Evelyn's New Bike

Evelyn is between sizes when it comes to bikes, which made it difficult for us to choose a bike for her.  When test-riding a bike at a bicycle shop, the 24-inch style was a little too big for her, but at least she was able to touch the ground while seated on the bike.  So when it came time to buy a reasonably-priced bike for Evelyn, I went with a 24-inch (but not the exact bike she had test-ridden).

It looks like this bike is too big for her right now.  She cannot touch the ground at all (not even on tippy-toes) while seated.  And when she turns the bike, one side of the handlebars gets out of reach.  What we might do is buy a 20-inch bike for Evelyn to learn to ride on now, and then store this new bike in the garage for awhile.  It's too bad our plan didn't work out as we had hoped.

Window Kitty

We've been enjoying some nice Spring weather lately, and we've had the windows open to let in the fresh air.  Rosie couldn't be happier, moving from window to window, checking out the sounds and smells from the outdoors.

Rice in the Flowers

This evening's dinner didn't please either of our two littlest critics - raspberry chipotle pork tenderloins with rice.  Evelyn was trying her best to eat her dinner, all in the name of earning leftover birthday cake for dessert.  However, things took a drastic turn for the worse when Troy and I weren't looking.

Evelyn made the strangest comment: "I just put rice in the flowers."  Standing at the sink, Troy said, "If you did, you're going to time out and you won't get dessert."  I turned from helping Julia and told Evelyn I agreed with Daddy.  Tears sprang to Evelyn's eyes as she started apologized profusely.  Troy and I didn't think she had really put rice in the bouquet of flowers (why would she do something like that?), but apparently she had...and then ratted herself out.

To conclude this story, yes, Evelyn went to time out, and no, she did not get dessert this evening.  Hopefully she will remember to have better manners at the dinner table from now on.

Happy 8th Birthday Evelyn!

This evening Kat and Ross came over to help us celebrate Evelyn's 8th birthday.  Evelyn had the agenda all planned out - open presents, eat dinner (grilled burgers), then eat birthday cake.

Earlier today, Julia and I went out on a secret mission, so Julia could choose a gift for Evelyn.  You can tell by the look on Evelyn's face that she likes the Lego set hiding under the wrapping paper.  (I'll bet Julia is excited, too, to play with this new toy.)

 Evelyn also got a dress outfit, a cardboard castle kit (similar to Julia's cardboard tree house) and a couple of books - including this new fairy chapter book.

 Then we blind-folded the birthday girl and led her outside to see the big present.  She was thrilled to get a new purple bike - her first bike ever!

 Evelyn couldn't wait for everyone to sing to her - she told me that was her favorite part of the evening.

 After making a wish (and nobody knows what that wish was), she blew out the candles.  Just like that, our little Peanut is 8 years old!

Evelyn's Birthday Cake

Even though Evelyn's birthday cake involved a few more steps than your regular bundt cake, it wasn't that difficult to make.  She wanted a colorful cake...on the inside.  We started with a white cake mix -  here's the birthday girl, separating the eggs.

 Here's Evelyn, manning the mixer.

 Next, Evelyn helped me color the cake batter.  I added Wilton food color gel to the cake batter, and Evelyn stirred.  Then we layered all of the colors in the bundt cake pan - as per Evelyn's directions, the color order was purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

 After the cake had cooled, I set it on a cake plate and spread a basic powdered sugar icing over it.

 And this is how the inside looked!  Every piece had a different pattern of colors, which made it so festive for Evelyn's birthday.

Tea Party Newspaper Hats

I found a great "recipe" for making girly newspaper hats at this blog.  I couldn't believe how easy the project was, and the hats all came out looking so nice.  You just need four pieces of newspaper per girl, a hot glue gun and accessories.  We had three adults helping the seven girls make their hats, and it took us about half an hour.

Here's Evelyn, getting her head wrapped in newspaper.

 Here's our birthday girl, designing her hat with a boa, feathers and fake flowers.  My friend is helping with the hot glue gun.

 And here are all the hats!  They all turned out big and beautiful - even for little grumpy-pants, sitting on the couch.

Evelyn's Tea Party Birthday Party

This afternoon we hosted Evelyn's 8th birthday party at our house.  Here's a shot of our house before the guests arrived...the living room would be used for big movement activities (including pin-the-flower-on-the-tea-cup), the piano room would be transformed into the crafts area, and the girls would dine in the kitchen, of course.

 As the guests arrived, we were playing music for freeze dance.  Then we moved to the kitchen for some "tea" (aka pink lemonade) and snacks - grapes, butterfly crackers and cheese slices that were cut into hearts, stars and flowers.  I can't specifically recall what was said, but the girls had a lively conversation while snacking.

 Next on the agenda was a marshmallow spoon race.  Within a set time, the two teams of girls had to get the most marshmallows from one bowl to another bowl across the room.  It was a very close game - one team had 45 marshmallows, but the other team won with 46.

 Then the girls tried book balancing.  About half the guests had never tried walking while balancing a book on their heads.  Lots of books took a nose-dive, but a great time was had by everyone.  The next activities were making newspaper hats (I'll write about that in a separate post), playing pin-the-flower-on-the-tea-cup, and me reading a picture book about a bossy tea party host (Not Another Tea Party by Mark Shulman).

 Evelyn requested cupcakes for her tea party, and I arranged the sweet treats on a cupcake stand.  We strategically placed eight candles and proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to our little Peanut.  Since there were a few minutes left at the end of the party, the girls played tea party BINGO until their parents came (they used Froot Loops as the BINGO markers).  Even though the party lasted two hours, the time flew by!