On Grace's birthday we wanted to have a FUN day! So we went to the movies. After the movie the girls got to play in the play area at the mall before we headed home for lunch.
While Olivia took her nap, Grace helped make her cake. We had baked a heart shaped cake the night before but we had to make frosting and decorate it. She chose a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and it was pretty yummy!
Before dinner we let Grace open her presents. Since she had her party over a week before her actual birthday she only had a few presents to open but she didn't mind.
She is really into Fairies and Barbies so she got a couple of Barbies and a Tinkerbell scooter.
After her special dinner (she chose steak, smashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls) she got to blow out candles and we had cake and ice cream.
She told me that this was the prettiest cake ever! I am sure glad she thought so.
We had Grace's birthday party at WOGA (World Olympic Gymnastics Academy), where both girls take gymnastics.
Olivia's favorite event is the bars. She loves the uneven bars the most I think!
Grace is in the 4-5 year old class which is held in the main gym. Upstairs they have their kids gym for kids 3 and under which is where Olivia's class is held. We decided to use this room so the younger kids could participate in all of the fun. Grace was excited to do gymnastics in Olivia's classroom since it was a new layout!
So many of Grace's friends came to help her celebrate! Brilyn came all the way from Oklahoma. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Brandy were there too. And Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Mike flew in from Missouri and spent a couple of days with us.
Olivia is so funny! If we mention gymnastics she starts talking about her flips and swinging on the bars.
The bars are one of Grace's favorite event too but she really loves it all.
After the kids all played it was time for cake! Grace picked out some really cute cupcake liners that were perfect for her Tinkerbell theme.
This was the easiest party we have ever done. I dropped off the paper products and decorations when we were there for their class a few days before the party. When we showed up everything was ready!
Grace REALLY wanted a Tinkerbell themed birthday party. Otherwise, they would have provided everything but the cake. I think we may have her party here next year too!
After eating cake there was still more time to play!
After the party we came home and opened all of her presents.
She got a lot of stuff from her "wish list" and loved everything!
On her actual birthday she told me she wanted to do gymnastics that day. Gymnastic days are one of her favorite days of the week!
Over the summer I saw a Groupon deal for a new play place that looked really fun called Indoor Safari Park in Flower Mound, TX. They have a location in Plano that we plan to visit soon. There just so happened to be Groupon deal for that location the day we visited the Flower Mound one. If you haven't heard of Groupon before, what are you waiting for? They have some great deals - last week I got a $20 Toy's R Us coupon for only $10 and it could be used with other coupons! There is an app for iPhone so you don't even have to print out your coupon - just show your phone and they can scan the barcode. Super easy!
Anyways, yesterday we finally decided to check out this super fun play place. It was Safari themed and there were 3 different play grounds geared toward different ages. There was also a toddler area for kids 6 months - 2 years.
Olivia wanted to play in the big kid play area. This one was for ages 4+.
This was near the toddler area. It was geared towards older toddlers.There was a slide, ball pit, and trampoline in each of the play areas!
With your basic admission (normally $9.99 for kids and adults pay $1) you get a train ride and a robotic animal ride. There are also other packages available (they have things like miniature golf and pottery painting).
There was an area that had about a dozen train tables (they each had a different theme), doll houses, toy kitchens, etc. This was a big hit for my girls!
Grace has a doll house similar to this (basically a bigger version) but she had so much fun playing with this one.
Grace wasn't too sure about riding a robotic animal but when she saw other kids ride them she could hardly wait for her turn. Anytime another kid rode on one she would run back there to watch. I think she was hoping she would get another turn!
We stayed for a couple of hours but I am sure they would have loved to play all day. I think next time we go we will eat at their little cafe and play all day! We went during the week and it wasn't busy at all. I would guess it would be pretty crowded on the weekends since you can have birthday parties there.
It's a great place to take your kids when the weather is too yucky for the park!
A few months ago I heard about something called Moon Sand from Jen. She made it with her son and it sounded like lots of fun and easy to make. BUT... we were in the middle of moving. Fast forward a bit and we are settled into our new house and needed a fun activity. So Olivia helped me mix up a tub of moon sand.
I put a table cloth in the middle of the kitchen floor to help contain the mess. It probably would have been better to do it outside.
It was super easy to make! Flour and Baby oil and that is all. I think I put about 8 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of baby oil but I don't remember exactly. I am sure you could just add more flour or oil to make it to the consistency you want.
It is moldable so we used our hands to make mountains!
And I have no idea why I don't have pictures of Grace playing with the moon sand. It probably has something to do with her wanting to have a flour fight when she joined in :)
Our neighborhood has a lot of parks and several ponds with ducks. This past summer was pretty hot and dry so the ponds were down a lot and it was hard to find the ducks but we finally found some in the front pond. There is also a big playground next to the pond.
First, we fed all of our bread to the ducks. The girls love to feed the ducks and Olivia is getting pretty good at tearing little pieces off to make her bread last longer.
And then we went to play! Olivia thinks she is just as big as all the other kids and climbed to the highest part of the playground.
And then I tried to take Grace's picture at the top of the tube slide hid behind her hand.
It was warm and they still had the water misters turned on! Of course this was one of Grace's favorite things. There was a small splash pad but we didn't have any extra clothes so we stayed away from that this time.
There is a section for toddlers that we explored first.
Then we headed over to the area for the bigger kids.
Grace loved the tight rope!
Olivia likes to join the big kids in all the fun and found a little girl and followed her all over. They climbed to the top of the playground and went down this slide over and over!
Recently Grace has been wanting her picture taken every time she finds one of these photo ops. She wasn't too sure about this one at first though because it looked like a BOY! We decided that it must be a girl farmer wearing overalls because she was working in the hay.
And we couldn't leave without swinging!!!
We have been back once and I am sure we will be back lots more.
We made it back from NY just in time for Halloween. And after Halloween the girls had a dentist appointment. What great timing, huh?
Grace was so excited to visit the dentist. She took one if her Tinkerbell dolls to watch as she got her teeth cleaned. After she got X-rays of her teeth she wanted to show Tinkerbell the picture on their computer monitor! She sat so still and was such a big girl.
Olivia doesn't really like to have her teeth brushed. She likes to do it herself. But she liked sitting in the chair watching a movie on the iPad. I realized later they had tv's mounted above the chairs and had the Lorax playing the whole time.
Both girls got their picture taken with the huge toothbrush for the "no cavity club" wall.
Hopefully Olivia won't bite the dentist when they go back in 6 months!
