Mallory says "All Done!"j

We've always done basic (please, sorry, thank you, eat, all done and more) sign language with the kids. It's really a great way to communicate with little ones before they've mastered speech. Anyway, Mallory is learning "all done." We use the sign for "finished" which is described in this video. It's basically "waving" both hands side to side.

Where's Mallory?

This is SUCH a fun age! She is learning and discovering by the minute it seems.

Mallory's first cheese stick

She was hilarious just before I started taping… then she was a bit distracted by her sister. But you can still see how much she loves this new discovery: the cheese stick!

Morning clap session

The other morning the girls and I were all in bed cuddling and this little "clap session" began… just had to share some of these everyday moments.

Mallory and the microphone

I was in the kitchen when, suddenly, I heard what sounded like a whale dying. I went into the playroom and found that Mallory had discovered the microphone in this little toy. I bought it years ago for Allyson but it was never really the big hit I had hoped. Until now. 

Mallory Waves Hi!

Be still my heart. These moments. They are so precious. 

Nicole's 9th Birthday!

My first baby is half-way to adulthood. It's kind of a sobering thought. I am so proud of the person she is and is becoming. I find myself looking back and examining the kind of Mommy I've been and thinking about how I can be better in the future. But enough of the heavy stuff.

We started out the morning with Daddy making waffles and Nicole opening a few family presents. 

The funniest gifts were from Allyson. Like the gift of a doll. A doll Papa Sedenko had already given Nicole years earlier. Ha ha. Allyson doesn't quite get it yet. But she sure loved wrapping up that gift!

To be fair, Allyson (via Mommy) did get Nicole a gift of crazy toe socks. We didn't wrap them in time so Nicole knew these were coming. But they'll be great for crazy sock day at school!

Nicole had a very happy 9th birthday! I am not quite sure how we pulled it off as I really procrastinated on this one. She kept changing her mind on the kind of birthday she wanted… everything from a "Magic Tree House" (complete with Daddy having to build her a tree house) to ice skating and even a "mustache" (it's a trend) party. Anyway, we decided to go with a "mad science" party as she loves science and a good friend of ours - who plans parties way in advance - had already done one and would loan me all of her files and information. Oh, and make a mad scientist cake!!

We started just days before her party but it was coming together pretty well. We were copying most of what our friends did but adding dinosaur (Nicole is still saying she wants to be a paleontologist) eggs to the activity list.

Then, the day before the party my friend said she couldn't do the cake. Her mom was in the hospital with stroke symptoms! (Fortunately it turned out to be a blood sugar issue.) Well, I was feeling pretty capable. Nicole and I decided to make this flask cake. 

The directions called for two bundt cakes. I didn't see how these could possibly turn into a flask shape. But who am I to question directions??

We tried everything. We even tried to "form" them with another bowl. That just ended up in a lopsided mess. By around midnight the night before her party, Britt and I agreed. This wasn't happening.

We went with Plan B. A "molecule" cake.

In the end it turned out okay. Nicole was thrilled! (Whew. I was worried she would be disappointed but she's not too picky, thankfully!) We even added the purple "sixlets" down the center.

(Here is the "after" shot with the inside stash of sixlets.)

Here is what the table looked like when everyone arrived.

I made little lines on the cups to make them look like beaker measurements.

Treat bags

This was a glass etching project my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group did. I etched an "N" and gave it to Nicole as a gift. She filled it with extra dinosaurs. 

We also had little jello cups with gummy worms in them. Evidently I forgot to get a picture of them.

Britt decorated the cookies. Didn't he do a great job?! I think he had fun with it. 

(It only took me two batches of dough. The first one I didn't realize I forgot to put the butter in until after the flour was mixed in! I tried to add it in after the fact but didn't realize I had accidentally bought light butter. Epic, sticky fail. Agh. I'll blame it on still not getting enough sleep. It's still the first year so I'm allowed to use that excuse. But the second batch turned out super yummy.

We tied them into bags as gifts. 

A last-minute idea was to write on my large platter. Oh, thank God Nicole was there. As I began writing she said, "Uh, Mom. You know what kind of pen that is, don't you? I immediately grabbed a wet cloth. I had started to write with permanent marker! I ditched it and found a dry-erase marker!

Then we stood it up on the kitchen counter:

We did a bunch of experiments, too. This is a stretch for me. I am not a science person at all. But these were pretty fun. The kids had a blast. Even Allyson wants a science party now! 

The first experiment was blowing up a bar of soap in the microwave. The kids crowded around to watch.

It worked.

But, wow. It was a clean… chokingly clean… smell.

The end result kind of flattened out when it was all over. 

Up next was our fizzy exploding bags. Oh my gosh, the kids laughed a lot at this one! It's so easy and fun. At first we weren't sure how big the explosion was going to be. Once we realized it wasn't going to be that bad we brought the experiment back inside.

After exploding bags we did a colored sharpie pen science experiment. It's like tie-dye with sharpie pens. The kids really had fun with this. It's so easy. I found 10-packs of white bandanas at Wal Mart so we did those. 

We also made dinosaur eggs. (Here is the recipe if you're ever needing to make some!) Nicole helped but Allyson didn't have much interest. They're made of used coffee grounds (I got a donation from Starbucks), flour, water and a ton of salt! We hid these small dinosaurs inside before baking them.

Britt hid the eggs inside (it was raining outside) the living room. Unfortunately, Mallory found the first one! EW!

The next project was slime!! Some of the kids didn't follow directions so great but, with a couple of do-overs, everyone got their gooey masterpiece.

We decided to cut the cake and eat it while Daddy performed the final experiment. 

While the kids began digging into their cake and punch, Daddy went outside with a pack of mentor. He had already lined up 2-liter soda bottles. 

I was told the cheaper the soda, the bigger the bang. Unfortunately, that's not what we got.

Uh. Mommy bought Mentos GUM! Ha Ha!! Seriously. So Daddy ran to the store and bought the real thing. Here we go again.

And again.

And again.

It was decided that diet coke gets the best results. This is what we were going for (these pictures were taken last summer at our friend, AJ's party:

Daddy helped with this one. 

Oh well. The kids were still happy! And now it was time for presents!!

Magic Rocks from AJ!

Duct Tape craft from Mom & Dad

Several gift cards and cash from friends… yeah for shopping!

 

And now the big finale from Papaw & Nana!

Our friend, Miss Sarah, is starting a Sparkle Studio business where she will teach sewing. Nicole got a certificate for classes… and a homemade cover from Sarah for her new sewing machine!

Random pictures from the party

We ended the day by taking Nicole to OHana Japanese Steakhouse. The Hibachi thing has become a tradition because they sing to you on your birthday and it's kind of like Chinese. Close enough for this American girl, anyway.

Nicole did get a check from Papa & Grandma Sedenko yesterday. We let her open it early. Good thing because she was kind of having a hard time getting it out of the envelope!

This time she got it.

And she liked what she got!!

Actually, Nicole, your parents and extended family are the rich ones. Rich because of having you in our lives. We. Love. You. SO. Much.