Sophia's Third Birthday- Ice Cream Party Edition

As Sophia's birthday approached I started asking her what kind of party she wanted. She'd mirror back whatever answer Grace had most recently mention (rainbow, Frozen, Tinkerbell,) or another character (Daniel Tiger,) and I would keep steering her away. I've done two character parties and they are just so difficult to pull off here with no craft stores and limited party and color options.

So when she came up with a theme of her own I actually paused for a minute, until I thought it through....

Fire.

Yep. My sweet little (then) two year old daughter had asked for a FIRE birthday party.

Not a firefighter party.

Not a fireworks party.

Not even a campfire and s'mores type of party.

No. Girlfriend requested a fire party, with "lots of fire everywhere!!"

And, seeing as I didn't want "pyromaniac," to be settled on her permanent record all because of a birthday party theme I looked for an escape route.

Cue the backpeddling and trying to convince her that a Rainbow-Daniel Tiger- Tinkerbell combo party was a better idea than FIRE.

But, as you all know, two year olds aren't the most logical of the human species. She was not having it. All she wanted was fire.

I even went onto Pinterest to prove that a fire theme could not be easily pulled of, but, as luck would have it, there are many a flame top cake options out there.

So instead I chose a theme all by myself and proved it to her via the world wide web. Ice Cream. Just about the exact opposite of fire (well, it would be ICE, right? and Ice would be too close to Frozen, so I went with cute, whimsical ice cream.)

I thank all of the bloggers out there now who have ice cream parties pinned on Pinterest because their beautiful creations saved my hiney.

Sophia was hooked. Ice Cream party it was.

I didn't quite have it all together (as in, I never made an invitation, just sent out some text messages,) but we had a cute ice cream party for Sophia today that was laid back, simple, and so exciting for her!

Party Planning and executing is not my forte, like, at all. But as simple as this one was, and budget friendly, I'm happy with the results.

We had two garlands of ice cream cones that I had printed, cut up, and strung, along with some Sofia the First baloons because I could not find any plain colored balloons. #expatproblems

On the dining room table we had all of the ice cream fixings, including cupcake liners filled with crushed Oreos, M&M's, gummy candies, and waffle cone pieces. We also had sprinkles, caramel and chocolate topping, and maraschino cherries (of course.)

We had a centerpiece of super cute ice cream cones topped with cotton candy. They were suppossed to be our party favors and I made them ahead of time and sealed them in baggies but the few days made the cotton candy shrink and compress into hard scoops, so I just made it decor.

We had a few little snacks, juice boxes, and water, but since it was at snack time I was fairly confident the ice cream cone cupcakes and ice cream would be enough before people left to find their own dinner.

The kids had two activities: one was a craft where they could color and glue down circles (ice cream scoops,) onto a paper plate, then glue down colored paper bits (sprinkles.) The other activity was Pin the Ice Cream Scoop on the cone! It was fun and enough for the kiddos, besides the legos and Disney people we had set up to play with. Any more would have been too much with that crowd (14 kids! plus many of their parents.)

We almost didn't open up presents, but in the end we did. It's pretty split. Obviously our American culture thinks it is very normal to open the presents at the party, but European cultures think it's extremely rude. And seeing as we had Americans, Peruvian, British, Swedish, and Emirati cultures being represented, I didn't know what to do. But Sophia (and all of the kids,) kept asking to open presents so I caved. 

Sophia handed out Marshmallow Sticks as party favors (you're welcome, parents, for sugaring up your children and then sending them home.)

 Sophia was pretty afraid of the candle smoke (oh the irony,) after her birthday candle incident last week, but she humored me and let me light the candle when we sang to her, but insisted I blow out the candle and keep the scary smoke away from her! Poor Soey!

 Happy birthday, sweet girl! It was fun to celebrate you!

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Sophia's Third Birthday- Ice Cream Party Edition

End of School Celebrations

Grace and Sophia finished their year at preschool (called nursery here,) on June 30th, 2015. They had such a great time at school and looked forward to going three half days a week.

Grace was in the oldest class, called the Clever Camels. Her teachers was Ms Victoria, and her helpers were Ms Lucy and Ms Florence. Her class was such a diverse mix of students from so many backgrounds and languages. Pick up time was always interesting because parents would switch from their mother tongue to English as they greeted their children then turned to talk to the teachers! Grace didn't have one "best," friend in the class but did migrate towards 4 or 5 specific kids.

