A Fairy Birthday Party

This much anticipated day finally came!  I do it to myself really.  I plan a super exciting big birthday bash for Max's birthday and of course, since Lucy's is only 6 weeks later, I am required to do just as much for her.  But who am I kidding...I love it.

While I was planning Max's Jedi birthday party I started to get great ideas for Lucy's party, but had to put them on the back burner so I could focus on the party-at-hand and our trip to Mexico.  As soon as we were home, plans got into full swing.

Lucy is VERY into her Rainbow Magic fairy books right now.  Reading them at lightening speed.  Seriously, like a book every 2 days.  Plus, all her little friends in her class are equally into fairies and so a fairy party was the perfect plan.

The party didn't start until 3:30, which gave me plenty of time to get organized, but just about drove Lucy crazy as she had to wait and wait and wait!

As guests began to arrive, they were directed outside to our fairy boutique, where they got to pick out their own fairy tutu.  I made them by tying tulle onto ribbon in different colours.  It was my great fortune that Fabricland was having their 44th anniversary sale during the month of April and I got all the tulle at 40% off.  $1.50/meter and I was good to go.  9 skirts for $20.  Not too shabby.

After the girls chose their tutu, they got their hair sprayed with glitter (pixie dust).  It was left-over from halloween and died before all the girls got sprayed (dang it!) but fortunately there was enough other fun things to distract.

Then it was inside for them to decorate their fairy party hats and to get their faces painted.

We hired 2 ladies from our branch to come and do the face-painting and they did an AWESOME job.  It was amazing!

Max chose to be a goblin because they are the villains in Lucy's fairy books...and Dad was a good sport and got painted up like Jack Frost!

Logan was unsure at first, but we finally convinced him to get a balloon on one cheek.  Once he saw it in the mirror, he was all for it and then wanted a dinosaur on the other cheek and a car on his arm.  I think he would have kept going all day.  It was beneficial to me too, because it was his nursery teacher doing the face-painting.  Hopefully this will help him love nursery more!

Once all the girls were painted up and decorated, they got to make their own fairy wands.  Seriously, planning activities for 8 7-year-olds is a breeze!  Crafts and glitter and they're happy for hours...literally.  And so quiet too!  Definitely a different atmosphere then a Jedi party.

(Lucy had me take this picture, because it's a more 'fairy-like' pose). 

Once their wands were complete, we took a picture of all the girls together in their fairy glory.

Then it was outside to play fairy freeze tag.  Our Goblin volunteered to go first being it.  Once the girls were tagged they had to freeze and could only be unfrozen by a magic wand.  (You get the idea). They all took turns being it.

Then the girls coordinated a dance show and had a dance party outside while the table was being set for dinner.

After the dance-off it was time for eating.  Fairy-food of course.  I am told that fairies eat strawberries so I got a bunch of those, plus pineapple (because Lucy loves it), and watermelon wands.

We had smiles, and crackers and cheese, and chips and peppers.  Plus pink lemonade to drink.

After dinner, we set out to open presents, but the girls discovered that Jack Frost had stolen all the gifts and left a nasty note (delivered by the goblin).  They had to go on a treasure hunt led by clues from King Oberon and Queen Titania (from the fairy books) to restore the party fun.  They were sent all around the house and finally found the gifts on the front door-step.  Phew!

Lucy had a great time opening her gifts and enjoyed all the home-made cards as much as the gifts themselves. She got lots of crafts and a Fur-Real friend which she is MOST excited about.  Her brothers gave her some accessories for her bike (pink tassels and a bell) that she used on a bike-ride after all her friends had gone home.

We finished with cake decorated like a butterfly - which I hope is obvious, and covered in skittles.  Cake with skittles on it is amazing.  The girls got to take home their tutus, wands, hats, and a loot bag that included a pencil, a butterfly shaped picture frame that they could decorate and some bubbles.  Plus a cup with dirt and flower seeds in it for them to take care of at home.  Because fairies love flowers.

