Pregaming for Disneyland

On Elise's birthday we waved goodbye to Mimi and Millie and drove to California. Sadie and Elise were great in the car and we arrived at dinner time. We didn't stop for any meals on the way but when we got to the hotel we were all feeling a little tired so we ate some of our car food for dinner and relaxed. The girls and I checked out the hotel water park (while decked out in princess stuff, obviously) and then we all settled in to bed. 

 About 10 minutes later we heard a loud boom and realized the Disneyland fireworks were going off. The girls rushed outside and watched from our balcony. We stayed in the Courtyard Marriott Theme Park Entrance (there is another Courtyard Marriott elsewhere in Anaheim) and it was perfect- maybe a quarter mile to the Disney entrance with bunk beds in the rooms, a small water park/pool, and best of all, we could use Daniel's Marriott points to pay for it. Shout out to Ben Gaines who sold us some of his Marriott points so we could get up to the required amount.

The next morning we went to church. When we told the girls we would be attending church they both melted down. They were very upset that we weren't going to Disneyland until Tuesday and it turned into a big fight. but luckily we were able to convince them and then the Mother's Day Sacrament Meeting we attended was great.
We spent much of the rest of the day at the pool. The girls rode the water slides about 100 times each. Elise turned herself backwards a lot of the time. It was hilarious to watch them try so hard to walk fast but obey the no running rule to get back to the water slide stairs.

Sadie also challenged Daniel and me to races down the slides. I was able to beat her most of the time but she did beat Daniel. I was too competitive to let her win. 

The girls did some great moves off the side of the pool.

That night we grabbed pizza from a nearby restaurant. Elise fell asleep while waiting in line at the restaurant so Daniel took her back to the hotel when we finished eating. Sadie and I walked to a CVS so I could get Dramamine (which BTW totally worked to keep the nausea/barfing at bay when I went on rides). She asked me all about Disneyland and the times I had been before. We grabbed some Coldstone next to the hotel and ate it in the lobby.

Of course Sadie did all of the day's activities in sunglasses and Minnie ears. When in the vicinity of Disneyland...

Monday morning we had planned on heading to the beach but it was only 60 degrees and overcast. So we checked out Downtown Disney. Anna and Elsa's Boutique offered adorable makeovers and we decided to treat our girls. Elise declined the offer, which was probably smart since she hates getting her hair done. She picked out a toy instead. 

 Sadie felt very special. Her favorite part was in the picture on the right when they sprinkled glitter in her hair. The makeover included hair done in the Elsa style with pink extensions, a crown, makeup set, and nail polish.

 Elise got a little sad as she watched Sadie get the makeover. She has since told us she should have gotten the makeover, but I disagree. They were yanking Sadie's hair all over the place and Elise would have cried for sure.

By the time we finished the makeover and checking out the world's largest Disney Store the weather had cleared up so we headed to the beach. The girls tried to claim the sand at our neighborhood pond was beach enough for them. When we walked around the corner at Newport Beach the girls finally understood. Sadie said, "I think it goes on forever."

 They were a little nervous and the water was a little cold, but after running away from the waves for a bit they got brave enough to let their feet sink down in the sand.

 Elise requested that Daniel turn her into a mermaid like Uncle Steven did in Wisconsin last summer.

 When he finished she got very upset that it didn't have 2 tails, so he gave her what she wanted. She spent a while placing the shells just so. Funny girl.

 Sadie decided she wanted to be a mermaid as well, but one tail suited her just fine.

 Afterwards we grabbed some Balboa bars at a boardwalk stand. We intended on sharing the 2 bars between all 4 of us but Sadie and Elise basically inhaled them.

 Then we went to Ruby's Shake Shack for dinner. The food was decent, but the view was unbeatable. We ate just as the sun was getting ready to set. It was gorgeous. California is one beautiful place.

 

That night the girls slept through the fireworks show. We were all wiped out but VERY excited to go to Disneyland the next day.

Elise is FIVE

Elise had lots of surprises surrounding her 5th birthday. First up: the day before her birthday Mimi flew in! I stuck Millie and Elise in the car and turned on a movie. Lou didn't think to ask what we were doing until we were pulling up to the airport curb to get Mimi. Elise was very excited and surprised. We drove back to AF and had lunch at Kneader's. Then we dropped Millie off at a friend's house and surprised Sadie at school. She gave Mimi a huge hug and we all went to get our nails done.

There was some confusion with our nail appointments and they only had 3 openings together, but they didn't say anything to us about it. They did the girls and Carolyn's nails first and I kept thinking they would start me, but they didn't. I should have just skipped my pedicure, but I am not that smart, so I started mine when everyone else was done. The girls were having a hard time staying quiet and calm so Carolyn drove them to school and picked up Millie. The fun outing and surprise for the girls and Carolyn ended up being some alone relaxing time for me. I am manipulative like that.

The next morning was the main event. Lou's 5th birthday. Mimi got up early and made pancake pops for the girls. Elise wore the crown she got at preschool when she celebrated her birthday.

