Birthdays and Updates

Exercise update: I finished 29 days of a 30 day workout routine before they removed the episodes I needed. No significant changes in weight, for which I had been hoping. The program was called the 10 lb slimdown. I know that my body shape has changed for the better, but the scale went the wrong direction. I have had a hard time sticking to exercise since and need to get back to it. I have also been doing fairly well with the bedtime goal.

It was birthday time for Miss Isabella last week. She invited friends from school and most of the girls were able to attend. I had Isabella plus 4 other first graders, a kindergartner, my almost 5 year old and the little brother for a grand total of 8. Most parents dropped their girls off, but one mom stayed and helped me with all that energy. Isabella had requested bobbing for apples and I figured, "why not, it's her birthday." But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that it would be a serious germ fest. She settled instead for Mommy's version of bobbing for apples. We took a toy broom, with the bristles removed, so basically it was a short stick, and wrapped it with crepe paper. Then I washed the apples and tied yarn to the stems. (Tobias and I had gone shopping and spent several minutes trying to only find apples with stems) They we tied one apple to each end. Hands behind backs, the girls took turns trying to be the first one to capture the apple. I'm happy to say that it was a success and that there were no teeth lost and no germy water to deal with. Natalia liked it so much that she wants to do it at her party. We also made crowns and recycled the "kiss the frog" game from last year. I had drawn a picture of a frog on poster board, then I recovered it in Glad cling wrap (yes, I through last years cling wrap away). The girls got to pick one of my lipsticks, we applied it and then blindfolded them and spun them. The goal was to kiss the frog on the lips and transform him into the prince. Half the girls loved it and the other half have reached the "kissing is gross" stage and wouldn't even participate. We revisited the butterfly design from Natalia's cake last year. This year was strawberry cake with chocolate icing. We topped it all off with a movie that none of them could agree on and only one or two of them really even watched. Fun times.

Poor Natalia, though, is having a difficult time with this birthday thing. She is the last one to have a birthday and is feeling very left out. She has been very sad that Isabella has received all these new things and she hasn't gotten any. We pulled out the clothes from the attic that I have been saving for warmer weather and she kept asking why she didn't get new clothes. Of course, it didn't help that I discovered a purchase that had been set aside for Isabella and Tobias. The only things for Natalia were the hand-me-downs (which were also there for her siblings) and a pair of new flip-flops.