6!

Is it possible my baby is 6?  I don’t think so.  But somehow she is.  And boy was Eva excited about her birthday.  Big plans.  She had big plans.  We got ‘er done.

Eva wanted a superhero party and I thought this was a great idea.  I told her we could tell her friends to come dressed as their favorite superheroes.  Eva promptly and sternly corrected me and said, “No! They have to come as a DC superhero.  DC only.”

I said they could come as any superhero and it would be fine.  Eva did not agree.

We had words and tears over it. 

But - after a full night’s rest, Eva agreed her friends could come as any superhero they wanted.  Whew!

What a fun party we had! 

A few days before the party, we made goodie bags:

Then the night before the party, Eva carefully decorated and set up the games:

For Pop the Bad Guys we blew up a bunch of balloons and drew angry faces on them.  The superheroes had to pop all the bad guys.

The Laser maze was red streamers strung around the stairs and the superheroes had to climb through the lasers without getting burned.

Color the Masks is pretty self-explanatory.  If you can’t figure out what the superheroes did for that one, you should have your brain checked.

Eva also left me a list of things I needed to do before I went to bed:

I needed to decorate her bedroom door after she was asleep, get ready for the party, and snuggle with her before she went to bed.  Eva checked the items off for me when I was finished. 

And then came the Par-tay!  Look at the cake I made.  I made that!

We also made pizza:

And partied like superheroes:

So what do you get Wonder Woman on her 6th birthday?  Unicorns and mermaids and kitties and anything that sparkles.  That’s what Wonder Woman wanted and that’s what she received.

After the party, Michael and I took her to the carousel and then let her open our gifts.  The carousel gave Eva a balloon and 2 free rides.  Bonus!

It was a wonderfully exhausting day.

Happy birthday my sweet Eva!

Punkin Patch

And then we had a school field trip.  Even though Michael generously donated 80 big ones to the school for the jogathon, he still had to pay for Eva’s field trip.  And he had to pay for me to be a chaperone.  Pay to be a chaperone?!  I’m doing you a favor by going along to make sure kids don’t get lost or run over by the tractors - and I get to pay for this privilege?  And drive myself? Swindle, swindle, swindle. 

You see?  Michael should have gone along with me and only donated 24 doll-hairs to the school.  Then he would have plenty of money left over to pay for a trip to the punkin patch for his only wife and daughter.  Simple economics.

So how was the field trip to the pumpkin patch?  Well…there were a hundred Kindergartners running around and it was raining and cold.  Seriously!  It was sunny and warm, and the day before the field trip, THE DAY BEFORE, the weather turned vicious.  And my GPS took me on the longest possible route so I was late and didn’t get a pumpkin sticker.  And I was dying of thirst all morning since Eva shared my water bottle with her friend and – you know – I couldn’t possibly drink out of it again after that.  But Eva had fun.

I must admit I enjoyed the animal racing.  They had pig races and a duck race and I cheered like I had money riding on those pigs and ducks.  One of the ducks flew right off the race track and over the fence and the kids laughed and laughed.  It was pretty cute.  Despite my grumbling, I did sincerely enjoy being with my baby on her first school field trip.

And Eva got a pumpkin.

Only cost Michael 16 buckaroos.

 

What a bargain.

Hilarious

I’m truly glad I have a kid.  She makes me chuckle all the time and my life would be so ordinary without her around.  Here’s my chuckle moments lately:

In the bathroom:

I’m combing Eva’s hair and she’s spouting a rapid-fire list all of the things she could take to show-and-tell.  After a few moments she says in a worried tone, “Mama, I don’t have enough stuff to take to show-and-tell for the next 12 years.” 

In the car:

We’re riding in silence when Eva pipes up from the backseat and says, “Sometimes when I’m scared I tell myself, ‘It’s ok, Eva…you’re a big girl now.’”

I replied, “Good idea.  Does it help?”

Long pause.

“No.  Not really.”

At the library:

The library has little theme backpacks you can check out that have books, toys, and music inside all relating to its theme.  They are categorized by age level.  One day Eva was interested in a Toddler backpack all about bath time so we checked it out.  She happily put it on her back and we wandered out to the car.  As she was getting into the car Eva read the label on the backpack and said, “So, what’s a TOOD-ler anyway?”

At home:

Eva was playing with her toys while I was in the kitchen making dinner.  I let out a big toot and Eva exclaimed, “Mama!  That sure interrupted my playing!”

Again, at home:

“I like your slippers, Mama.  Very elegant.”

At church:

Eva was sitting next to me picking her nose.  I asked, “Do you need a Kleenex?”

She looked at me and replied, “No.  I’m just booger checking.  That means I’m seeing if I have any boogers.” She looks at her finger and says, “Nope.”

At bedtime:

I asked Eva, “Who do you want to get you ready for bed?'” 

She said, “Hmmm.  Mama, let me feel your hands.”  She reached for my hand and said, “Brrr.  I choose Daddy.”