Sophia was in the youngest class but was one of the oldest in the class. Her class was called the Baby Bears. Her teacher was Ms Sarah and her helpers were Ms Joan and Ms Jenny. The first month or two of school was rough on her class, because some of the kids were just barely 18 months old and were there five days a week for 5-6 hours. Many of them came from homes where English was not spoken, then to be put in a classroom where only English was spoken was hard on them. Bless their little hearts! One time, when picking Sophia up, there were 6-7 toddlers standing at the baby gate at the door crying. Her teacher asked me if I had ever seen The Walking Dead, then she pointed at the babies and said that's what they reminded her of when they were just standing at the door moaning with their arms outstretched, ha!

Grace's class had a small graduation ceremony, performance, and party the last week of school. It was so cute to see Grace in a cap and gown but her little hat kept falling over her eyes and so she finally just took it off. She sang and did the motions more than in other performances but still was unsure about the large crowd of people staring and taking constant pictures.

 Sophia's class had a "performance," as well but it was really just a sing a long/ music class that the parents got to sit in on. We arrived late and so weren't really in the circle on the rug but since I had Grace and Luke with me and Ian was at work we needed a little space. Sophia had NO desire to sing or do hand motions so it was just as well.

I had such wonderful memories from my own preschool experience (many moons ago,) and we are so thankful that we were able to provide this for the girls, even on this side of the ocean.

More to come on what's next for our girls.

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End of School Celebrations

Coffee Cup Ramblings

It's mid term break here in Abu Dhabi, which means the kids are home from school and I am trying to keep us cool inside. Temperatures are around 110 most days and outside is simply not an option. And, seeing as losing your mind shouldn't be an option, indoor survival is where we are at.

We have no plans to travel this summer, which is quite the opposite for the average expat who lives and works here. Most people leave for 1-2 months of summer and the mass exodus that happens as soon as the last school bell rings is a bit depressing. It does mean less traffic, less mall crowding, and easier lines at the grocery store, so there is always that!

The kids are doing great. They are all growing and developing so well. There's always a niggling in the back of your mind that your kid will be a little messed up from being a TCK (Third Culture Kid,) but I think, for the most part, they are doing well. Except for the fact that they think America is a city and the only thing they know about Florida is there is lightning storms and alligators, they are very well rounded and well traveled. There's always time for geography and culture lessons later, right?

Grace shows her British English influenced language by asking why we are not going on "holiday," and when all of her friends are returning. Throw in her frequent use of the word toMAHto (tomato,) and references of putting the rubbish in the bin and she keeps us rolling on the floor with laughter. Poor thing also has some serious Southern twang to her vocabulary. We were practicing clapping syllables and the word was "Whale." She kept drawing it out to a three syllable word, "Way yuh luh," and couldn't understand why I was making her do it again and again!

Her schooling is still up in the air right now. We got some not great news about the school systems here yesterday and feel backed into a corner. She just finished All About Reading's Pre reading program and we will be starting the Level One soon, even though I swear we aren't doing formal "homeschooling," this year as she is only four.

Then there's Sophia.

She's a HOT. MESS.

A beautiful, sweet, hot mess with squishable cheeks. She says the funniest things it just makes me fall out of my chair most days. Ask her who her best friend at school is and she will answer "Jumaa. There are two Jumaa's in my class." And when you ask her which one is her friend, she will almost always answer "The naughty one." She climbed out of her crib for the first time last night and just started to cry when she realized she couldn't get back in.

She is currently running around the house in a red tutu, cowboy hat, and masquerade mask while yelling "He-Haw!" I'm thinking that's what a cowboy donkey would say.

Luke is all smiles and cooing. Not much to say about our adorable little chunk of a boy. He's a real joy to have and as long as he is fed and clean he is a happy little man.

Ian's work is just that. Work. He's surviving it and it is a great plus to his resume but not the best overall situation. Long hours. Stressful situations. Little else happens during the week and the weekends are just recovery times. He's still my sweet man who gets up with the baby in the middle of the night and read to the girls each night before bed.

And me? I'm smack in the middle of motherhood. Trying to maintain my own sense of identity in conjunction with motherhood (which is obviously a large part of my identity now and forevermore,) and have real, meaningful conversations with other adults on a nearly regular basis. You know, other than explaining a million times in a day what we will eat next, where we will go next, and why it is wrong to lie/hit/put chewed food on the table. And trying to main my sanity amongst the variety of repetitive tasks- wake, shower, feed kids, clean, feed kids, wipe bottoms, clean, feed kids, bathe kids, collapse onto couch/bed. Repeat.

