Ariana is 5! Her Birthday Interview!

Ariana turned 5 on November 6th. Her birthday fell on a school day. I made her orange rolls for breakfast and put balloons on her chair in the morning. I put stickers and a note in her lunch and we celebrated by taking cupcakes (pink cupcakes with purple frosting and rainbow sprinkles just like she wanted) and small goodie bags to her friends in her class. That night we had one of her favorite dinners (chicken nuggets with ketchup, broccoli and cucumber with ranch) She made a wish and blew out her #5 candle and opened her presents from family. We finished off the night with one of our birthday traditions and read Happy Birthday to You by Dr. Seuss.

We are having a joint birthday party with one of her friends later this month!

Just like two years ago on the night before her birthday I had a birthday interview with her. Here is how our conversation went this year.

Mommy: Do you know what tomorrow is?
Ariana: Wednesday
Mommy: Yes, it's Wednesday, but is it a special day. 
Ariana: Yes momma
Mommy: What day is it?
Ariana: MY birthday
Mommy: And how old are you going to be?
Ariana: Five
Mommy: How do you feel about turning five?
Ariana: VERY special (smiling)
Mommy: How special is it to be turning five?
Ariana: So special! So much that I feel so special 100 and 99 much.
Mommy: That's a lot!
Mommy: What is your favorite food?
Ariana: My fav food is spaghetto's
Mommy: Not somethng that mommy makes?
Ariana: That is what you make
Mommy: (laughing) Yes, but I mean something that mommy cooks like I cooked dinner tonight, not something in a can.
Ariana: Umm, I like what you just made tonight (chicken and dumplings)
Mommy: Ok. So what's your favorite color?
Ariana: Pink, purple, yellow and blue
Mommy: What about red? That used to be your favorite color.
Ariana: Yellow took red's place.
Mommy: So yellow is your favorite color now?
Ariana: Yes... and pink and purple and blue
Mommy: What's your fav toy?
Ariana: Everything
Mommy: What do you want for your birthday?
Ariana: A toy umm ummm ummmmmmmmm I want a cinderella doll, I mean barbie toy. A cinderella prince that's a barbie
Mommy: Cinderella prince, that's a boy? You want a Prince Charming?
Ariana: Yes, Prince Charming is the boy that goes with Cinderella right?
Mommy: Yes
Ariana: Yes
Ariana: What else do you want to ask me?
Mommy: What's your favorite thing to do?
Ariana: My favorite thing to do is be in the library.
Mommy: The library on base or the library at school?
Ariana: The library at school.
Mommy: What's your favorite thing to learn at school.
Ariana: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (giggling watching me typing) ummmmmmmmmmmmmm ummm reading bob books

Mommy: What year were you born? Do you remember?
Ariana: 2015
Mommy: That can't be right
Ariana: 2013
Mommy: No, that's this year
Ariana: 2014
Mommy: You have to go backwards. What is 13 minus 5?
(we counted backwards from 13)

Ariana: 2008!
Mommy: Good job! Ok that's all the questions.
Ariana: I want some more questions.
Mommy: Well, is there anything else you want to tell me about yourself.
Ariana: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
what I love about me is I'm so sweet and I have pretty hair.

Happy 5th Birthday Ariana!

We Love Kiwi Crate!

I posted about how much we love Kiwi Crate over on The Shopping Mama the other day.

Kiwi Crate is a great monthly craft box subscription for your kids. Ariana has been getting them for several months now and we really get excited when that little green box arrives in the mail.

For this box, one of the activities was a watercolor "under the sea" animals craft. The other was a sailboat and there was even a bonus activity! I made a list of 10 things I love about Kiwi Crate and shared it with TSM readers. I thought I would share my two favorite things about Kiwi Crate here too.

Top 2 things I really love about Kiwi Crate are:

1. A new box is delivered to my door monthly!
2. It encourages curiosity and creativity!

To read the 8 other things I love about kiwi crate, be sure to check out my Kiwi Crate review post.

Do you do Kiwi Crate? Would your child like something like this?

It makes a great gift too!

On The Way to Kindergarten!

Dear Ariana,

My baby. My little Kindergartener,

This week, you had your first day of Kindergarten. I can hardly believe it! You're still only 4 years old and a Kindergartener. A KINDERGARTENER! I've been thinking a lot about you and how much of my heart you hold. How you are my baby girl. You will always be my baby girl. My baby. My little Kindergartener.

 I'm not sure whether I was hit with the fact that you won't be our ONLY baby anymore very soon, or the fact that you weren't a baby anymore because you were going to school full time. Kindergarten. Real school. Every day. The start of your education. Honestly, it was probably both that tugged at my heart strings. And it's not just any Kindergarten, but German Immersion Kindergarten. You'll learn so much this year, including German and hopefully if things work out Italian too. I want that for you but at the same time I want to keep you little forever. 

