Cheer Camp 2013

I had every intention of keeping Anna Claire home this week since she was getting over her ear infection, but with no fever, and with her begging to go to cheer camp, I couldn't see any reason to keep her from participating.

She was not her energetic self, but she did seem to enjoy it. Much of cheer camp was done as a spectator for her, since she wasn't feeling 100%, but she enjoyed just being there with her friends and I think it did her a world of good just to get out of the house instead of being cooped up all week.

Waiting with her friends

Whole group exercise - she liked this part and did everything they asked!

Hands on hips!

Jump!

Basket toss!

Rainbow Art Birthday Party Planning!

This Rainbow Art Party has been hands-down my favorite party I've ever planned. There are so many options and it's so easy to be inspired by color!

This year's birthday party planning has also been so much more fun because Anna Claire wants to play an active role. She has DEFINITE ideas about what she wants and doesn't want, which I love.

I have made each part of the planning process hands-on, so she is having as much fun planning as I think she will on her actual big day.

The THEME
Obviously Anna Claire wants a Rainbow Art Birthday! This theme has not wavered for 2 months now, so I am super-excited that it's exactly what she wants. Last year, she changed her mind every other day so I was in constant doubt that I had made the right choice. This year, she will bounce ideas off me in the car, and sitting and playing around the house, like, "Mommy, I had an idea for my birfday...how about rainbow straws? Is that a good idea?" or "Mommy, we could have Skittles at my birfday. They're rainbow. Can Maggie have Skittles?" (Maggie is her sweet nut-allergy friend who is limited on what candy she can have. So sweet of her to think of Maggie!)

The VENUE
 Liberty Park Playground (AKA "The Birthday Park"  - she dubbed it this ever since her last birthday which was also held there.) I have asked Anna Claire repeatedly, "Are you sure you don't want to have it somewhere different? We had it there last year." She is emphatic that we should have it at the Birthday Park, so Birthday Park it is! That makes my heart smile that she loved her birthday last year so much that she wants a repeat, and it is a great location and very easy, and free!

The CAKE
Anna Claire has decided on a cake! I showed her three options, and she went with this one, the simplest of her three choices :) We will use fruit/fruit juice in the recipes to color the layers instead of food coloring though. She has declared that she would also like rainbow cupcakes, so I was really excited to find the rainbow Airheads to top these yesterday. Some food coloring at a rainbow party is almost inevitable (like in Airheads), but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum since I have learned so much about long-term effects of it with all of the research I've done on dementia for mom.

The INVITATIONS
I sent invitations out today, and Anna Claire had a ball helping me make them. The first step was making her rainbow birthday outfit, inspired by this link. I spent less than ten bucks on the white shirt and skirt at Walmart, gave Anna Claire some washable tempura paint, and let her go. The next day, we did her photo shoot which she would tell you was "the most fun ever." She got to live her dream and paint her body from head to toe while I shot away with my camera.

Here are some pics from our T-shirt making, messy fun photo shoot, and the actual birthday invitation.

Making her birthday skirt :)

She spent the longest just painting her feet!

Anna Claire loves mixing colors!

"Wook Mommy! I made purple!"

Love the foot up. :)

Admiring her efforts.

Finished Invitation!

Stay tuned for pics from the big day... in just three weeks from now. :)

Little Mermaid Jr.

Last week when we were downtown Clarksville, we popped in the Roxy to get our tickets for Little Mermaid Jr. Anna Claire has been so excited to "see Ariel" all week, and then lo and behold she gets a lousy ear infection. I worried last night that she wouldn't feel up to seeing the show, and then this morning she seemed to bounce back and was her old self again.

Then, on the way to gymnastics this morning, she got sick in the car. She was lifeless and sick, refusing to eat anything. We have since determined that the antibiotics for her ear infection really do make you sick when taken without food. More sickness ensued thereafter...

I thought about calling the Roxy and asking if we could come on a different day, but then I read on our tickets, "No exchanges. No refunds." Knowing how badly she wanted to go, I decided then and there, that we would go to that show, or at least make our best attempt - after all, if we could just get there, all she really had to do was sit on my lap which was what we were doing at home anyway.

Our showtime was at 2:00, and she was still feeling pretty lousy at 11. I thought that I would make my best effort getting her to eat and nap, then drive downtown and go from there. She did eat a few bites of lunch, took about a 45 minute nap, and promised me she felt ok and begged for me to take her.

