Here it is a few days out from Reena's birthday and I'm still catching up on Debrie's birthday. I have no time anymore. Ronin is so active! He is climbing on everything and grabbing on to anything his little hands could touch. He finds the most interesting things to put in his mouth. There is no stopping him. We have a 6 panels gate I put up in the hope of stopping him from going every where but it only slows him down a tiny bit. He crawls behind the couch and sneaks his way through or he'll shake the gate 'til it falls down and one time it did, on him. Terrified me. All the drawers that I absolutely love in my kitchen, well now they are a problem. He gets his fingers jammed so now I'm following him every where he goes. He is standing up and I'm sure will be walking soon. He is 9 months old now. I can hardly believe I have a 9 month old.
But this post isn't about him. This post is about Debrie Camli Stevens, my 5 year old. I can't believe she is 5 either. She was our baby for the longest time. When we were first married we were poor and spent a tons of money on school leaving none for traveling. We had Reena and were still poor but when Brie came we landed a good job and came to a really fun place for our new adventure. We took Brie and Reena every where including many trips to the East and road trips around the west. She was our baby and spoiled by us for the longest. She had a slight bit of a hard transition from being the baby in the family to not being the baby anymore when Ronin was born. Then again, if she were two years old, I don't think it would've been any easier.
So this birthday needed to be something special. It was a no brainer that it would be "Frozen". We took her to see that movie right when it came out and ever since then she was counting the days down 'til she gets a Frozen birthday. She sings all the songs from the album we bought and knows the movie almost by heart. But it had to be unique and original from all the other Frozen parties she's attended. I asked her what she really wants most and she said "an Elsa dress, but not like an Elsa dress everyone else, and an Elsa doll and Anna doll". She got the latter from my sisters but she was very specific about the dress and there was no way to get her a dress the way she wanted it. She wanted the split from the knees down and not poofy like the Elsa dress from the Disney store. So with those instructions I went to JoAnn's and spent $12 in fabrics and made her a dress. It felt so good to know that my neighbor spent over $100 for her daughter's Elsa's dress and I spent $12 and some of my time. It got all sorts of compliments on Facebook and the best part was...SHE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. It made my day. It consumed a lot of my time and I had to simplify everything else but it was worth it.
First thing in the morning she got to pick her cereal and she picked Frosted Flakes. Good one Brie! She was very much in the whole planning of her party, which is the way I like it to be. I want my kids to eventually plan their own party. She was the motivator behind me finishing her dress. She reminded me about every half an hour to work on her dress. She helped decorate her castle and put all the goodie bags together. She got to pick her favorite restaurant so we could all go out to eat. She picked Agave, a really good Mexican restaurant down the hill from our house.
But perhaps her very favorite thing about her birthday was trying on that pretty dress that she immediately fell in love with. The night before her birthday I was still working on it and I was so relieved it came together. I had to resize it down a little but when she put it on she said "Mom this is magical!". Ok I felt the same :) It was magical and she made such a beautiful Elsa.
Elsa brought back Summer!!
Since she didn't want it to be a costume party (neither did I) because some of her friends don't have an Elsa or Anna dress and would feel bad, this dress was the perfect dress because it has the same style as Elsa's but it's not the exact same.
The section of wild grass behind our house is now my favorite place to take pictures. You will see the difference the heat made from this in May versus the pictures I just took of Reena for her upcoming Cowgirl Littlest Pet shop birthday.
LET IT GO!!!
She didn't want to mix the preschool friends with the besties and the cousins so I started her off with cupcakes, TCBY Frozen yogurt, and Mrs. Fields cookies and she celebrated first with preschool friends.
I had to simplify the cake. It took me about 35 minutes to decorate this cake (not counting baking time). No joke! Yes I have spent about 10 hours on a cake before (dinosaur cake with all the little spikes and detail) but this one had to be simple because I was already sacrificing so much time with my little guy to make the dress. It made a yummy butter cream meringue and some cupcakes to go with it. It was simple and delicious.
I bought a snow spray can and they had a blast freezing the glass door.
I wanted to make more cloaks but ended up only able to make just the one Anna's cloak for the girls to play dress up at the party. Reena was the artist for that Olaf picture btw.
A little braiding game with my friend Sun. BTW Debrie can now braid her own hair and does an excellent job.
That concluded the birthday party with the BESTIES. Next came the party with the COUSINS. At first I dreaded the fact that she didn't want her cousins there with her besties but then I understood why she wanted it that way. Her Star Wars party she had too many people and it was tiring for her. She was smart to divide the attention up. She was able to have a smaller more intimate party and she got to have it THREE times!! The first was with the preschool friends, then with besties, then cousins. The last round we ended up inviting the two girls from the last party again and they had a blast singing their hearts out.
This round it was a much quieter experience with tea time and more singing. Still the same games and such
From Frozen (inside) to Summer (outside)
Matt was our shaved ice master
Was it ''the party talking, or the chocolate fondue"
With whatever interesting costumes we had in the toy closet we pulled it out and they had a blast playing dress up and acting out the coronation day. They sang many songs standing on the steps on the porch and our neighbors were out watching them. It was awesome!! The flowers were blooming and the air was fresh. My peonies arrived just in time for Brie. She is the flower queen around here. Always picking the flowers rather than letting them sit on their branches but finally she could pick them for herself. We ended up giving her flowers to a neighbor. What a sacrifice that was for her but what a valuable lesson. She's growing up and is learning so much about sacrifice and love. She sure loves her little brother and has to sacrifice a lot of attention from mommy and daddy. We could do a better job of letting her know we love her but I think she felt that love with this party. How many girls out there got to have THREE parties for one birthday???? We love our Brie Brie.
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