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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Eleanor & Liya

The worst part about moving from Michigan to Utah is losing friends. I know, I know, in this day and age of electronic social media, are we ever truly lost to one another? No. However, as sad as I am to not get my daily fix of Angela and others, it breaks my heart that Eleanor doesn't get to play with her favorite little playmates. She still talks of them often. I made the mistake of mentioning Kinsley's birthday a while back and she sang the birthday song to her for nearly a month and frequently asked when we could have cake with her for at least two weeks. (Kinsley- we owe you some birthday cake). She asks all the time about Grant and Zach, Reagan and Lily, Ainsley and Emmaline, Katerbug and Ellie, and Nora, and Jaquie etc... etc... She can't see a school bus without thinking it is Josh's and any time I curl her hair she still says "Like Ellary's?" She also remembers all of her neighborhood friends even though many were much older. She has really good memories of all these people, but she's three. A lot of these memories will fade and one day the pictures of them wont mean anything to her. And that bums me out. Thankfully a lot of us all have family connections in Utah so we can hopefully see these sweet people through the years. 

Anyhow, this post came up because I have a lot of pictures of Eleanor and one special friend, Liya, so I had to blog it. We saw the Bowles every week for nearly two years. The Bowles and the Johnsons watched American Idol each week for a year, but then they both dropped their cable, so I made them start coming to my house. That continued for the next two years. Kim, Angela and I were all pregnant with boys at the same time so we bonded for life. The results were Charlie, Winston and baby Bennett. Michael B. and Zach J. were the same age and best friends and Eleanor, Liya and Grant were the same age and became best friends too. Grant would often play with the older boys when things got too princessey, so I have a lot of pictures of just the two girls so indulge me here. The pictures are out of order because it's late and I haven't found a great way to space pictures on the blog since the formatting changed, so if the girls get older then younger, just ignore that.

They emptied all the toys out of the tv cabinet one day and enjoyed their little hide out.
Full on princess regalia, two princess baby-dolls and a sippy cup. That's how we roll.


Awwww...


Sweet Grant! They were often quite a trio, but here he got left out until the end.
Here are the cuties when Eleanor was just barely 2, Liya is a bit older.
Since Liya is older, Eleanor would follow her around and do anything she did. Liya sat down in the snow so Eleanor did too.



Much later, a few days before E's third birthday.
This one cracks me up with their psycho-stares.
They were big huggers. Maybe all kids that age are? I know Eleanor would hug all her favorite friends at church each week like they had been lost at sea and reunited after years apart.



Trying out face-painting to see if it would work for E's party.


Another flash back, here they are when Eleanor is about 2&1/2.


Noses!
Ooh, and smooches.

Finally some recent shots of them in their Dora pajamas.
And my favorite picture of them of all time. 
Sweet little friend, Eleanor was sad as she wanted more juice.
So Liya gives her a hug to make it better.
  They are just so cute!


  Cuties in their swimsuits.
We miss you, Araliya!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Our Little Doppelganger


 I've been meaning to post this for a while. If you remember, at Christmas we found that Winston looks an awful lot like his Grandfather, Rex. Winston is 6 months here.
 
 Well, I just wanted to show that he also looks a lot like his Daddy, Clayton. Winston is 10 or 11 months here.
 And even a little bit like his mom too.

Eleanor's 3rd Birthday!

Was.....um, March 12th. So yeah, this may be my most behind of all the posts, but hey! I'm doing it now, right? That counts for something. Anyhow. Eleanor had a stellar 3rd birthday. Eleanor loves birthdays and sings happy birthday to people all the time, regardless of whether or not it's their day. It might be her second favorite song, second in her heart only to Jingle Bells. (Which she always requests in her church Nursery class, Spring, Summer or Fall.) So when her big day arrives, she is primed and ready to go, as seen in this first picture. Excited!
  
We started our day in usual Firth fashion by rolling out around noon. we went out to lunch, hitting up Burger King with our favorite boys Zach and Grant Johnson. (And mom Angela and baby Bennett.)
 
