Celebrating Audrey

We had so much fun celebrating Audrey's birthday. She went off to school with a huge smile on her face:

Papa and Grandma Michaelson came into town for her birthday. So, we definitely had to take the birthday girl some lunch. We picked up her favorite (Chick fil-A) and enjoyed having lunch with her.

We also dropped off cupcakes for her to give to her classmates. When she came home from school, she was pretty excited to have a birthday crown:

We just hung out in the afternoon and then Audrey chose Olive Garden for dinner. We had a yummy dinner and then came home to open presents. Audrey was definitely spoiled by her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She was thrilled with every gift she received:

Cake time! Audrey wanted a cake similar to what Rachel had a few years back. So, I bought some fondant and she had fun coloring on her birthday cake:

Making a wish and blowing the candles out:

The inside of her super colorful cake:

After eating dinner out and then cake and ice cream, we were all full. Audrey was one happy girl all day long. It's so much fun to celebrate birthdays with our kids and see their excitement. Audrey definitely makes our life a lot of fun!

Gingerbread Houses

I decided to take advantage of my mom being in town for Audrey's birthday and the next day I had her help us with gingerbread houses. I don't know why I'm such a baby when it comes to putting these together. One day I'll get brave enough to try it again on my own. The one time I did, it didn't go too well. Melting sugar is definitely an art! :)

Everyone enjoyed decorating a gingerbread house. I was quite surprised at how much Ian got into it. He was definitely eating his fair share of candy, but he was also wanting to decorate. Such a happy boy!

It's really nice that the girls are independent enough to do most of it on their own.

Finished products:

We definitely had fun last night and are grateful we had Grandma's help. We are hoping the houses at least last a week, you never know in this humid climate we live in... But really as soon as they collapse, that's grounds for eating all the candy. So, it's not like anyone is really that disappointed.

Six Years Old

Our sweet Audrey is 6 years old today! She is so excited for her birthday. She always gets so anxious to decorate for Christmas and this year it finally dawned on me why, because that means it's almost her birthday. It only took me a few years to figure that one out... :) Audrey is 37 pounds and 42 1/2 inches tall.

Audrey is right in the middle of her kindergarten year. She's doing great at school. Her teacher adores her and Audrey adores her teacher right back. It's a great relationship! Her favorite thing about school is "glitter hands" or getting a jewel on her clip. She loves running up to me after school and showing me her glitter hands, which mean she got caught doing something good. I've been surprised to see how well Audrey is reading and writing. She'll put together simple sentences and I love the way she spells. I don't think Audrey's really found one really close bosom buddy at school, but she seems to just play with several different kids and she seems well liked. One day she'll find that really good friend.

This girl is our dancer. She just finished another semester of ballet/tap classes. She loves dancing, whether it's in a class setting or at home. She's even got Ian trained quite well to dance with her. She also still loves to change her clothes a couple times a day. I thought it would improve with her being at school 7 hours a day; but nope, once she hits the front door she's off to her room to change. She's very particular about her clothes. I'm finding that Rachel's hand-me-downs aren't always well received... She loves doing her hair, painting her nails, and putting on make up. One of her birthday gifts is a treat to go to Sweet & Sassy and get all dolled up. She's going to love it.

Audrey loves to play and make messes, but when it's time to clean up there's quite a bit of drama. She's not a fan of having to work. Although she does enjoy school work and playing teacher. She enjoys do multiplication flash cards with her sister. She's probably going to learn them right along with Rachel... That's the hope, anyways! Audrey loves to watch Disney make-up tutorials on YouTube. This past year at some point she informed me that I could use concealer to cover up the dark circles under my eyes. Thanks, Audrey! She also enjoys playing games on the computer.  

Audrey is a very caring child. She wants to make sure things are always "fair", whether it benefits her or not. She is very loving to Ian. She can get frustrated with him at times, but overall she dotes on him. Rachel and Audrey are still really good friends. They have their moments, but overall they play really good together. I LOVE seeing them having fun together. They are lucky girls to have each other.

It's hard to believe that 6 years ago today, I brought this born-in-Amsterdam girl home from the hospital. We were sent home 4 hours after she was born. It was quite the experience! And she's brought so much love, adventure, and fun into our lives. We are so grateful for our Audrey!