Part of this stage is trying to hold onto my hobbies. Right now I'm really questioning what my hobbies really are.

Blogging? I've really fell off the bandwagon. I want this one to take root again.
Photography? I love taking pictures of my kids but hate that so much of our time is inside.
Reading? What's that?!
Exercise? I don't think so.
Travel? Not enough funds in the bank to make that a hobby.
Baking? LOVE it. But if Exercise is not one of my hobbies then perhaps neither should Baking.

The real question is what do I have the energy for at the end of these long busy days.

That's really it! Our family at the present time.

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Coffee Cup Ramblings

Grace and Sophia: 3.5 and 2

I'm nearly five months late with this little update on the girls, but better late than never, right?

Grace

Grace turned 3.5 and on October 2nd and it's been so fun to see what changes have come.

Grace's sleep has improved drastically in the last several months. Because of a medicine that she was on, she was suffering from some big vitamin deficiencies which was causing insomnia. In a 3 year old. It was just awful, mainly because it took us so long to realize it was a medical issue and not a discipline issue. She would lie in bed crying because she couldn't sleep and there was nothing we could do for her. She's back to sleeping for two hours for a nap and close to 12 hours for night time sleep.

She's become a (little) better eater- has willingly said she likes asparagus, tacos, and steak, and knows that when we sit down to eat she is expected to eat what is in front of her.

Grace loves to play but I haven't pegged it down to any particular favorites. She doesn't have one special toy that she loves or one game or activity that the migrates to. She is such a people person that she usually likes doing anything that someone else will do with her. So if it is not Ian or myself, then she will rope her little sister into playing. Lately there is alot of pretending they are sneaky foxes, crawling babies, or stacking and sorting games.

 Grace loves being outside, loves going to school, and loves crafting of any sort. She can easily complete 12 piece puzzles and is ready for 24 pieces. She can almost write her name and she can count to 20. Grace loves Octonauts and Letter Factory shows. She thinks her favorite princess is Snow White, but she's never seen it. I'd guess it's actually Rapunzel or Elsa.

She loves running and is very fast. She can do a somersault all by herself and loves walking on a balance beam (or curb.) She's recently figured out pedaling a bike and I suspect a bike will be her next birthday present. One of her favorite games is to run in the house, leap in the air, and land on her knees on the tile (ouch!) and slide- as long as she's wearing long pants. She gets some good speed and loves doing this, but it drives me crazy.

Grace can put on all of her clothes herself now, but sometimes needs help with her shirt. She loves to cook and we are getting close to being able to do some independent food prep, such as pouring cereal or milk. Grace can empty the silverware and kids dishes all by herself from the dishwasher and helps me move clothes from the washing machine to the dryer. She also wipes down the kids' table after moving the dishes to the sink.

She wears size 3T but I've moved her up to 4T since her sister is fast on her heels. She wears size 8 shoes. She is long and skinny.


She is still my Gracie girl and I love to cuddle her post nap time and tell her she is my first baby!

Sophia

Oh, Sophia. My little nugget. She is so gosh darn cute. She has a great little voice and talks all the time. She's my cuddly girl and loves to be in my lap, even if it has all but disappeared in these last few months of pregnancy.

Sophia turned two on September 29th and is approaching her half birthday.

She goes to preschool three, half days a week. She is one of the oldest in her class. She can recognize her name and loves to talk about her friend Jumaa, (who I have never seen her interacting with.)

She doesn't have time for eating. She'd rather be playing. She loves playing with our pretend kitchen, Legos, or picnic set. She plays for really long stretches by herself but she loves playing with her sister as well.

She has just figured out how to complete a 12 piece puzzle, with alot of assistance!

Sophia wears size 2T but will move into 3T as soon as we are done with our "winter" clothes. She is in mostly size 6 shoes but I just had to put away 3 pairs that were to tight on her, so size 7 is in our very near future!

Sophia was potty trained in about 3 days after Christmas. She has only had a handful of accidents outside of the home and loves wearing big girl panties like her big sister.

 Sophia naps in her old room but sleeps at night in our second crib in Grace's room. She says to me "no laughing, no singing," when we tuck her in, because she knows she is supposed to be quiet. We sing her the Doxology and Silent Night at her requests.

Sophia has much more of a temper than Grace has ever had. She gets angry and frustrated when she doesn't get her way. She shows alot more attitude, will cross her arms and pout, or say "I don't want to/I don't like it."

