January 2012

We had a pretty quiet January this year.

 We celebrated Jeremy's birthday. The girls loved decorating the house and eating cake.  We love you Daddy! (I made the cake from scratch and it was not good!  Totally buying Coldstone next year!)

Snuggled up a lot to keep warm.  (It was a mild winter but still the coldest we've ever seen)

Sweet sisters

And we even got some snow to play in!

It was quite cold out but they love it.  Avely starts to complain and wants to come in after 20 min or so but Kayla stays until her cheeks turn blue!



Some great pictures my friend caught of Kayla and Jeremy tubing down the little hill in our "backyard".



It was quiet but quiet was good.  :) 



Kayla's 4th Birthday

Kayla celebrated her 4th birthday last month! We can't believe how fast she is growing up. A few things about Kayla at Age 4:

• Kayla loves to play games. She begs me to play board games, card games, puzzles, etc. all day. (She's a true Murray gamer!)
• She really likes to paint. Finger painting is her favorite activity at preschool.
• She likes to draw on her chalkboard and loves writing her letters and numbers on it.
• She is still very cautious when it comes to the playground or any type of "risky" physical activity including riding bikes, bounce houses, etc. She is trying more new things though. If we can get her over her initial fear and she tries it, she usually sees that it isn't as scary as she thought.
• She loves to dance. She started taking a tap/ballet class last fall and is doing great. She has learned to do so many things so quickly. (It is neat to see her enjoying what I enjoyed so much.)
• She likes to dress up and always starts out her playtime by dressing up in a dress or skirt and her princess accessories.
• Her favorite color is purple. Her favorite princess is Ariel. (Even though she has never seen the movie).
• She loves to sing. Now that she is in primary, she is always singing primary songs. She also loves to make up her own songs that are usually to christmas tunes. (she really likes "Angels We Have Heard on High". We didn't even know she knew that song...?)

She wanted an Ariel party but we settled on an under the sea/mermaid party. She enjoyed the little party with her friends. We finished the fun day by going out and getting some pasta (her favorite). Her favorite part of her party was "all my people". She loves all her friends and enjoyed playing games and eating with them.

Kayla was too excited to give us a "good smile". She just wanted to see her friends.
And here is the whole crew eating their bucket lunches of starfish sandwiches, squid cheese, whale crackers, and ocean fruit snacks, yum!

I am so glad simple games like toss the fish, pin the fin on the fish and go fishing were still hits with kids this age!

Kayla loves to dance (suprise). After we ate, the kids broke out into spontaneous dancing together. So cute.

I had a lot of fun making sea themed treats!

Blowing out the candles

I wasn't going to make a cake but I am glad I did. It is so much easier to decorate one big cake opposed to 12 little cupcakes.

Kayla liked the cake but the cake pops were her and her friends favorite.

The stars of the party had to be the real goldfish. We gave them away to kids (parents) who wanted one at the end. We were left with 6, and as of this moment, we have 1 and 1/2 left. The little guy is still breathing but just kind of floating at the bottom...? We should probably put him out of his misery. The girls aren't really attatched to them. When the first one died, we went and "flushed" him and had the girls say goodbye. Immediately after, Avely ran out of the bathroom toward the fish bowl yelling "Again, again!" It was great. So I think once they are gone we are done being goldfish owners. It was fun for the party and I know Kayla thought it was super neat.