Happy 5th, Caroline!

I cannot believe I have a FIVE year old. Good grief.

Whenever it is someone's birthday, Caroline's first question is, "What kind of birthday are you having?"  This translates to, "What character is on your cake?"  She has been asking since her fourth birthday to have a Mad Hatter Tea Party for her fifth, so we obliged. (She already has ideas for her sixth, and possibly her seventh). This girl is serious about her party themes.

I admit, I am a bit of a kid birthday party planning addict. I just enjoy putting it all together. This one was easy, because we already has so many girly items in fun, bright colors to pull together for a tea party. Pinterest is a wealth of inspiration (as well as a source of shame and self doubt) when it comes to party planning. Actually, some ideas were even original.  Believe it or not, those do still exist.

I should have insisted that all the kiddos (and parents) invited watch the movie as a prerequisite.  So much of the charm is lost on the Alice-uneducated crowd.

 

 

We kicked it off with a tea party, where we served "little girl tea" (a.k.a decaf), a cherry tea chosen by the birthday girl, along with lemonade for the non-tea-loving crowd.  I had purchased a mish mash of tea cups and saucers at a local thrift store, which later became the party favors for the guests.

 

 

 

The kids then participated in a Wonderland Relay, which consisted of:

Hopping like a bunny

Crawling through the Rabbit Hole

Finding the Key (hidden in bowl of rice)



Finding the Queen of Hearts

Flamingo Croquet (sans flamingo.  I tried to find a lawn flamingo, and several of my coastal friends and family offered theirs, but apparently none of my local friends are sufficiently tacky.)

We squeezed in a little lunch, and then it was time for cake and ice cream.  This is the first year that I didn't make Caroline's cake.  I have always enjoyed making them, but it sure was nice not having that on my to do list the day before the party.  I am learning as a mom to three littles to just let some stuff go.

The kids got to make their own Mad Hatter hats, which Caroline had been so excited about all week.  I don't have any pictures of the crafting because some Little Bit was hungry at the time, but I had three brave mommas offer to man glue guns. 

It was the present time, and we wrapped up the party with a little FaceTime with Nana and Grumpa and a  round of Pin the Smile on the Cheshire Cat.

The party crowd:

Ainsley slept through most of the hooplah.

The birthday girl snuggled up in bed in her new jammies, made by Mimi, with matching ones for her doll, Marie.

Ainsley Kate

7 lbs 12 oz

21 inches

The Ryle family has grown in numbers again! Our newest blessing, the cause of what I thought was altitude sickness during our last week in Bogota last September, made her appearance on May 28th.

Four days past my due date, after an uneventful and pretty easy pregnancy, followed by an uneventful and pretty easy four hour labor, we got to see her beautiful face. She has been such a joy!

Simultaneously adopting and conceiving was not our plan. The past nine months have been an emotional roller coaster!  This wild ride began with two lines on a pregnancy test in Bogota (that we had to use our pocket translator to request from the pharmacy). It then proceeded to shock and denial, which lasted approximately the first two trimesters. The final trimester was filled with days where my thoughts oscillated between the following: "Oh, my goodness, we really have another baby coming soon. How in the world are we going to run this circus?" and "It'll be fine. We'll do what we have to because, well, we'll have to." (The majority of those days, my thoughts leaned toward the former.)

Thankfully Ainsley seems to have a very laid back personality, and her big sisters absolutely adore her.  The circus has been running relatively smoothly since her arrival.  What's one more act, anyway?  We can always use another clown around here.  

February

Our two little ladies love to snuggle in the morning with their cups o' jugo de manzana.  Caroline is pretty much a beast until she gets hers {kind of like me and my coffee}.  She loves it so much that we shelled out quite a pretty penny for Mott's while we were in Colombia (which just so happens to be the land of delicious, exotic  fresh-squeezed juice of many varieties.  Girl knows what she likes.

Luisa has learned our morning routine, signing "thirsty" as soon as my foot hits the bottom stair in the morning.  She then points to the couch.  Once deposited there, she is aiming that finger at the TV.  Two cups of juice, once cup of coffee, and an episode of Mickey/Backyardigans/Jake/pick-your-favorite-animated-22-minute-show are consumed.  

The weather in February gave us a few chances to venture outdoors.  There was much swinging, always with shouts of, "Higher!"  We tested out the ant farm they got for Christmas.  Unfortunately, the ants only lived about 24 hours.  It was fun while it lasted.  They actually made quite a few tunnels in that amount of time,  Industrious little short-lived boogers that they are.

