Losing a Tooth, Frost Style : Part 2

I'm pretty sure this is going to become a blog series around here. To see Part 1 (Carter's first tooth loss) go here: Losing A Tooth, Frost Style

Makenna has been dying to lose a tooth for months and when she showed us two wiggly bottom teeth we thought for sure she'd lose something before she turned 7! Nope. She half-heartedly wiggled her teeth even though we begged her to get them out. A few weeks ago I looked in her mouth and realized her adult tooth was coming up BEHIND her baby tooth. It was time for it to go. We gave her a time limit and told her the tooth had to be out by that weekend. She was not happy. It went down much like our first loss with Carter:

1. Many tears ensued:
2. Daddy did a bunch of wiggling to get it more loose

3. Makenna excused herself to another room to pray (I super duper love that both my kids have prayed in this situation or anytime they are scared)

4. Makenna begged to wait a few more days to get it out.

5. Daddy threatened to take it out with pliers

6. More tears

7. Makenna screws up her courage and let's Allen take another go at it:
8. After quite a bit of blood the tooth came out! Happiness and relief!
9. In our tradition our tooth fairy brings a small gift with the first tooth loss. She brought Kenna some new, much loved jewelry:
A couple days later we noticed the adult tooth pushing up behind the other bottom tooth so we insisted that one come out too. Repeat the previous 9 steps! I hope all her losses are not this dramatic!

Spy Party

Makenna has been planning a spy party for the entire past year. I tried to interest her in some other ideas along the way but she has knew what kind of party she wanted. We had fun planning this party even though there weren't a ton of ideas out there to "borrow." First up is the invites. We made each invited person a "Top Secret" spy file for the invitation. This is the outside:The inside had all pertinent party information and a password they had to decode along with instructions on a secret handshake they had to learn.
Once all the agents arrived at the party they were all fingerprinted to prepare for training. Our spies in training:
The first training exercise was bomb detonation (popping about 100 black balloons):

The second training exercise was getting through the laser beam maze (red string criss-crossed a ton of different ways):
The third training exercise was target shooting (water shooters on a target on our back fence). After the training exercises it was time for the agents to undergo an actual mission. We told them there was a dangerous object hidden somewhere in the neighborhood that they had to get rid of.

The first clue was written backwards so they had to use a mirror to decode it.
The second clue was a map of the neighborhood leading them to an obscure location. The third clue used the same code as the invites and led them to the 4th location. The 4th clue was written on the sidewalk behind our house and led the kids to our neighbors house where they picked up the "weapon" (a bomb piñata)
After they found the bomb we brought it back to the house and destroyed it!
After the activities we had a nacho bar and "bomb" donuts for the treat:
After opening presents (where Kenna was spoiled rotten) we gave out the goodie bags. They included secret message decoder kits, spy glasses (you can see behind you when you wear them), spy notebooks/pens and candy from the piñata.
Makenna had a fantastic time with her friends and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves! It was fun to pull together such a unique themed birthday party!

Kenna's 7th Birthday

Makenna's birthday was last week and once again we stretched out our celebrating all weekend long. She chose to go to Red Robin for her dinner on Saturday night and loved her gigantic post-dinner Sundae.Allen was traveling for work all last week so we had her family birthday dinner on Sunday night. We had pizza fondue and chocolate eclair cake.
Monday was her actual birthday and we had a big breakfast before school and Allen flew out on his trip. Before opening her gifts:

With her gifts! She got the AG Girl of the year because her name is McKenna! She also got the McKenna sick kit and wheelchair (from my parents), a movie and some new clothes from Allen's mom. She was thrilled to pieces with her new doll and that wheelchair has been played with them constantly this week.

Makenna had a project due at school on her birthday so we were able to go watch her give her presentation on archaeology. She did a great job with her report and her class really loved the mini archaeological dig we brought in for them to try (not pictured).

Her class sang her happy birthday and she got to wear the birthday crown all day! We brought in a healthy birthday treat for her to share.

Since Allen was out of town we went and grabbed a pizza for dinner and then came home in time to Facetime with Allen for a little while (thank you Apple!) We love that technology allows us to talk face-to-face with our loved ones.

A few days after her birthday her darling primary teacher brought her over a birthday treat which she loved. Makenna is just the sweetest girl around and such a blessing in our family. She is a great friend and always has a gaggle of friends around her at church and school. She loves her friends and begs for a play date almost daily. Kenna is very sensitive to other people and gets emotional easily (wonder where she got that from?!). At Christmastime when we were watching a movie about Jesus' birth she got very emotional when Herod's soldiers killed the baby boys. She just cried and cried over it.

