time for tea!

caroline invited some sweet little friends over for a tea party to celebrate her 5th birthday!
 
before we get started with the party, i have to say that these pictures were taken under very very bad lighting conditions.... the night before the party, i asked brian to change out an outdated ceiling fan to a beautiful chandelier.... well.... the ceiling fan wasn't exactly installed correctly (in 1975), so it was not possible to hang the chandelier that night. and we usually get some nice light coming in through the picture window in our dining room, but it was a terribly overcast day. and to top it all off... the birthday girl's seat was the furthest away from the window... so the pictures of caroline and her cake, etc. are just dark and not the greatest. waaaaaaaahhh.

ok, whining over. on to the party! the decorations were simple and sweet.

as soon as the girls arrived, they were invited to get jeweled-up.
 
amelia was thinking, "how in the world am i going to eat with these gloves on?!"

while everyone was choosing their jewelry, they took turns making their tea party hats.

this is super easy... take 3 sheets of butcher paper and cover her head:

spin her around while wrapping masking tape around her head.

the girls will feel a little silly at this point, and frankly, so will you! :)

curl up the edges....

add some flowers and ribbon, and you have yourself a big 'ole tea party hat! here are the girls and their hats.

jewelry? check.
hats? check.
time for tea!

i had so much fun setting this sweet little table for tea. brian's great-grandmother's embroidery added an heirloom touch.
 
i was so excited when i found these dainty teacups and snack plates at goodwill! each guest took their cup and plate home as a party favor.


a tea party is not complete without scones with jam and cream!

ethan picked up a scone and said, "what are the rocks for?" thanks, son. so yeah, they looked like rocks, but they tasted like scones. and for the record, they were bite size scones. they were supposed to look like that.
 
lola was speechless over the devonshire cream...

and caroline loved the scones as well.

in addition to scones and tea cookies, we served mini quiches, fruit salad, veggies, and tea sandwiches.

the cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches were my favorite. i could eat a hundred of those light little babies!

with the help of some dainty tablecloths, my washer and dryer went undercover as my tea table.

a friend of mine graciously let me borrow her collection of teapots and teacups. aren't they beautiful? and we didn't even drop one!

caroline demonstrated proper etiquette for sipping tea.


one of caroline's friends was unable to come to the party, so there was room at the table for this little sister... she was just a tad excited to sit with the big girls!

this picture of caroline and claire is one of my favorites from the day.... they look like they're telling old stories from their childhood! and in the years to come, these girls will surely have some stories. :)

as i served tea, i was definitely pushing the sugar cubes. :)

i loved seeing the girls in their hats! they were all so polite, too!

savannah was so cute slurping down her tea...

amelia's dainty cup survived! can't you just picture her in 80 years!??! ha!

while most of the girls asked for pink lemonade for refills, cousin karina kept asking for more tea! that's my girl!

the girls all got down from the table to play for awhile... so the moms and grandmas got a little silly...

this is snobby, high-society me frowning upon heather's minature teapot... teehee!

love these girls!!!

don't worry.... we gave the hats back to the girls... and then it was time for cake! i love love love this picture of caroline with her cake. my precious girl.

my mom did a great job trying a ruffle cake for the first time. it sure was sweet-looking and sweet-tasting!

caroline loved each and every present given to her. "something to paaaaaaaint!"

i cracked up that brian got this moment on camera... c'mon, moms... you know you've done this at your kids' parties! "girrrrrrrrrls, let caroline open her own presents! and yes, she will get to your present in a minute! now scoot back so everyone can see!"

isn't this the cutest little cake stand that aunt kristie made out of a bowl and a plate?!

my little tea party girls... growing up way way too quickly!

i had so much fun getting ready for this birthday party! and i think my birthday girl enjoyed every little minute of it.

we are so thankful to celebrate 5 sweet years with our sweet caroline! happy birthday, baby girl.

five.

this girl turns five today. she is all girl.  her required daily wardrobe is a headband, a skirt and a cute shirt. she might wear pants if she can put a skirt on top. (good thing we live in florida.)  if it sparkles or looks remotely like a flower or could function in anyway as an accessory, she loves it.  if it can be cut out or glued or colored like a rainbow, she is all over it. she spends her days dancing to chris tomlin or to her latest made-up song... and every expression comes complete with a sparkle in those big, blue eyes.

she has inherited my bad habits of biting her fingernails and having a perpetually disastrous room... but she also has my love for all things people. she has not missed her long hair one bit, though i do every now and then.

her giggle is contagious, and her cheeks are almost edible. it blesses me so to hear her excitedly recite God's Word, and it humbles me to see her in tears after i've been too harsh with her delicate heart. praise the Lord, she is quick to forgive and quick to love... because i'm afraid that on most days, my impatience outweighs my compassion. i often find myself overreacting to her overreacting. (cue father of the bride: "why would i overreact? nobody in my family overreacts!"). but God is gracious, and each day brings new opportunities to take joy in my sweet birthday girl. His mercies truly are new every morning!

and this morning, this birthday girl will be the first to wake up to her birthday muffin in our new house! i can't wait to celebrate her.

happy birthday, sweet caroline. i love you.

