Pretty Lips

One of Katelee's friends gave her a little princess box filled with lip gloss for her birthday. Katelee LOVES it. She keeps it in her bathroom drawer, and every day after brushing her teeth, she goes through the ritual of choosing which princess lip gloss to use. I love watching her apply it. :)

My pretty girl!

Family Home Evening

Family Home Evening is probably my favorite part of the week. Like all families, the quality of our family home evenings goes up and down. But one thing Gerald and I have always been pretty good at is keeping it consistent. Now if we could only learn to be consistent at other things . . .

As Katelee is growing up, she is getting involved more and more in the planning of FHE, which I love! We've begun using our family home evening board to assign who does what. Katelee is thrilled for any assignment she is given, but she is especially excited when she gets to teach the lesson!

My vision for when Katelee is assigned the lesson: Katelee sits down with me or Gerald and chooses a story from the Children's Friend or the flannel board scripture stories. She plans a lesson with our help and guidance.

Katelee's vision for when she is assigned the lesson: She does it all on her own - no help or input whatsoever from mom or dad!

So, Katelee won. I think she has taught three lessons now, completely 100% on her own with no input from us. And I am proud of her. She does a great job.

Last week it was Katelee's turn to teach the lesson.

"I am teaching about PROPHETS!" she proudly exclaimed.

Then she dragged the white board from her bedroom into the family room, found a blue marker, and began to teach.

"This," she stated, drawing a tall man, "is the prophet."

Then she drew a tree of life, an iron rod, and a "cloud where people can get lost" (the mist of darkness). She taught us all about Lehi and his vision, and together we related the iron rod to the word of prophets. It was a great lesson, and I am so impressed with Katelee and the many, many things she teaches me.

Now if only I could get her to clean her room as willingly . . .

Happy Family Night, everyone.

On the Go!

We have had such a mild, lovely winter in Denver this year.

Snow has been a rarity, it seems.

We've had the opportunity to spend lots of time outside and on the go, as a result of dry roads!

Here are a few recent pictures of Katelee doing what she does best - moving at top speed!

Vroom!

Zoom!

Go, go, go!

Speaking of being on the go, we are spending spring break with my mom, and enjoying every second of it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Katelee after her preschool St. Patrick's Day party!

They went on a search for a pot of gold and saw lots of mischief done by the leprechaun.

So fun!

Mischief and Shenanigans

I mentioned last year how I didn't really know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Well, thanks to preschool, we started some great new traditions this year!

Katelee learned all about leprechauns at school. She came home earlier this week talking all about them and their "mischief making" and their "shenanigans!" She was soooooo excited about the leprechauns, who she was sure were going to work some mischief in our house this year.

She decided that we needed to build a leprechaun trap. Luckily, she has a great dad. Together, they looked up plans online for leprechaun traps, and decided on one to make.

Here we are, hard at work.

Katelee was literally giddy with excitement!

Setting the trap...

All finished!

Admiring the trap up close.

Here is how our trap works. We've disguised the trap as a fancy leprechaun hat, so the leprechaun will want to take a closer look. We've also used a piece of gold as bribery! Katelee contributed the paper towel tube. The idea is that the leprechaun will climb up the tube to get the gold. Only, when he steps on top of the hat the thin piece of paper perched there will fall inside and the leprechaun will fall inside, too, and get stuck in the can!

Katelee was thrilled this morning when she looked into the trap! The leprechaun was tricky and escaped somehow, and he took the gold piece with him, but he did leave us GREEN chocolate chip cookies!!

After escaping our trap, he worked some mischief around the house. He switched the socks in daddy's sock drawer with the socks in Katelee's sock drawer, so when she went to get dressed all she had were big daddy socks! The water in our toilet is colored green! And he turned all the pictures in the hallway upside down!

Katelee spent literally all morning giggling about the leprechaun and his shenanigans, and looking for more evidence of his mischief. Any little item that seemed to be moved slightly she took as proof that he had been here causing his trouble.

I love being a parent.

I love how simple, little things can become such fun and treasured memories.

Poor Gerald has to work late tonight, so Katelee and I are planning on eating our traditional green eggs and ham for dinner. Yum!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!

