Ella Grace {Six Years}

Dear Ella,

Today you are SIX! 6 whole years ago, you made me a mom. It has flown by, but I also feel like we've known each other for much longer than 6 years! ;) The fact that your birthday is on a Monday this year (you were born on a Monday) makes today even more special for some reason. You got so tried of me telling you yesterday "Ok, at this time 6 years ago, Daddy and I..."! You now have to hold up TWO hands to show your age, and you are becoming such a little lady!

We go to the doctor in 2 weeks for your 6 year old check up. (PS, Scheduling around school is hard!) If I had to guess, I'd say you're about 44 pounds and 46 inches tall. You wear size 6 clothes, but can still fit in some size 5 (and even some size 4) dresses and leggings. Your favorite thing is to wear a smaller sized dress "as a tunic," and just wear it with leggings. Gotta love girls' clothes!  You are size 11/12 shoes. You don't really like clip-in bows anymore (TEAR!) but you do love your headbands!

You continue to be a rockstar sleeper, as you always have been! You go to sleep around 7:30 PM and on the weekends have no problem sleeping till 7:30 AM. On school days, I wake you up at 6:30 AM and half the time you are already awake, ready to go! I still make you have quiet time on weekends, where you read or play quietly in your room while the boys are napping. On some very rare days, you will still fall asleep during this time! It's pretty great.

The biggest change this year has been starting kindergarten and you are flourishing. You absolutely LOVE school! You actually cry/get very sad on Friday nights when you don't have school the next day. You were very upset at the start of Christmas break because you already missed your teacher so much!! Your best friend Alevia is in the same class as you, and you have made many other new friends. You love riding the bus and have met lots of neighborhood kids doing that! You love all of the special area classes, but it cracked me up that you got a PE Award last quarter! PE?! MY child?! LOL! Clearly, you take after your dad! ;) You are reading on a level G which is equivalent to a first grade reading level! We are so proud of the wonderful reader you are becoming! You love to read and your favorite books are Piggie and Elephant, Fancy Nancy, and Pinkalicious books.



Even more than loving to read, you LOVE LOVE LOVE to write! You are constantly making books. When I say constantly, I am talking every free second of the day when you're home, you're probably up in the bonus room making another book! I love that you are such an author and your invented spelling gets me every time. The illustrations are pretty amazing too. You make books for all of us...and we're not just talking about basic 4 page books. Oh no, you make pop-up books, lift-the-flap books, cut out books and your latest obsession: chapter books! I am trying to figure out a good way to organize all of these books because they are all so precious and I want to save them! You have always wanted to be the tooth fairy when you grow up, but now you tell me that you want to be an author, too!



Your brothers both look up to you so much and absolutely adore you. Lucas sometimes gets on your nerves (and also sits on you...) but he gets sad when you are at school! When you two aren't fighting over the same toy, you actually play pretty nicely together and are SO hilarious! Bennett lights up with a smile every time you walk in the room and of course knew how to say "Ella" months ago! Both boys love your books that you make for them, and also when you read to them.



You are still doing dance class every Monday and our church program on Wednesdays! You've also started taking Chinese lessons online and you LOVE Teacher Elaine! At this point you know more Chinese than I do, which isn't saying too much but I'm still pretty impressed! It is a HARD language to learn! But the thing I will continue to be the most proud of is that you are SO kind to everyone. That was the first thing I asked your teacher at Parent/Teacher Conferences, if you were kind. And she said "oh my goodness, yes!" There are two ESL girls in your class that you have taken under your wing and you are always concerned if someone is sick or hurt. You love to pray for all of your friends. We recently "adopted" a sponsored child from Tanzania...she has the same birthday as you! And if we don't mention her in our nightly prayers, oh man do you let me hear it!



Sweetest girl, you continue to shine and make us proud every single day! I can't wait to see what this next year brings...6 is such an amazing age and I know you're going to have the best year! We love you so much!

Ella's "Pretend Sleepover" Birthday Party

I am determined to get this posted before Ella's birthday month is over! 

For her birthday party this year, Ella requested a sleepover! No way Jose was I having a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds spend the night at my house, so we turned it into a "pretend sleepover." Ella invited 5 of her best friends, and they came over at 5:30 PM in their pajamas. We made custom mini pizzas, decorated pillowcases, watched movies (or 20 minutes of one!), opened presents, had cupcakes...and then when 7:30 rolled around, they all went home to sleep!

It was honestly one of the easiest parties I've done and didn't even start decorating until the night before (whoops!). 

