The Lee Family: July 2016

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Sofia's Birthday Party

We'd gone back and forth on throwing Sofia a birthday party partially because when I'd ask her about it she was pretty non-committal and also because most of Sofia's friends seem to be traveling and out of town in late July. Originally we thought of doing a swim party at our house as we've done before but it's actually a lot of work and it's so hot for parents to be sitting outside. Plus, with CK's parents in town he really wanted to go flying with his Dad on Saturday. About two weeks before Sofia's birthday I was looking at Facebook and saw photos of a 10 year old girl's birthday party at The Wild Nest which is an art studio in Colleyville. I haven't been to The Wild Nest but my book club went a few months back and they loved it. Plus, the pictures of the studio look amazing! I called and talked with Carla, the co-owner and we set up a paint-your-own unicorn painting party on the Friday after Sofia's birthday from 4pm to 7pm.

Once I set up the time and date I sent out an Evite to Sofia's friends: Shivaji, Clementine, Emily from school, Kelley, Emily from soccer, Gabrielle, Emma, Milani, Alexa and Chloe. All her friends said yes except for Alexa and Chloe who both planned to be out of town. Since the party would be during dinnertime, I decided to have Chik-Fil-A chicken nuggets, superfood salad (one of my favorites), watermelon, blueberry and strawberry fruit salad, pretzels and apple juice, fruit punch or water. Instead of a cake I decided to get the character cookies from Market Street and asked them to decorate them with unicorns. They turned out so cute! I also bought some mini chocolate cupcakes for a little variety and for those who prefer chocolate.

We arrived just before 4pm and set out the food and balloons, thanks to Connie, CK Sr, Michelle and my CK. Michelle is always the first to arrive anywhere she goes and it was great to have an extra set of hands to bring everything inside. The Wild Nest is even more overwhelming and awesome in person than in pictures! It's so decorative and over-the-top and reminded me of something my Mom would dream up! I loved it! All the girls arrived at 4pm and the party started!

Carla set out a blank canvas, a plate with dollops of paint they kids would be using, paintbrushes, a cup of water and paper towels at each kid's seat. All the girls found a seat and the painting party started. Just before everyone arrived, Carla showed Sofia several different unicorn paintings to chose from and she picked a really fun one to paint. The girls got started and Carla was great at explaining what to do as they painted. Unfortunately, Olivia didn't take part in the painting and preferred to hang out with her Grandma and Grandpa in the back seating area. I thought that she would either really be excited to paint and be a part of the party or be too shy and tired to join. She and Sofia spent almost the entire day swimming with their new mermaid tales and she was tired and wasn't interested in joining in. I considered having her take a nap earlier that day but we were too busy and the time got away from us. She was content to sit on her Grandma's lap, eat pretzels and play with my iPhone while the girls painted.

Carla walked the girls through the unicorn painting and they all were awesome at paying attention and following her directions. In about an hour, each girl had their completed unicorn painting and they all looked awesome! Even little Emily, who is 6 months younger than Olivia, painted with the group and did an awesome job without any help from Carla or her mom! I was hoping with Emily there that Olivia would want to join, but she didn't. After the girls were done with their paintings, they took off their smocks and old t-shirts and headed to the seating area where Olivia, Connie and CK Sr were sitting. Unfortunately CK had a board meeting that evening in Fort Worth and only stayed for the first 45 minutes of the party before he had to leave. Sofia sat in one of the chairs and the girls piled around her on the couch and even on the floor while she opened presents from her friends. She got so many great presents, all of which are right up her alley! She got a Toys R Us gift card from Shivaji, Mini Treats sowing kit from Clementine, Magnus Chase book and scratch tiles from school Emily, The Frog Princess and Valerie books and a Harry Potter coloring book from Kelley, a Barnes and Nobles gift card from Gabrielle and little Emily, a stained glass dragon art kit and large Darla dragon stuffed animal as well as a small Darla dragon stuffed animal for Olivia from soccer Emily, an art portfolio, Rainbow Rocks doll, paintable animal figures and bead and butterfly necklace from Emma, and a gift card to Half Priced Books from Milani. She got so many great gifts from her friends! She also got a paint your own plastic glitter horses and kinetic sand from Antonio and Luca.

