Day 3 Festival of Aria Bowling Party

Aria had a great time at her bowling party. All day she kept asking me "Is it party time yet?" When it finally was you couldn't get that girl out the door fast enough. We showed up at the bowling alley. Mom was already there so I put her to work carrying things for me.

Aria picked out a Hello Kitty cake, and I got another sheet cake. Rod didn't think I needed to buy so much, but a whole cake and a half was gone by the end of the party, so I think that I did. We also had two pizzas, and by request I ordered my grandpa some chicken fingers.

Lauren and Annabelle came, which made Aria very happy. Lauren was shy at first, but then she warmed up to everyone. She, Ari, and Anna were playing tag. They also all got to bowl a game. It was cute seeing these kids try to roll a ball that is half of their whole body.

Aria loved her presents. Now I need to figure out what to do with them. I have started going through Aria's toys to get rid of the ones she doesn't like, but there aren't many that I can really get rid of. I guess I'll have to buy bigger totes.

After the bowling party, Aria wasn't ready to go home. There was still trick or treating being done at Walmart so I took her there. We dressed her up in her Hello Kitty costume and headed up to the store. Because it was almost time for them to quit, a lot of people just gave Aria what was left of their baskets. The kid came home with a ton of candy.

Aria has discovered pixie sticks.

Aria's 4th Birthday- Festival of Aria Day 2

Look who is 4!

Mama, am I 4 yet?

Ah, the thrill of birthdays when you are young. There is nothing better than a birthday. This little girl was all smiles from the moment she woke up until she went to bed, and even then she was asking me, "Is it still my bowth-day?"

We started the day by eating breakfast and then me dressing her up and forcing her to pose for pictures for me. Then we went to Walmart to get items to make her birthday cake (as well as a few extra things cuz she is the birthday girl). Normally I would be working and anyone who saw me and commented on that fact, I'd tell them I took it off because it was Aria's birthday. Then she'd get lots of birthday wishes, money, hugs, and she got a whole sheet of stickers from the people greeter. That's when Aria decided that birthdays were pretty awesome.

Then we stopped at Papa Murphy's where she got more birthday wishes, and some money as well. We took her newfound treasures to the dollar tree where she spent it on a knight's armor dress up and a balloon. Therefore everyone can know that their money was well spent on making a birthday girl happy with useless stuff.

When we arrived at home, Rod was up so we opened presents. She got lots of good stuff from Mama and daddy, Aunt Vickie and Gan, Grandma Mary, and Grandma Marva. Her favorite, though, was her guitar.

No, daddy, this is how you hold it. Let me show you!

Aria has wanted another guitar since her ukelele broke. The play ones aren't good enough for her and she recently told me that her Wiggles guitars are too "little and funny" for her to play with anymore. She picked out that guitar herself. From the moment it was out of the box, Aria had that guitar. When her daddy tried to move it so that it wouldn't get broken, she ran over as fast as she could, grabbed it, and said, "No, daddy! My TAR!"

Maybe she'll actually want to learn to play it.

A birthday is not a birthday without a balloon.

I had a gluten free cake mix in the cupboard and so I made that. I figured that way Rod could have some cake and other people could have nice, gluteny cake tomorrow at her party. We had frosting that had mini M&M's in it. Aria ate all the candy letters that we didn't use to decorate.

Here she is licking the bowl.

I'd also like to mention that nobody likes to be sung to like Aria does. When you sing Happy Birthday to her, it makes her really really happy. She always asks you to sing it again. She grins the whole time you are singing to her. Most people are mortified, she really loves it.

As well as blowing out the candles.

Festival of Aria Day One

I like to call August National Jacque Month. That's because my birthday is in it, and I am totally full of myself. I think that everyone should celebrate because what better reason to celebrate than that I was born? I know, I can't think of a better reason either.

I am passing on my narcissistic values to my daughter by declaring this the first day of the Festival of Aria. That was because Rod took today off so we could celebrate Aria's birthday all weekend. That means that Aria gets three days of birthday fun. That sounds like a festival to me.

So on to the celebrations!

But first, Aria on a pumpkin.

We ventured forth to Coralville and to the Family Museum. Rod had never been there and Aria's last visit was when she was two. Both of the children with me loved it. Rod and Aria both liked the ambulance, the doctor's office, and the shopping center. The real fun came with the flight exhibit though.

This was one big, awesome slide. I went down it. It was FAST!

Rod went down it too.

Don't worry, Daddy. I can land us.

Rod and Aria went in the flight simulator. You sit in a little plane and pretend to fly it. You can actually buy the game and play it with a joystick, but sitting in a little plane with real controls is way more fun. Aria ran them into a house, several trees, but copilot Rod got them back in the air. I did it once too. I did about as well as Aria.

