Cinderella.

Macie is very opinionated. I really think she is a 16 year old stuck in a 4 year old body! It's interesting sometimes. We have been planning to do a Star Wars themed Halloween for a year. She has been onboard to be Princess Leia, and very excited about it.

However, when she learned of her Halloween costume party at her dance class, she did not want to be Princess Leia. "It wouldn't be Halloween yet, Mom. I have to be something else."

I tried Alice. She has the adorable Alice dress from her birthday that my mom made, perfect! But, no. People have seen her as Alice, that will not do. Belle? No, that was so two years ago. Sleeping Beauty? No. That's a dress up everyday costume. She insisted on Cinderella. I have been in the process of making her a Cinderella costume for a while. It was yards and yards ot double tulle, satin, and a makeshift petticoat underneath. A lot of layers, really. When I was like 98% done, I ripped the dress bodice, so it has sat on my sewing table for months. I guess now would be the best time as any to fix it. So, we did. And she looked pretty adorable. Complete with "glass" slippers even. Since I procrastinated it so much we didn't have time for gloves, but that's alright, she looked pretty darn cute anyway!

{***Editors Note: I guess I should probably also add to this post. Macie was invited to a storytime on Tuesday morning. The day before the dance party. At the last minute...really, like think 20 minutes before we were leaving, I got an e-mail that the storytime was a dress up storytime. Of course, Macie had to wear a costume. And it had to be Cinderella. I was hoping for a whole day to complete it before dance. So, in 20 minutes, we made a casing for the skirt, put ribbon in to tie it on her, used a few safety pins, whipped up a headband in like 2 minutes, and scrounged to find black ribbon for her necklace. It was quick, but we did it. It was almost better to get it done in a hurry and not look at it and critique everything and notice all of the flaws. Life is better that way. One day I'll be like that...}

Halloween Extravaganza Part 1

Last night was the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market/Halloween Carnival. We had heard good things about it. But, we didn't get there until 7. It started at 5. We saw kids with pillowcases full of candy. As we walked down the street to get our candy fix, we kept running into a problem, and the same sign: "We're sorry, we are out of candy!" Our kids walked away with 4 pieces of candy. No complaining from the parents, really. A 6 year old with multiple cavities does not need any mrore candy! But, it was kind of sad to see them walking around with empty buckets when other kids had quite the loot! However, the Christensen kids did have the CUTEST costumes there. They will get better by tomorrow, last night was just our "Dress Rehearsal"!

want some?

Jacob has developed a new preference. It's a little odd coming from the Christensen house, however. But, he asks for it for every meal. He thinks it's pretty good. What is it? Well, today was a Jacob specialty! Peanut Butter and honey on whole wheat bread, dipped in...RANCH! What else? You try it and tell me how it is.

You see, ketchup has been a staple in our house until now. Adam has instilled in our children that you put ketchup on EVERYTHING: tacos, grilled cheese, beef stroganoff, you name it, he thinks it works.

But, Jacob is not a ketchup boy. He loves his ranch. And asks for it, very clearly. Who woulda thought?

Not us.

escape

Sometimes I wonder where my children came from. They come up with the most random things to play. It's interesting at our house most of the time. Sometimes they come up with very morbid things that I won't even blog about. Today, though, Macie had a new storyline. I was in the other room and she was playing by herself. I heard her telling her dolls to hurry and get in the back and she would help them escape from their country.

Macie: "Get in the box. No one will know you're here. I'll mail you to my
house and you'll be safe. Hurry. No one will know. No one from your country will
find you. I promise. Get in the box."

{then I heard her closing the box, and opening the door to set the box outside. A few minutes later she opened the box to greet the "mail man"}

Macie: "Be very careful with that box. It's fragile."

What on earth is my child watching? I swear she only watches Disney and Nick Jr. Where did she come up with this? It's almost disturbing! Goodness.

preoccupied.

There have been so many things going on in the Christensen house. Mainly, sickness. I swear we are always sick around here. It goes around once, and then just keeps going. We really aren't boring, we do things. I still have to catch up the past month. Goodness. We're working on it, don't worry. But, for now, {and for my 500th post} I wanted to give you a little Halloween preview.