You're 4 and 3/4 years old, 36 pounds, and still ride in a carseat. Your favorite color is red and you can read 68 sight words on your own. You love to learn and when you grow up you tell us you want to be an astronaut, gymnastics teacher and a mommy. You know all your planets and many facts about them. You have memorized some of your favorite books by heart, including your Ariel tag reader book which you can recite front to back. You love being able to read to us now.

You dislike bananas but LOVE pizza (sausage or pepperoni). You're favorite TV show is a DVD of classic Carebears episodes and your favorite movie is The Little Mermaid even though you say Snow White is your favorite princess. Secretly, I think you just love the songs in The Little Mermaid the best. You adore sparkly shoes, painting, dressing up (pretend or real) and singing. You're a busy body and love swimming, gymnastics, climbing the tree in our backyard, dancing, and riding your bike. You're so curious, you ask us questions like "Why is the ocean salty if the rain isn't" and "Did the first person on earth have a Mommy?" You just learned how to blow up balloons all by yourself and want to give everyone you know a balloon. You love making up knock knock jokes even if they don't always make sense. You're so hilariously funny even when you don't mean to me. You make people laugh all the time! You're confident, friendly, energetic, loving, creative, kind and a little bit of a perfectionist. You're also hard headed when you don't get your way and can be very persistent.

The night before Kindergarten it took at least 30 minutes of family discussion on what outfit you wanted to wear.  Laying your favorites out on your bed and matching shoes with them all. You decided on a rainbow skirt, purple shirt and of course pink sparkly shoes! We read a book that you and Daddy checked out at the library called "On The Way To Kindergarten" and I broke down and cried in the middle of the book and couldn't finish it. I was so overwhelmed with love for you, my little girl. You're like a little bit of magic in my life. I wish I could bottle up these sweet memories of you and keep them forever! When I started crying, then you started crying even before you knew what I was crying about. You're that tenderhearted. You snuggled up next to me and I smoothed your hair and breathed you in. My baby. My little Kindergartener.

As I tucked you in, you hugged me tight and told me "Mommy you're my favorite. I love you a zillion-twenty nine-eighty!" Tears all over again. You're my favorite too. My baby. My little Kindergartener.

On the morning of your first day of Kindergarten you didn't want to get up. You're not a morning person and waking you up can be a challenge at times. But once you were up, you were excited and a little nervous. We made scrambled egg sandwiches and talked about your teachers that you had met a few days before, and all the friends you already knew that were going to be in your class (Ellie, Anthony, and Mary) I packed your lunch and a snack for you, and after a few pictures by the front door we were on our way! My baby. My little Kindergartener.

Daddy left work to come meet us to drop you off. You definitely loved that he was there for you to see you off. You hung your Hello Kitty bookbag in your cubby like you had prepared your whole life for that moment. You went right in and greeted your teacher and found your seat. I wanted to linger, I wasn't ready to leave you. But you didn't need me there. You were excited to see your friends and find out what you were going to learn that day. You sat there nervously, across from Mary (you called her your table mate) waiting to see what they were going to do first. But you were smiling and I knew you would be okay. My baby. My little Kindergartener.

And then, just like that, your first day began. You went and became a Kindergartener. A little bit more grown up than the day before. But, always know, you will ALWAYS be my baby. No matter if it's your first day of Kindergarten, middle school, high school, college... you will always be my baby. I know it'll always be hard for me, every first day, but I hope you'll always be smiling just like you were that first day of Kindergarten. Your love of learning and your bubbly personality taking over and pushing you forward, into the world.

My baby. My little Kindergartener.

I love you so much!

Love Forever,

Mommy

Backyard Butterflies

It took long enough for summer to get into full swing here in Germany. And now that it's finally here our backyard has been full of butterflies. Ariana has learned to gently catch them and put them in her bug box to study and observe.

The other afternoon she had up to 5 butterflies in her box that she caught all by herself. 

Of course for me it was the perfect time to break out my macro and take some shots. After a little while we set them free but boy did she have fun catching and watching them!

These were taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 105mm/f2.8G macro lens.

We discovered that macro shots of a butterfly makes them look kind of alien in the face.

 I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get their eyes more in focus no matter how I angled the camera, what aperture I used or where I focused. 

Fellow photographers, any tips?

The little yellow one was my favorite to photograph.
Ariana had such a good time playing outside. So happy I'm getting this quality summertime fun with my girlie!

Create a Summer Reading Fort!

I like to try to keep things creative for Ariana especially during the summer when she's out of school. Recently we created a reading fort in the backyard! She absolutely loved it.

Read more about our fort here on The Shopping Mama, as well as get tips to beat the Summer Slide. It's good to keep kid's brains engaged and active during the summer.

Disneyland Paris: Ariana's 4th Birthday Trip!

In November 2012 (during a particularly rough time for us as a family) we took a magical trip to Disneyland Paris for 4 nights. We all know Disneyland Paris isn't going to compare to Disney World in Orlando, Florida (what I grew up with) but it captures just as much magic.

