The Lee Family: August 2017

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Olivia at 6 Years Old!

Our girl is SIX years old! Although she seems to be growing up so fast, CK and I agree that she still doesn't seem as grown up as Sofia did at this age. Olivia is carefree and fun and easy-going and our social butterfly. It's amazing how different the girls are from each other, yet they get along so well and are best friends (most of the time). Olivia is a week into 1st grade and is still shy and not certain about being back in school with a new teacher and a new group of kids. Her teacher, Ms. Feaster, seems like a great fit and we are certain Olivia will warm up and feel comfortable in her class in no time. At 6, Olivia is 47 1/2 inches tall and weighs 54.2 lbs, and wears size 6 clothes and size 12.5 or 13 shoe. She isn't as tall as Sofia was at this age, yet is tall in her class even though she's the youngest.

Olivia's favorites:

Breakfast: vanilla yogurt
Lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Dinner: spaghetti casserole or salmon
Vegetable: cucumbers

Olivia's favorite colors: pink and purple
She wants to be: a dog trainer, teacher, or rocket designer
Her favorite book: anything with a mermaid in it!
Her favorite Show: PJ Masks or My Little Pony

Olivia loves to play with her sister and still loves mermaids and unicorns, although she also enjoys Star Wars and dragons since that is what Sofia wants to play and isn't as interested in mermaids and unicorns. She loves having her nails painted, doing her hair and always wants to put powder on her face. She loves dressing well and is very particular about what she wears and how she looks. She will let me braid her hair, although she prefers a single ponytail most days. I love doing double french braids in her hair. Every night she wants us to read her a story (or several) and then she is tucked in with her two lovies - Giraffey and Cutie (a brown stuffed monkey). She isn't a strong reader yet, and finds it particularly frustrating at night when she's tired. She wants to read each word perfectly, so once she misses a word or two, she's done and wants to be read to instead.

Olivia is always up for running errands, going to the park or trying something new. She prefers being on the go to hanging out at home, although she's pretty flexible. She loves having play dates and comes home each day asking who she can have a play date with that week. She is my tennis player and took a few lessons over the summer. She tells me all the time that she wants to really learn and play "when she's older." She loves soccer and is good at it, although she could be more proactive in going after the ball at times. She is an excellent defender and can run down the ball every time. She is so fun to watch because she has a smile on her face the entire game. She's also just started piano lessons with James, and James has said that she is a perfectionist when it comes to playing, which will serve her well as she really starts to learn and play.

CK and I often joke that our two girls could use a little bit of what each have a lot of. Olivia could use a little bit more of Sofia's lack of caring what other people think, while Sofia could use a little bit of Olivia's compassion and empathy. They are very opposite in these areas and it can cause some frustration for both of them. Olivia really adores Sofia and really looks up to her. We can't wait to see what Olivia does in the coming year!

Our sweet SIX year old!

Flying in the Cub with her Papa - a big favorite of hers!

Our little soccer player!

On the birthday chair with her favorite lovey - Giraffey! She sleeps with Giraffey every night.

Sweet sisters and friends!

Focusing on a painting craft

Our little mermaid!

Playing dress-up with her buddy, Antonio!

Antonio, Olivia and Sofia! Love this picture!

With her friends after a HOT day at Camp Thurman!

Her sweet friend, Cora!

Her best friend, Hannah J!

And with her Mommy!

Olivia's Birthday Party!