 
 Sophia loves milk. We finally had to cut her off at 2-3 cups a day because it was causing all sorts of attitutde problems if we didn't  get it for her when she wanted it.

She hates getting her hair brushed and loves putting on makeup with Mommy. She loves eating bananas, toast, eggs, and cereal. She is learning how to sort the silverware and likes loading and starting the dishwasher or dryer. Carrying in any grocery bag is immediately met with an "it's too heavy!"

Sophia loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Caillou. She tolerates Grace's choice as well.

I'm so thankful for Sophia and how she is my cuddly girl

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Grace and Sophia: 3.5 and 2

Christmas Concert

The girls' preschool put on an end of the semester concert in December.

Sophia's class was first. They had a more relaxed "concert," than we expected. Basically the class came out and had all of the parents sit on the floor with the kids in front of the stage and then we sang songs together.

It was cute, but with kids sitting in your lap, you couldn't even see your own child! Sophia walked out shy and then just sat on my lap and cuddled with Grace the entire time. It was a big let down but Sophia loved it, after the fact!

Grace's class' concert was several hours later and I wasn't expecting much better than Grace's last concert, in the Spring, where she just sat there and looked around for 30 minutes. I will admit, I bribed Grace with ice cream if she would actually SING during her concert.

Grace ran out with her class, very excited, and started singing well because she was sitting next to one of her closest friends.

Then she got distracted and stopped singing but kept doing the hand motions for awhile. Finally, on the last song or two she started singing again!

The teachers made it "snow," on the students and then the kids had fun picking up Styrofoam pieces for awhile and throwing it on each other. 

We love the girls' school and their teachers are just the sweetest. They are learning so much in a comfortable, caring environment!

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Christmas Concert

New Year's Interviews

2015 began in an extraordinary way...Ian and I going to sleep by 10 pm. Fun times. It was totally worth it though. Pregnancy insomnia and reaching that largely uncomfortable stage means that sleep is elusive and highly valued.

I had intentions of getting away to a coffee shop and setting some goals for the year but after some (quick) thinking I realized my only goals were:

1.) Have a baby and enjoy the newborn stage
2.) Love on my husband and children
3.) Survive another Abu Dhabi summer

Sure, I would love it if I blogged more, completed more yearly photo albums, and checked off some bucket list items, but, if I am being realistic, then goals 1, 2, and 3, will be enough to fill my plate.

Grace and I did her New Year's Interview, following in the footsteps of last year's. This time was alot more last minute and unscripted but I love it anyways!

Grace's New Year's Interview 2015 from IGalloway on Vimeo.

And Sophia wanted in on the action after she saw Grace get to sit in the rocking chair (which is a bad place to sit a moving preschooler if you are trying to capture a picture or a video, just FYI.)

Sophia's New Year's Interview- 2015 from IGalloway on Vimeo.

And then Grace got upset that I had forgotten to ask her about school, so we did a round two for her!

Grace's New Year 2015 Take Two from IGalloway on Vimeo.

I love these videos. They so capture my girls' personalities, except Grace is usually much louder and easier to understand.

So, here's to 2015. Another year of change and growth for our little family!

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New Year's Interviews

My Girls- An Update

 It's been a while since the girls have been the sole topic of a post, nearly five months since Sophia's first birthday and Grace's half birthday!

My girls are: Amazing, Wonderful, Hilarious, Loving, Energetic, Verbal, Intelligent, Helpers, Observant, and Learners.

And to be honest they are also: High strung, slow eaters, impatient, and (one) can have a bit of a temper.

I am so thankful for the daughters God has given us. Living overseas, in a male centric society, I get asked all the time by people "Just girls ma'am?" with a head tilt of sympathy. I bite the side of my lip most days, hug my girls close, and say "Yes! We have two wonderful daughters!" I really hate that they have to hear that all the time, like they aren't enough are good enough.

I am clearly meant to be a "Girl mom," first. A friend of mine, who happens to have two sons, lent us a bunch of toys to use while in the hotel. Part of the collection was a set of train tracks and trains. I set them up for Grace one day during Sophia's morning nap and Grace just stared at me like "What am I suppossed to do with this?"

I just stared back at her, because, frankly, I wasn't sure. Once I made the trains pick up a load of coal and do a loop around the figure eight, I wasn't too clear on what was to happen next.

Ha!

Grace:

 I learn so much about mothering from Grace everyday. It is a trial by error situation right now but I wouldn't trade a moment of it!

Grace is 2 years and 10 months old.