She's very excited and wants to wear her hair all day long. It's still a work in progress, but I'm sure by Halloween we'll have it all figured out! She makes a pretty good brunette, but she's the cutest as a blonde!

Macie's Wonderland

{September 25, 2010}

(The long awaited post. Probably more on my end than anything else. I'm pretty proud of Macie's party, and so I have to brag about it...just a little! ;-) WARNING: There are lots and lots of pictures. You will almost feel like you were there! Oh, and before I forget, thank you, Kristyn for playing photographer for me! You're great!)

When Macie was turning two, I thought it would be perfect to have an Alice in Wonderland birthday party. But, since she was only two, I thought she was a little too young to have a tea party with friends. And so we postponed it a year, but she didn't want to have an Alice party, she wanted Minnie Mouse, and Minnie won last year. But this year, she was very excited to have her Alice party. I had so many ideas running through my head. I seriously could have spent thousands of dollars just on a 4 year olds birthday party. It was pretty intense. But, I didn't. Don't worry, I wouldn't think about even spending a ten of that! Close, though. Very close!

My mom made Macie an adorable Alice dress. I have been purposely letting her hair grow a little just for this, and she was a perfect Alice. And, after about a year of collecting decor, it was party time!

First, was the invitation. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the outside of the invite. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture. So, let me describe it. It was light blue, the color of Alice's dress, and regular card shaped. On the front was the white apron that Alice wears, and wrapped around the whole card was a headband with a black Alice bow. We opted for "Alice bows" instead of party hats. And then the inside of the card:

And then the decor.

{Adam drew and cut out those card people...impresseive, eh?}

Yes, the party guests were to go through the "rabbit hole" into Wonderland. We had high hopes for the rabbit hole, and lots of ideas, but ideas that probably would have been much too elaborate for a 4 year old birthday party.

Did I mention that the day of the party was THE hottest day? Oh my goodness. We had all of the decorations ready outside and it was about 10 AM. The party wasn't until 2. But, I ran inside to check the temperature, and it was already 95! IN SANTA MARIA! Hot, hot, hot. It was too late to move everything in, so it stayed outside in the fricken heat! But, if it got too unbearable, I decided we could just watch Alice in Wonderland {the cartoon version} inside.


After crawling through the rabbit hole, we colored pictures until the rest arrived.



After everyone arrived, a special guest arrived! ALICE, HERSELF! {sadly, I don't have pictures of her grand entrance. She came with balloons and a gift just for Macie, and in complete character! It was DARLING! She NEVER lost the character, the whole time she was there she was Alice...another post, I think! ;-)}

We played a game of musical chairs, but didn't play the right way, we just ran around the table, it was fun! But, oh so hot!

And then Alice drew a flower on each girls hand with their favorite color! They loved that part.

There was a bit of playing in the pink sand. It may sound cute and fun to have pink sand, right? I mean it's PINK SAND! But, that pink sand has been cursed around our house ever since that party. That stuff isn't like regular sand, it gets everywhere! Maybe it just gets everywhere because it's a more noticeable color, but it really is everywhere! It was fun, though. They got to play with tea cups and tea pots in the sand, they loved it.

And then it was tea party time. "Alice" was the greatest ever, she told the girls how much she loved tea parties and told them about when she has tea parties with the Mad Hatter and her best friends the White Rabbit. And then she told them to remember to put their pinky up when they drank tea, it was adorable. However, it was still hot. The sandwiches I made just a little bit before were pretty much toasted by the time they ate them! Macie picked the spread of food: pb&j, cheese puffs, marshmallows, licorice, skittles, tootsie rolls, raspberry lemonade and grapes. Quite the combination, and quite unhealthy, really. But, hey, it's a birthday party for heaven's sake! ;-)Poor little girls, though. They were all pretty rosy cheeked and sweaty by this point! And then we moved inside.