At one point one of the girls said, "This is way more fun than I was expecting it to be." (I chose to take it as a compliment.)

One of the dad's asked Lucy if the party was everything she imagined it would be and she responded (all breathy and wonderful), "No!  It's so much better!"  I love it.  Mission accomplished.

We finished the night with a quick bike-ride to show Grandma the quarry and then it was showers and bedtime stories.  Lucy was heartbroken to have to wash her butterfly off her face so I promised her we would come up with a reason to do face-painting again.  We agreed to have grandma read bedtime stories since she was leaving in the morning, and 1 story turned into 3.  Oh well...it doesn't happen every day.  Lucy told me that she NEEDED grandma to read her that last story.  Well, if she needs it...

Seven

Today, my baby girl turns seven.  I can't believe this angel baby is turning into an angel-girl...and is so close to approaching angel-young lady.  Let's hope the teenage years are still angelic.

The day started off with a surprise visit from Grandma Janielee and got better from there.  Grandma surprised all of us by stopping in Wednesday night after a business trip to Boston.  I was about to go to bed (10:30ish) when Tyler says, "So, I have a surprise for Lucy in the morning, do you want to know what it is?"
Me: "Of course."
Tyler: "Are you sure?"
Me: "Yes."
Tyler: "My mom is on her way right now from Toronto.  She'll be here in about an hour."
Me: "Are you serious!?!?!?!"

Now, I know stereotype would suggest that 1 hours notice for the MIL visit is grounds for some serious dog-house time for the husband...but not in this case (by this case I mean my life, not just because it was Lucy's birthday).  A surprise visit from the MIL is second only to a surprise visit from the mother.  So I sat in anticipation for her arrival.  Fell asleep for a bit, but was still so excited.  She arrived at 12:34am...exactly the time Lucy was born...how weird is that?

We all went to bed right away (even though it was impossible to fall asleep after an 11pm nap).  Grandma slept in the twin bed in Max's room which he was very disappointed to not sleep in that night...not knowing it was because a visitor was coming.  We told Grandma that the kids would sleep in, cuz they're good like that, and we'd let her be the one to wake them up and surprise them.

Lucy woke up at 6:30am and came into my room.  She had to go to the bathroom.  Phew!  She didn't notice the giant suitcase on Max's bedroom floor, OR Grandma's glasses on her bathroom counter.  Then, at 7:30am I heard a very soft, "Grandma!" and a "Good morning Max!"  So Max didn't sleep in like anticipated.  Apparently he sat up in his bed, saw Grandma in the other bed, and then laid right back down.  He sat up again and said, "I thought I was dreaming!"

Grandma crawled into bed beside Lucy and stroked her cheek.  Lucy enjoyed the cuddle and then opened her eyes to discover it was care of GRANDMA!  Awesome way to wake up on your birthday.

She opened a few gifts that morning:

Fairy Books from Auntie Sarah - a soccer one and an Olympics one. Auntie Sarah also sent belated birthday gifts for Max and Logan.  Star Wars Lego for Max and a flashlight for Logan.

Grandma Bourne sent Fairy Books in the mail too.  The next set.  Lucy picked up the first book and put it right in her backpack.  She was halfway done the book by the end of the school day.

She also got some room decals from Mom and Dad.  Max and Logan are saving their gift for the party on Saturday.

Then it was off to school.  She dressed fancy and was excited to hear her name on the announcements that morning.  I considered meeting her during her first recess break and taking her to Tim Horton's, but Max's ear was acting up and it was already a high-surprise day, so we decided to take the boys to the library instead.

We met Lucy at the bus-stop with her bike and rode home.  Then it was a BBQ Ribs dinner in a rush (with mashed potatoes of course) before we headed back to the school for the kids Spring Concert.  After a phone call from Grandma Bourne.

