SIX Years Old!

Reagan's sixth birthday party was on Saturday morning, April 21st, and she was up before the birds because she was so excited!

Little did she know, her birthday party was not going to be the only excitement that she was in store for... her cousin Riley and his girlfriend Lindsay surprised her as soon as she came downstairs that morning with her very own REAL guitar!!! Now she can really work on becoming the next Taylor Swift!

The only way we were able to pry the guitar from her hands was by reminding her that she had a party to get to!

We arrived at the Alder Alley Lanes in time to get set up before FOURTY FOUR of her classmates, friends, and family came to join us.  Yes, you read correctly... including Reagan, there were 45 children in attendance at the birthday party! As chaotic as that may sound, the party was actually a great success! Everyone had tons of fun, and the kids loved glow-in-the-dark bowling.

Reagan's party was on her boyfriend Matthew's actual birthday, so we made sure that he was treated as the #1 guest of honour that morning.  Before bringing out Reagan's birthday cake, the entire group serenaded Matthew with his own birthday song and a special Spiderman cupcake.

Next, it was Reagan's turn.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday to our birthday girl, and then cheered her on as she blew out the SIX candles on her cake.  Of course, it was a Barbie cake!  And no, I did not make it myself.  Don't you remember the disaster I made of some simple cupcakes for Valentine's Day? No way was I going to attempt to bake a cake!

The kids enjoyed pizza, cake, and other goodies before returning back to bowling before it was time to go home.  Once we were home, it was time for Reagan to start opening her presents.  Oh my goodness, was our little girl ever spoiled this year!  We split up the presents and let her open them over the course of the weekend... a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped to make our princess feel like a queen!

Tuesday, April 24th, was Reagan's actual birthday, and we started off the day with what has become a tradition in our house... marking the growth wall. Each birthday, half birthday, and first day of school has been recorded on this wall for Reagan, and we have started the tradition for Myers as well.  Reagan's markings are in pink, and all of Myers's are in blue!

After school and then ballet practice, we took Reagan out to eat for dinner at her favourite local restaurant, Mr. Mike's.  Her favourite thing about Mr. Mike's is the ice cream dessert bar that is for kids only... no parents allowed!  

Once we arrived at home that evening, Reagan discovered once last birthday surprise... a new big girl bike from Mommy & Daddy!  Let the learning to ride without training wheels begin!

Yesterday, two of Reagan's friends from gymnastics came over for a tea party since they were not able to join us at the birthday party last weekend.  The girls had fruit cocktails in martini glasses, finger sandwiches, little cupcakes, and real tea from Reagan's porcelain tea set.  (Thank you again to Pops & Momsey for the Pottery Barn birthday present from last year!)  Of course they were all dressed in their fancy dresses... I mean, what's a tea party without a fancy dress?  Reagan agonized all morning over which dress she was going to wear!

If the picture above isn't proof enough, let me just tell you what an incredibly beautiful young lady our sweet Reagan is becoming.  She's growing up faster than I had ever imagined, and Ryan and I become more proud of her with each passing year.  She's an amazing big sister, a caring daughter, a bright student, a superstar gymnast, and a true beauty both inside and out.  From the day she was born, and for the rest of her life, she will always be our little princess!

So as the month of April comes to an end, so do all of the birthday celebrations.  Well, at least the birthday celebrations for Reagan.  After all, next month is MY birthday!

Bling! Bling!

Last year, for Reagan's birthday, she asked to get her ears pierced.  After much discussion with her on that subject, we agreed to let her have it done. However, when the day arrived, she decided that she didn't want to go through with it.

The subject was not mentioned again until just recently, and lately she has been talking about doing it more and more.  Ryan and I both told her that if she was ready, we would let her try again this year for her birthday.

Her birthday is coming up in just over a week, and her BIG birthday party is this coming weekend.  She woke up this past Saturday morning and announced to us that she wanted to get her ears pierced "RIGHT NOW!"  Seriously, the first words out of her mouth were asking us to take her to get her ears pierced.

We knew that we couldn't do it first thing in the morning as she had the final practice/mock exam for her RAD Ballet testing that morning.  (The real exam is in 3 weeks.)  But it worked well for us to go get her ears done after her ballet practice as her hair was all slicked back out of her face and in a bun... meaning her ears were perfectly exposed!

I phoned ahead to Merle Norman in the mall to make sure that two hygienists would be available so that we could get both ears done at once.   I was not taking the chance of her getting one done and then deciding that she wouldn't finish it off with the second!

We arrived at the mall, and Ryan and I could both tell that Reagan was anxious.  I quietly told her that the decision was completely up to her... Mommy and Daddy would be happy no matter what she did to her ears.  She turned on her heel, started walking with extreme purpose away from me, looked over her shoulder and said, "I am on a mission!"

GAME ON!

We walked into the salon, and within 5 minutes Reagan had chosen her earrings.  The girls got the instruments ready, and then asked Reagan to climb up onto the chair.  In less than a minute, it was done!  Reagan was so very brave, and so very proud of herself.  She never made a peep, much less shed a tear.

Here's a shot of her lovely lobes before...