We played pin the tail on the white rabbit, and then hit the pinata with a croquet club. {that was a bit dangerous, though!} The pinata was built by our friend, Paul. He made it to look like Mrs. Potts, and it was perfect! I wished I had the time to actually put the crepe paper on it, but spray paint worked just as well...they just broke it anyway! I did put pretzels inside the pinata to kind of offset the amount of candy and sugar that was distributed!

After a little cool down inside and after the "eat me" cupcakes and presents were opened we headed back in the heat for a little croquet. You can't have an Alice party without croquet! It's the favorite game in Wonderland. However, our mallets were not flamingoes. But I don't think they seemed to care!

After all of Macie's friends had left, it was time for Alice leave Wonderland, too. She gave Macie a big hug and left the same way she came. The magic was never lost! When she left Noah said, "She looks a lot like Zoe who taught us swimming lessons." {Which it was...} But Macie said, very convinced, "No, Noah, that was Alice."

For a four year old, it was pretty magical.

It was quite the party. I have many more pictures...it just takes so long to post them! I don't know if I'll ever do another party again after that one! Holy cow. It's almost been 2 weeks, and I'm still recovering, well...my house is still recovering! But, we do have clean and folded clothes now, I guess that's a plus! She's already started planning her next party...at the skating rink! That one might be a little bit easier!

And now to plan for a certain going to be six year old's Star Wars party...

1950

1950 was a big year. The comic strip Peanuts by Charles Shultz was first published in October 1950, and Snoopy was born. Also in 1950, Beetle Bailey made his first appearance. Things cost a lot less back then:

House: $14,500
Average income: $3,216
Ford car: $1339-$2262
Philco model 1403 TV: $199
Admiral "home entertainment" TV system: $549.50
12" records: $4.85
10" records: $2.85
Milk: $.82
Gas: $.20
Bread $.14
Postage stamp: $.03
Pumpkins : $.02 cents a lb
Campbell’s Pork & Beans - (2) 1 lb. cans: $.25
Sirloin steak: $.77 lb
Kraft Mayonnaise - quart jar: $.62.

And, many famous people were born. Natalie Cole, John Hughes, Julius Erving, Karen Carpenter, Martin Short, William H. Macy, jay Leno, Huey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Ken Griffey Sr, Dr. Phil, Bill Murray, andTom Petty, to name a few. Cinderella was released as Disney's 14th animated film,

But, the MOST important thing that happened in the year 1950? One of the greatest guys I know was born. My dad, Denis Everett Jensen made his entrance into this world sixty years ago today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! There were some pretty famous people born the same year as you, but you're the most famous, in my book! We wish we could celebrate with you! Here's to another great year! Maybe we'll be eating chocolate cake today, in your honor! ;-)

WE LOVE YOU!

yup, she's my daughter.

NOAH {pretty calmly}: Mom, you better hurry. There is a spider on the couch.
ME: Then kill it.
MACIE {probably a mile a minute, and with very minimal breaths}: You better just do it. It was on my leg. And then I didn't want to scream. I didn't want to scare it and make it run fast. So I looked at it and was like totally freaking out. Oh my gosh, I was freaking out. So, it crawled off and then it was like just crawling on the couch. And then Noah called for you and you told us to kill it, but we told you to kill it. Then I started telling you about the spider and that it was totally freaking me out...

{I'm sure this story could have gone on forever had I not interrupted her and told her to go play!}

The 1.

We love living on the Central Coast. We're close enough to LA to drive down and get our big city fix. But, the other direction, we're pretty close to Highway 1. If you haven't even drive on the 1, I highly recommend it. It's gorgeous. Just being so close to the ocean is awesome. When we first moved here, we drove up to Monterey. When Erin first got here, we drove up there again. And back in May, we took my parents. {Mom my even got to check something off her bucket list!} So, if we didn't take Carol, it wouldn't have seemed fair! And, so we did. We got a little bit later of a start, but we saw the coast at it's best. And, Carmel was just as awesome. We hit up the Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey, but just for a few turns on the coolest slide.

happy birthday.

It's totally birthday season in our family.

Today Erin turns 34.

We love having her with us.

Even after a year, we haven't even gotten sick of her!

She's pretty great.

Hope your day is a good one, Erin!

We love you.

Don't forget that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TO YOU!