This is how you make a rocket.

There was a section where you made a rocket out of paper and then shot it to the ceiling with air pressure. That rocked. Aria just wanted to cut the paper, but Rod and I made two pretty awesome rockets. Aria got to shoot them upwards. Rod's made it to the ceiling. Mine did too, then the second time it went up it got stuck on the window ledge.

The whole world in her hands. Okay, lame, I couldn't think of a caption.

You really should have seen how much time they spent dispacing air to make the two balls fall or roll or fly up, or do whatever. It was very serious business.

and then with a roar they were both on their way. Each knowing they'd meet on some other day.

Afterwards was a trip to Coldstone. Aria's signature ice cream treat is a scoop of cotton candy, a scoop of another flavor (this time vanilla) and covered in sprinkles.

Afterwards we stopped at the mall again so that Aria could play in the play area, and then so we could get some books at Barnes and Noble. Oh, and so I could go to the bathroom ten million times because I had coffee and then 2 tall glasses of tea. My bladder is voicing its displeasure.

A pretty darn good day. Little girl was happy. She spent all day hugging and kissing us. She gets very cuddly when she is happy. She also took a power nap on the way home, which we are paying for because she is still up. This is the last day my little girl is three. Four years old, here we come.

Kalona Fall Festival

I love the Kalona Fall Festival. I love going to all of the tents of crafts. I love looking at antiques, pumpkins, and the museum. I love eating baked goods and food that is bad for me. I also love the whole farming community and the Amish and Mennonites. There is just nothing bad about Kalona.

Aria and I struck out right after her gymnastics class. You know you hit Kalona when the horse and buggies show up alongside the roads. We also have to drive through Riverside to get there-the future home of Captain Kirk.

The first stop was the corn bin, which is exactly what it says-a huge bin of corn with beach toys so that kids could play. We went there twice. The first time Aria was by herself. The second time was with a bunch of older kids. They were taking turns burying each other in the corn. I got to kick back on a bench and play Scrabble Blast on my phone. I got a 70 point word and Aria got corn in her hair. It was win-win.

Grrr. Dinosaur eat corn!

They had the Wahl House yard open this time. Last time they didn't. Aria sat on the benches in the garden.

Inside the house is a small museum. The front room is a book store and you have to pay to see the rest of the mansion. This is why I have never seen it. They also don't really want children in there. Another reason I've never seen it.
They did have the shed set up with all kinds of old timey washing stuff. They left a broom lying about so Aria helped by sweeping for them.

I'm helping sweep!

nom nom cotton candy.

We went into the old Kalona Train Depot, which is cool because it looks like the depots you see on Thomas the Train. It has a huge stove right in the middle and benches all the way around. There are no railroad tracks anywhere.

But the trains are always on time!

The Mennonite historical museum had a little marble toy that was cool. Aria sat and played with it while I looked at all of the Amish books.

We sat at the bench and ate our corn dog and grape tomatoes while listening to a church group sing Christian songs. It was horrifying for me, but Aria clapped because she doesn't recognize truly bad music yet.

Or maybe she was clapping because this bag of tomatoes was only $1.

You know you are in Kalona because this is just sitting in the parking lot. The grass parking lot.

Aria wanted to pet the horsey. I don't blame her, I wanted to as well. We didn't, though.

It's a Blah Kinda Day

Sometimes you just have those days when it is cold outside, it's rainy, and nothing seems like fun to you. Today was one of those days. I didn't want to watch anything, go anywhere, or do anything. That is especially difficult when you have an almost 4 year old in the house with you.

Aria, I believe, was the same way. She didn't want to watch her normal shows. She kept going from one thing to another to another as if not satisfied with any one thing today. I suppose that it also didn't help that Mama wasn't playing her games correctly, such as saying the correct things when she announces which Backyardigan I get to be today. (Today I'm Uniqua.)

I am getting better at this party planning stuff. It used to completely and totally stress me out. It doesn't so much anymore. I no longer take full responsibility of the entertainment of all of my guests and I no longer stress over things being perfect. I do what I do and if you don't like it, well, I can't entertain everyone. All that matters is that birthday girl is satisfied.

She's pretty excited. We got the Scooby Doo decorations in the mail. The bowling alley has us on the calendars. All that's left is to send out invitations, and that's a modge podge. The list keeps getting bigger because Aria wants to invite certain people to her party, but I only have two lanes reserved.

Oh well, some people will bowl and some won't.

I'm so blah that I can't even make an unblah blog post.

Blah.

Little Random Updates

1. Rod got his hair cut. It is short, which he hasn't had since we first got married back in 1999. He's gone over a decade with long hair, so there's understandably an adjustment period. Since Aria has a pixie cut because she decided to take the scissors to her own hair, that means for the first time in a long time, *I* have the longest hair in the house. That's just crazy.

