Happy 4th Birthday!

Today is my oldest daughter's fourth birthday.
{Insert standard "they're getting so big!" weeping and wailing.}

She spent the weekend with her Grammy and we picked her up after shopping and lunch at Chick-fil-a. She played with her new toy all afternoon and got to watch dumb YouTube videos about opening Kinder Eggs and taking the packaging off new toys. (My kid can't be the only one fascinated with those kinds of videos... right?)

We skyped with Grandma and when Seth got home we had pizza and cupcakes with unnaturally colored pink frosting that she picked out herself. She opened her presents and played with them and refused to let Hailey share because she didn't have to and she didn't have to clean up and she got to stay up unusually late.

In short, a perfect day for a brand new four year old.
But I know why you're all really here, and that's the birthday interview. Behold:

Actual questions and answers:
(Some of her answers had me scratching my head in confusion, so I inserted my own commentary in parenthesis.)
1. What is your favorite color? Red (Answer every single other time this question has been broached: Pink and Purple.)
2. What is your favorite toy? Tractor Duplos
3. What is your favorite fruit? Oranges (False. She hates oranges. She has spit them out every single time I make her try them. Apple is the appropriate answer here.)
4. What is your favorite TV show? Caillou
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Fruit snacks
6. What is your favorite outfit? Pony shirt and long pants
7. What is your favorite game? Coloring
8. What is your favorite snack? Fruit snacks and cupcakes
9. What is your favorite animal? Ducks
10. What is your favorite song? You Are My Sunshine
11. What is your favorite book? Princess book
12. Who is your best friend? Hailey
13. What is your favorite school subject? ABCs
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play
15. What is your favorite drink? Milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Balloons (Obviously birthday influenced. It's really her pink blanket and water bottle.)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cupcakes (Wishful thinking? Actual answer: Cinnamon Toast Crunch)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza and cupcakes
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor

Happy Birthday Tessa! You are the best and I love you so much.

Five on Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday and Seth will be home to help me parent. That's all I'm saying about this week.

 1. The girls always act like little baby birds whenever we get free samples at BJ's. It makes me laugh.

2. We took the girls up to Richmond last weekend and they had fun swimming at the pool.

3. Tessa doesn't know how to eat an ice cream cone fast enough. I had to help her out a lot.

4. Seth made a crown of Scripture Mastery cards for his Seminary class. Part of their incentive to get the kids to do well on their test, I think. (Today was his LAST DAY HALLELUJAH.)

5. Took the girls out for a picnic on Memorial Day. They loved it.

Golden Birthday

A golden birthday is when you turn the same age as the day of your birth, and this year was mine. 28 on the 28th. I wanted to do something special, but when I looked up ideas online every single person said "throw a golden-themed birthday party!" and I thought ugh, no.

Instead I decided to adapt an idea one of my friends did for her birthday a few years ago, which was to do as many random acts of kindness as the age she was turning. So for my golden birthday, I employed the golden rule (get it?!?), and did 28 acts of kindness throughout the day.

Here's what I did:

1. Sent in breakfast with Seth to his Seminary class
2. Sent a thank you and cookies to Seth's Seminary co-teacher

3. Left a nice note on someone's car

4-6. Taped quarters to three vending machines at Walmart

7. Bought Tessa the SourPatch kids she snuck into the cart instead of making her put them back

8. Washed the pots and pans (a job I refuse to do 100% of the time)

9. Left cookies for the mailman

10-11. Sent in cookies for each of Tessa's teachers

12. Sent in box tops to Tessa's school
13. Made a donation on Kiva
14. Emailed a blogger I read regularly to tell them how much I enjoy their writing
15. (When it was clear she wasn't going to nap) Let Hailey come out and play instead of keeping her in her room for quiet time
16. Dropped off some donations to Goodwill

17. Picked up trash on our street
18. Wrote a handwritten letter to my brother on a mission in Florida
19. Cleaned up my girls toys instead of making them do it
20. Did not lose my temper with my girls today*
21. Donated to the Liahona Children's Foundation
22. Donated to a local school through Doners Choose
23. Gave Seth a back rub
24. Emailed another blogger to tell them thanks for their writing
25-27. Handwritten thank yous for some people I love
28. Took out the trash (another job I absolutely never ever do)

I know some of these might be stretching it a bit. It's hard to be nice! But it was fun. And I am definitely going to remember my 28th birthday.

I'm happy.


*Seth told me I needed to put this one because Holy Bananas were they not well behaved today. Between Hailey screaming bloody murder because Tessa thought it was funny to stand on her face, and the full-scale meltdowns in the grocery store parking lot because they both wanted to push the cart by themselves without help, and me NOT ONCE yelling at them/banishing them to their rooms, I think it counts too.

Toddler Talk #9

When I insisted on Tessa putting her shoes back on so she could walk from the car to the house:
T: You've got to be kidding me.

An exchange I thought was between me and Hailey:
J: Are you done with your cake? Would you like another bite?
H:
T: No, she doesn't. She wants me to eat it.

After getting home from a walk where they discovered some roadkill:
S: The girls need to have an existential discussion with you.
T: The squirrel got dead!

One morning after Easter:
T: After breakfast we can have candy.
J: Nope.
T: But my heart is thinking of candy.

After getting annoyed with the girls at breakfast:
J: Can you please stop banging your spoons on your bowls!?
H: 'lax.
J:
H: Can you 'lax at me please?
('lax=relax)

Robot

Woke up from my Sunday nap to this contraption:

This is a scotch-taped together robot sitting on top of our Roomba. Seth put his bluetooth speaker inside the (broken, hollowed-out) stereo head. Then he put a microphone app on his phone so that he could go hide in another room and make the robot "speak" to the girls.

They loved having a new friend to play with.

Life is always fun with a tinkerer for a husband.