She is still my very best helper and is so cheerful running around for me and lending a hand whenever I need it. She still loves to help in the kitchen and is a great big sister and helper with the little girls. She often begs me to let her "babysit" Emery. She also loves to play school or house with the girls where she can be in charge (teacher or mom).

She is doing awesome at school and continues to surprise us with all she knows and understands. She was recently tested for reading and she is reading at almost a 4th grade level. She loves AG books, the Little House on the Prairie series and Magic Treehouse books. She loves playing outside more than anything though and has a bunch of kids in the neighborhood that she loves to ride bikes/scooters/play with every day after school. She is still super girly and only wants to wear dresses and skirts to school but she does love her knit pants/hoodies that she wears on PE days. She loves changing her earrings and nail polish color frequently.

Kenna also loves music. She loves rocking out/dancing in the car and is always patrolling the radio stations in the car for the best music. She is doing awesome in piano and is in the level 1 books now. She has improved a lot and loves to practice. She also loves her dance class, especially now that they are getting ready for the spring recital. She is ready to try something new so she is going to start gymnastics this fall. She has also turned into a great little artist and even one an art contest at school for her grade level last month. She is always writing Allen and me little love notes and leaving them on our pillows and drawing us pictures with lots of hearts and kind words.

We are all just smitten with this girl who is beautiful both inside and out and so happy she is such a sweet influence in our family!

Dance Pictures

Whoa. I need to catch my breath. The past couple of weeks have been C-R-A-Z-Y with recitals, programs, parties, projects, field trips, etc. I have so much to blog about and feel so far behind! So let's get started!

Makenna and Addison both took dance this year and loved it! Being a dancer myself, I just adore watching my girls dance and discover a love for it. I hope (fingers crossed) that my girls want to dance for many more years! The studio they dance for had their recital last week and both girls did great. I will post videos of their performances when I get the professional DVD I ordered. My videos were terrible because of the low light in the auditorium. The weekend before the recital I decided to do my own pictures of the girls in their costumes.

Addison's class danced to "Spoon Full of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. Her costume included a giant lollipop prop that I didn't have for the shoot.








Addie's little friend was there during the shoot so she was pretty distracted and I had a hard time getting her to cooperate. However, going through these pictures I am reminded that you only really need to get 1 good shot to make it worth it. I probably took 200 pics on this day and only a handful of them turned out, but that's all you really need!



Kenna's class danced to "9-5" from the musical/movie 9-5. Man, she rocked it on performance night and we are so proud of how hard she has worked this year. She has improved a ton and has expressed an interest in dancing on the competitive team. We'll see next year how she feels about it.








Her friend from our ward, whose name is also Makenna (yes, spelled the exact same way even) was in her class with her so we took a few pictures of the girls together. They are two peas in a pod right down to that crazy, gorgeous, long blond hair.









Finally, a picture of my girlies together!

They are both going to ballet camp this summer and I can't wait to see how much they love it!

Makenna's 6th Birthday!

Makenna turned 6 on Sunday. Lucky girl, we spent the entire weekend partying and were lucky enough to have my parents here with us for it all.

Since her birthday was on Sunday this year we spent Saturday going to lunch at Chili's and going swimming for her birthday activities. She had a blast being the center of attention! At lunch:

{Love this pic of her!}

Addison enjoying the dregs of the milkshake the waitstaff brought out for Makenna.

Swimming:

While Al and the big kids swam, I hung out with Emery while she did this:

{Isn't she seriously delicious?!?}

Sunday was her actual birthday and she could not wait to get the party started. We got up very early to make sure she could have her celebration before our 9:00 a.m. church started.

With her gifts:


Makenna didn't ask for much except for the unicorn pillow pet and a pink iPod. She also got the new Fancy Nancy & Silverlicious books, jewelry and a jewelry tree, a Fancy Nancy blanket from my parents, a princess watch from Grandma F, a fairy craft kit and some new nail polish. She loved the pillow pet and blanket the most and Addie has decided her life is ruined until she gets her own pillow pet!

After gifts we had a delicious breakfast of crepes with Nutella, strawberries and whipped cream. Serious yum!

For dinner she requested pizza fondue and chocolate eclair cake. We had some friends over for dinner to help us celebrate and had a grand time.

A few things about Makenna at age 6:

- She is an extremely tender-hearted child. She has a very nurturing personality and is always showing concern for her family and friends. She can often be found writing little love notes to members of our family along with an illustration of her and the person holding hands. I have a large stack of love notes from my sweet girl.