After she opened her gifts and looked at all of her great things, the girls went back into the painting area to pick up a plate of food and sit down at the table where they painted. While Sofia was opening her gifts, Carla had cleaned up all the painting supplies and moved the finished unicorn paintings in the middle of the table so the girls could eat. After eating, Carla told the girls that there were birds hidden throughout the art studio and she wanted them to count how many each of them could find. I think Shivaji found over 70 while Sofia found around 60! It was hard to believe there were that many birds around the studio, but once you started looking birds were everywhere.

Once the girls were done with their search, I moved the unicorn cookies and cupcakes to the art table and we sang Happy Birthday to Sofia. The girls loved the cookies and before we knew it they and the mini cupcakes were gone! We took a group photo of the girls with their paintings and they all turned out so cute! The girls' moms started showing up and Sofia thanked each of her friends and gave them a thank you bag that included a box of colored pencils, a blank notebook to doodle in and several sheets of butterfly and fantasy coloring pages. She had written a note on each bag that read "Thank you for coming to my party. Love, Sofia" None of the parents had even heard of The Wild Nest before and we all talked about doing a mom's painting night out after school starts. It's such a fun place.

After all the moms and friends left, we loaded up our car and thanked Carla for a fantastic party! She actually told me that it was the best group of girls she's had for a birthday party! The girls were really awesome and respectful and it was a great party. I think because not all the girls knew each other and there were a few girls from Sofia's soccer team who don't know her from school as well as friends who don't know Sofia from school or soccer. They all got along well and I think everyone had a fun evening. As we drove off, Sofia said it was the "best party ever." I sure thought it was - it was so easy since Carla made it clear that her goal is to have the parents enjoy the party without having to manage anything. It was great! Ironically as I drove home I realized that I'd never payed Carla so I ended up returning to pay her! What a great party and experience!

Happy Birthday unicorn cookies and mini chocolate cupcakes

The Wild Nest entrance

The girls getting started on their unicorns

School Emily, Sofia and Shivani

Gabrielle and her little sister Emily

Olivia hanging out with her Grandma

School Emily painting

Shivani

Clementine

Emma working hard

Kelley, who liked to use a lot of paint

Soccer Emily

The birthday food

Sofia's unicorn coming together

Carla teaching the girls how to paint their unicorn

Olivia checking out Sofia's progress

Sweet soccer friends!

Unicorn cookies - and they are even better than they look!

Olivia and me watching Sofia's painting

Grandpa, Grandma and Olivia

Sofia starts opening presents

Darla the dragon!

Sofia and her sweet friends after opening all of her presents

Happy Birthday, Sofia!

The girls and their masterpieces!

The girls with Carla

With Sofia and her unicorn!

With Grandpa and Grandma

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Mermaids!

Sofia woke up at 8am ready to swim but waited for Olivia to wake up so she would have a fellow mermaid in the pool with her. After Olivia got up, the girls got into their new swimsuits and got into their mermaid tails by the pool. They both fit perfectly and Sofia could get into her's without help while Olivia needed help getting her feet into the tail. She could pull the tail up from there, but then needed to be put into the pool, so I slowly lowered her into the shallow end. I was interested to see how they would swim with their mermaid tails, thinking it would take them a bit to get used to. However, they both took to it like fish! It was amazing! They immediately started swimming like real mermaids! They both swam and made up stories about being mermaid sisters and where they lived, what they ate, etc. It was really sweet! They swam and had fun for awhile before we got them out for blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes and berries. Of course both girls chose chocolate chip. After finishing, they both put their mermaid tails back on and got back into the pool for more swimming. They ended up taking off their mermaid tails after a while, probably since it looks like hard work to swim with your feet together.

After lunch, Connie and I ran errands to prepare for the party the next day while the girls stayed home with their Grandpa and watched a show on our computer. CK made it home around 5:30pm and we enjoyed Sofia's requested birthday dinner of grilled salmon, filet mignon (for the adults who don't like salmon), roasted cauliflower, salad and tangerines. It was delicious and fun to celebrate her birthday still. After dinner and cleaning up, we ate another piece of birthday cake and then watched the movie "Miracles of Heaven" with Grandma. We'd actually seen the movie a few weeks before, but the girls liked it so much they wanted Grandma to see it too. OF course, it was good and the girls loved cuddling up with Grandma while watching it. After the movie, the girls went to bed after enjoying a very mermaid-filled day!

Our little mermaids...

Sofia's Birthday Celebration!