We had been debating on whether or not we wanted to spend the time/money to go to Disney Paris since we had heard it "wasn't worth it.  But went anyways and we all came away refreshed, more full of wonder, happier and more bonded together as a family. Maybe it had something to do with being in a fantasy land full of smiling cheerful characters for a few days and forgetting about the troubles of "real life" that helped, but we really enjoyed it.

And it came at the perfect time. Not only a rough time personal time for us, but Ariana's 4th birthday! It was important and special for us to just spend an entire vacation just focused on Ariana and having kid friendly fun.

We drove the 4.5 hours from our home in Germany to the Disneyland Paris Resorts in France. We stayed in Disneyland Paris Sequoia Lodge. We had a spacious room with 2 large beds decorated in a woodland Bambi theme. They had 2 restaurants in the hotel, but with both of them it was recommended that you make a time slot reservation to save yourself from waiting. There were several characters that made apparences throughout the day to the hotel. We saw Goofy, Pluto and Mickey on the days we were there. There was usually only a handful of kids waiting to see the characters and it was a lot less hectic than seeing them in the park itself. You could also pose for pictures but take your own because the professional photos cost 15 Euro each!

The first day we went and enjoyed spending the day playing in Disneyland Park that includes, Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Discoveryland, and Adventureland. 

We met Minnie Mouse as soon as we walked in the gates and she was all dressed in a fancy Halloween costume. Since it was only a few days after Halloween the whole park was still decorated with big pumpkins and ghosts and other spooky things. While we were there some of the decorations changed overnight to Christmas. Of course we all joined in the fun and got Minnie and Mickey ear headbands. Why not, right?

Ariana loved riding all the rides in Fantasyland. The Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Dumbo, and Snow White were some of her favorites. 

After some snacks of yummy warm waffles (because it was November and it was cold) we explored under the castle and found a chained dragon who breathed smoke. We visited him many times throughout our stay and he always fascinated Ariana.

There were a few characters in the Disneyland Park but we somehow kept missing a lot of them. We did see Alice and the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum. The Queen of Hearts was the best character. She was making everyone bow and kiss her ring before she would pose for pictures.

Of course we had to see the parade that went down the main street of the park. 

Adventureland and Discoveryland were fun too!  She loved the Buzz Lightyear ride the best in those parts of the park. She met Captain Jack Sparrow but she wasn't so sure about him.

We met Mickey in the "Meet Mickey Pavillion" and then we stayed until dusk and then caught the shuttle back to our hotel for the night. It was a busy and fun filled first day.

The second day we went to Walt Disney Studios. We saw an incredible amount of characters there walking around and stopping for autographs and photos including Chip and Dale, Donald and Daisy, Eeyore and Rabbit (from Chistopher Robbin), Ariel, Rattitioule, Jasmine and Alladin, 

Meeting Ariel made her day and even though she had a British accent Ariana didn't seem to mind much.

We went to see a couple of shows including Stitch Live which was fun and interactive with real time animation with Stitch on screen. We also saw Playhouse Disney Live (Handy Mandy, Little Einsteins, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse come alive on stage), and Animagique. Ariana picked out a plush Stitch doll at one of the gift shops.

We also saw the parade there which had different characters and lots of villains too!

There wasn't as many rides (for her age) in Walt Disney Studios but she loved the Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin which was kind of a little roller coaster and she was even brave enough to ride the parachute drop ride.

On her birthday morning we woke up and opened presents in the room first thing. She got a new toy kitty, a Merida (Brave) dress, a jewelry box and some other goodies. We let her wear her Merida dress over her regular clothes for the day. She was truly a little princess! Then it was off to explore Disneyland Park again and ride some of our favorite rides and see anything we missed the first day.

For a special birthday lunch we went to Auberge de Cendrillon to dine with Cinderella's mice friends and some of the princesses. Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip entertained us with a ballroom dance and we got to have special one on one time with each princess when they came around to our table.

Snow White is her official favorite princess, Ariana even had her toenails painted ruby red "just like Snow White's lipstick". But, she loved meeting and chatting with Cinderella. The first things she asked her was "Can I see your glass slippers?" Cinderella explained that she kept her glass slippers in a special wooden box in her castle since they were so special to her.

At the end of lunch they brought out a special chocolate cake alight with candles and sang Happy Birthday to her. It was a magical birthday!

After her birthday lunch the sun came out and warmed us all up a little bit. We took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot by the castle. Ariana danced and twirled and then smiled her best 4 year old smile.

It's hard to believe it's already been 4 years since we first were blessed with this sweet little girl. We are so lucky to be her parents!

For anyone who is questioning whether or not to make a trip to Disneyland Paris, I say, GO FOR IT!! To our family it was well worth it and we came away with lots of awesome memories. Four years old was a pretty perfect age to enjoy the magic that the park has to offer. We are even debating going back again before we leave Europe next year, but we'll see.

To see more of our trip, you can watch our Disneyland Paris Video here. Simple but it captured some of the magic.

Totally perfect family vacation in Europe!