All in White–Alicia’s Baptism Day

There are many things to celebrate when you turn eight, but the most important is the day to make a covenant with our Heavenly Father.  To promise to follow him, and in return to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  It is a commitment not to be made lightly, and today Alicia has made the step to take upon her the name of Jesus Christ. 

She wasn’t alone, today she shares her special day with her cousin Davy who also just turned 8.

Here she is with daddy getting ready to go into the font.

Here Davy is with his namesake, Grandpa David Hale before going into the font.

and then afterwards, in the same baptismal dress that Tabatha wore after she was baptized.

Congratulations Alicia, you are beautiful!

8th Birthday Party Fun

What do Angry Birds, Hello Kitty, balloon sculptures, and chocolate bars have in common?  When you put them together they make a very fun and creative 8th birthday part for boys and girls.

Alicia’s party began with the Angry Bird toss, using the felt angry birds my friend Jennifer and I made at Christmas for presents.  They are by far the most used stuffed animals in the house, they rarely sit still!

We changed our puppet theatre into a perfect Angry Bird tower for those dastardly pigs.

Here cousin Jared shows the correct form for the red bird.  The yellow, green and white birds are at his feet ready to go.  If only the green bird would boomerang back!

I think Tabatha here felt the Angry from her Angry Bird!

Then came the Hello Kitty “bow” on the cat game.

The kids liked it, but the big hit was the balloon sculpture game.  With lots of balloons, tapes, and patience, the kids split into teams and tried to build a tall tower.

We had a chocolate bar eating game, but the pictures didn’t turn out.  Let’s just say, chocolate and kids go together, how could it not go well.

Then, the cake.  I let Alicia pick the cake she wanted me to make and I did my best to make a Hello Kitty cake.  She liked it, and the boys didn’t complain as they devoured this chocolate two layer beauty.

She got some nice gifts, and the chance to invite friends from church and school, as well as cousins to come and celebrate her 8th birthday.  Happy Birthday again.

Happy 8th Birthday Alicia!

Turning 8 is such a big deal.  In our family, you get your ears pierced, you can make the decision to be baptized, and you can start to make bigger and more important decisions.  So here is to our 8 year old daughter,

her joy in camping for her birthday,

and for her infectious smile and her wonderful personality.  We laugh a little at her love of Little House on the Prairie, but it makes it worth it when we get to call her half pint.  So Happy Birthday half pint.

Alicia’s Favorite Birthday Present

On our third day of “Glamping” we were again facing a wet day with no end to the downpours.  Since Alicia turns 8 tomorrow, we let her get her most anticipated birthday present a day early. 

We talked to the owners of the RV place we were staying at for a recommendation, and decided against the nearby tattoo and piercing parlor, even though we were told they were very nice.  We decided to drive a little farther to the nearest Claire’s, where the choices for piercings were a bit more kid friendly.  Alicia picked the Hello Kitty earrings.

She was a little worried that it would hurt, but she was brave as she sat and waited as we filled out all the paperwork and she picked what she wanted. 

Afterwards, she said it barely hurt, and she was glad there was no blood, and she is thrilled to be able to clean her ears herself.  This is a big deal in our home, a right of passage when each girl turns eight, and she was so excited.  Can you see how happy she is, that smile couldn’t get any bigger.

With the rain still coming down we decided to go and see the new Pixar movie, Brave. 

We went back to the RV and the rain was only drizzling, so the girls got to use the large fire pit to roast some hot dogs.  If you notice, Grandpa Hale was using his gas fire pit since the ground was so wet.

We ended the day going out to the big grass lawn to play soccer croquet with mallets bigger than Olivia.

She didn’t mind the challenge, it warmed her up with the exercise.

Ken showed Olivia how to do it.

Tabatha ended up far ahead of the rest of us.

and Alicia got frustrated at not being first.

It stopped raining long enough to play on the playground nearby but I didn’t get pictures of the kids climbing the large tires, doing monkey bars, and pretending to be pirates.  It was a nice end to another wet day.

Mt. Saint Helens

We woke up on our second morning of “glamping” to pouring down rain.  We knew a number of kid friendly stops and museums are along the drive up Mt. Saint Helens so we decided to drive up the mountain and see the crater.  We didn’t anticipate that as we drove higher up fog would become so thick that we could barely see the road. 

Luckily, the Jr. Ranger Program that the U.S. National Parks has put together saved the day again.  With pictures like the one below, the kids relieved the day in 1980 when the volcano erupted. 

We couldn’t see the actual mountain through all the fog, but we could go through the museums, learn about volcanoes, ride pretend helicopters,

pretend to have the claws of a bald eagle,

or watch videos of the 1980 eruption in minute detail.  Afterwards the kids were better informed, had a great time, and received a booklet and badge to keep to remember what they had learned.