 Sadie was happy to help Elise open her presents. Lou's favorite thing was this Ever After High electronic diary that comes complete with a key. If you turn the key one way in the lock it leads you to the royals (aka the nice characters) and the other way it leads to the rebels.

Well, the surprises were just getting started. After the girls had played with Elise's new presents for a bit I went and got 2 more gift bags. I reminded the girls how we had been talking about what to do for their birthday parties this year but hadn't been able to choose something. I told them Daniel and I figured out the best thing and the gift bags were filled with things that we would need for their parties. In each bag was a Frozen autograph book, Minnie ears, sunglasses, and a princess dress-up. I asked them what they thought we were doing and they said, kind of matter-of-factly 'Disneyland'. Like they hadn't been talking about wanting to go there for years. Like it was just your every day kinda thing. Elise asked if she could play with her new toys some more. I felt a little bit dumb because I was so thrilled to tell them and their reaction wasn't what I was expecting. 

A few minutes later Sadie asked me if we were really truly going to Disneyland. When I told her yes she got a lot more excited. I guess they needed some time to let it sink in but they got more and more excited and tried on their new stuff while we finished loading the car to drive to California.

Let's talk about our big 5-year-old Elise Lynn:

-loves dragons, dinosaurs, princesses, and anything pretend

-70th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height

-does not know how to be quiet or sneaky. She walks with heavy heels and can't whisper to save her life

-loves to snuggle and give hugs

-is just SO expressive and enthusiastic. I love that about her. Her preschool and primary teachers always tell me about how engaged she is and her eyes get really big when she is listening and grasping new information.

-loves to fake laugh repeatedly until she is really laughing

-tells lots of jokes that make no sense

-mostly kind to other kids. The person she fights most with is Sadie (no surprise)

-a great student. She started off preschool having a hard time sitting still and being quiet but by the end of the year her teachers all said she was wonderful, attentive and respectful

-eats pretty much anything. Fruit is her favorite food. She hates soda

-tries to play with Millie but gets frustrated because Camille usually just ends up messing up whatever Elise wants her to do. I think next school year they will get along really well when Millie gets better at pretend play

-she's a sweater. Not like an article of clothing, but actual body sweater. Is that weird to write about her? Her cheeks turn bright red and her body sweats when she runs around for like 5 minutes. She also gets sweaty in her sleep. Poor girl. Adolescence, please be kind to her.

-HATES to get her hair done. I really want to just cut all her hair off so I don't have to deal with the fights. I would do that if she wanted to, but she wants long hair. Sometimes she cries before the brush even makes contact with her hair

-thinks outside the box. She loves to be creative. At one point during the school year her teachers told us that while they really appreciated the detailed swirls she was adding to all her letters it made it so they couldn't read the letters. The funny thing is that she would write the letter correctly and then make swirls all over the top. She got a little mad when they told her that because then the letters weren't cool anymore. She also likes to draw things and then "color them in". which basically means coloring over the entire thing she drew until you can't tell anything was under the scribbles.

-quick to let go of anger and hurt feelings. She does not hold a grudge

House Updates

We made some big changes to our house over the past few months.

The first change was the kitchen cabinets. I have always disliked our yellowish knotty alder cabinets with our yellowish hickory floors. I didn't necessarily hate them separately, but I really disliked them together. 

I have really wanted white cabinets so we decided to go with it. I chose a bright white lacquer, which is much more durable than something like wall paint. I also had them add some trim to make the island less plain. The painters came on a Monday morning and took off all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Then they taped everything off, did a light sand and painted 3 coats on the cabinet shells. Here's what it looked like after day 1.

On Friday they returned and installed all our finished doors and drawers. They put 5 coats of lacquer on those since they get much more use and abuse then the cabinet shells. They also installed the hardware. We didn't have any hardware before. Anyone notice what else they changed? The pot rack hanging from the ceiling is gone. I told the painters they could have it if they took it down, patched and painted.

I am in love with the drawer pulls. I didn't think I would be picky about them but then, surprise, I was. Shocker. The ones the painter showed me were all shorter and they looked funny on the bigger drawers on our island.

Next up was refinishing the floors. The floors had water damage by the dishwasher when we bought the house. (We didn't notice it until the day after we moved in.) Anyway, we faithfully watched that warped area after moving in and it hadn't changed at all, so we were fairly confident the water was an old issue that had been remedied. When we had floor guys out to bid on the job they all confirmed that it was old damage that they could sand down flat so we didn't have to replace any flooring. We also found a ton of old water damage under the refrigerator when we moved it for the cabinet painters. Then the big question was the color. All along I thought I wanted to change the color and I strongly disliked the glossy finish we had. 

Every floor person I talked to begged me not to mess with the color of our natural hickory floors. Every single one of them told me natural hickory was their favorite wood floor. I had no idea we had high quality wood floors, but hickory is very durable and hard and expensive. I still wasn't convinced about the color and brought home a few samples. Here is a gray sample against our white cabinets. As I kept staring at the floors I decided I liked the floors a lot more now that the cabinets were white. I also feel like the beautiful variation in color stands out much more. The floor refinishers told me that by sanding all the floors down and putting a matte finish the yellowish tint would go away. 