legoland: the rest of our week

you didn't think i was coming back from legoland, did you?! it takes forever to churn out a blog post these days... in the midst of still slowly getting settled, school, and well, life... but here i am! the kids are still talking about our legoland trip like we just got back yesterday. it is usually the topic of conversation with any adult who asks how they're doing. here's a recap of the rest of our time at legoland... it's about as brief as i can make it! (more pictures here.)

this model of einstein's head was a-mazing! and huge. i think i read somewhere that it was one of the most complicated models to build. no doubt.
 
ethan was probably looking most forward to getting his driver's license at the driving school. after a little review of the rules and how to operate the car, ethan hopped in a yellow lego car and pushed the pedal to the metal! (very slow metal....)
   
it was hilarious to watch these kids zoom around a "real" street in their little cars! they had stop signs, traffic lights, and even a round about! my favorite moment was cheering on a little girl as she executed a perfect u-turn only to see her ram into the back of another car! ethan favored the round about... see him in his little yellow car?!
 
and heeeere he is with his driver's license! warning: this nifty souvenir costs extra. why were we even surprised by this? i have no idea. but he did not take that lanyard off his neck for the next two days, so i guess that was worth it. (does he have a clue where it is now?! nope. of course not.)
 
the guys ooohed and ahhhed over this ford explorer made out of more than 300,000 legos.
 
when legoland bought cypress gardens, they kept the ski show as a part of the park. this pirate show was near the top of my kids' favorites for the week. now, it was no cypress gardens amazing ski show.... but it was pretty cute. everybody loved seeing these minifigures come out on skis! (and you can see the island in the sky in the background.)
 
so there's the imperial soldiers who are helping this girl (miranda- caroline loved her, of course) protect the ship they took from the big, bad horrible captain brickbeard.... arrrrrrgh! i loved him!!
 
his pirate buddies did some flips and jumps on skis, and then they hopped on the pirate ship to try to take over the ship. lots of water was shot at the bad guys...
 
and eventually, brickbeard is chased around the lake by an inflatable shark. i'm pretty sure i snapped this at the shark part. ethan was crrrracking up. which cracked me up. :)
 
the island in the sky ride was also a cypress gardens original. it was neat to be able to see the whole park as the ride was slowly spinning around.
 
here you can see the setup for the ski show.
 
there was a "duploville" playground area set up for the younger kiddos... the girls could've stayed here all day!
 
caroline took her jr. driving school very seriously. this was the only picture where i caught a glimpse of a smile. she was 1 of only 2 drivers on her little road, so i don't know why she was so worried!
 
while ethan went to the driving school again, nana and i took the girls to get their faces painted. i could not stop laughing at amelia.... check out this look! :)
 
here are my little butterflies! i was pleased that the artwork stayed on very well for the whole day!
 
the girls wanted to pose with this pigeon lady. she was a little too busy catching pigeons for her dinner to smile.
 
caroline talked the whole day before about wanting to meet the princess in the kingdoms area, so after the face painting, we headed that way. and what did caroline say to the princess when she met her? absolutely NOTHING! this little chatterbox princess-lover gets completely dumbfounded in front of princesses every single time! i thought since this one wasn't a true disney princess, that caroline wouldn't clam up.... but she did. oh well. at least she posed for a picture...
 
brian and ethan had fun building these racers and testing them on the track.
 
legoland had beautiful scenery everywhere you turned.
 
the fireman show was a funny, slapstick routine that had my kids laughing the entire time.


and nana recorded the entire show on her iphone so we can watch "put the wet stuff on the hot stuff" anytime we want! :)

amelia discovered duplos on this trip.... and she loved them! they are perfect for her busy little hands, and her brother doesn't get upset when she knocks them over!
 
ethan got a kick out of meeting stormer, one of the hero factory guys (i think?).
 
the activity that ethan asked to return to the most was pharaoh's revenge. it was a two-level ball-shooter crazy house. he loved it. i broke a brand-new flip flop trying to climb up (and carry amelia up) the rope ramp. (did you know that a big fat band-aid will hold your flipflop together all day? my father-in-law is macgyver.)
 
and we all kept returning again and again to miniland.
 
i tried to snap pictures of everything in miniland, but i was interrupted (imagine that....) and didn't get some of miami beach, st. augustine, and daytona. otherwise, you can see all of miniland on my flickr set here.
this guy cracked me up-- reminded me of ME with the cameras around his neck, but the bags of money are foreign to me. :)
 
can you believe we got this picture at the end of the day?? i adore this picture of my children with their nana and pappy, who they adore so much.
 
and i'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual! what a silly bunch!
 
then i pushed it and wanted one of us. i mean, i had to get in a few pictures on this trip!
 
ethan continued to trade minifigs throughout the week, and he was so proud of his final trades.... a farmer guy and a very very cool british soldier (do those have a name??)
 
and as we exited the park, ethan made another final trade.... so here are his final final trades!
 
not sure what's going on with the basketball player's facepaint, but i was glad ethan ended up with the very very cool soldier. (i also liked the mime he had the day before, but brian strongly encouraged him to trade that one... brian has a thing against clowns and mimes!)

our week at legoland was such a fun one! the perfect mix of relaxing, exploring, and shopping. we can't wait to see you again, legoland!!