Work Family Holiday Party

Last night we went to Andy's work family party. Once again, we were disappointed by the food and lack of space. I feel like they need to open up another area of the office for the adults who are just there to mingle with other adults. It makes it difficult to feed little ones when you can't find a table to sit down at, because others are taking full advantage of the open bar and getting wasted and are completely oblivious to young children needing a place to sit. We only need about 15 minutes to eat, so those who take a table over for 2 hours are kind of annoying. Ok, rant over.. :)

However, we still had a good time. Before being disappointed by the food, we saw Santa. Ian wanted absolutely nothing to do with him... So, we got some cute pictures of the girls with him:

After eating we enjoyed the other activities. Everyone got an airbrush tattoo and their face painted. It was kind of funny when Ian got his face painted, he was quite disappointed at what the lady chose. I think she was just trying to do something quick, not knowing that 10 days before he sat still for quite the face paint at another function. So, his reaction was a frown, but he got over it... We also enjoyed decorating and eating some cookies:

 

The highlight of this party every year is going ice skating. However, in past years we have felt very rushed. So, we decided to just enjoy the indoor activities this year and we are planning on saving our tickets to go ice skating some time over winter break. The kids were fine with that. By the time we got through with everything, it was bed time. So, we headed home with the promise of going ice skating another day. 

Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree decorated!!! It's been up for about a week, but it was bare. Andy had to cut off more lights that weren't working. He decided to just cut them all off. So, now our pre-lit tree is no longer pre-lit. I am NEVER buying a pre-lit tree again. So, after Andy and I got the lights on, the kids had fun putting on the ornaments:

We are definitely excited for Christmas!!! Ian calls any Christmas decoration "Christmas lights". Everyone has decided what they want from Santa and are looking forward to seeing him this coming week...

Sinterklaas

We continued our tradition of Sinterklaas making a special visit from Amsterdam this year. Once it got dark on Friday night, the kids put their Dutch shoes out on the front step. And we anxiously awaited a knock as we finished up dinner...

  

Everyone was quite excited to go check out what Sinterklaas had left for them!

As you can tell there was some disappointment as pajamas were not given. But Sinterklaas keeps track of these things and when pajamas aren't needed, they aren't given. The kids each got a movie and everyone received a chocolate letter. And there were some other random Dutch treats: stroop wafels, kruidnoten, pepermunt ballen, and zachte schuimpjes. Got that? :) In other words, cookies, mints, and marshmallow-like candies. 

Our crazy holiday season has officially begun!

Audrey's Dance Recital

Audrey decided to continue on with her tap/ballet class this year. She loves her teacher, Miss Kristin. We were debating what class to put her in and where. Audrey was insistent on continuing at the YMCA. They only have 2 classes, one for 3-5 year-olds and another for 6-11 year olds. Miss Kristin said it would be best to put her in the older class. So, Audrey's definitely the youngest and smallest, but she does a great job of keeping up with the other girls. They performed 2 dances and did a great job in each one.

Ballet Dance:

 

Tap Dance:

 

Audrey striking a pose after her performances:

A picture with Mom & Dad:

And of course, Miss Kristin & Audrey:

Our Tree Climber

By the time we got home from the Fire Station, Andy was home as well from his church errand, so he got busy doing some yard work outside. Rachel loves to have an excuse to be outside, so she always heads out when Andy's out there working. She disappeared and surprised Andy by being up in a tree like this: 

She LOVES to climb trees. I keep on wanting Andy to get rid of these 4 trees (2 in the back and 2 in the front) but maybe we shouldn't...

Fire Station Open House

The Fire Station near our house held an Open House today. The kids and I decided to go and we had a fun time checking out the fire trucks, ambulances, and other activities. Ian had fun as well, but was not willing to participate in any of the picture taking. We got lots of little freebies from the vendors that were there and it was a fun Saturday morning activity.

Student Council Installation Ceremony

This morning I went to Rachel's Student Council Installation Ceremony. It was quite interesting... I 'd never seen anything like it. I used to work with the Student Council when I taught school and I don't recall us doing anything like this. Maybe we did and my memory is just gone... Anyhow, Rachel thought it was pretty cool to sit up on the stage and get sworn in as a Student Council Representative. The only disappointing things was only 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders attended. We thought Audrey would have been there. And she was kind of bummed to miss it. If we ever do this again, I may just have to pull the younger sibling out of class for 15 minutes. Here's a picture of Rachel with all her Student Council friends: