It’s Elora’s Birthday Blog Post!!! A little late. All the kids love birthdays, no matter whose they are. Birthdays are just so fun!
Here is Elora wearing her new outfit she got for her birthday from her Nana. She loves it. And she also is showing me the “soup” she made while playing outside. This little girl is so fun (and loves dirt).
Elora said she really wanted a barbie for her birthday. Elora also loves fairies and Tinkerbell. My parents kept some items of mine from high school and generously brought them to my house recently, and as I looked through them I realized that I had a lot of brand new Tinkerbell and Star Wars toys still in the packages that I had collected in high school. I kept them, thinking the kids would like them. SO! I was very excited to give Elora this barbie which used to be mine. Tinkerbell even has a zipline in Elora’s room that she can “fly” on.
Elora had a storybook themed party. Which was super fun to come up with games for. The kids started out by making their own storybooks. This activity was way more successful than I thought it would be, and the kids spent a long time writing stories and drawing pictures.
Next we read The Cat in the Hat and tried to balance as many items as possible on the kids, just like the cat did (although we did not make the kids stand on a ball, but that is not all, oh that is not all).
Elora always asks for a new type of cake every year, and this year it was carrot cake. She had never tried it before, so I made mini carrot cupcakes. I love when kids blow out candles at parties because all the kids look so excited!
Elora was VERY happy with her cupcakes and told me they are her favorite cake ever.
I didn’t get pictures of all the games. We read Pirate School and had a great pirate treasure hunt that ended with digging up some buried treasure in the garden. We also read Frog and Toad are friends and hunted for Toad’s button in the yard. Elora opened her presents and got some great new storybooks. She is also wearing her new necklace that Dallin gave her when he came over on her actual birthday. Elora has some sweet friends (and I do too, my friend Jill helped frost cupcakes and take pictures since I was not really ready for the party on time!)
I am so grateful for Elora, my sweet princess who loves dirt, bugs, gardening, hiking, being outside in any weather, skiing, dancing everywhere, reading and reading and reading, and drawing and drawing and drawing. She wants to be an author, illustrator, dancer, artist, and mommy when she grows up and wants to live in the same town as me so I won’t have to miss her. She loves to write me little notes and color little pictures for everyone. Marion and Oliver are her best friends and she takes such good care of them. She can make James smile better than anyone. She is happy and free-spirited and I am so glad to homeschool her just so I can see how excited she is to learn new things. She is a better teacher than me, but I am learning and hopefully I am teaching her a little bit. Thank you Elora for being my little girl (who is so big now, and so proud to make her own sandwiches and to help me with anything I need). You bring smiles, music, laughter, noise, and curiosity into our lives. You help us all appreciate the beauty of little things like worms, wildflowers, and dirt cookies. I am grateful that we could have beautiful sunshine for Elora’s party so she could have fun celebrating with her friends outside in the sun. When Elora was a baby she was so happy that I called her my Juniper Sunshine, and she still brings so much sunshine into all our lives.
