Cille's 5th Birthday Party, Part 1

For her 5th birthday, Cille chose a princess party.  This was super easy for Mom, since we had a princess party when Stella turned 3.  I was able to recycle some of our ideas that worked well in the past, scrap the ones that were less than stellar, and even add some new elements from princess movies that have come out since our last royal celebration.  A must-have at any princess party is a platter of poisoned apples...

Since we had Elsa at Cille's last party and she was a big hit, I decided to have a princess at this party as well.  One of Cille's former afternoon teachers at preschool makes a better Tinkerbell than the real ones at Disney, so I decided Tink was close enough to a princess for our purposes.  Taylor was so cute and the kids adored her...

We went with an assortment of princess themed Little Golden Books for party favors...

We recycled our "Love is an open door, so come right in!" sign from our party last year, and added a "Welcome to Princess Cille's Castle" sign because the little girl across the street was having her birthday party at the same time as ours.  Believe it or not, we have hosted guests who wandered into the wrong party before, so we thought this might help with any confusion...

The adult party in full swing in the kitchen...

Lots of Mommy's friends came to Cille's party so it was great to see them...

Our cousins joined us also!  Unfortunately, we were too busy scrambling around with party tasks to do much catching up, but now they know how to find us, so hopefully they'll come back soon and we can visit in the midst of just our normal chaos, which is much more low key than our birthday party level of chaos...

One of our party attractions was "Rapunzel's Painting Easel with Pascal."  This was a genius use of stuff we already had to make the party seem well-themed, if I do say so myself...

We made sure to have a freezer full of popsicles for hot little boys like this one...

How cute is this little sweetie getting her manicure from Tinkerbell?

Cille and her friends...

Time for the princess test in Tiana's Frog Kissing Booth!  I told the kids if they were real royalty their kisses would turn this frog into a prince...

Unfortunately, it takes about 15 minutes for the kisses to work their magic, so we had Cinderella's Slipper Race while we waited.  We had to break the kids up into different age groups, which was a first for one of our parties...

The kids all put one of their shoes into a bucket and then raced across the yard, retrieved and put on their "slipper," and raced back..

As you can see from all these bare feet, the rules were pretty flexible...

Captain America was ready to race in the 3 and under division...

More fun with Pascal...

And where was our baby sister during all this activity?  Loving on Missy, of course...

More party fun to come!

101 Dalmatians

Stella also attended camp at the Manship Theatre again this year and she was thrilled to be a puppy and a French poodle in their production of 101 Dalmatians Kids! Of course, her fan club was there to support her for her big performance... (not pictured: Mawmaw, who fell victim to a horrific stomach virus and was forced to miss the fun for the safety of others.)

She was definitely dedicated to her role as a playful puppy...

Today Baton Rouge, tomorrow Broadway!

I think someone else might be ready to hit the stage soon as well...

Swim Meet at Bocage

Swim team is back!  This year Cille was almost old enough to participate, so we talked to the coach and she kindly agreed to let Cille give it a try.  We have a new coach this year so it has been a bit of a transition, but the kids have been in the pool working hard and having fun.  Just look at these two cuties...

Cille attended a couple of meets as a spectator before she decided to take the plunge.  The day of our meet at Bocage she proudly told the big kids who have been helping her in practice that she was going to race!  

It was a very exciting time for us all...

Cille has been afraid to jump off the blocks for most of the season.  This meet was no different...

If you look closely at this picture you might notice my hand on Cille's back.  As the countdown began, Cille thought about chickening out.  I placed my hand on her back to stop the retreat, but our spunky friend Caroline was the one who gave Cille that little push that she needed to actually get in the water...

We have splashdown...

And she's off!  One of the coaches kindly swam with her in case she needed help...

And her friends were there to congratulate her at the end of the pool!

I don't know which one was more relieved it was over...

Stella is an old pro by now, albeit one with strange tan lines...

Her dives are looking better this year...

And this is how we kill time between races...

Butterfly time!  I have no idea how she does this...

She might swim faster if she wasn't so worried about looking at the camera...

Seriously?  Quit posing and just swim!

Geez...

One proud little dolphin...

And one worn out little dolphin!  Stella swam 2 relays and three individual events...

Dance Recital

Stella had a great dance recital this year!  Thankfully we avoided a repeat of the disaster we had last year when a stomach virus almost derailed our big day.  Stella was strong and healthy for this recital and ready for her moment in the spotlight...

Hopefully we will receive our video soon and be able to share her numbers here on the blog.

PBS Cheer Camp

For the second year Stella attended PBS Cheer Camp and once again she had a great time with her "big friends."  We were very excited to see her show off her dance and cheer.  She even won the jumping competition in the 2nd-4th grade division!  Go Stella!  

Our Rocketkid

At the last possible minute we decided that Stella had time to do the Rocketkidz Rookies Triathlon this year.  She and Daddy got up bright and early on a Saturday morning to make sure she could complete race day registration and be ready for the starting line.  She had her game face on as she headed for the pool...

Swimming is really her strength thanks to 3 years of swim team, so she came out of the pool barely breathing hard and headed for her bike...

She said the bike leg was her favorite part of the race...just like Daddy...

This was Mommy's favorite part of the race.  For pretty much her entire life I have been worried that Stella would never learn to love running.  While love may be a strong word for how she felt about it, she tolerated it and held her own in the pack...

My cross country dreams are ALIVE!!!!

At the finish line she posed with some friends who are also proud Rocketkidz!

Great job, girls!  You have accomplished at age 7 something that I did not even attempt until I was well into my twenties.  I salute you!

Stella's Dance Photo

Stella has successfully completed her second year of dance at Tari's School of Dance.  We celebrated the end of a great dance year by watching her perform a ballet number to "Fly With Me" and a tap routine to "The Bear Necessities" at her recital.  For her individual dance photo I always have her wear the costume that most compliments her color and complexion.  For the second year in a row it was her ballet costume...

Stella, we are proud of all your hard work and love to watch you dance!