Birthday Party and Interview

We had a birthday party for Annika on Saturday night and had a good time! Here's some pictures. We've been asking her for the last month what kind of cake she wants for her birthday and she was insistant upon strawberry cake. We're not quite sure where she got this from because she has NEVER had it. We've tried talking her out of it also, but that didn't work. So, for her birthday she got strawberry cupcakes (I did make some chocolate ones with fudge frosting and some raspberry cream cheese ones also). Well she sat down to eat her strawberry cupcake and she wouldn't eat it. :) We figured that would happen she was happy with the chocolate ones!

Here's a short interview I did with Annika on her birthday. (Annika's answers in orange)

What is your favorite color? orange (today, yesterday it was green and the day before red)

What do you like to eat? pizza

What's your favorite animal? baby deer (tiny little dear)

What do you like to drink? juice

What are you excited about? church (kid’s activity)

Where do you like to go? to the aquarium

Where do you not like to go?to my house

What is your favorite song? Jesus Loves me

What is your favorite art activity (cutting, gluing, painting, sewing, drawing)? play with favorite color orange playdough

What do you like to eat? pizza

What does dad like to do? Put on shirt (not sure where this came from)

What does mama like to do? Take pictures

What do you like to wear? She wasn't quite sure about this question, so I asked a more detailed question. Do you like to wear hats? Yes. Do you like to wear shoes? Yes. Socks? Yes (although if her shoes are off so are the socks). Jeans? Yes. Dresses? Ah, no...I hate dresses! (I'm wondering if maybe she gets that from her mom?!?) :)

Annika has aquired quite the little personality. It's fun to watch it develop more and more (although sometimes it gets her in trouble, she can be quite the hand full).

Things that she has learned: She really has taken a liking to the alphebet. She could recognize the letters when she turned 2, (you know ask her where the "a" was and she'd point) she can now tell you what each letter is (not in alphabetical order).

She is now working on learning to write some letters (I'm trying to teach her to write her name).

She has learned how to ride her new scooter pretty well. She can't wait until the snow is melted and when she can take it outside and give it a try. Which will be soon since the snow is almost gone off the parking lot.

She has a love for any kind of stuffed animal (but please don't buy her any...we have enough for now)! ;)

She is becoming more cuddly. For those of you who knew Annika when she was smaller, she was a very colicky baby and she HATED to be held or touched (which made it hard on mommy and daddy to try and make her not cry). But now she will come and sit by me and say, mom I'm going to cuddle with you (which lasts all of about 5 minutes). :)

She thinks she has outgrown naps (mommy's not ready for this one yet, and usually after about an hour of playing in her bed she does fall asleep).

Annika loves to play with Donovan or rather likes to watch Donovan smile at her. If he is in the room she's usually in front of him dancing around and trying to make him smile.

We just recently got a story on cd and she is really enjoys listening and "following along" in the book (she likes the sound it makes when you have to turn the page).

She still loves to listen to classical music and dance to it.

She loves to play the piano if we are at church near a piano she LOVES to play. The other night she was "playing" for daddy while he was practicing the Kids4Truth songs (this was quite entertaining for me).

She loves to sing, she makes up songs about EVERYTHING!

She ABSOLUTELY LOVES to play with other kids. She is good at playing and entertaining herself, but if there are other kids in the room (no matter who) she loves to play with them!

Wow this got kind of long! I could put a ton more of stuff that she likes to do, but I think this is a good start!

On to the pictures!
The last 3 pictures are of her Sunday Morning in her Birthday Outfit that mommy made her.