Sunday, March 25, 2012
Alice brings home her baby
Yesterday the Bickel family spent the day looking at prospective new family members. We started at a pet rescue meet and greet. We then went to the local animal shelters to see what was available. After seeing a lot of poor homeless doggies, we settled on a 12 week old chihuahua puppy. We took him home and he rode in Alice's lap the entire ride. Alice named him Cupcake Bailey Bickel. Cupcake Bailey has settled in nicely at the homestead. We have had an accident (pew!) but we knew house breaking a puppy would be work. He slept in his crate the first night without protest or incident. This morning we let Cupcake Bailey wake Alice up. He climbed around Alice's head and began licking her face. Alice woke with a smile on her face and told us that she liked the way Cupcake Bailey wakes her up better than the way mom and dad do. Apparently licks to the face are better than our tickles and songs. I'm sure I'll have more to tell later, but for now.... All is well!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bickel Gardens
Alice sitting next to our flower garden.
We were watering and picking weeds while we enjoyed the weather.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Alice's Pump it Up Party
Since her classmate's party last year at a "bouncy house", Alice has been insistent that her next birthday be celebrated at a "bouncy house". I heard this for an entire year.
All year, Alice was jealous of anyone having a birthday before her next one came back around. "I want my birthday to be first" she would say and then pout about it NOT being her birthday yet. It is impossible to tell a 3 year old that her birthday HAD been first that year in January - before anyone elses birthday was celebrated that year. So we struggled all year long with friend's birthdays coming and going. Alice would say she didn't want to go to so-and-so's party...only because it wasn't HER birthday.
The end of the year approached and I noticed that there were about 5 kids in Alice's class with a birthday in January. I could forsee a disaster forming when more than one parent decided to plan a kids birthday on the same weekend. I had already booked Pump-It-Up for Alice's party. Now I wanted to make sure as many of the kids from Alice's class could make it, so in November, I sent out 'save the date' cards to let the other parents know - I CALL DIBS on that weekend (January 14th) and it worked.
I know Alice loves to go to inflatable playrooms, however I also know my child can be intimidated by the bigger kids and even just kids she doesn't know. Since she has been looking forward to this birthday for an entire year, I wanted to make it one for her to remember, because I think this will actually be the first one she will rememeber. With this in mind, I booked her party at Pump It Up. It was a little bit pricey but well worth the expense. With the party package there, you get to invite up to 25 kids and you have 1 1/2 hours to jump with just your friends in 2 private jump rooms, each with about 4-5 different bounce houses.
Since this was Alice's first large birthday party, we also invited the family and pretty much everyon came! Didi and Pop, Aunt Papa, Uncle Paul, Chris and Sean, Gammy, Aunt Sissy with Joci and Juliette. It was a real treat that Aunt Sissy brought Joci and Juliette a few days early to stay with us and we got to play together for 3 days.
I also knew this party could turn out to be fairly large with kids AND parent, so I asked my friend Deb to make the cake again this year. I asked it be themed "girly with rainbows and flowers" and boy did she deliver! I am so lucky to have a fabulous cake designer for a friend. She had make the cake or cupcakes for Alice's parties for the past 3 years and they are always phenominal....all the parents wanted her card.
The day of the party arrived and Alice was beyond excited. All in all about 12 classmates came and with the addition of my friends with kids and all the family in town we had about 35 people including parents. Pretty much ALL the cake was eatten (I think we had about 4 slices to take home for later) and everyone looked like they had a great time. This was the first visit to a bouncy house for Chris and Sean and they took to it with no fear.
We took all the presents back to the house to open later and the family all met back at the house to hang out for a while. Alice opened presents at a leisurely pace. I think it took her about 4 hours to get through them all. We brought in Rudy's BBQ to feed the family dinner and sat around and talked while the kids played. This was our time to host family at our house for an event and I think it went quite well...nothing broken and Alice was good about sharing, expecially with the boys.
When the day was done, everyone was exhausted, but I can safely call the day a sucess. A birthday Alice will remember (i hope).
All year, Alice was jealous of anyone having a birthday before her next one came back around. "I want my birthday to be first" she would say and then pout about it NOT being her birthday yet. It is impossible to tell a 3 year old that her birthday HAD been first that year in January - before anyone elses birthday was celebrated that year. So we struggled all year long with friend's birthdays coming and going. Alice would say she didn't want to go to so-and-so's party...only because it wasn't HER birthday.
The end of the year approached and I noticed that there were about 5 kids in Alice's class with a birthday in January. I could forsee a disaster forming when more than one parent decided to plan a kids birthday on the same weekend. I had already booked Pump-It-Up for Alice's party. Now I wanted to make sure as many of the kids from Alice's class could make it, so in November, I sent out 'save the date' cards to let the other parents know - I CALL DIBS on that weekend (January 14th) and it worked.