As we drove, the school parking lots and all the surrounding streets were already filled with cars.  Grandma said, "How are they going to get everyone in the gym?" and Max innocently responded, "Don't worry, they have a door."

The kids classes each presented songs about Canada.  They finished by singing O Canada, Baby Beluga, and Skin-a-marink.  It was a great concert.

We ended the fabulous birthday day with a phone-call from Papa and skyping with Emma.  It was a fabulous birthday.  

And tomorrow we've decided Lucy should play hookie so we can spend the day with Grandma.

Mighty Mouse

Last week sometime, Lucy's Taekwondo instructor, Master Armour, told me that she believed that Lucy was ready to do another belt test to earn her yellow belt. She said, "Your kids always surprise me, because they're little and new, but they catch on so quick. I never consider them for advance at the same rate as the other kids, but there she goes, being ready." She thought Max needed a bit more time, and I agreed.

So we planned for Lucy to do her belt-test on Saturday afternoon. Tyler stayed home with the boys (so Logan could have a nap) and I got to take Lucy. On a side note, being out and about in the afternoon was a glorious feeling. I can't remember the last time I was out for an afternoon. Because of Logan's nap, I'm usually pretty confined to home for the afternoons. This was beautiful!

When we got there, she was a bit nervous and unsure of what to do and whether she'd remember everything. I kept trying to reassure her that she was going to do just fine, and that she had to do it at her own pace. It was ok if she made mistakes, they just wanted to see that she knew everything, not that she could do it perfectly right away. She has been a bit teary and emotional all week, and that started to manifest itself here as well. Big squeezes and good lucks and I sent her across the room for her turn.

She started with kibbon-a and il-jang and was very nervous about not being as fast as the others in her group. The other kids in her group finished much before her, and when she came back to see me, she was teary eyed again from embarrassment. I reassured her that it was ok to be slower. It wasn't a speed test.


Then she got geared up to practice kicks, which she kicks butt at. Check out this karate kid move! (Taekwondo kid)




After kicks, she got suited up in her protective gear to get ready for sparring. Normally she spars agains Max, so I wondered how she would do at this. There were about 10 kids who stood in a circle, ready to spar. About 4 her size and age, and about 6 that were probably 4-8 years older and much much bigger. She came over to me at one point while they were waiting and was teary eyed again. "They're all so much bigger than me!" She obviously hadn't heard when Master Armour had explained that they would only be sparring against kids their size. She was relieved to find that out. The kids that were her size were all boys though, so I thought, "how's my sweet-gentle Lucy going to fare?" Well, no worries here. She fared just fine! At one point she got someone in the groin and he groaned and fell to his knees. The whole room laughed at the sight of this little girl packing such a kick and Master Armour said, "That's why we wear protection!" Way to go Lucy!


She didn't shy away from any of her sparring partners and often sent them running.


After sparring, it was her turn to kick through a board. I had the video camera going, and it was over so quickly that I barely got a shot of it. She made it look so easy!


Finally, they got to work on self-defence, which was practicing their blocks when someone else is attacking. Again, she did awesome. Firecracker!


Once everyone was done, they all lined up to receive their new belts.

They had to remove their old belts

Go and talk to Master Amour. Master Armour asked Lucy if she watched cartoons at all, to which she responded, "Not really." Master Armour then said, "you go and tell your mom and dad that you are Mighty Mouse, and they'll know what that means." I explained to her later that Mighty Mouse was really really small but really really strong, and that he used his strength to help people. She liked that.


Then she got her new belt

Her certificate

And all was done.


What an amazing girl! I'm so proud of her. I love how much confidence she is gaining from Taekwondo. She's working on practicing with her brother now so he can prepare for his yellow belt too. She told me on the way home that she wanted to go all the way up to a black belt. I'm totally good with that.

And at Monday's class, she was able to be at the front of the group for line-up, because she had the highest belt in the group that was there. That made her feel pretty proud. She's working her way forward!