We went, and I'm so glad we did. Anna Claire loved the play, felt great during and after it, and has decided that she would like to be in a play one day. During the play, Anna Claire was sitting on my lap and I had my hand placed over her heart. When Ursula came out, I felt her heart beating so fast, it was unreal. I could tell she was scared. However, after watching the entire play and having a talk, she is also now cured of her fear of Ursula. We have had to fast forward through her part of the movie up until today. I was able to explain to her that Ursula wasn't real, she was just a girl just like us dressed up and playing pretend. :)

My only critique of the play lies with the gentleman who spoke at the beginning who came out to buy the cast a bit of time. He opened by asking if everyone got to make a crown, if everyone got a septer. Um, no sir. Only the kids who went to "Ariel's Sea Party" before the show got those (we opted not to pay an extra $15 per person for PBJ and mac and cheese). Thanks for pointing the option out to my child who was previously unaware. Thank you also, sir, for promising kids a bag a M&Ms if they could find the actor wearing the band-aid on the hand during the performance, then not following through. I guess you forgot, but my kid didn't. We made a mandatory run to Dollar General afterward for one bag of M&Ms since I wasn't able to explain why she didn't win the prize.

All in all, this was a wonderful first play experience for an almost four-year-old. It was just the right length, kept her attention, and was based on one of her favorite princess stories. 

Look who we just happened to be seated by at the play...Braxtyn, who's in AC's class at the RB!

Anna Claire agreed to pose for this pic in exchange for her bag of M&Ms ;)

Most of the girls had their picture taken with Ariel, but AC had hers with Flounder, one of her favorite characters. Isn't the boy who played him adorable?

The Road to Independence

With a new baby on the way, it's very exciting to see how confident and independent Anna Claire is becoming.

For the longest, I thought I wanted children spaced out 2-3 years so they would be close, but 4 years ended up being God's will. As I watch Anna Claire take on more and more responsibilities the past few months, I see what a wonderful helper we have in her!

Anna Claire loves helping out these days. She is so proud of herself when she carries her dinner plate to the kitchen, getting me something I need from another room, or just following directions and carrying out something we've asked her to do.

It has taken her longer to do many things than other children her age, but I take full responsibility for this. We've done for her, so much, for so long, that it's no wonder she's just now doing some of these tasks. I thought I'd make a list of things Anna Claire is now doing for herself that she was not doing just 2 months ago, things that will be a huge help in about 4 months:

• Getting dressed by herself (we have admittedly enabled her to rely on us for this)
• Going potty herself
• Turning on lights and opening doors
• Making her own sandwich
• Playing independently
• Getting her own paper out of the drawer for art
• Staying with a task or activity for 5-10 minutes, long enough for us to go downstairs and do a few chores and come back to find her still engaged in the same task. 
• Getting Meme gum, snacks, and throwing the wrappers away for her
• Picking the ripe strawberries in our strawberry patch

This morning, Larry came upstairs with breakfast for her, to find her completely dressed and that she she had already gone potty by herself. She had even put her PJs in the dirty clothes basket. As I said before, this will be such a blessing in a few months when we have a #2!

Saturday - Day of Fun!

Our agenda for the day felt agressive, but I believe we live in an "AND" world, and I just knew we could pull it all off. See, what happens around here are weekends of nothing, followed by weekends where there's so much going on locally, you have to pick and choose what to do.

Take today, for example. The wonderful city of Clarksville offered the Strawberry Jam at H&S Strawberry Farm, the Downtown Market (Farmer's Market), the Hayloft Sale, Family Campout at Dunlop Park, Foster Care Awareness event, Sango Pharmacy's grand opening where kids could meet Mickey and Minnie, and a showing of Little Mermaid at the Roxy. Whew!

Well, I decided to pick the stuff I thought would be most doable and fun. Since rain was in the forecast for tonight, we ruled out the campout, and since I am in saving money mode, I elimated the Hayloft Sale from the list. From there, I decided to pick stuff that would be the most fun for our family and allow us to participate in as many of these as possible.

We started off our morning at gymnastics from 9-10, then picked up Daddy and the fun began from there. Although, for Anna Claire, the fun actually began at 9 because she LOVES gymnastics!

I thought about all we wanted to do today, and realized that if we saw Little Mermaid, we'd have to sacrifice all the other events because it was right smack in the middle of the day. Nothing's really going on next Saturday, so, decision was made to go see Little Mermaid next week. By the way, it would have cost an extra THIRTY DOLLARS for us to tag on a peanut butter and jelly and mac n cheese lunch and meet the cast. Once I found out Anna Claire could meet the cast just by going to the show and staying after, I said, "I'd like two tickets for just the show, please!"

We headed downtown to stop off at the Roxy and pick up the tickets, and from there, headed to the Downtown Market. As we anticipated it was hot and no produce vendors yet, so we didn't stay long. Anna Claire was accustomed to getting strawberry basil popsicles at Downtown Market all last summer, and she had not forgotten this routine. From the moment we pulled into the parking lot that's all we heard was, "I want strawberry basil popsicle."

When we finally found the booth, we watch with mouths gaped open as the lady crossed through the flavor "strawberry basil" on her dry erase board. I told her the sad story of how those were AC's favorite that we were disappointed, and that AC did not care for cucumber or lime, the other 2 offered flavors. The lady said, "We do have some strawberry basil samples she can have." I asked how much and she said, "not a thing," handing Anna Claire FIVE dixie cup sized popsicle bites in a clear cup. Love the popsicle ladies!

