Sunday, December 18, 2011

Happy Birthday Allie!


Allie turned 4 on December 12. She was so excited about having it be HER birthday and not a sibling's birthday. Amy came home late on Thursday, so she was home for Allie's big day. Mike took the day off from work. Allie wanted to go swimming, so all of us went swimming for an hour. The Y center increased the family swim time in the warm pool up to an hour on Friday. Some of the older kids spent some of the time in the cold pool, where they worked on their diving. Mike and I stayed in the warm pool with the younger kids. Mike hadn't been swimming with us for over a month. He was really surprised at how well Allie and Paige are swimming. Paige really doesn't need to use any flotation devices. I'm still going to make Paige use a bubble when Allie is swimming without a bubble. It's too difficult for me to keep both girls within my reach at the same time. Allie is now able to swim the length of the pool. Her stroke form isn't good, but she is able to keep afloat.

After building a big appetite swimming, we returned home and Mike prepared his grilled sandwiches. Amy took the kids to the bookmobile and the library in the afternoon, while I baked cupcakes. Allie and Paige helped decorate the cupcakes to look like snowmen. The girls had a great time!

My mom came over for supper. We don't take the family out for dinner any longer (it gets too expensive with three birthdays in December), but the kids get to choose what we have for supper. Allie wanted spaghetti, cottage cheese, French bread, and salad. After boiling water for the pasta, I realized that I didn't have any angel hair pasta in the house. Allie was thrilled with the substitution of shell pasta.

After opening presents and eating cupcakes and ice cream, Allie wanted to watch a movie that she had borrowed from the library. All the kids watched Kung Fu Panda until 11:00pm. It was a full day, but Allie had a great time. I really loved having all my family together. It is so rare that we have anytime together as a family. Mike is usually working and Amy is off at school. I treasure these times.

1 comment:

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Happy birthday to Allie! I only have one birthday in December, and that's enough.