Sunday morning arrived and Olivia is now a 6 year old! We asked her if she felt older and she said she felt the same as she did the day before. We had donuts for breakfast before heading to Al and Jills' house for Meeting. Unfortunately, Grandpa stayed behind with a very sore back, so it was Grandma and the rest of us. Olivia ended up cuddling up on my lap and falling asleep in the final 20 minutes of Meeting. I know the days of her cuddling on my lap are numbered since she's getting bigger and heavier. After Meeting, we asked Olivia were she wanted to eat lunch and she originally said Johnny B's, the girls' favorite burger place. It really isn't my favorite, but today is an exception so we were planning on going there. However, she changed her mind and said Uncle Julio's, which is our usual brunch location. Once we arrived at Uncle Julio's it was really crowded and raining. Olivia saw In N Out, and asked if we could go there instead! We parked and ran through the rain to get inside. In N Out makes a surprisingly delicious burger, so it was a good pick for a 6 year old birthday lunch! Olivia and Sofia both order the grilled cheese, which is also delicious. We ordered burger and fries for Grandpa and headed home.

Once home, we organized all of the party goods, including the plates and supplies, food, drinks, party favor gifts and balloons. We loaded everything into the SUV, gathered up the girls and CK held the birthday cake on his lap while I drove Grandma and the girls to the North Richland Hills Centre for the birthday party! There had been bands of hard rain from Hurricane Harvey down in Houston, so we were lucky to arrive at the Cenre when it wasn't raining. We unloaded all of our party supplies and started decorating the party room. The party was due to start at 3pm and last until 5pm, so we had about 20 minutes before everyone arrived. Sofia and Olivia were so excited to be there and asked if they could go swim. They headed off and we organized the party tables and got ready for guests. Olivia wanted a "girls only" party, but we ended up inviting Antonio, since we are such good friends with him. We invited Olivia's entire soccer team, including Margo who is new to the team and we'd only met once. She included several girls from Mrs. Schultz' Kinder class including Poppy, Charlie, Grace, Annabel, Callie, and her best friend, Hannah, Addie and her sister Makenzie, and Isabella. Makenzie and Sofia are big buddies and it was great having Makenzie there for Sofia to play with. None of the girls on Olivia's soccer team go to school with Olivia, so there were a bunch of different "groups" of girls and then a few solo girls like Isabella and Addie. However, they all played together and seemed to get along really well. They started out playing on the small slide and then moved to the lazy river and ended at the hot tub.

Meanwhile, most of the moms hung out in the party room and talked, since the pool area is so hot and humid and smells strongly of chlorine. When it was 4:30, CK headed to the hot tub and called all the kids to the party room. They enjoyed gold fish, pretzels and watermelon balls before we sang "Happy Birthday" to Olivia! CK cut the cake and served Olivia first. She wanted a piece of chocolate, so he gave her one with a lot of "mane" frosting on it. All the kids loved the snacks and cake with vanilla ice cream and seemed to have had a great time at her party. After everyone was done with their cake and ice cream, Olivia passed out the party favor bags that included handmade unicorn horn hair bands, a homemade unicorn necklace and unicorn stickers, lip gloss and candy. She gave her friends hugs and thanked them for coming. After everyone left, we loaded up all the gifts and left over party things and headed home. The NRH Centre was such a great place to have a party and it was so easy to set up and a fun place for all the kids. Plus, it was great to swim indoors while it rained on and off outside.

Originally Olivia wanted a pool party at our house with a bunch of her friends. We've hosted a number of swim parties for Sofia and Olivia's mermaid party last year was at our house, but this year it just felt overwhelming. So, two weeks before I called the NRH Centre and was so thankful they had the 3-5pm slot available on Sunday, which ended up working out better than a Saturday party due to sports and other family activities families have. Only two girls weren't able to make it out of the 16 Olivia invited! Once Olivia decided on a "unicorn themed party" she and I spent time looking on Pinterest for ideas. She picked out the cake she wanted which I enjoyed trying to figure out how to make and decorate it. I found the unicorn headbands tutorial on Pinterest and loved heading to the dollar store for the headbands, craft store for sparkly white and plain pink felt and fake flowers. It was a lot of hot glue gun use and was really a lot of fun to make all of the cute headbands. For Antonio, I used leaves and blue ribbon instead of the gold ribbon and flowers, trying to make it more masculine. Sofia helped out a lot by tracing the unicorn heads on shrinkie dink paper and coloring the heads before I cut them out and baked them for the necklaces. Earlier, Olivia and I made the party favor bags, using plain white bags and making "eyes and eye lashes" out of Sharpies and adding paper unicorn ears and a gold unicorn horn and then adding flowers. They all turned out so cute and Olivia was a huge helper! The only down side to the party preparation, was the badly burned middle right finger while making the unicorn headbands which ended up getting infected with a staph infection! I ended up on topical and oral antibiotics! It also hurt like CRAZY! But, I was then more careful with the glue gun going forward!