 They had a blast playing on the playground and posing for shots.
 We normally go to the Zoo for E's birthday, but we had gone the Saturday before in case of bad weather on the big day. Well, it was crummy and rainy on March 12th so instead we went to the Impression's 5 Science Museum. It's an interactive kid's museum and it is awesome. Here Eleanor is getting "bubbled" as she called it.
 More bubble fun.
 Trying out all the experiments.
 And on to the little kid's room/water room. Baby Bennett and Winston try standing up on things.
.
 While Eleanor, Grant and Zach (not pictured) played at the water table for ages.


 We decided to have her friend party a few days later on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. 
Everyone started showing up all at once and handed Eleanor presents. She tried very hard to carry them up the stairs.
 We told her to not strain herself and finally gave her a hand.
 Her theme was a Snow White party. I campaigned for a Rapunzel party due to the thousands of adorable ideas on Pinterest. Seriously, just hop on Pinterest and type in Rapunzel party. It almost hurts how cute it all is. So after weeks of suggesting Rapunzel, Eleanor decidedly told me she wanted a Snow White party. After I got over the loss, I got excited and planned a girly-girl party themed around apples with a red, yellow and blue color scheme. I made these bags filled with princessey trinkets like poisoned apples, rings, Snow White headbands and magic mirrors. I made easy "apple" cupcakes and candied popcorn in her colors and then used a lot of stuff I had already around to fill in the spaces. Cookie cups, a few mirrors from around the house etc...
 We invited all her 3 year old girl friends (plus a few sisters) and Grant, her next door neighbor who is one of Eleanor's best friends. We asked each of them to come as their favorite princess or character. After this picture we dressed Eleanor in her Snow White dress- which she changed out of about 10 times before the party was over.
 We started out with face painting and my good friend Delicia helped, thank heavens! She's a professional make-up artist in real life, so she knows how to handle a brush. The kids watched Snow White while we worked through a parade of rainbows and butterflies.
 Eleanor being painted.
 Then we had a balloon popping game, because I am so creative that I apparently only know of two party games for kids- we did this for her 1st birthday party too. The prize for finding the star in your balloon was a Princess Magnet Sheet, so I'm glad Grant didn't win. Everyone's balloon wins a piece of candy. Did I mention how much sugar I served here? (Also, Grant got a tool themed bag instead of a princess one.)
 Popping balloons.
 Then she got to go to town on her presents, boy did she love this part!
 Looking at one of her many treasures. Lots of Polly Pockets, little Princesses, Squinky Castle, Butterfly wings, a bracelet etc...
 Note her now wearing a Sleeping Beauty dress covered with her Tarzan skirt? Awesome.
 More fun presents and friends!
 It turned out to be a beautiful day so we took the food outside to enjoy and let them run off the sugar.
 A few cuties in the playhouse. From left: Kinsley, Lily, Liya and Katerbug. (Whose name is really Kate, but Eleanor honestly does not know that.)
 Eleanor really loves Kins. No really, she really does.
 The whole gang from left to right. Katerbug Becker, Kinsley Johnson, Ellary Allee, Liya Bowles, Ellie Becker, Eleanor Firth, Lily Coupe, Grant Johnson, Reagan Coupe, Nora Evans and Holland Oliver.
 And another shot before they all started running away screaming.
 Lighting the cake.
 Singing the song with Katerbug, Ellie, E, Nora and Lily. Have I mentioned how much I miss these cuties? She had so many wonderful friends in Michigan.
 Wishing for unicorns or chicken nuggets, I'm not sure what she really wants in life.
 Tasting the cake.
 Which was blue, red and yellow. Why do we bother with colors and themes? I should have just put cups of sugar on the table, oh wait- I did- mini cans of soda! Ha ha. The kids really did enjoy all the treats, so I suppose it's worth it.
 
 A small family portrait to show we were there.
 And that WE LOVE OUR ELEANOR!



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