Fancy Nancy.

Finally, since the adults were melting, we did our final activity: decorating delectable cupcakes.

All in all, I think it was a success. I was concerned that we weren't really focusing on Phoebe, but she just loved getting to be fancy with all her friends. And once again Bryan and I make a great birthday party team.

Friends Indeed

Today's Throwback Thursday post is brought to you by our dear friends who live in New York. These are the friends that we had so many adventures with last year. 

We miss them. 

A lot. 

But one of the many wonderful things about these fine folks is their ability to pick up right where we left off. I'm not sure when we'll see them again, but when we do, we will still be just as comfortable as we've been for so many years.