five

As soon as Hannah turned four last April the countdown to turning five started.  I am pretty sure this is how it will be for many years to come.  I want time to slow down and she wants nothing more than for time to pass quickly.

My little one is so excited that she is finally five years old.  To be honest, five is a number I am having a little trouble coming to terms with.  I think it is because, first of all, time is flying by (as many mothers before me told me it would) and also because five means kindergarten is right around the corner.  Kindergarten = five days of school for us and I am trying to prepare myself for this entry into real deal every day school.

This sweet girl is growing so quickly and Matt and I often talk of how much joy, fun and laughter she brings to our home.  I think if I had to sum up Hannah in one word it would be joyful.  She is so happy in everything that she does and there is just something about her that brightens up a room.  She loves her friends and family and is constantly telling us how much she loves us whether it is in her words or works of art.

This year has brought a new obsession interest in dinosaurs.  Every week she is allowed to check out one book from her school library and every week it is about a dinosaur.  I am constantly amazed at the words coming out of her mouth as she identifies every dinosaur that we see from memory and announces whether it is a carnivore, herbivore, etc.  Santa left Hannah some wonderful 3d puzzles this year and she and her dad worked hard to put them together.  I had to laugh after they put them together and she informed Matt that she wanted to paint them pink.

We celebrated Hannah's fifth year over the course of several days.  Hannah's birthday morning started with a request for waffles and breakfast in bed.

On her actual birthday we had a family celebration with pizza for dinner and cake for dessert.  Mom was in town and we invited our Birmingham family members Lauren and Chase and Jessie and Matt and their girls Ruthie and Elsie over for a little party.

Friday was Hannah's school party, which is always so much fun for her. On your birthday you get to wear a special birthday crown and have a little party.

Saturday was a princess garden party at our house with some neighbors and girl friends from school.  We have stuck to family birthday parties in the past, so this was our first party to really include friends in the festivities.  I let Hannah decide the theme of her party and was a little surprised by her request for a princess party.  She is not really into all things princess but she has been to several princess themed birthday parties and she does like to dress up in her "princess attire".  So with the theme chosen I got to work on the food and activities.

Hannah welcomed her friends by giving each one a wand when they arrived.  These wands were used to pop bubbles that were floating around the back yard.

After the bubble fun all of the princesses were invited over to a table where they could create their very own princess spoon puppet.  There was lots of different yarn, paper, and hats for the girls to choose from and I thought they all turned out great.

After the princess puppets were complete all the girls came over to a blanket in the grass to listen to the story The Princess and the Pea.  Only "true" princesses were invited to Hannah's party, so after the story we had to test each one to make sure that she was indeed a real princess.  I brought two pillows outside and placed a "pea" under one of the pillows.  The girls took turns sitting on each of the pillows to see if they could feel the pea.  They then had to tell the group which pillow it was under and I would check to see if they were right.  They each guessed correctly and we knew that each one was a true princess :).

No princess garden party would be complete without tea sandwiches, little blueberry muffins, fruit and cupcakes.  These were served with pink lemonade on picnic blankets in the grass.

Finally, with Easter just around the corner, instead of just passing out favors we put the favors in Easter eggs and let everyone have a little Easter egg hunt in the yard.  To make it a little more "princess-y" we hid a glass slipper instead of a golden egg.

I took Hannah and her friends around to the front for a group picture while the moms hid the eggs around the back yard.  And as soon as we were done the hunt began!

The party was so fun and Hannah really felt special with so many of her friends at our house to help celebrate her birthday.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention one of the best parts of the day.  We had the party at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday and Bekah and Rachel were supposed to drive down from Nashville Friday night.  We had awful storms come through all day Friday, tornado sirens and all, and so the weather was too dangerous for them to drive through.  We were really disappointed that they couldn't be here but of course wanted them to stay safe and sound.  Well, right as the party is starting who should walk through our front door but these two faces...

They woke up extra early and drove three hours to surprise Hannah and the rest of us too.  Can I just say I love my sisters!  They get the best aunts of the year award from us especially since they had to leave right after the party to get back to Nashville for an event that night!