After we got home, we put all of her party gifts on the fireplace mantel and she slowly opened and looked over her gifts from her friends. Sofia was actually out front playing with Antonio and Brandon, so Olivia had a good time enjoying time with us and her grandparents solo. Grandpa made his way slowly downstairs to enjoy a piece of birthday cake while Olivia opened her presents. She got a lot of great things, including several Lego sets, a mermaid dress up dress, a cute pink skirt, and games. She loved it all!

It turned out to be such a fun party and day! One of my favorite parts is to make special things for each of their birthdays and also to make their birthday cakes. Sofia was a little bummed that we hadn't had a birthday party for her, but I explained to her that we've had many really great and unique birthday parties for her, when we've only really done two birthday parties for Olivia. Also, I told her anytime she wants to have friends over to swim, she can. That seemed to take care of her concerns. Olivia really had a great birthday weekend and she was so thankful her Grandma could be here to celebrate with her!

The party set up!

The homemade gift bags

The party table

Olivia playing with her buddies!

The unicorn cake!

The party snacks before cake and ice cream

The party goers enjoying their snacks

The birthday girl!

Our little unicorn girl!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to Olivia!

Love this picture! Such a happy birthday girl!

Ready to blow out her candle and make a wish!

CK cutting the cake

Olivia and all of her presents!

Opening her first present!

A homemade card from Annabel!

Look at all that wrapping paper!!

Olivia's Birthday Weekend!

Olivia's 6th birthday weekend started with her Grandma and Grandpa being at our house when the girls got home from school after their first week of school! Both girls had a great week of school, with Sofia saying her day was "even more awesome than the day before." Olivia wasn't quiet as positive about her days, but they got better as the week went by and I'm pretty sure she loves having her own "school" to herself now. She seems confident and her teacher, Ms. Feaster, is the absolute best fit for her and seems like a great teacher. I picked Olivia up and gave her her snack (slices apples and peanut butter with a gatorade) and then we picked up Sofia from the Glen Hope bus at the back of school. The girls' grandparents arrived at our house shortly after I left to get the girls and I told them the code for our front door so they could get settled after their drive from Atlanta. On the car ride home, I told the girls that Grandpa and Grandma were at our house and they started chanting "Grandpa, Grandma" over and over and were so excited to see them! Olivia desperately wanted her Grandma to spend time with her at her birthday and we are so excited that they were able to make the trip out to do so! Olivia adores her Grandparents, but especially her Grandma!

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon with their Grandparents and Olivia was basically Grandma's shadow until dinner. For dinner we had chicken tacos and sat outside since it was in the mid-80s due to Hurricane Harvey down by Houston. The weather had really cooled off and it felt fabulous outside. Before going to bed, CK, his dad, and Sofia watched a documentary "The Last Man on the Moon" while Olivia watched an episode of "My Little Pony." The girls were both beyond exhausted when they went to bed after a long week, but they were so excited to go to bed knowing Grandma and Grandpa were there for the weekend!