- Loves to play "Harry Potter" with Carter and babies or pet store with Addison. She hates playing by herself but loves to play with her sibs. If there is no one to play with her, she is glued to my side. It is how she has always been!

- Along with that, she doesn't really care for toys. I have bought her so many things that never get played with. She loves her dolls, playing dress up and doing crafts. She LOVES her play make up and jumps at the chance to play beauty parlor whenever I let her. She loves to put makeup on other people and do their hair.

- Still SUPER girly. She loves to wear dresses (and would every day if it weren't for that darn P.E. twice a week), wear jewelry, hair accessories, etc. We have an enormous collection of accessories for this girl and she wears and loves it all.

- Great reader and student. She lacks confidence and does not like to show that she is smart. It is a bit frustrating and we are working hard to help build her confidence.

- Loves music and dancing and loves to sing a long and perform anywhere we are. Loves her little dance classes that she is in and is starting cheer leading this spring. We're still trying to push her to try a sport and she has grudgingly agreed to try a season of soccer next fall.

- Loves to cook and bake and would spend all day in the kitchen with me if I let her. When we have our "dates" she often asks to spend our time cooking together.

- By far my best helper. She loves to help me cook, clean, care for Emery, fold laundry, etc. It's so cute that she wants to be my helper and has been invaluable this last month as I've been in a chair nursing so much.

- Best big sister to Addie and Emery. She is always, always the first to nurture and comfort them when they're sad.

We love our sweet spirited Makenna so much. I can't imagine my life without her snuggles and kind words and love notes. Our entire family is blessed so much by her presence in our home.

Disney on Ice

You know the November lull I mentioned in my last post? Yeah, it's making me LAZY. I have plenty to do and blog about but without deadlines I'm choosing afternoon naps instead of productivity. I need to get on that ;)

On Saturday I took the girlies to see Disney on Ice. I debated about going but when I found out that part of the program was the retelling of The Little Mermaid, I decided we HAD to go. Miss Addie is a Little Mermaid NUT. Seriously, she's crazy about anything related to it. The program also retold the stories of Peter Pan, Lilo and Stitch and The Lion King but Ariel was our favorite, of course.

The girls opted to wear their Ariel costumes and they were the only little girls we saw dressed up so of course they were a huge hit. The performance was really fun and I truly wish I could have somehow captured the magical experience it was for Addie. She was ADORABLE singing along to the songs and getting excited when new characters came on the ice.

It was a really fun afternoon together. I looooove having little girls to do these kinds of things with! It's obvious that I'm huge Disney fan and while I'm sure we will go again, this event was WAY too commercialized for me. Ugh. Everything was way, way overpriced (there was not a single drink available for purchase for under $15 because everything came in a "souvenir cup"). The girls loved it though and that's all that matters.

While we were at the show Allen and Carter watched Harry Potter 5 together. We had not let him see it before because of the PG13 rating but he is dying to see HP 7 and has read most of the books so we wanted to see how he would do with 5. Allen had to stop and answer a ton of his questions but he really liked it and they had a great time together.

A Thrilling, Delicious, Pink Halloween

Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat/Halloween Party activity. It was so fun for the kids to get dressed up in their costumes already. We had absolutely ZERO say in what our kids decided to be this year. After seeing all the Star Wars characters and princesses at our ward party, I was really happy that my kiddos picked such unique things to be this year!

A few weeks ago Carter changed his mind from being a Star Wars Jedi to being the Michael Jackson zombie from the Thriller video. He LOVES MJ and that video gets watched a lot at our house. Aunt Laurie was so gracious to supply our costume again this year and sent this awesome red jacket that we doctored up with some tape to look like the Thriller costume. As you would suspect, most of the kids his own age had no idea who he was dressed up as but most of the adults knew exactly who he was.


When I asked Makenna what she wanted to be this year, she immediately said she wanted to be Pinkalicious and that she wanted Addison to be her cupcake sidekick. I loved the idea and we set to work pulling together a perfect pink costume for her. She was super nervous about having her hair sprayed pink and her skin painted but in the end she loved how she looked. The girls were a big hit at the party (though a lot of people did not know who Pinkalicious is - I thought every little girl knew and loved that book like mine do). Addie's costume is straight out of the Pottery Barn Kids catalog. I had grand intentions of sewing this year but decided to give myself a break and purchase it instead!


I made the girls cupcake treat bags this year that turned out so cute! Carter used last year's bag since it still fit his theme for this year.
My cute gang together:We still have LOTS of Halloween action this year - school Halloween Boo Bash, ward Halloween carnival and then the actual day!