Grace is very full of energy and loves to be socially involved. She's happiest when we are out and about and can interact with her friends.

She is slowly getting over all of her weird food aversions and even ate pasta recently! And the moment we returned to the Middle East she started eating cheese again. Never mind the fact that I still buy Kraft cheddar cheese, just like we did in the States!

She is getting into books and stories alot more. She can retell random Bible stories (Elizabeth and Mary, Joshua, and baby Moses.) 

She is in size 3T clothes and 7 shoes.

She takes one nap from 2-4 but I recently figured out that if I laid her down at 1 or 1:30 she would still sleep until 4! She goes to sleep at 7 and sleeps until 7 am when we wake her up.

Favorite Clothes- She's really into socks right now. I don't really get it.
Favorite Show- All about Yo Gabba Gabba, much to my chagrin. I feel like I am hallucinating when it is on!
Favorite Song- She's gotten into Zaccheus and Skip to my Lou in the last month.
Favorite Food- Chocolate Milk and Babybel cheese
Favorite Person- Momma or her friend Miya
Favorite Toy- A VTech Picnic basket and little metal tea set that she plays with everyday
Favorite Book- The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (classics!)

 She's my painfully slow eater. I have been looking for some sort of "Bite timer app," so that she has a constant countdown and reminder to chew her food, swallow, and take another bite. It drives me crazy! Not with all food, of course, just the stuff that she is not crazy about.

We are getting rid of her pacifiers tomorrow, on Valentines day! I am really excited/dreading it all in one moment. She always has slept with them so it will be a big deal tomorrow, when she lays down for her nap without them! We are dubbing it her "Big Girl Day," and told her it will involve presents, cupcakes, and being all done with her paci's! She is looking forward to it but I doubt she has any concept of what being all done with them actually means!

Sophia:

She is One year and four months old!

She walks, runs, and tries to jump. She has gotten pretty good at climbing on things, which Grace never did.

We just got her off of the bottle on Tuesday, February 11th. I kept it around because I wanted her to have some routine through all of this change but with us being in a hotel for several more weeks I just decided to go for it one morning! She fussed that first morning and then was fine!

Sophia takes a morning nap from 8:30-10:30 and then from 2-4 in the afternoon. She is a pretty light sleeper though so any change of temperature or noise during the last 45 minutes of her nap will mean that she wakes up!

She is my cuddly girl. She throws her head back to laugh and runs at you full speed (eyes closed and looking up at the ceiling while she runs!)

She can sign More, Please, Water, Food, Milk, Baby, Cheese, and Cracker. She says Momma, Dadda, Bottle, Baby, Book, Open, No, Up, Hot, Shoe, Sock, Shirt, and Ball.

She sits very still for book reading and it has actually helped Grace to learn to sit still for stories! Sophia really does love to look at books and points at things she recognizes over and over.

She loves to "dance," and will hold her hands out in front of her fingers together, and sing a song from Nutcracker as she twirls around.

She is in size 18 month clothes and size 5 Wide shoes. She is in size 4 diapers. She has six teeth but two molars are popping through as we speak!

A quirk about Sophia is that she HATES to be messed with. Meaning, if she didn't initiate being touched then she probably won't like it. (as pictured above.) I can never get any pictures of them together because Sophia becomes a little tyrant about being touched. Doctors visits are awful because she just hates being poked and prodded at. You can imagine how much fun bath time or nail clipping is! She doesn't mind getting dressed or diaper changes and she IS super cuddly. Just doesn't like being "messed with."

My girls are such precious little lives and I am thankful to be entrusted with raising them up. Can't wait to see what the next couple of months brings!

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My Girls- An Update

Sophia's First Birthday...Take Two!

I'm almost completely caught up on the major events of our time in the States, and it's a good thing too, since we only have three days left! It is currently a blur of packed and yet to be packed suitcases and as much family time as possible.

Back in October Ian's parents threw a family birthday party for Sophia. Pinata and all! Grace was pretty intrigued by the pinata and downright gleeful about the goodies that was stashed inside

Sophia was pretty much happy chewing on a stuffed animal. But that is a one year old for you!

Presents for Sophia mainly consisted of new clothes and a Minnie Mouse doll that sang

We then moved onto cake time. Sophia was a pro by round two and pretty much stuck to the icing before calling it quits.

We loved being able to celebrate Sophia's first birthday with both sides of our family and this party was special because Kim, Ian's mom, was able to be there for Sophia's delivery and then again to celebrate her first birthday!

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Sophia's First Birthday...Take Two!