5th Birthday Party

Today we had a birthday party for Lexi and Zara at The Little Gym. Starting with our trip to California last month, this birthday has been never-ending. This was the last of the many festivities and we are done for a while now, ha ha. 

The girls and their friends had a great time tumbling, jumping and hanging and playing fun gym games. Then we ate snacks and cake, yay! Yes, they are still obsessed with horses. 

Lexi is Five!

Oh my goodness this girl is full of personality, excitement and drama. She picked out a new colorful maxi dress last weekend and was very conflicted about whether she wanted to have a party at all because I told her she couldn't wear it to her gymnastics birthday party. This morning she finally came around and said, "I was joking yesterday, I'll just wear a shorter dress for the gymnastics part of the party and then change back into my long dress." Whew, crisis averted. She insists that her $2 flip flops from Old Navy are the most comfortable shoes ever and wears them everywhere she can, including all over Disneyland. I took her to buy new shoes at Nordstrom today because she was complaining all of her shoes were too small and after an hour we almost left without anything because she was so darn picky.

Lexi is very excitable and usually jumps up and down squealing and yelling about anything and everything. The volume in our house is LOUD. At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park last month she chose to make a pressed penny donkey as a souvenir. The rest of the day she exclaimed loudly several times, "Look at this sweet little ass!" and "I just love this little ass." We have our Aesop's Fables book to thank for introducing that word into her vocabulary.

This girls is always right and super stubborn to go along with it. She will often change her mind about something, but instead of admitting she just changed her mind, she insists that we are wrong. It drives us crazy, but it's also hilarious. For example, she will say, "I want the cheese pizza" and then when the cheese pizza comes she will say, "I said I wanted the pepperoni pizza!" and acts like we are all nuts for thinking she ever said cheese.

Lexi loves drawing, puzzles, playing with horses, reading books, dancing and watching Paw Patrol. Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, bananas, popcorn, quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches.

We LOVE her so much!

Zara is Five!

Zara is our quirky, serious and sweet girl and I just cannot believe how fast five years with her has gone by. She is wise beyond her years and has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and details. We get lots of thought-provoking questions from Zara, some that we don't always know the answers to. She is a huge lover of animals (especially zebras, horses, wolves and tigers) and of her family. Pretty much every day she tells me, "You are the best mom ever, I love you so much." She loves her baby sister bunches, always giving Ariana hugs and playing games with her. Lately she has been keeping track of all of Ariana's milestones, reminding me what words she can say and how many steps she took.

Over the last year we decided to cut Zara's hair shorter to help her have her own identity separate from Lexi. She was glad to do it so people would stop asking her and Lexi "which one are you?" Then more recently we went even shorter to a bob right under her chin and it is so adorable on her. She was a little sad at first with how short it ended up being. Lately she is getting so many compliments from friends and even strangers that is boosting her confidence about her hair so now she seems to love it again.

Zara's play really centers around animals. Her favorites are drawing and coloring animals, playing with her Paw Patrol toys and other animal figures, designing and cutting out paper clothes for the animals and watching Paw Patrol and animal movies (like Lion King). She REALLY wants a dog so we may eventually cave on that one, but don't tell her!

Both girls are really into knock-knock jokes lately, but they haven't quite figured out how to come up with a funny punchline. They are  both so talkative that the biggest drama around our house is the fighting to talk, talking over each other and interrupting each other. It is so LOUD!

She loves cheeseburgers, steak, cheese and crackers and fruit.

We LOVE our Zara girl so much.