2. My farmer's tan is extra impressive this year. My arms are so dark, my face less so, and my legs are still Reflect-the-Sun white.

3. The current favorite bedtime book is Disney's Nursery Rhymes and Fairytales. We went through all the nursery rhymes and now we read a fairytale a day before bed. Last night was Peter and the Wolf.

4. Introduced Aria to Looney Tunes. Success. If you don't like Bugs Bunny there's something seriously wrong with you.

5. I love Scooby Doo Mystery Inc soooo much! It is currently my obsession. It's so awesome! It has also turned me into a Velma/Shaggy shipper, which I couldn't even fathom, say, a couple months ago.

6. Work is work is work.

7. I love fair season. I love all the fairs that happen every week. I love the rides. I love the animals. I love the incredibly expensive and bad for you fair food. There is nothing about fairs that isn't awesome.

8. I think I have discovered why I keep gaining weight. For instance, yesterday I ate a bowl of cereal with blueberries and bananas added for breakfast. then later I had a smoothie. Then by dinnertime I was starving to death and so I ate FOUR BLT's. Now, the bacon was turkey bacon, and the bread was wheat, but still....I had FOUR of them. I'm a binge eater. I don't eat for hours and then I get hungry and devour the world.

9. Frank Welker is the man. If it is a cartoon I like, or even have seen, Frank Welker is in it somewhere. He's in Scooby Doo, My Little Pony, Looney Tunes, Transformers, just absolutely everything. The man was the Anaconda in Anaconda. You don't get much more awesome than the voice of the killer snake that eats Jon Voight. If I were to meet a celebrity, I'd love to meet him (After Weird Al, of course). Then I'd tell him how he helped shaped my childhood. He may be a bit scared, but probably flattered at the same time.

10. You know, I'd really like to stop owing money. It would be nice. Things we still need to pay off:

*The windows

*The 401K loan

*an old trinity bill

*Car insurance

*The house

Which, compared to some people's debt isn't a lot, but it's still a few thousand dollars (besides the house) that I'd rather have for fun stuff instead of handing it to other people...with interest. The hope is that with next year's tax refund we'll be able to pay off one of those. Probably the windows. Then I'd like to Dave Ramsey it right into oblivion.

11. I love school supply season.

Muscatine County Fair 2011

Aria and I went to the Muscatine County Fair today. She was all kinds of excited, mostly about seeing animals, rides, and cotton candy-in that order. Even though the temperature read God-awful Hot degrees, there was enough of a breeze and enough shade that it really wasn't all that bad.

Our first stop was to the little kids farm they have set up in the barn. It is more or less a petting zoo. Aria took a pic of me petting the donkey.
She was too afraid to pet the donkey herself. She said it was too big and she was not big and brave today.

She did enjoy seeing the chick, though, and they brought a bunny out of its cage for her to pet. She also was big and brave enough to pet the miniature pony and to feed the goat by throwing peanut shells right at him.

We went to the barns next, and I was totally envious of those animals. Although it appeared like they were lazy and hot, the barns were actually cooler than my house. All of the animals had gigantic fans on them. They all had lots of water. At that moment, I wanted to be a cow.

Or a sheep would do too. Baa.

After we saw all the animals, and I was treated to which animals were stinky and which ones were not, Aria really wanted to ride on rides. The first one she went on was her all time favorite-the gator roller coaster. If this is how she is at three, then I can imagine the rides she'll want to go on as a teenager.

Whhhheeeeeeeeee!

The next ride she went on was the elephants that rose in the air. I thought she'd be scared because she wasn't expecting that, but she wasn't. She liked that ride. Afterwards she went on the cars and there was a little girl who was afraid to go on the rides herself. I asked Aria if she would go in the car with the little girl and her grandma thanked us. I told her that last year it was me asking bigger kids if they could sit with Aria, so it was all good.

No reason to fear, Aria is at the wheel.

Aria went on the planes, which was another ride where she got to go high. She absolutely loves that now, though she still wasn't big and brave enough to go with me on the ferris wheel.

Aria the fighter pilot.

It was during this ride that she left her hat and I had to go back and get it from the seat of the plane. I told her that we didn't want to lose her hat and she held it to herself tightly and said,

"I love it.

I want it in my life."

Which was the most hilarious thing she said today.

After that ride, Aria was pretty much done. It was 90 degrees and it was after lunch time so we left the fair. Of course, before we left I got her a huge bag of cotton candy to eat at home.

It's gone now, naturally.

Another Ariaism:

Rod asked Aria today if she was being a smartypants. Aria said, "No, Daddy, I'm not wearing pants. I have a naked butt."