Bike Riding

We've had such lovely weather lately that we have been spending lots of time outside. Katelee has recently refused to ride her bike, because her training wheels were wobbly. Gerald replaced them last week with new sturdy training wheels, and now bike riding is Katelee's new favorite activity! We've been taking a morning walk/ride together in the morning. We have a mile-long route and I'll walk while Katelee rides. It's probably my favorite part of the day. Katelee is getting braver and faster every day. She loves to bring favorite toys along for the ride in her little basket. She is growing up in so many ways!

(She insisted on the knee pads this particular day . . . made me laugh!)

Cheap Organization

I've been in an organizing frenzy lately, cleaning and reorganizing the garage, pantry and closets. The other day I decided it was high time to tackle this area:

It does not matter how carefully I fold the towels and put them away in neat stacks, after a day or two the piles inevitably look like this. And it's been driving me crazy!

Money is my common excuse for not having some areas as organized as I would like. I would love to just go out and buy bins or drawers for the towels, but that doesn't fit into my budget right now. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found some old boxes in the garage...

... and with an hour, some scraps of paper, and lots of modge podge, I turned them into this:

I smile every time I reach for a towel now.

Hooray for organization!

Daddy's Dues

As I was rereading my post about Katelee's birthday party this morning I realized (to my embarrassment) that there seem to be quite a few pictures of me and none of Gerald. I want to give credit where credit is due, because Katelee needs to know how much her daddy did to make her birthday party special. First of all, Gerald did all the decorating:

This isn't really the greatest picture, but can you see the cool princess 'chandelier' and glittery stars that Gerald hung on the ceiling? It looked pretty awesome. ;) He also bought the helium balloons to put by the front door:

Gerald also did a last minute run to the store for the candles and ice cream I had forgotten. (How do you forget candles and ice cream when you are shopping for a birthday party??)

During the party, Gerald was the photographer (which explains all the pictures of me) and he also did a million things to help the party run smoothly: cleaned up the craft project so we could continue the story, hid the 'dragon eggs' in Katelee's room while we were playing another game, held the limbo stick, helped princesses wash up after eating, kept the list of gifts given, and so much more. I wish I had a good picture of him holding the limbo stick or playing with the girls. But I want Katelee to know that he was there and having fun!

Oh, and speaking of what a great dad Gerald is, he left Katelee this cute note to find the morning of her birthday.

Gerald really is such an amazing person. He's often the one doing all the work in the background without any credit. I admire him so much and love him so much.

A Party for a Princess

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Princess Katelee is turning

5

and you are invited to her Royal Birthday Party!

Don't forget your royal costume!

____________

Welcome to Katelee's Castle!

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young princess named Katelee. It was Katelee’s birthday, and so she invited all her princess friends to join her at her royal castle for a special princess party! Princess Chloe, Princess Sadie, Princess Claire, Princess Hannah, Princess Madelyn, Princess Issy, Princess Isabel, Princess Hailey and Princess Ella all came to the princess party!

When the princesses had all arrived, Princess Katelee invited her friends to join her in the royal gardens while they waited for the princess cake to arrive. While they were playing in the gardens, the little princesses met a talking frog!

“What are you doing in the royal gardens?” asked the frog. “Don’t you know that these gardens are enchanted? If anyone plays here who is not a true princess, they will be turned into a frog! Believe me, I should know!”

“Don’t worry, we are princesses!” giggled the little girls.

“But where are your crowns?” demanded the frog. “You don’t look like princesses without your tiaras!”

“Oh, dear!” cried the princesses! “We did forget our crowns!” The little girls all rushed back to the palace to retrieve their forgotten crowns.

(The party guests, creating their beautiful princess crowns!)

(Now we really look like princesses!)

After the princesses were wearing their beautiful crowns once again, they decided to go to the kitchens to check on the princess cake. But as they were crossing the castle's great hall on their way to the kitchens, they ran into a wicked witch, disguised as a peddler woman.

“Why, what lovely little princesses,” crowed the old woman. “Can I interest you in a juicy apple?” (Pull out an apple.)

Princess Katelee was feeling a little hungry, and so she took the apple the woman offered her and took a big bite. All her princess friends gasped! "On, no!" the cried as Princess Katelee fainted into a deep sleep!

(Playing Pass the Poison Apple)

Katelee’s Princess friends were very wise and quick. They knew the old peddler woman must have been a wicked witch, and they caught her before she could escape.

“You must tell us how to break the spell and wake up Katelee again,” demanded Princess Chloe.

“Tell us or we’ll never let you escape,” added Princess Hailey.