And after!  Check out the new bling!

She was, and still is, so very excited!

Yesterday morning, on our way out the door to go to church, she asked me to take more pictures of her sparkling new earrings.  How could I resist?!

Check out the video below to see for yourself just how brave our big girl was. You will notice that I got choked up, but not Reagan!  My baby girl is now all grown up, it seems!

Easter Weekend 2012

Last weekend, to put it simply, was PERFECT!  We had so much fun this Easter weekend... I wish every weekend could be exactly the same!

Reagan had the day off from school on Friday, and Ryan had the day off from work, so we took advantage of having the entire family home together to finally dye and decorate our Easter eggs.

Unlike last year, Myers was not willing to sit still on the sidelines as the silent observer.  He wanted to be a part of the action!  Unfortunately, his idea of being a part of it all meant any of the following... drinking the dye, pouring the dye all over himself or the rest of the kitchen, smashing the eggs, etc.  So Ryan kept Myers distracted while Reagan created her masterpieces.

We invited some friends (Reagan's boyfriend Matthew's family) over for dinner that night, and we had a fun fondue extravaganza.  I kid you not, there had to be at least 10 pounds of food on the table that we dipped and dipped and dipped into our fondue feast!  I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the grown ups!

Saturday was a GORGEOUS day, and we spent the entire afternoon in our backyard.  Reagan is just like her momma... she loves the sun!  We decided to pretend that we were at the beach in North Carolina, so we cranked up the beach music on our iPhones, turned on the sprinklers, filled up the kiddie pool, took a few dips in the hot tub, worked on our tans, drank a few cold ones, and had an all out beachin' good time!

  

Myers fell in love with playing in the sprinklers, especially since big Sissy was there helping him to have fun!

Sunday morning, we discovered that the Easter bunny had indeed come to our house for a visit.  He left two baskets full of goodies for the kids, as well as he left a mess of carrot pieces on our front lawn.  He also took all of Reagan's beautifully decorated eggs and hid them throughout the house!

As you can tell from the pictures, Myers still likes to be at least half naked at all times!

After finding all of Reagan's eggs, we quickly got dressed to go to the Resurrection Sunday services at our church.  It was a beautiful service, and Reagan was excited to see a few of her friends in attendance as well.  After church, we came home to soak up the sun in our backyard once again while Myers had a nap.

Once Myers was awake, we drove over to visit with Ryan's family and enjoyed an impromptu game of baseball with all of Reagan's cousins.  It was a quick visit as we had been previously invited to enjoy a backyard bbq with friends. Reagan was thrilled to go to Matthew's house, and I think that had we not needed to get the kids home and in bed, Ryan and I would have stayed all night, enjoying the company and good times that were being had by all!

Monday, Ryan had to return to work, but Reagan had the day off from school. I'll give you three guesses as to how she, Myers and I spent the day... and the first two guesses don't count!

Yep, OUTSIDE in the back yard!

If there is one thing that I realized for certain this past weekend, it is that I am soooooo ready for summer to hurry up and get here!

The Christy Fraser Memorial Gymnastics Competition

Reagan's gymnastics centre hosted a memorial competition last weekend... The Christy Fraser Memorial.  Christy Fraser was an avid gymnast until her tragic death in August of 1992 at the young age of twelve years old. Upon her passing, a memorial fund was set up in her name, and each year the Langley Gymnastics Foundation hosts this memorial competition to continue to raise money and awareness for the Children's Hospital in Vancouver.  

The girls from Langley Gymnastics were proud to host this event, and they were very excited to have the "home ice" advantage.  And yes, there was ice...  The event was held in the main arena of the Langley Events Centre, with all of the equipment placed over the floor of the hockey rink!  This was by far the largest scale event that Reagan had ever competed in, and the girls were a bit in awe of their surroundings as they were competing.

As always, Reagan rocked it!  She told us on the way to the gym that morning that she was going for gold... and she did it!  GOLD on Vault, along with Silver on Bars, Beam, Floor and All-Around!

 

Throughout the competition, Ryan kept an eye on Myers up in the seating area of the arena while I snapped pictures from the "security-zone" down on the floor.  Ryan had worked a shift doing security at the competition the previous day, so he was able to get me the hook-up to be allowed to take pictures up close to all the action.  Thanks, honey!  Myers was watching his sister, but he was also making sure to still do his own favourite activity... EATING! I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of him multi-tasking, and then I couldn't resist taking a picture of him making faces up against the hockey glass a little while later!

Reagan was excited to receive more ribbons to add to her rapidly growing collection, but she and all of the other girls were just as excited over their new tote bags... these gyms girls are starting to collect some serious swag from all of their competitions!

We were thrilled that Reagan did as well as she did, but we were even more excited to see how much fun she and the rest of the girls on her team were having.  These girls truly do LOVE gymnastics!

Paging Doctor Mommy - My Own Domain!

I finally decided to create my own domain name!

All will still appear as normal here for you to see... the only change is that I now have my very own web address.  Be sure to bookmark your favourites and update your readers with the new address...

www.PagingDoctorMommy.net

WOOHOO!!!