Fairytale Night -- My Very Own Alice in Wonderland

Olivia's kindergarten class has been working on nursery rhymes and fairytales for the last couple of months, and we've known about fairytale night - a night where the kids would dress in character and sing songs for friends and family - at school since last fall.  For months, Olivia talked about being Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  Honestly, I was thrilled.  I couldn't imagine a more perfect character for her to dress up as.

I searched all sorts of sites for Alice costumes, and finally settled on one I thought was cute, comfortable, and close to the original design of the dress in the movie.  I thought the name of the Etsy shop was familiar, and upon taking a closer look, I realized she was the same woman who made Olivia's Dorothy dress!

Olivia prepared for Fairytale Night by watching Alice in Wonderland as many times as possible.  For her birthday, her friend Riley gave her a dress made from an Alice in Wonderland t-shirt, so she wore that to school the day of the performance.

I absolutely LOVED how her costume/dress turned out.  She looked so cute in it, and truly looked just like Alice!  So, naturally, we had to do a little photo shoot before the show.  :)  And, how cute does Sydney look in her little Cheshire Cat skirt?!  {She kept calling it her Chester the Cat skirt!}

➹ Love my girls! ➹

Olivia did such a great job in the performance!  She sang her songs, did her movements, and seemed right at home up on the stage.  I'm so proud of my little actress!  

Artsy Fartsy

I have honestly been worked up this entire school year trying to figure out what we were going to do for Olivi'as 6th birthday party.  Most of the kids in her class have had these "whole class" parties, and I was absolutely, positively not doing that.  I sort of at the last minute thought to have her party at As You Wish {the pottery painting place that she loves} and did a small art party with 8 of her friends.  It was SO much fun putting together a rainbow/art theme for the decorations, and I know the girls had SO much fun.

➹ This was on a short wall under a ledge where her birthday presents went.  Crooked in the picture, not in real life! ➹

The party was from 11-1, but I knew the kids would be busy painting, so I kept the snacks light.  We had rainbow goldfish, a rainbowtized fruit tray, and of course, cupcakes!  I did my best with putting M&Ms on the cupcakes to make them look like art pallets, but I'm sure that was lost on most of the kids!  

The kiddos were able to choose from a variety of ceramic pieces to glaze and were able to pick as many colors for glazing as they wanted.  It was so cute to see them get right to work!  

Once they were finished glazing their pieces, we cleaned up the space and let them have some rainbow snacks before singing Happy Birthday to Olivia and eating their cupcakes!

We gave each of the kids a little paint bucket filled with Starbursts and a star balloon to take home with them since their pieces would be ready for a few days.  They were so excited about the balloons!  Who knew?!

After the party, we took the girls and Brooke to Spaghetti Factory -- that is quickly becoming a birthday tradition for Olivia.  Riley and her family met us there and we all piled in the train inside the restaurant.  The girls got to sit at a table all by themselves in the caboose and I'm pretty sure they thought that was the coolest thing!

➹ Two peas in a pod -- both Little Miss Sunshines! ➹

I think it is safe to say that Olivia had a fabulous birthday party day!  And parties where someone else runs the show is definitely the way to go!  :)

You Say It's Your Birthday...Well Then Have Cinnamon Rolls

Well, another year has flown by, and Olivia now needs both hands to show how old she is.  Was it really 6 years ago that I was snuggling with her in the hospital and trying to figure out how to get her to sleep??  Hmmm, let's see, some things haven't changed that much....

We had our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast, and then got the surprise of the day when Riley and her dad came over with balloons and donuts for the birthday girl!

Poppy gave Olivia a great birthday treat with a golf cart carriage ride to school!  She was so excited!

I brought Olivia a warm quesadilla for her lunch, and then dropped off some mini cupcakes for her class to enjoy that afternoon.  She felt so special, and I was so happy that she included her sister in her special day.

I knew Olivia would want to spend time with her friends that evening, so we invited the neighborhood crew over for some pool/hot tub time, pizza, birthday video, and ice cream cake.  It was such a fun afternoon, and the perfect day for my sweet six year old!

Happy 6th Birthday, Olivia!

April Wrap Up

I know - it's not even the end of April or beginning of May, and I'm already working on wrapping up the month.  What is wrong with me?!  But, we've got two birthdays to write about, a Fairytale night at school, and a trip to Disneyland coming up, so we've got to get all of this miscellaneous stuff out of the way first!

Major life events for the beginning of April -- we went out to eat with Nana and Poppy, we've been swimming in the hot tub, Olivia made a family crest for school, and Sydney {obviously} painted something at preschool!  Want to see proof?  Here ya go!