Again, at bedtime:

We were kneeling down for prayers and Eva said, “I want to say it because I want to say one of my famous prayers.”  She then offered the prayer and said, “And please bless that my birthday will come as quick as can be.”

During snuggles:

Eva and I were coloring and talking about the second coming of the Savior. 

I said, “I hope I’m alive when Jesus comes again.  It will be amazing.”

Eva didn’t even hesitate and replied, “I don’t think you will be, Mama.  You’re getting pretty old.”

Pssh…Me?  Old?  That’s hilarious. 

School Fun

We’ve officially experienced our first two real school events: a field trip and a fundraiser. 

Both of them cost money.  I don’t have a job so I made Michael pay.  If I had a nickel for every time I made Michael pay my way, I’d have a lot of nickels.

Michael doesn't have many nickels left.  Poor guy.

Let me first tell you about this fundraiser.  It was a jogathon and Eva was supposed to go around getting pledges for a dollar amount per lap she ran.  I looked at the packet and muttered, “Yeah, she ain’t doing that.”

I HATE fundraisers.  It’s a chance for every little weasel who knows where I live to come knocking on my door for money.  I wasn’t going to have Eva be a little weasel, so I told her we would just give her a donation and that would be sufficient.

The week before the jogathon Eva practiced running laps everyday in PE.  She didn’t appreciate this.  She wanted to play in PE.  Anytime I mentioned the jogathon and how excited I was to see how many laps she could run, Eva would dive into a whining monologue, “I’m not running the jogathon!  It’s so boring!  I hate the jogathon!  I’m only going to run 2 laps and that’s it!”  Humph!

I worried that she really was only going to run 2 laps.

The day of the jogathon arrived and it was rainy and cold.  We had beautiful, sunny skies for months and the jogathon was our first rainy day.  Ha!  Maybe she really would only run 2 laps.

My mama was in town and when Eva saw us, she was pretty excited we were there.  Michael, Mom, and I lined up along the fence and watched Eva line up.  And then they were off!  Eva took off like a bolt and waved enthusiastically as she ran by us.  And she kept running and waving and running and waving.

We cheered and hollered like we were at the Olympics.

So how many laps did the rabbit run?

8 laps!  That was 1.3 miles - much more than the 2 measly laps she vowed to run.  I was very proud of her.  So proud, I used Michael’s money to buy her a Dilly Bar.

It came time to write the donation check for the jogathon.  I said to Michael, “How much do you want to donate per lap? 3 bucks?  4?”

That guy called me a cheapskate.  A cheapskate!  Hey, I was just trying to budget his money but whatever.

HE donated 10 bucks per laps.  That was a cool 80 bones Eva walked into school with.  I thought it was a bit too rich for my blood but whatever.  If I had a nickel for every time Michael spent more money than I wanted him to…

So! A couple of weeks later I picked Eva up from school and she bounded into my car with a gigantic Symphony candy bar.  “Where’d you get that?” I asked. 

“From the assembly.”

“Oh, for what?”

“I don't know.  They called my name and I stood up and they gave me this big candy bar.”

“Hmmm.  Well, alrighty then.  That’s pretty cool, baby.”

A couple of days later I was cleaning all the garbage out from the backseat of my car and found a crumpled up piece of paper on the floor from the school.  I smoothed it out and taped it back together.  Here’s what it said:

Eva ran the most laps of all the Kindergarten girls!  Woo-hoo!  My baby won gold at the Olympics! 

Maybe I can start spending her endorsement money soon…  

Sweet Eva

It’s a shame the rest of you don’t get to hang out with Eva everyday.  She is hilarious, kind, and fun to have around.  I will go as far as to say you won’t find a better 6-year-old anywhere.  I dare you to refute my claim.

Here are some sweet moments from my dear Eva recently:

We landscaped our backyard this Spring.  Some of the trees haven't been adjusting well.  Sweet Eva decided to help the trees feel better.  She’s becoming very adept at using my computer and did this all by herself: 

When I went to have my blood drawn, the phlebotomist was really smitten with Eva and told Eva all about what was happening.  She even made my bandage into the shape of a bow when she was done.  After my blood was in the vial, the woman asked Eva if she’d like to hold it.  Sweet Eva did so and said, “It’s warm.”  Then she paused and said, “But Mama, you said you were cold-blooded!” 

I came downstairs for breakfast one morning and Sweet Eva had already made me some toast - with peanut butter AND butter.  She even left me a note and eagerly stood by while I tried the toast.  Delicious!

It was bedtime and I went into my room and turned on my lamp.  I found a gift on my nightstand.

I opened the box and found Eva’s favorite ring inside.  She found this ring in a sandbox at a children’s museum over the summer.  Sweet Eva gave it to me.  Awww.

Sweet Eva loves to play games and be imaginative.  One Saturday she tipped over the rocking chair and made a toy store.  We could come and ring the bell, then shop for any 3 toys we wanted.  (Half of the time when you’d choose your 3 toys, she would take at least one away because it was too special for you to buy.  But still…pretty sweet.)  She even had me make signs alerting customers as to when the store was open or closed.

Stinking sweet, I tell ya.