When we got back to the RV Alicia got out the play dough and tried to make accurate volcanoes with all the knowledge she had learned.  She made volcanoes before and after the explosion, made lava and magna flows, created various rocks, and wanted a picture to remember her work.  She was very informational.

Olivia didn’t worry about the specifics of the mountain, but back at the RV she loved getting daddy time.

We ended the day with my in-laws portable gas fire pit.  We relaxed under a dry shelter.  Here we are enjoying the warm fire and the outdoors having just finished a nice hot dinner.

Glamping at Tuttle River

While visiting some friends last week, we mentioned that we would be camping the next week-end.  They thought that was great and asked us where we were going, so we mentioned we were going to an RV park using my parents RV.  The RV park is near Mt Saint Helens, had a pool, and a walking trail nearby.  They laughed at our idea of camping and said a term we hadn’t used before, they said we weren’t camping, we were glamping.  I kind of like the term, and here we are, glamping at Tuttle River. 

Tabatha has learned to love doing her hair, and doing anyone else’s hair who comes nearby. The more braids the better, and I think she looks great!

It is the beginning of the summer, and there hasn’t been a lot of sun, so we are a bit white, but I think my hubby still looks great.

Peter Rabbit

For the third year in a row, my daughters were involved in the Milton Ballet performance.  This is the first time that Olivia was able to be involved.  She was the cutest little dandelion you could have ever seen.  Here she is.

and with her classmates.

Here Tabatha is in her blackbird costume for Peter Rabbit (although we call this her French Maid outfit, croissants anyone).

Here is Alicia at intermission, very happy to have finished her lettuce performance for Peter Rabbit.

At the end they always do a flower ceremony and a little speech to congratulate the dancers for their hard work.  Every dancer gets a carnation going from oldest to youngest. 

Here is Tabatha,

then Alicia,

and finally Olivia.  Before she even got her carnation I looked at Ken and said “I doubt it lasts 5 minutes.”  Little did I know that Olivia is a little carnation destroyer.  Here she is with her friend, the other Olivia from class playing with their carnations as soon as they received them.

We tried to tell Olivia to be careful with her carnation, but if you look closely, her carnation broke mere seconds after she received it.

As the dance teacher, Lynda Krona was giving her congratulations speech, Olivia ran over crying for her to “fix” her carnation.

It was cute the first time, but when her second carnation broke and she came up again, it ended up pretty funny, and when she heard the crowd laughing her inner showgirl came out, she didn’t cry when she heard the laughter, she loved the attention.  Luckily the show was over, and when the third one broke (I think it was on purpose for the laughs now) she had to drive home with her broken carnation top.  It ended up in the vase, but carnation heads don’t last very long.  The story on the other hand, can live forever.

Field Day

One of the quintessential rites of childhood in our area is the yearly tradition of Field Day to mark the end of school.  Ken is usually the one to go and help out, but this year I was able to go instead.  I brought Olivia with me so that she could see her sisters compete, and she was able to join in the fun as well.  Tabatha is such a fun and likeable girl that numerous pictures of her were taken by the art teacher Mrs. Danielsen and posted on their school website.  Since I forgot my camera, these are the only ones I have.

The theme was “Summer Olympics” and every class made a flag.  As the Olympic anthem played each class paraded behind their flag bearer.  Alicia's class was the United Kingdom and Tabatha’s class was the Northern Mariana Islands.

As the classes passed the bean bag toss area (that was my station for the morning games) I heard one class that was under Monaco say “we are all rich!”  When Liechtenstein came by I yelled out “nice of you to bring the whole country.”  It was fun seeing them engaged and enjoying themselves.

Here is Tabatha during an obstacle course.

After spending an hour an a half going to 30+ fun stations, the I ate with Alicia’s class for lunch, and then with Tabatha during her lunch.  Once we finished lunch, each class came out to the field for the annual tug-of-war and relay races.

On the left side is Mrs. Bayliss’ class, Tabatha is hidden on the right hand side.  They won the first round and were ecstatic.

Can you see the excitement.

Here you can see Olivia and I cheering on Tabatha in the background.

They lost the final round, but not for lack of effort.  They do such a great job teaching sportsmanship that the kids cheered and were gracious even in defeat.

Last was the class 50 yard dash.  Tabatha came in 6th, and here you see her running as fast as she could.

It was a sunny, warm, day.  The first nice day we have had in weeks, and Olivia got a little too much sun.  It was worth it, so very fun to watch all my girls enjoying the competition and glad I could volunteer to make it all happen.  We will be doing field day for many more years to come.