Happy Birthday Winry!

Happy Birthday Winry!  This little girl is already 5!  She's such a delight to have around.  She's full of crazy energy and loves to be silly, dance, and have fun.  We had a great week celebrating with her, and I'm so glad she's part of our family!

Last week at ward choir Winry got to hold the Packer's new kitten!  She was very soft and gentle and loved holding and petting him.  I bet Jelly was super jealous when she smelled another cat on her hands!

Monday was the final day of Christmas break... that's just weird, three weeks after Christmas.  Anyway, Monica took all the kids out to a park to play, but I guess they forgot Grayson's coat.  Fear not, Brooke had a second jacket in the car, and Grayson loved wearing it.

Winry got a book of things to cut out for Christmas and has really enjoyed it.  One page was full of mustaches to cut out, and once they were cut out the kids taped them on so they could have mustaches.  This happened when I was at work, but fortunately Monica at least caught Grayson with his on.

Wednesday was Winry's birthday.  We of course opened presents in the morning.  She got an extra special present from Brooke.  To go on her present, Brooke made Winry a card and two stuffed animals.  A sea lion and a cat.

Here are the stuffed animals.  Brooke made these all by herself.  She asked for the craft bin, got the stuff out she wanted, and next thing I knew she was walking in to my office to show me what she made for Winry.  Winry loves them, but we generally have to keep them up high so Grayson doesn't get them.

On Wednesday night I finally took Winry to that cooking class I gave her for her birthday last year.  One of the things we made was chicken noodle soup, and here's Winry chopping up the vegetables to put in.

We also made biscuits, and Winry measured out the flour for the dough.  She did a great job with all her kitchen tasks, and we didn't make any big messes or get kicked out early!

The soup and biscuits were delicious, and we very much enjoyed them.  We also shook some cream into butter to put on the biscuits.

We made chocolate lava cake for dessert, and when it was ready I asked if they had any candles.  They gave Winry a big pink one, and everyone there sang Happy Birthday to her.  We had a lot of fun at our cooking class, and it's definitely something I would do again with our kids.

When we got home it was time for cake and ice cream with the family!  Yay, double dessert day!  Monica made her a  Frozen themed cake per her request. All in all Winry had a great birthday, and had a lot of fun all day long.

And here's Winry with Monica at bed time, holding her new owl purse.

On Thursday, Niki and Jerusha came out to visit.  They both came out to help after Monica's back surgery, and Niki's trip happened to fall on Grayson's birthday.  So while she was out, Winry asked if Niki was going to come to her birthday as well.  The details of the trip let them make it the next day, but still in time for her birthday party.  The kids have been having a lot of fun with their aunts ever since.  Here they're all doing yoga together.

And of course all suitcases double as transportation when your aunts are around.

I've had my share of fun as well.  On Friday night Monica went to a party, but we had a party of our own.  We pulled out 13 Dead End Drive and had a great time playing it.

Saturday was Winry's birthday party, and we had it combined with Clara as her birthday is this upcoming week.  The party was at the Cammack's home, which was nice because we left our house in quite the disarray with our morning of preparations.

The kids played pin the nose on Olaf, and Winry totally nailed it!

We sang happy birthday and had cupcakes.

In the morning before the party I got the idea to make Grayson a Brozen shirt, since the party was Frozen themed.  I was able to pull together a design and have time to run to Walmart to get a shirt and iron-ons, and was able to make my vision a reality just in time.  Niki's modeling the shirt because 1) Grayson wouldn't ever hold still so I could take a picture, and 2) We took Grayson's shirt off while he ate his cupcake.

There was of course present opening, and both kids opened their gifts at the same time.

And here's a picture of everyone together at the end.  The kids ran around and played a lot of the time too, and I was also part of the "Brozen" who trekked out to pick up the pizza, so I feel like the whole thing just flew by!

And here are the birthday girls together.

We had to hurry home to let Winry change before we all headed to the rec center for basketball.  They did more dribbling, but they also worked on shooting, passing and even played a scrimmage at the end of practice.  Winry had a ton of fun again, and was all smiles and dancing around out on the court.

Last night when I was getting ready to head to bed I started trying to look for Jelly.  I hadn't seen her since the morning before we went to the Cammack's for the birthday party.  I searched the WHOLE house and couldn't find her anywhere.  I was even walking around shaking her treats and calling to her, but nothing, no meows or anything.  No one really knew of a time when she  could have gotten out of the house, but we also didn't know where she was.  Well, the search went on for 30 or so minutes, including going outside and calling for her.  One of my sisters went in the garage, and when she came back in Jelly heard the door close and come down the stairs to see who was home.  I think she must have been sleeping in the girls closet, but honestly, I have no clue where she was as both Monica and I looked through their closet.  We're just glad she was safe.

I think that covers at least most of the highlights from this past week.  Have a wonderful week ahead.