We had a big day planned to celebrate Sofia's 9th birthday! About a week before her birthday I asked what she'd most like to do and she said she wanted to visit the Perot Museum and spend as much time as she wanted at each exhibit. On her birthday morning, we had donuts, scrambled eggs and bacon to get the day started off right. CK headed to the office, so Sofia, Olivia, CK Sr., Connie and I loaded up and headed to the Perot Museum. We arrived around 10:30am and bought our tickets to see the Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure 3D to see it just after lunch. Sofia wanted to see the Eye of the Collector exhibit downstairs first and we enjoyed the different things that people collect, including Pez dispensers, Star Wars memorabilia, semiprecious stones and metals, dolls, Cowboys memorabilia and Beatles collectibles. It was really cool and Sofia and Olivia especially loved the Star Wars memorabilia, which is part of the largest Star Wars collection in the world! After seeing all the collections, we headed into the hall and Sofia asked if they could play in the children's museum play area. Since it was Sofia's birthday, I told her to go ahead and the girls ran ahead into the fun kid area. Sofia set off into the cityscape of Dallas where she sorted bricks and put them down the brick shoots. Meanwhile, Olivia played in the grocery store area and picked out vegetables and returned them to the truck to be sorted. The girls played there for about 45 minutes and then it was time for us to meet CK over at Mesomaya, which we'd agreed to meet at noon. It was particularly hot and humid, so the short walk was exhausting! Once we arrived, it felt great to get inside to the air conditioning! We ended up waiting a while but were eventually sat and enjoy a delicious lunch! I always love Mesomaya!

After saying goodbye to CK, who walked back to his office, we returned to the Perot Museum and Sofia wanted to go up into gems and mineral section which is always her very favorite place to visit. She walked around and enjoyed all the exhibits and then we went into a frack drilling 'ride' which was actually really fascinating to learn how they frack and all the infrastructure that goes into establishing a well. After that we returned to the 1st floor and went to the theater where we watched our 3D movie about sea monsters, which was about pterosaurs. Of course, Sofia loved it! Once the movie was over, we decided to head home so we could be ready for meeting at our house. Once outside we realized that a storm was on its way and the temperature had dropped at least 15 degrees - it felt great. Of course, the girls were dying to splashing in the little river outside the museum. When we arrived, I'd promised that they would be able to get their feet wet before we headed home. Within a few minutes both girls had their shoes off and were rolling around in the river completely soaked! The girls played a bit longer and then we headed to the car. We dropped CK Sr. off at CK's building so they could ride back together while the very wet girls, Connie and I drove home.

We'd originally planned to make Sofia's favorite meal of salmon, homemade baked sweet potato fries and cauliflower, but by the time we got home we decided to order pizza instead and ordered it from Jet's which is delicious! After eating pizza, Sofia opened up her presents. I always buy Sofia's school clothes on-line in July since everything goes on sale. So, part of her gift includes new shirts and skirts, which isn't super exciting as a gift but very well used. Sian and her family gave Sofia a Lego Elves set that included a small dragon, which she loves! They also gave her the Labyrinth game, which looks like a lot of fun. Aunt Cynthia and her family gave Sofia a "Mark My Time" reading timer, a Calvin and Hobbes collection which is a new favorite, and a fairy tale fairy garden set. My sister Becky sent her a Aquarellum painting set which is perfect since Sofia loves painting and any arts and crafts. Sofia's Grandma and Grandpa gave her a really cozy pink and white striped shirt, a pink journal, The Never Girls books, magnet science, & $20 cash. We waited to the end to give her our "big" gift.

Both girls had fallen in love with "mermaid tails" that some girls they know wore to the gym pool months before. They continued to talk about them and wondered how fun they would be to swim in. So, we'd decided to buy both girls the mermaid tails and give them both at Sofia's birthday. I'd wrapped Sofia's in a big box and put Olivia's in a gift bag so they wouldn't know that they got the same thing. We had Sofia open her's first and then let Olivia start opening after Sofia saw exactly what she got! They were SO excited and of course, they both wanted to swim right then! They were able to put their tails on and test them out and they both fit perfectly. They both looked so cute and couldn't wait to try them in the pool.

We put their tails into our bedroom and had Meeting. Of course, after they told everyone about their mermaid tails and showed them off. While they did this, we brought out Sofia's cake which was decorated with dragons, her very favorite thing! We all enjoyed cake and ice cream and celebrated our girl turning 9 years old, which is hard to believe! After, we put both girls to bed with promises of using their new mermaid tails in the pool.

Flowers from Grandma and Grandpa - they smelled so sweet!