Mali Long Legs and Her Dino Adventure Birthday Party

Maliana ~

This week has been pretty full of fun times together. For one, our awesome family dinners continue. I think one of my favorite things about these dinners is watching you pile two of our couch pillows onto your kitchen chair so you can reach the table more comfortably. It's so dang cute. Aside from your needing a little boost at the table from time to time, you are still growing in so many other ways. In fact, my official new nickname for you is "Mali Long Legs" because your legs just keep stretching longer and longer. Heck, you're almost as long as Memaw when she holds you now. However, when it comes to sitting in a regular kitchen chair at the table, you're still such our little peanut.

Another of my favorite things about our evening family time happened this week while we played Operation (again), which turned into a "full contact" version of the game where we all kept trying to psych each other out during our turns. You even climbed on top of Daddy and I to distract us, which eventually turned into a full scale 3-way wrestling match. We were all laughing so hard that my stomach literally hurt. It's been ages since I laughed that hard at anything. Loved it.

With your birthday next week and your party coming this weekend, we've also been doing a lot of talking about it all as we lay in bed each night. You will lay there, wide-eyed and excitedly whispering about seeing so many of the people you love at your party. You also asked me if I would be doing another birthday surprise for you too. I'm so glad that last year's breakfast surprise on your birthday morning made such an impact on you. Of course I said I would. I love any opportunity to make you feel special and I am so thankful to have such an appreciative kid. I had to giggle one night in particular as I lay there, after telling you that it was time to go to sleep and closing my eyes for a while, when about a minute later, I felt the bed shaking every so often. When I opened my eyes you were wide awake, looking straight up and slightly grinning, whispering and making stabbing motions in the air, stacking hand over hand and saying something each time you did it. I watched for a bit before you realized I was still awake (and watching) and got all embarrassed because I'd spotted you doing this. When I asked what you were doing, you said you were thinking about your donut tower that you want as part of your birthday breakfast surprise and how you want it to be "Orange! Blue! White!...Orange! Blue! White!" (which explained the "hand over hand" motion I'd seen and what you were whispering to yourself)...and stating that you wanted it to be these 3 colors to represent Buddy the T-Rex from one of your favorite shows, Dinosaur Train. Man, kid. You are so cute.

As for other stuff this week, Daddy had his bi-annual meeting with his endocrinologist and we did our usual dinner with Memaw (Papaw was sick) at Bob Evans afterward. As we walked out of the restaurant, a woman who had been sneaking peeks at you throughout the meal stopped me and said, "She is just so beautiful...and I can just tell she is so smart too." I thanked her for the compliment. It was so very nice of her. (And I confirmed that yes, we agree that you are definitely a very sharp kid.)

Memaw and Bob Evans...I predict this will be a staple you
will remember from your childhood

Friday was our first attempt at a new weekly schedule...I got to take you to a new speech therapist at 8am and then we headed to Tim Horton's for breakfast before I drove you to school. The appointment went great and I LOVE our extra time together! As we sat there chatting over breakfast, you looked up at me and said, "I see you. I hear you. I love you. You are the best mom ever!" *commence my heart completely melting* I don't even mind that you stole part of "my line" to you...I'm just glad it shows that you are listening when I say those same things to you. I'm happy to learn that my words and how I feel about you just might be sinking in. And I felt extremely thankful that you felt moved enough to tell me this incredibly sweet thing on that morning. This mom gig is so awesome.

we found a picture of Phillip Phillips and texted
it to Lao Lao as we ate breakfast...she loves his music!

Friday afternoon I came to pick you up early, then we swung home to pick up Daddy (who happened to be home early as well) and we headed to meet the principal at another local elementary school (where you just might go if all of this realigning of the district goes through), and took a tour of this new school. In all honesty, I've been pretty upset at the idea of your elementary school being changed just before you begin in the fall. However, all of my fears and doubts about this new school were completely scrapped once we met the principal and he showed us around and answered all of our questions. He is extremely nice (very enthusiastic and willing to spend extra time to meet with us on a Friday afternoon before going home for the weekend), and actually lives in our neighborhood. The school was very nice with awesome kindergarten classrooms where it seemed like the teachers were open to using any new and creative approaches that could help their kids get the most out of their learning experience. Exactly what we would want in a school. Believe it or not, we are actually rooting for you to attend THIS school now! But, it's basically a win-win situation at this point. You were pretty quiet during the entire tour, but your eyes did bulge when you saw the enormity of the playground. As the principal said to you, "this is the most important part of the school, right?" You also really lit up when we walked into their media center (aka the library), climbing out of my arms for the first time during the entire tour, and were pretty stoked to hear that elementary schools have their own libraries. I love that you are cultivating a love of reading already. We'll see what happens with the district, but I'm definitely not as concerned anymore. Both schools are good.

Finally, Saturday was the day of your dinosaur adventure birthday party at COSI! It was crowded throughout the rest of the museum, but once we got back to the party room, it was great! The staff had set up some various activities for you kids; making macaroni dinosaurs, stamp printing dinosaurs onto a banner with paint, playing with flubber, making dinosaur fossils, digging for dinosaur bones, and then you all got to make nitrogen ice cream to go with your cake! It was really cool. When I saw you skipping through the room, I knew you were happy and having fun. Driving home after the party, you passed out in the backseat and slept for 3 hours! I'd call this a big birthday party success!

COSI! (your birthday shirt was made with pictures
from the dinosaur show I took you to at
the convention center a while back)

"It's a ROARing good time to be 5!!"

"Dream Big Birthday Girl!"

checking out the flubber with your cousins

Lainey and her daddy making macaroni dinosaurs

Erin and Sam being silly

you and Lao Lao making macaroni dinosaurs

Freddy and Mia digging for fossils

Delaney really liked the wagon

following in the dinosaur tracks

my *almost* 5 year old!

goggles for your upcoming birthday experiment!

let's make some nitrogen ice cream!

you chose blue for the ice cream color

taking turns stirring the ice cream mixture

Click this link too see what it looked like to make Nitrogen Ice Cream!

excited to play in the "cloud"

Your giggles in this next video crack me up! Click this link to see you all getting ready to
Play In The Cloud!

blowing the smoke in the leftover nitrogen...you
all took turns and got a big kick out of it

cake time ~ bring on the sugar!

you loved the dinosaurs on the cake

look at that cheesy smile!

you kids found a wagon in the room...

and it was craziness after that!

back row L to R: Joey, Mia, Erin, Sam, Alex
front row L to R: you, Sammy, Delaney, and Lainey

passed out kid + half eaten birthday cake = birthday party success!

Sunday was a "stay at home and take care of stuff around the house" kind of day. We found homes for all of your new birthday toys and your imagination grew by leaps and bounds as you created different scenarios with all of your Littlest Pet Shop creatures and painted your new dinosaur figurines. You were so excited to show both Daddy and I the dinosaurs you painted for us, stating "You can take them to work and show them to your friends!" (Thanks Mali!) ...exclaiming proudly "You're WELCOME!" Ha. I love you kid.

painting your dinosaur

Mom gets the T-Rex to take to work!

Daddy was vacuuming and you didn't like the noise, so you put
on his noise canceling headphones...then you couldn't figure
out how I could hear you talking to your LPS toys as you
were playing...hmmm...probably has something to
do with you yelling every word?! ha ha.

And the ultimate entertainment of our Sunday and one of my favorite perks of lazy days at home...spontaneous moments like these. Just check out this video and you'll see. Love your spunk and silliness.

Working It Justin Bieber Style

Love,
Mama