It was quite a birthday and I think that about covers the fun.

I am going to start a tradition of a birthday quiz with my girls each year.  I look forward to seeing how the answers to these questions change as they grow.   Here are Hannah's answers to her first ever birthday quiz...

Favorite food: Pasta and cupcakes
Favorite TV show: Dinosaur Train
Favorite book: Any dinosaur book
Favorite color: Pink and rainbow (yep rainbow ;))
Favorite thing to do: Play with friends

Happy birthday my sweet girl!  We love you and are looking forward to seeing all the wonderful things that this year holds for you.

Happy Easter

We had a very low key but very happy Easter here at our little Brown house.  Hannah and Lily are on the mend and feeling better with each passing hour.  They both slept in this morning, which meant Matt and I could sleep in too!  When they finally did roll out of bed they were greeted with some Easter treats left by the Easter Bunny last night.

Hannah is wearing the same pajamas that she wore for Christmas.  She would wear nothing else last night saying she wore them for Santa so she had to wear them for the Easter Bunny.  Nothing says Easter like wool red plaid pajamas. :)

At the beginning of Lent we made a crown of thorns out of a grapevine wreath and some toothpicks.  Each time Hannah or Lily did a good deed or made a sacrifice they could pull one of the toothpicks out of the crown.  Their goal was to have all the thorns removed by Easter.

The thorns were all gone this morning and the crown became an Easter centerpiece for our table to remind us of the beauty of this wonderful day.

I was a little worried about breakfast this morning with our new non-dairy, non-egg and non-peanut diet.  Usually we break out the sausage balls (with cheese), cinnamon rolls (with milk and egg), and fruit for holiday breakfasts.  With a little thought though we managed to still have a breakfast that felt somewhat special with real deal bacon, non-dairy, non-egg cinnamon muffins (via my new cookbook The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book) and some strawberries on the side.

After breakfast we went outside to hunt Easter eggs left by the Easter bunny in the backyard.  We did not go to church this morning because of lingering germs and with Hannah and Lily still not feeling 100%.  They were both in good spirits after breakfast and so I did coax them into putting on their Easter dresses to hunt eggs.

 
The Easter Bunny got a little creative this year with treats inside the Easter eggs.  No more milk chocolate bunnies, m&ms, etc...  Thankfully though, both the Easter bunny and I have discovered the yumminess of non-dairy chocolate chips.

These plus gummy fruit snacks and barrettes filled many of their eggs.

Oh, and funny how Hannah happened to find a land cruiser in one of the Easter eggs.  I think that egg was somehow meant for Matt. :)  The Easter Bunny knows us so well.

This was not our normal Easter but thankfully we were able to watch Mass on television and enjoy some quiet time at home.  I am looking forward to next year when we will hopefully all be healthy and celebrating Easter morning at church in the congregation singing Alleluia and then eating our Easter meal surrounded by extended family and friends. 

I hope that you all had a healthy and very blessed Easter day.

I am still alive (I think)

I have had every intention of posting about my wonderful sweet favorite 5 year old daughter in the whole wide world and the exciting festivities that rang in her 5th year of life last week.  It was such a fun birthday with family and friends and I have so much to write about but life took over this week and it sucked every bit of energy that I have out of me.  Hannah's birthday post will come soon when I am in a little better state of mind. 

This past week has been tough.  It started Monday when I took Lily to be officially tested for her peanut allergy and found out that not only is she allergic to peanuts, but to eggs and milk as well.  I was more than a little shocked and I am still trying to wrap my mind around cooking for Lily with no eggs and milk.  So we received that news Monday afternoon and then that night Lily woke up with the unmistakable cough that comes with croup.  There was no sleep that night between her fits of coughing, us running the shower to try to see if steam would help and rocking her pretty much all night trying to console her.  As if that were not enough, Tuesday night Lily woke up with a 104 degree temperature and Matt and I were back in bathroom, this time putting her in a lukewarm bath trying to get her temp down. Thankfully we had medicine to help us that night.  Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, Wednesday night Hannah threw up right before bed time and was up way in to the night with tummy troubles.  Thursday and Friday were no better with Hannah's tummy problems and Lily's sickness.  Lily continued to run a high fever and we were back at the doctor yesterday.  All the drainage from Lily's croup had given her the beginnings of an ear infection, so we were prescibed some good medicine that has finally helped.  After a really high temperature of over 104 last night, Lily's fever finally broke and she seems to be finally feeling better.   Hannah seems to be improving too and so I am hoping that everyone will sleep soundly tonight so that when Easter arrives tomorrow my girls will be ready to hunt a few eggs and enjoy some quiet family time together.

