Watch Me Grow

Ice Cream with a Princess

The day after Esther's birthday we planned to just stay home, relax, and play with all her new things. That was going pretty well until we found out that the Chocolate Bar Cafe down the street was having "Ice Cream with a Princess" for two hours in the afternoon. We decided we could break our house arrest for something that special.

Cinderella painted faces while Snow White made balloon animals. Then, of course, you can't have "Ice Cream with a Princess" unless you have ice cream (or a cupcake if you prefer).

Half a Decade

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ESTHER!

Today was Esther's fifth birthday! She's been planning this day for nearly a year, and I think it worked out exactly how she wanted - though we were all pretty tired at the end.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and emails, made phone calls and gave presents. Esther felt very special today thanks to all of you!

First - yesterday Esther and I made her cake. When she picked the design I let her know that hers probably wouldn't look exactly like the one in the picture, and she said that was fine. It's definitely one of the more "interesting" cakes I've made, but we had fun making it together, and I think she did a great job doing the whole face all by herself!

Here is what it was supposed to look like:

Cameron was able to take the whole day off studying so he could be with his little princess! What a treat!

Alex and I were the first ones up (as usual). When Esther came down the stairs she was too excited to talk, so she just held up her five fingers and smiled.

After opening family presents, and watching a movie in our pajamas, we headed off to Big Boy for breakfast. I'm not sure why Esther was so excited to go to Big Boy, but she was very definite in her choice.

William wanted to get Esther a flower for her birthday, so after on the way home from breakfast he got this for Esther.

Next on Esther's perfect day agenda: swimming at the park.

Alex and I hung out in the shade (he can go swimming next year).

During nap time Esther and I went to the library to get her very own library card. She was so excited to write her name on it herself, and check out some books without any help.

In the afternoon Esther had her official party at Chuck E. Cheese's. The night Alex was born, she and William went with some friends of ours to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, and she's been wanting to have hers there ever since. She had a wonderful time. Thanks everybody who came!

An Evening with Mr. Wonka

We like to have fun with our books, and we usually do some book related activity whenever we read together. We just read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and decided to have a candy party when we finished. (Yes, if you read Aimee's blog, we totally stole the idea from her.)

Things were going great. We got in to our "factory" (the kitchen table) thanks to the golden tickets Esther made for us with yellow paper, markers, and stencils. We enjoyed our candy boats, square candies that looked round, and a bunch of nuts. The excitement started when someone (Cameron) decided to paint Esther's face with the chocolate waterfall. A bit of a food fight emerged. The end results are as follows.

Okay, so technically Alex wasn't part of the chocolate fight, but we didn't want to leave him out of this post, and he looks awfully cute with his peas smeared all over his face from dinner.

Fruit Cake

In this month's Friend Magazine there was a recipe for "August Fruit Cake" that Esther desperately wanted to make. I did all the cutting and she did all the arranging. I must admit - this is my kind of fruitcake. No yucky little candied things in an overly sweet bread-like substance. Just a bunch of yummy fruit. Okay - we added a little whipped cream (a lot less than it looks like in the picture), but it wasn't in the recipe. We ate this cake for dinner and everyone enjoyed it.

The Rouge

When Alex was born, Cameron's parents took Esther and William for a few days. One place they went was the Ford Rouge Factory. Esther has been begging us to go on the tour again, so she can show us everything she saw with Grammy and Grandpa. Today we finally did.

Cailin, Keahi, and Jarom wanted to come too, which made it extra fun!

They didn't allow photography during most of the tour, so we only have pictures of are the show room up front. We did have a great time though.

First we watched a movie about the history of Ford. It was interesting. I never knew the history of Ford before.

Next came a movie of a car (or was it a truck?) being assembled. It was in a flashy multi sensory auditorium complete with rumbling seats when machines did their thing, and a fine mist of water when the cars got painted. There were no words, and everything seems dramatic when put to a soundtrack. Will the body of the new vehicle emerge from its bath? The triumphant music after a suspenseful pause indicates that yes, all is well.

After the movies we wandered around the mezzanine, looking at all the parts of the assembly line. Unfortunately there were no workers today, but we still got the gist of it.

Last (but not least) we visited the observation deck where we saw the whole factory complex. We also got to see the plants on the factory roof and the nifty porous parking lot.

By the end (and a while before that to be honest) the kids had all had enough, so it was back to the car for some lunch and a relaxing ride home.

p.s. For you spelling challenged people like me (there are some of you out there), rouge is the make-up, rogue is the villain.