We had a beautiful, sunny 75-degree day to celebrate Willow's 6th birthday with a Frozen-theme. She desperately wanted to try Dunkin' Donuts since we drive past it every time we're going to/from gymnastics, so it was her special time to do that!
Thanks to Pinterest I was able to get inspiration AND directions on making her cake.
Yet again, Willow was blessed with many thoughtful gifts from friends and family! Who knew there were Frozen things we didn't have already?
On Pinterest I found some fun printables for a scavenger hunt around the house. All clues were lyrics from songs in the movie.
We had a few activity-stops along the scavenger hunt. Here's their freeze dance to "Let it Go."
Pin the nose on Olaf:
And painting canvases at the end:
There were more fun printables I found for fun food ideas, but I wasn't on-top-of-it enough to get pictures of the rest before the party started.
Chris finished the 2nd story of the treehouse just in time for the party!
I can't believe there are SIX candles on this sweet girl's cake!! Here's the birthday song.
Fun "surprise" layers inside:
The trampoline is always a hit:
What a beautiful day!
Our "artists:"
Sweet friends:
More sweet friends and unplanned "twins:"
Elsa and Anna's adventures:
She got a good start on her 646-piece Cinderella Lego castle. It'll take a while to get through all 92 pages of directions though!
Here are her 20 questions:
1. What is your favorite color? blue, white, pink, purple
2. What is your favorite toy? Elsa and Anna dolls, Frozen figurines
3. What is your favorite fruit? pineapple
4. What is your favorite TV show? Sophia the First
5. What is your favorite thing to eat at lunch? peanut butter and jelly
6. What is your favorite outfit to wear? this one
7. What is your favorite game to play? Frozen "Candy Land" game
8. What is your favorite snack? graham crackers with frosting
9. What is your favorite animal? deer
10. What is your favorite song? "Let it Go"
11. What is your favorite book? Frozen Fever
12. Who is your best friend? Elena
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cinammon Swirl
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? trampoline and treehouse
15. What is your favorite drink? "Melted Snowman" punch from party
16. What is your favorite holiday? birthday
17. What do you take to bed with you at night? blankie, bear, water, pillow
18. What is your favorite thing to eat at breakfast? Cinammon Swirl
19. What did you have for dinner on your birthday? McDonalds
20. What job do you want to have when you're older? singer
* Willow's favorite activities these days include imaginative play with her Barbies/Frozen dolls, building Legos, running the downstairs "circle" (some things never change!), or anything outside (especially her trampoline or playing chase). She LOVES to be tickled and will often be asked to be tickled. If Owen's giggling with Mama or Daddy, she's right there asking if she can have a turn too. She's done a great job with gymnastics and swimming this school year. Each new step in swimming has come with a little bit if hesitation and fear, but her teacher is great about knowing what she's capable of doing and helping her to feel confident when pushed to the next step. Nothing beats seeing her confidence in the pool over Spring Break compared to last year at Spring Break! She does a great job listening to her teachers at school, church, music time, gymnastics, and swimming. She's very respectful to other adults but definitely shows her "comfort" with us at home.
* Willow's favorite foods include pesto and alfredo pasta, any breakfast for dinner (without hashbrowns), tacos, fruit, carrots, chips (when allowed), and most crackers/pretzels. She'll eat her dinner without much fuss but doesn't care much for casseroles, soup/chili, or red sauce.
* Willow has quiet time with the iPad while Owen naps on the weekends and has some iPad time when she gets home from school before Owen wakes up (20ish minutes). She likes to watch PBS shows (Odd Squad, Arthur) or play games (Letter School, Disney Nature, Reading Egg, Hooked on Phonics, Frozen Storybook). During the week she's asleep from 8:00-6:30. On weekends she'll sleep in until closer to 7:00.
* She's done a fabulous job in Kindergarten this year. We haven't heard of much drama in school with other kids (just one issue this week was the first this year!), she does a great job listening to her teacher and following directions, and she's been mastering skills taught in all subjects. I've loved seeing her writing more sentences on her own this spring since that's what she was most hesitant about last summer when we starting having "Learning Time." She's reading Level L books well (2nd grade) and always impresses me with her expression even in the first time reading a book. We always thought that whenever she learned to read we would never see her again because she's always loved books so much and imagined that she'd hideaway with books in her room, but that hasn't been the case. She'll read a book at night like we ask, but doesn't do any more than we ask her to. On the rare school morning when she's already awake when I go in at 6:30, she'll have her lamp on and will be reading her Tinkerbell chapter book. It's a beautiful sight!
* Willow enjoys going to "shows." We went to see the local ballet performance of Cinderella today with Nana and Gramma. It was her first ballet and she enjoyed it. She likes coming to performances for my school too. We've also enjoyed being season ticket-holders for the local children's theater. Willow loves singing ("Lavender's Blue" from the new Cinderella movie is her current fave) but hasn't shown much interest when I've mentioned the local youth choir to her since she wants to be the only one on the stage =)
* With age has come more independence with tasks such as putting away her dishes/milk, emptying the clean silverware, unpacking her backpack in the afternoon, putting away clean clothes, etc. She generally has a good attitude when given a job to do. When cleaning up the other night she asked Chris, "What can I do?" She LOVES to clean bathroom mirrors and countertops, which I should take more advantage of! With age has also come great "life" conversations at dinner or before bedtime sparked by comments she makes (Chris handled one well recently regarding "black skinned people."). She's not one to share her emotions or struggles, so we hope to nurture more trust there. She was flabbergasted recently to hear that Mama cries sometimes too.
* Willow seems so grown up these days with her independence as mentioned above, but she's also wanting to be a bit more grown up too. She's been exposed to more "popular" music in school (every Friday they sing the Happy song) and on her friend's karaoke machine, so when she hears me turn off "my" music on the radio in the car she asks me to turn it back on. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that since she really does listen to the lyrics (as evidence by every Christmas song we listened to on the radio last December). I wasn't quite ready for all of the peer influence that Kindergarten would bring. Thankfully I don't feel her strong-will struggles at home like I used to but that seems to have shifted to eye-rolling and emotional drama that we didn't used to have. Ahhhh....more "life" conversations....
* Willow has been quick to volunteer to say our dinnertime prayer for a while now. She's thoughtful in who she asks me to pray for at bedtime. In the past couple months she's been asking to go with us to the church service (again, wanting to grow up a bit). We let her go on Easter and she's come with us since then. Today was communion and we hadn't really thought about what she'd do. Chris explained its meaning to her and asked if she felt like she was ready to participate and she said yes. She did a great job for her first communion! Gramma seems to get asked more questions about faith than Chris and I do and thankfully Gramma isn't hesitant in speaking truth to Willow. They truely have a special relationship! The seeds have been planted and we love watching them take root!
6 year stats:
Weight: 47 lb (61%ile)
Height: 47" (79%ile)
BMI: 14.96 (42%ile)
We love you so much Willow Libby!