We left the Downtown Market in time to make it to our next venue, Barksdale School, to support our small group leader who was speaking at a Foster Care Awareness event. We knew it would be a big hit with Anna Claire because Lucas, Ken's son would be there and they absolutely love playing together. While we were there we were able to feed the kiddos free hot dog/pizza lunch plus cookies, play on inflatables and the playground. And it just felt like the right thing to do, supporting a great cause. Lucas and Anna Claire are both so adorable, I can hardly stand to look at that much cuteness in one picture!

Ok, so the Sango Pharmacy may not sound super exciting to folks, but watching your kiddo meet Mickey and Minnie for the first time is priceless! Well worth the ten minute pitstop on our way out to the Strawberry Jam. Thank you Sango Pharmacy!!



The Strawberry Jam was a non-negotiable since I mentioned it to AC a couple of weeks ago, she's been talking about it ever since. It did not disappoint, complete with petting zoo, face painting, train ride, inflatables, and of course, berry picking!

Loved our day of fun and if it is any indication of how the rest of this summer will play out, I am super excited!!

Soccer Shots

Until today, I haven't been able to watch Anna Claire play soccer because I sponsor an after school club that's held the exact same time as her soccer on Thursdays. Well, school year's ending, and clubs are done. I loved being able to watch them today!

I was so impressed with Coach Brant, the Soccer Shots coach. He is so great with the kids - they really listen to him and he makes everything a lot of fun for them.  It is absolutely the perfect introduction to soccer for her age.

The kids start off by warming up, getting to throw the ball and then dribble the ball with their feet. They do several exercises and she really seems to like these.

One of the exercises gave some of the kids a chance to be a goalie. Anna Claire got tapped for this, but she kept putting the balls in the goal instead of throwing them out of the goal. Here's a pic of Brant coaching Anna Claire not to put the balls in the goal. ;)

Anna Claire, we don't want the balls to go in the goal, we want to keep them from going in the goal.

Another exercise was letting each kid take turns kicking a ball all the way across the field and into the goal.

The kids get to play a  "game" of soccer. I was so proud of Anna Claire that she was one of the few girls actually going after the ball. Maybe it was because I was watching, but either way, I was happy that she wasn't picking flowers or gathering pine cones like she's been reported doing in the past.

At the end of class the kids get to go around and help Coach pick up the equipment - they really like helping him! Then they all get their Soccer Shots stamp!

I can't wait to go back next week! Maybe I will bring Daddy with me...

Mother's Day 2013

A few days ago I mentioned to Larry that I'd like to go to O'Charley's brunch for Mother's Day. Partly because I like O'Charley's, but mainly because it's my mom's favorite restaurant and I thought that even if we couldn't take her there, we could bring O'Charley's to her.

Friday, Larry noticed someone had made several fraudulent charges using our checking account. So we both cancelled our cards, and he broke the news to me that we were advised not to use our account for the next few days...hence no O'Charley's.

I was fine with it, really. No big deal.

Well, on Mother's Day, on our way from church, I asked what everybody wanted for lunch, thinking we'd eat at home, and Larry said, "I thought we could go to O'Charley's."
I said, "But I thought..."
Larry said, "Well, I have some cash I've been hanging on to and we can just use that." What a sweet surprise!

It was yummy! Prime rib, and moms got free pie. Anna Claire was a big help with the pie, and loved her strawberry smoothie and mac-n-cheese. ;)

After O'Charley's,  I told Anna Claire we were going to Signature to see Meme. She replied, "Meme's in 308, Daddy. Room three-oh-eight!" - gotta love my little helper!

I am always a little anxious before each visit, because I never know how she's going to be - will she know I'm there? Will she know where she is and what's going on? Will she understand what I'm saying? Will we be able to have a real conversation? Will she say hurtful things or things that don't make sense? You just never know with Alzheimer's. These were all legitimate possibilities.

Well, I got my Mother's Day wish. Momma loved seeing us. We got a smile when we walked in, and I loved talking to Momma today. She was in good spirits, and I was able to understand everything she was saying. She was telling me how good the food was, what she'd like some more of, and asked Anna Claire about her week. She was really herself - such a blessing as we only get small windows of time like this in the later stages of Alzheimer's.

Momma loved going outside and watching Anna Claire play on the rocking chairs, and she loved the O'Charley's prime rib and strawberries that another friend had brought by earlier.

I was so encouraged by how much she ate. She has been having a really hard time feeding herself lately, and consequently refusing to eat. She lost 7 pounds in one week, and was down to 112, with 130 being normal for her.

I spent the rest of my Mother's Day enjoying my sweet girl doing whatever she wanted. We played outside for hours, eating popsicles, taking barefoot walks in the grass, picking strawberries from our strawberry patch, playing at the water table, picking flowers, laying on our backs on the picnic blanket - looking up at the trees and skies....perfect, perfect day!