I know Alice loves to go to inflatable playrooms, however I also know my child can be intimidated by the bigger kids and even just kids she doesn't know. Since she has been looking forward to this birthday for an entire year, I wanted to make it one for her to remember, because I think this will actually be the first one she will rememeber. With this in mind, I booked her party at Pump It Up. It was a little bit pricey but well worth the expense. With the party package there, you get to invite up to 25 kids and you have 1 1/2 hours to jump with just your friends in 2 private jump rooms, each with about 4-5 different bounce houses.
Since this was Alice's first large birthday party, we also invited the family and pretty much everyon came! Didi and Pop, Aunt Papa, Uncle Paul, Chris and Sean, Gammy, Aunt Sissy with Joci and Juliette. It was a real treat that Aunt Sissy brought Joci and Juliette a few days early to stay with us and we got to play together for 3 days.
I also knew this party could turn out to be fairly large with kids AND parent, so I asked my friend Deb to make the cake again this year. I asked it be themed "girly with rainbows and flowers" and boy did she deliver! I am so lucky to have a fabulous cake designer for a friend. She had make the cake or cupcakes for Alice's parties for the past 3 years and they are always phenominal....all the parents wanted her card.
The day of the party arrived and Alice was beyond excited. All in all about 12 classmates came and with the addition of my friends with kids and all the family in town we had about 35 people including parents. Pretty much ALL the cake was eatten (I think we had about 4 slices to take home for later) and everyone looked like they had a great time. This was the first visit to a bouncy house for Chris and Sean and they took to it with no fear.
We took all the presents back to the house to open later and the family all met back at the house to hang out for a while. Alice opened presents at a leisurely pace. I think it took her about 4 hours to get through them all. We brought in Rudy's BBQ to feed the family dinner and sat around and talked while the kids played. This was our time to host family at our house for an event and I think it went quite well...nothing broken and Alice was good about sharing, expecially with the boys.
When the day was done, everyone was exhausted, but I can safely call the day a sucess. A birthday Alice will remember (i hope).
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Current Alice-ism's
Shobel = shovel
Fercause = because
Bampire = vampire
Flork = fork
Oakmeal = oatmeal
Hanitizer = Hand Sanitizer
Baby doll name - ding dong
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I don't want to go to sleep ...
Alice says "mommy, I don't want to go to sleep.
I say "I love to go to sleep! Why don't you?"
Alice says "fercause I'm a kid!"
I say "I love to go to sleep! Why don't you?"
Alice says "fercause I'm a kid!"
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Year of the Princess
For a few months now, Alice has been consumed by Princesses. As seen in previous posts, she was Aurora for Halloween, and she has slowly added each princess story to her DVD collection. For Christmas she recieved princess EVERYTHING. She got the Princess Collection barbie(type) dolls, including a Prince to be whichever prince is called for in the story. She got 2 mini-princess playsets (Belle and Sleeping Beauty). She got at 18" Belle and a toddler Aurora. She got a Disney Princess game for her new leap pad, princess skates, helmet and pads, princess books, princess puzzles and princess socks, stickers and magnets. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the gist :-)
She enjoys acting out the scenes in the story and singing the songs in her endearing slightly off key voice. Everyday we hear "who wants to play princess?" and if you don't respond "I DO!" she keeps repeating it until she gets a taker. Princess clothes come on and off, on and off, on and off. Lots of hair to brush, many adventures to relive. When we go out to eat Alice wants to take ALL the princesses, but usually we can contain the retenue to two princesses and a prince with a single change of clothes.
She enjoys acting out the scenes in the story and singing the songs in her endearing slightly off key voice. Everyday we hear "who wants to play princess?" and if you don't respond "I DO!" she keeps repeating it until she gets a taker. Princess clothes come on and off, on and off, on and off. Lots of hair to brush, many adventures to relive. When we go out to eat Alice wants to take ALL the princesses, but usually we can contain the retenue to two princesses and a prince with a single change of clothes.
Alice's birthday is in a few days, and the obvious choice for a theme would be Princess, but mom and dad are quite literally sick of princesses. We are supporting her princess habit in other ways however. I'm sure we will get her more princess accessories for her birthday, but the cake for her party will be rainbows, flowers and butterflys...all things girly and loosely associated with being a Princess.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
First trip to six flags
The Thursday after Christmas, mom and Didi took Alice to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. I could not believe how expensive the tickets were, but we were there to have a good time. We started out at. Looney Toon land where Alice rode all the kids rides. Her favorite was the Tea Cups, however we did go on the kiddie sized roller coaster twice. Other fun rides were the snow hill - where Didi fell over at the bottom of the hill, and the old fashion cars that Alice drove (with mom pushing the pedal). We stayed for 5 hours and Alice fell asleep in the car on the way home. An exhausting fun filled day with memories to last :-)
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