Charis' Birthday Party

Finally, I was able to get the pictures off our broken camera. So now I have a bunch of catching up to do.

Charis' Birthday Party

We decided to have Charis' birthday party at the Wildflower Center but I still really wanted to decorate the house for her when she woke up. She loves the balloons and decoration.
We all ate breakfast together and then headed off to the Wildflower Center for her party. Sommer and I had decorated the "little house" the day before so we got there in time to blow up some balloons. Once people began arriving, we started making bag puppets. Kris and I cut out all the pieces before hand and the kids got to glue them on and decorate them. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.
Then the kids played a little and danced.
Next, we read Charis' favorite book and the inspiration for the party theme... Dragon dancing. It is a book about a little girl on her birthday who goes to school and her teacher reads a book about dragons. Then the kids decorate dragon parts including a birthday dragon hat and go off into this imaginary world of dragon dancing.Then we made dragon hats.
Then cake and presents...
I made a butterfly cake, cupcakes and a round cake. Charis loved it!
Then we opened all the amazing presents. And as the kids were leaving they got a chance to dig around in the sand for insects to take home.
It was a great party and we all had lots of fun!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARIS!
WE LOVE YOU!

Giving toys away

Every year around her birthday and Christmas, we clean out Charis's room (and our house) and choose some toys and clothes to give away to other kids that need them. This year she helped more and even understood what we were going to do. I want to teach her the importance of giving to others. She helps me give food to the homeless and pick up presents for the kids at the Children's shelter and I want her to learn how to give from what she has also.Saying goodbye to her toys and playing with them one last time.
She is getting good at playing by herself for short periods of time. Right after we organized all of the toys she was keeping, she went to her room to color while I packed up the car.

School B-day celebration

Since Charis' school will be closed for the holidays on Charis' birthday, we decided to celebrate a little earlier at school. I took pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins, chocolate milk and party hats to her school for their snack. Charis said we could not have a party without party hats.At school, they set out the calendar months on the floor in a circle around the sun and Charis walks around the months with the world to symbolize every year she has been alive. At the end of every year she and I got to tell them something about that year of her life. Charis was very excited about doing this.
Then she got to turn the music box which played Happy Birthday and the teacher's gave her a birthday ribbon - she treasured the ribbon all day and even insisted on wearing it to bed. Then hugs for everyone in the class. Next the class sang Happy Birthday and Charis blow out her candle. Praying and eating. Then time for playing outside. Charis' had a hard time with me leaving, but when they came back in, she got to unwrap her book that she was giving to the class. Then she got to "read" it and that made her happy again.

Making Birthday invitations

Part of Charis' birthday will be centered around one of her favorite books "Dragon Dancing", so I thought that using a picture from that book and decorating it would be fun for her invitations.
Charis and I decorated a few each day until we had made enough. Charis loved it! Cut, glue, sparkles what is not to love... we both had fun!Kris wrote the invitations and we handed them out to our friends.

Jingle Bell Ride

One of our Christmas traditions is riding the Jingle Bell Ride. It is a slow bike ride through the Trail of lights. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/tol/displays.htmWe ride from our house down to the starting point and then through the ride. This year the temperature dropped really low right before the ride. Charis was excited about wearing four shirts, two pants, two pairs of socks, a jacket, scarf and mittens. She was also distracted during the wait at the starting point by a soy-cheese sandwich.It was a good ride and lots of beautiful light displays but very cold. As we passed displays that Charis recognized she would shout out things like "Look it is Nemo" or when we passed a music one that was playing Feliz Navidad she shouted "It is my song" (from her Holiday party).We stopped to warm up by the fire with Skot.
Then Charis ran around playing with Kira for a few minutes.
Until she noticed these...
She loved them and had to do each one. I think there were five of them. Then she insisted that all of us do it.By the time we got her back in the bike, she was really cold, even under a blanket she asked to go home. We enjoyed the rest of the ride but did not hang around afterward instead we hurried home to warm up.

Birthday and Holiday parties

This weekend we had three birthday parties, one school holiday party and Luminations (my work's holiday celebration). We only made it to two of the birthday parties and the other parties, but it was a very full weekend. First was Mia's B-day.
The girls could borrow a dress from Mia and dress up like a princess or fairy or whatever. Charis said "mommy can I stay in my clothes" - she is so my daughter. But she had lots of fun playing on their playground, playing music, blowing bubbles and of course eating a cupcake.Next was Charis' school Holiday party. Charis' class sang "Hello to All the Children of the World", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" & "Feliz Navidad". She did a great job! She knew most of the words and motions. It was a lot of fun to see her preform and she had a lot of fun doing it.In the hallway, eating crackers while they waited for their turn.
Charis singing and doing the motions, while the other girls got into a fight about the microphone. We thought for sure that she would join in on grabbing the microphone because she likes them so much, but she was great. She was only distracted for a second and then right back to signing and doing the motions - what a little performer.
"I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart." - for some reason she holds her throat instead of her heart.
Final bow with her friend.
Now that her performance is over she can go check out the microphone!

Next was Elias' B-day. Instead of pin a tail on the donkey, they played put the wheels on a car. It was a fun game. (Elias loves monster trucks and cars)
Check up my daughter in this beautiful dress! Thanks Mia for letting us borrow it.
Charis' turn.
Then for cake, each kid got to decorate a car with frosting and candy and then eat it.Charis had a lot of fun decorating it. But she then ate all the candy off and left the cake part. I could not convince her to try it. Then they all played, opened gifts and every kid got a turn to drive the 3 wheeler. Charis had a lot of fun! Thanks Elias, Meagan and Chase - we had a lot of fun.

Another hair cut

I cut Charis' hair again. It was getting a little too long. I tried to put layers in it and I think I did okay.
I guess I did not get a picture of the front but it looks about the same. But this time I promptly hid the scissors.

Praise GOD!

Charis has been a little sick and on Monday after school, she started having green stuff come out of her eyes. A little at first and then more than we could wipe away. When it first started we were at the opthamologist for Kris and she said that is was probably just from the cold Charis already had. Right before bedtime her right eye was really swollen and the other was getting worse. And she was crying from the pain. When I called the doctor, they agreed that it could wait til first thing in the morning, but that her eyes would be coated with green mucus and she would not be able to open them or see in the morning. Along with the swelling that they said would only get worse.

So we prayed, I asked some friends to pray, gave her tylenol and put her to bed. She woke up almost every hour and Kris and I traded off taking care of her. At 11:00pm, her right eye was swollen shut and the left was really swollen. I contunied to pray for some relief and that most of all her eyes would not be stuck shut in the morning. (It is suppose to be really scary for them to have that happen and she was already experiencing some of that with her right eye being swollen shut. And she kept crying for her glasses because she thought that was the problem)

Praise GOD!!! She woke up in the morning happy and talking to her animals. The swelling had gone down almost completely, she seemed to be in little to no pain, and the green mucus was gone.
Kris took her to the doctor while I went to work. Kris said she stayed in a good mood all morning. The doctor said she had pink eye (of course), an ear infection (that she was not complaining about) and some sort of bacteria infection. And with medication her eyes were almost back to normal in two days.
Whether God miraclously healed her from the swelling, pain and green mucus during the night or as Kris said "God gave her a kick*** immune system that allowed her to recover", it is all the same to me. God is good! Thank you God for loving my baby girl as much as I do and healing her!