On Saturday morning Sofia and her Pink Pirates soccer team had their very first soccer game of the Fall season. Again, the weather was unseasonably mild and it was actually pleasant to be on the soccer fields for the 9am game. The Pink Pirates not only have Coach Jeff back but also have 17 players, which is so much more helpful since we started most of the past season soccer games down a player since our roster was so short. Emily, the team's star player, is back this season so we know it will be a good season! In fact, Emily scored the first goal and our new player, also named Emily, scored two more goals throughout the game. Unfortunately, the opponent's only goal was actually scored by Sofia. She was playing defense and said she tried to kick the ball to Emily, who was the goalie, but it slipped past her. There were a bunch of opponents around her so no one actually knew it was her. Poor thing! At least the Pink Pirates won 3-1!

After the game was over, Connie, Sofia, Olivia and I walked back home to CK in the middle of making biscuits, scrambled eggs, and bacon! Again, we were able to sit outside to eat and it was a delicious meal! Just after we finished eating, it was Olivia's turn to get to her soccer game that started at 12:15pm. We needed to be at the fields by 11:30am to get the Rockets' uniforms before going on the field. Despite the road construction, we ended up driving to the soccer fields. Just after the game started it started raining solidly. Olivia was obviously very distracted by the rain and was far more concerned that she was getting wet than that she had to pay attention to Coach Matt and play soccer. Brinley really stepped up during the game and scored a bunch of goals, which Olivia and Emma usually do. Olivia got a few kicks on goal but missed. The girls all had fun and it was a good start to the soccer season. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any photos during her game because of the rain.

We drove home, and Olivia showered and changed and we made her birthday cake! She wanted a two-layer unicorn cake with chocolate on the top layer and vanilla on the bottom. We started with the chocolate cakes, since they were smaller and had a shorter cook time. Olivia did nearly all of the work. I measured everything out and she added it all together, cracked the eggs and mixed everything together. We put the chocolate cake into the oven and started on the vanilla cakes, which were two regular 9" rounds and would take longer to bake. The chocolate cakes finished and looked delicious and moist. While the vanilla cakes baked, I made the buttercream frosting, which also looked (and tasted) delicious. For dinner CK grilled steaks and we enjoyed it with corn on the cob and a salad. Our usual weekend dinner, which always tastes so good! After dinner, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Olivia and enjoyed unicorn cupcakes which we'd ordered from Market Street. They were so cute and delicious!

After the yummy cupcakes, it was time for Olivia to open her presents! She had presents from Sian and her family, Sofia, Mommy and Papa, Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jay and cousins. She couldn't wait to open up her gifts and had a hard time deciding which one to open first. She picked the gift from Sian and her family first and was super excited to get a unicorn headband, a cat headband and collar, and adorable unicorn hair clips too. Grandma and Grandpa gave Olivia a bunch of cute unicorn stuff including a unicorn plate, sippy cup, banner, and wood cutout. They also gave her a Star Wars Glow in The Dark shirt that matches Sofia's, since she liked it so much. They also gave her $100! They had given Sofia $100 for her birthday and wanted to give Olivia the same amount so she could pick out her own toys/books/games too. Grandma and Grandpa also gave Olivia mermaid bed sheets, while we gave her a matching shower curtain. Olivia has wanted new bed sheets and a "cute" shower curtain, so she was really happy. Sofia gave Olivia a Lego Friends Lego set that we'd picked out together the week before. Her Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Jay and cousins gave her a My Little Pony play set, which the girls were super excited to play with! They opened up the play set and loved playing with it until bedtime.

After the girls went to bed, CK and I decorated the unicorn cake. We covered the bottom layer with cute sprinkles, which proved to be a bit more difficult than expected. CK did most of the work and we joked that we'd be finding sprinkles in our kitchen for weeks to come. A few days before, I'd made fondant with marshmallows and powdered sugar. From that, I made unicorn ears, closed "eyes" with eye lashes, and a unicorn horn. We don't intend for anyone to actually eat the fondant forms, so we used food coloring to "paint" the horn yellow/gold. It really looked great and we were excited to add it to the cake tomorrow before her party. We put the birthday cake into the fridge before going to bed. It was such a fun birthday the day before her birthday!

Grandpa and Olivia off to get a ring pop during Sofia's soccer game