All of this sickness during this week leading up to Easter has really put me in mind of how Mary must have felt watching her son suffer so profoundly before his death.  It has been so hard watching poor Lily this week.  Three nights we have been so close to taking her to the emergency room with her extremely high temperatures and breathing problems.  At times truly being scared for her well being.  As hard as this was to watch and experience as a mother, I can only imagine what Mary had to go through during the time leading up to Jesus' death.  The pain that she must have felt watching the child that she loved so much suffer so horribly and knowing in her heart that he was going to die.  I find so much comfort in Mary's strength as a mother and her faith in God and I am so glad that I have her example in times of trouble.  She has provided me with much comfort this week and cannot tell you how thankful I am that Hannah and Lily seem to be on their way to better health.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter.  I will leave you with these pictures I took today of Lily.  I can't tell you how great it was to see a smile on her face again and I knew she was feeling better when the princess attire came back out of the closet...

March madness

Time sure flies and I feel like we have been in the middle of our very own version of March madness around here.  I have lots to catch you up on and I think I will start with our Spring Break adventures.  To celebrate Spring Break Hannah, Lily and I packed up and headed to Nana's house.  Nana was actually still in school (her Spring Break is in a couple of weeks) so we entertained ourselves during the day and were there to greet Nana as soon as she walked through the door each afternoon.  Last week also happened to be sister B's Spring Break and so she met us in Florence for some quality family time.

We had lots of fun visiting the park, eating at some of our favorite hometown restaurants, shopping a little and just spending time together.  Most importantly though Hannah and Lily were there to meet the newest member of the family... Dolly Francis.

Dolly Francis is a miniature Daschund and weighs a little over 3 pounds.  Can you say tee-niny? Mom recently brought her home and has been anxiously awaiting a visit from her granddaughters so they could all meet.  It was love at first sight for Hannah.  In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that Hannah wanted to stick Dolly Francis in her suitcase and bring her home with us.

Lily not so much.  Lily actually did enjoy Dolly Francis too but from a distance.  She was a little unsure of such a tiny dog running circles around her feet.

In other big news, this little Brown house is an official peanut free zone at least until further notice.  Lily had her first peanut via a granola bar and pretty much immediately threw up and began having some trouble breathing.  After talking with the nurse on call I took her to the emergency room at Children's Hospital where they immediately whisked us back to a room and gave my little Lils an epi shot and a breathing treatment. 

Lily was almost immediately better thank goodness and after several hours of being monitored we were finally discharged.  They sent us home with a prescription for our very own epinephrine shot that we have to have with her at all times and of course instructions to give her no more nuts.  We have an appointment with an allergist next week to have her tested and will see where we go from here.  No fun but Lily could not have been a better patient and she was sent home from the hospital with lots of stickers which made her very happy.

That's the big stuff and so I can spare you from another post that goes on and on and on, I will give you a quick rundown of the rest of the highlights of the past few weeks bullet style.

** We celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Lily's baptism last week with a little prayer service and our usual Dreamcakes cupcakes.

** I am in the process of working on a warm and fuzzy scarf even though I think Spring temperatures are here to stay.

** With the arrival of warm weather comes dresses and uncovered knees that are covered with bumps and bruises.  We have been keeping this little bandaid lovin' girl's knees covered with Hello Kitty and kisses. 

 ** We have pulled out our tent to get ready for a camping adventure that is hopefully in our near future.  Hannah and Lily have also discovered that tents are great for playing house in the backyard.

There is oh so much more but I have to run and pick up Hannah from school so I will save the rest for another post.  Happy weekend!