Nana and Grumpa came into town for a visit.  Caroline had been asking to visit the Vulcan (a statue of the Roman god of the forge, the world's largest cast iron statue, built to honor Birmingham's iron industry) every time she sees it looming above us as we drive around town.  Philip had never been and I hadn't since high school, so we thought a trip was in order.  We took the elevator to the top, but chose to count the stairs on the way down.  I've forgotten how many, but it was a lot.  :)

View from the top

Who would prefer walking to riding on shoulders?

Nana and the girls

We also made a few visits to a local park.  Luisa is able to get up the stairs or ramp, slide down the slide, and do it again all on her own.  This day we were there with her friend Cooper, who alternates running around chasing Caroline and crawling all over the place with Luisa (he is already a little ladies' man).  I assure you that the red shirts were not intentional, although I guess that happens around Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day was not a holiday Philip and I cared for before the girls came along.  We are on the the "this is a manufactured, commercial, Hallmark holiday" bandwagon.  That being said, the girls love any chance to decorate, do seasonal crafts, get little gifts, and eat junk food.  We obliged this year with chocolate fondue and fruit.  Definitely a hit, though a messy one.

We rounded out the month with a trip to Kentucky to visit the girls' cousins.  They have only met Luisa one time, and that was a less than 24 hour trip during which Luisa had a fever and was totally our of it.  We don't get to see this clan all that often, so it was nice to have a full week with the kids.  My mom went as well; we were there to keep the kiddos while their mom and dad (my brother and sister-in-law) were ministering in the Philippines.  Unfortunately I took an appallingly minuscule amount of photos, but here are a couple of my girls with their cousin Anna.  They had a blast playing together.

Banana Oat Pancakes

 

Our fam has been (mostly) gluten free for over a year now. Philip and the girls aren't as strict as I am (I am the one with the intolerance), but they have jumped on the band wagon for the most part. This is largely due to the fact that I don't like to cook two different meals!

It was difficult at first to eat GF (What? No cereal for breakfast or PBJs for lunch?), but we tried to focus on what we COULD have instead of what we couldn't. Our food horizons broadened, and the increasing popularity of Pinterest played a large part in introducing us to new recipes.

One thing that we all missed and (until recently) had not been able to adequately replace was Saturday Morning Pancakes. It was a tradition that had been around awhile at our house, but neither Aunt Jemima butter-flavored "syrup" nor Bisquick pancakes were going to cut it with our new lifestyle. I am happy to say that we have found a deliciously satisfactory NEW Saturday morning tradition, Banana Oat Pancakes.  As an added bonus, this recipe also takes care of the surplus of overly ripe bananas hanging out in my freezer, which formerly were used to make the world's best banana bread but have been piling up since the ban on gluten ensued.

Now, these are not a item-for-item pancake replacement. They are made with three bananas and oat flour (made by running oats through a food processor). Both the consistency and flavor are different from buttermilk pancakes. However, they are delicious in their own right. We all four love them. Load 'em up with diced pecans, sliced banana, and a bit o' maple syrup. Yum!

 

Don't you just love Lu's morning hair?

 

A Big Week

Last week was chock full of big stuff happening for Luisa.

Six months ago

• It was our six month anniversary of her joining our family.  This may not seem big in her eyes, but it was fun for us to look back and see how far we have come in terms of bonding and attachment in the past six months! 

• We made the switch to BGPs (big girl panties) this week!  Luisa had been doing well with going potty when we take her, but had not been "asking" to go.  We learned the sign for potty a few weeks ago in Speech Therapy and have been using it consistently every time we took her.  Well, it seemed to finally click, and now she asks to go every half hour or so (the novelty of asking has apparently not yet worn off). 

• Luisa and Caroline spent the night at Mimi and Pop's house, which was Lu's first overnight trip without a parent there.  It helps that Mimi and Pop are two of her favorite people!

• I picked up Luisa's new walker.  We have had a loaner on and off from UCP, but this is her VERY OWN.  As of now she is not too interested in using it.  It is simply so much easier for her to crawl that to expend the amount of energy it takes for her to walk using it. We are hoping that maybe some embellishments to the plain ol' silver walker and maybe some incentives will make the process more appealing.

• Our favorite discovery this past week was that of an adaptive bike hidden in the back of the PT's closet.  (We have a fabulous PT with very enticing toys that frequently tempt both Luisa and Caroline into cooperating with her goals.)  Luisa tried it for the last 10 minutes or so of PT and LOVED it.  It was quite difficult extricating her from it, actually.  We loved it so much that we filled out an order form for one before we left, and we were able to take the loaner bike home in the meantime to practice with.

Caroline and Luisa had a ball riding their bikes this weekend.  We just happened to have two days of beautiful weather and a pretty free weekend to hang out and play.  By the end of the weekend, she was able to pedal it both down our street and back up on her own (even with the slight incline of our road).