“Fine!” spat the witch. “I'll tell you, because you'll never be able to find the cure. The only way to break the spell is to find a golden dragon egg and eat the magical beans inside!” And with that information, the evil witch disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The little princesses looked at each other nervously. They knew that dragons lived in the woods just beyond the royal gardens.

“Let’s go find a golden dragon egg!” said Princess Hannah, bravely. They straightened their pink tiaras and marched bravely into the woods to help save their friend.

(Searching for the golden dragon egg. Found a pink one!)

The loyal princesses discovered a golden dragon egg and they each ate a magical bean. Then they fed a magic bean to Princess Katelee. Princess Katelee stretched and woke up, feeling well rested and as happy as ever. Just then the clock tower rang 7 o’clock!

“Oh, dear! We must hurry and get ready for the princess ball!” exclaimed Princess Katelee. “After the ball, we will have the princess cake!”

“Hooray!” the princesses all shouted as they skipped off to get ready for the royal ball. They went to the powder room, where Katelee had everything they needed to get ready.

"Wait just a moment," said Princess Katelee. "I think something is missing..."

(We had a platter with 10 princess things on it, and we took turns removing one item and figuring out what is missing. I think this game was probably the favorite! Now, on with the story...)

Once the princesses were all ready for the royal ball, they joined the other guests in the ballroom. Beautiful music was being played by the orchestra, and the princesses could hardly wait to begin dancing. But, just as they were about to join in the dance, a black puff of smoke appeared in the middle of the ballroom floor.

The evil fairy, Maleficent, stood in the smoke.

“Why was I not invited to the party?” she demanded. “Nobody ever invites me to the royal balls. Because nobody bothered to invite me, I will put a curse on this ball. Every time I say FREEZE every dancer in the hall will freeze in place and the music will stop! You will have no fun dancing when you are constantly interrupted like that!” Maleficent cackled with delight at her mean curse!

The music started again, and everyone began to dance, including Princess Katelee and her friends, but just as Maleficent said, they suddenly all froze into place!

(Playing freeze dance. Isn't it funny how everyone poses when it's time to freeze?!)

“Oh, dear!” sighed Princess Katelee. “Our ball is ruined if Maleficent continues to make us freeze like this. I wish we could do something ”

Suddenly, Katelee’s kind fairy godmother appeared at her side.

“Did I hear you wish for something, dearie?” she asked kindly.

Princess Katelee explained what had happened. “Oh, if only I could do something to break the spell, my friends and I could dance and enjoy ourselves!”

“Oh, but you can do something, if only you believe,” said her fairy godmother. “Now let me think. In order to break her spell, you and your friends will have to work together to create a wish come true. Here is a magical cape (pull out parachute) and here are some magical wishes that haven’t come true yet (pull out sparkly fuzzy cotton balls). All you have to do is keep at least one magical wish on the cape for an entire song. If you can do that, then you will break the spell!”

(This was another favorite game! The giggling never stopped!)

All the princesses worked hard together until they broke the wicked fairies curse. “Hip Hip Hooray!” they shouted, when the curse was finally gone. “Let’s celebrate!”

“But how?” asked Princess Madelyn.

“I know!” said Princess Ella. Let’s play a game of dancing limbo!

All the princesses cheered at this fun idea, and they lined up to play their favorite dancing game!

(Katelee plays limbo by bending forward. We thought it was funny, so we didn't correct her! Ha ha!)

“Phew, I’m exhausted” Princess Isabel said as she plopped down onto a cushion after playing limbo.

“Me, too,” agree Princess Sadie. “And hungry!”

“I think it’s finally time for princess cake!” exclaimed Princess Katelee!

“And birthday presents!” added Princess Issy.

And so the princesses sat down to enjoy a delicious piece of princess cake and then watched Princess Katelee open her gifts.

(The princess cake.)

(Making a wish and blowing out the candles!)

(YUM!)

(Pink lemonade, pink ice cream and pink cake - OH MY!)

(The royal present opening!)

(No matter how many times I said to back up and sit down, the little princess still ended up right next to Katelee. It was hilarious!)

Each and every princess had a great time at Princess Katelee’s birthday celebration. Even though there were some unexpected surprises, they learned that if they worked together and helped one another, they could make all their dreams come true.

And they all lived happily ever after!

I love you, Princess Katelee.