Here is what they looked like after day 1 of sanding. 

And here is what they looked like after they were completely finished. To be honest the color I liked best was when they were all sanded down without any finish, but you can't leave wood floor without any protective coat. I am very happy with the decision to not stain them a new color. They are beautiful. 

The next big change we made was our front door. This front door has been struggling since before we bought the house. The outside of it had virtually no finish/stain left on it. It was basically raw wood. The door was starting to crack. 

Again, I hated the knotty alder color. I wanted a dark brown with some black/gray tones to it. The painters advised me to choose a slightly darker stain than I wanted because the outside will fade a lot. 

I didn't take a full before picture of the outside of the front door, but here it is after they had started to sand it down. 

And here it is after:

I absolutely panicked when I pulled up to the house that afternoon. It totally looked black to me and I hated it. As I have gotten used to it I love it more and more. When you are up close and can see all the wood grain it is beautiful. I wish you could see a little more of the wood grain from far away. I like it SO much better in the overall aesthetic of the outside of our house. If you look closely in that picture below you will see we won American Fork yard of the month. Most notable achievement of our lives. That's for sure. 

The last change we made was some furniture upgrades. I mentioned we sold our old table. Here is our new table and bench. Haven't purchased chairs yet. We are using folding chairs. Haha

And a new tv stand. We moved our older, smaller tv to the basement because we really don't go down there much. We had the same guy who made us the table make this tv stand. I love it. It is massive and makes our 60" tv look tiny. 

 I am so happy with all the storage inside. 

The last change I would really like to make is to this hideous stair railing/banister. We would like to stain the hand railing and posts to match the dark front door. And then replace all the iron balusters with wood and paint them white. 

Oh, plus add a backsplash in the kitchen. And change our whole fireplace. And all our outside light fixtures. Plus a few other things. 

It never ends, does it?

Up with Kids

Sadie took a theater class all year through a program called Up With Kids. The first 4 months were basic theater classes covering a variety of related topics. In January Sadie "auditioned" and was given a part in their program-wide play. It was a combination of Aladdin with the premise of Inside Out (running commentary from emotions inside the main character's brains).

Sadie worked very hard and could not wait to perform. She definitely gets nervous about performing but she really enjoys the attention. She had a dress rehearsal performance at a local elementary school on Millie's birthday. 

Enjoy some blurry photos of Sadie's parts. In the picture above she is one of Jasmine's princess contemporaries in purple on the far left. In the picture below she is a mini genie second from the left. 

Millie was super disruptive. Yay!

Elise was enthralled. She danced and sang her heart out during the performance. She begged me to do the class next year. We'll see. Elise likes the idea of performing but I don't trust her one bit to actually stand on a stage in front of people. 

The next night was the real performance. I didn't get to take any pictures because Millie commandeered my phone and then it died. Enjoy this video of Sadie's speaking part. She is on the far left.

 Sadie was thrilled to find out that all participants got a trophy. She told me that everyone got one, but she really was better than the other kids in her class. There's the good old Nielson competitiveness. 

Millie's 2nd Birthday

Millie is 2 years old!! 

Sadie had a play performance that morning and Daniel and I were going on a date that night so we had her blow out 2 candles stuck in a donut early that morning. We had to wake Camille up since she normally sleeps until about 9 AM. She was disoriented but excited about donuts. We got donuts again the other day and Millie insisted that I put candles in and sing happy birthday. 

Sadie and Elise graciously assisted Camille in her present opening. She got a few Melissa and Doug chunky puzzles and books. She was very excited about them all.

After school that afternoon we all went to the Puppy Barn, which is a dog store. Kids are not allowed to hold the dogs but the adults can hold them while the kids pet. You are allowed to spend some time in a fenced corner playing with puppies, so we did that for a bit. 

Here's the lowdown on Mills:

-55th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height, which is a drop in height for her. I am really interested in how tall our kids will be. Mainly because there is such a wide range of possibility between me and Daniel's height. 

-extremely independent and much more physically coordinated than our older kids were at her age. She does everything at the park by herself. If she can't do it on the first try she keeps trying until she succeeds or I tell her to stop because she is going to hurt herself. Falling down/getting hurt doesn't slow her down much.

-loves to read in her room. Her books are usually strewn all over the floor. She has most of our books memorized. The other day the last 2 pages of a board book were stuck together so I skipped it. She was not going to have that. Also, she knows all her letters and most of her numbers. We have never explicitly taught them to her but we do have several alphabet books

-LOVES to make messes and just plain bother people. She pulls Elise's hair all the time because she likes to make her cry and scream. She gets into what we call menace mode and she runs around the house wreaking havoc and loving it. She is quick to say sorry and then immediately does it again.

-freezes in funny poses for a long time until one of us notices her and laughs.

-almost always sleeps with her legs/feet crossed. She also loves her pillow. I don't think our other kids slept with pillows until they were in regular beds. She takes 1 nap per day. She frequently talks to herself for an hour until she falls asleep. Then we have to wake her up at 5 so she can still go to sleep that night. When we put her down at night she still talks to herself for an hour before falling asleep, even if it is late. 

-hams it up for the camera.