Ella really, really, REALLY wanted to have tents for her friends to "sleep" in! Luckily, I found a local mom on Facebook who rents them out! They barely fit in my car, but whatever. I added some fun battery-powered lights to make the tents even more festive. 

In our kitchen, we set up a "make your own pizza" station. The girls loved it! I took a picture of each girl making their pizza so I could remember whose was whose once we cooked them.

This is the ultimate sign that I really put no effort into this party: random plates and napkins from Target (that Ella chose, ha)!

Anyway, once we were waiting for our pizzas to cook, the girls headed into the dining room to decorate pillowcases! Because what other craft would you do at a pretend sleepover?!

Also in the dining room...the big 5! Fun fact: I've made her age in pictures every single year! Can't stop now!!! This year's pictures were all ones of her wearing pajamas! :) 

I found a bunch of white pillowcases on Amazon for super cheap, and then just picked up a big pack of fabric markers at our local craft store!

After the girls ate about 3 bites each of their pizzas...

(Lucas won Best Eater for sure!!)

...it was time for cupcakes!!!

I found these on (where else?!) Pinterest and they were surprisingly super easy to recreate!!!

The girls all wanted to watch a movie, and chose "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I mean, totally appropriate for a February birthday party! They couldn't see the movie from inside their tents, so they joined Lucas and Bennett in front of the TV. Everyone made it a solid 20 minutes into the movie before they wanted to open Ella's presents!

So open the presents it was!

What's not pictured is all of the screaming happening in my house! Amazing how loud 6 girls can be! Holy moly. I was very grateful when each sweet girl's mom came to pick her up! ;)

Anyway, each girl got to take home a sleeping mask, fuzzy socks, nail polish and chapstick!

Ella is STILL obsessed with her sleep mask and wears it every night!!

It was such a fun time celebrating our 5 year old girl! Highly recommend a "pretend sleepover" for kids this age! (Although parents might want to buy some earplugs beforehand!)

{Previous Ella birthday parties: 1st Birthday at Tiffany's | 2nd Lilly Pulitzer Party | 3rd Golden Birthday | 4th Rainbow Art Party}

Ella's Rainbow Birthday Party!

Ella specifically requested a "rainbow art party" for her 4th birthday...well, ask and you shall receive! 

I definitely did not want to have a bunch of preschoolers over to our house to do art projects, so we had the party at Noah's Art, which was a perfect location! 

I did basically nothing for this party, which was every bit as amazing as I knew it would be. I made the cupcakes myself and didn't even bother to take them out of the pans for a pretty display!

{all printable are from Lilacs & Charcoal on Etsy}

The kids also had "creative juice" aka apple juice!

For their favor bags, I made a rainbow on plain white bags using dot markers.

Inside the bags, I put crayons, a little watercolor set, stickers and a little sketchbook (I found the stickers and books in the $1 spot at Target!). 

As soon as we got there, the art projects started! 

First, Ella got a rainbow painted on her hand!

{Ella's dress is from OmiJo}

They also had a station set up where the kids could color a big birthday banner for Ella...

...and at the third station, they made bead bracelets!

They also set out play dough for Lucas and Penelope!

{Lucas's shirt is from Hanna Andersson}

After all of Ella's friends arrived, the kids put on aprons and got to paint!

The next project was doing watercolors. There were hidden objects on their picture that were revealed when they painted!

While this was going on, the boys wanted to do a little painting ;) 

I'll also add that Lucas became obsessed with washing his hands and washed them no fewer than 15 times during the party. Thanks for keeping him occupied, Trav, Mom and Dad!

The last project was making rainbows with pipe cleaners!

(Not sure why Ella decided to "smile" like this in every picture.)

Then it was time for her birthday march! They put on music and Ella paraded through the art studio to their big birthday wall! She got to pick out the color she wanted and put her handprint on the wall, all while her little friends cheered her on! 

Next up: singing "Happy Birthday" and cupcakes!

Then it was time to say goodbye to all of the friends! Baby Norah was the youngest guest by a long shot :)

After nap, we had our families over to continue the birthday celebration, so I put up some decorations...because this is me and you know I love some decorations! 

That giant 4 is still up in our dining room...and will prob be up until Lucas's birthday in May.

Time to open presents!

Ella is obsessed with the sleep Skye she got, as well as her new Minnie watch!

My parents gifted her my old dollhouse that my grandpa built for me when I was a little girl. They also got her new furniture (since mine was outdated and kind of fragile), and she has been having fun "decorating" the house! 

What a day celebrating this 4 year old!!!! She was super tired out!