The "Frozen" birthday party - part 2

After some games and snacks, we sat the princesses down in the front room for a surprise when there came a knock at the door.  Very, very, very much to the girls' surprise, Elsa and Anna came to the party to wish Maggie and Stella a happy birthday!

What should have been elation was stark white fear.  While the other girls were screaming in joy, our girls were screaming in fear and hiding behind Patti.  They told us later that they thought they were real and that Elsa would freeze them (hah!).

Elsa and Anna handled it like pros and within seconds all the girls were huddled around them listening to them tell their story, getting the girls to guess which other princesses they know based on their movie songs, and singing "Let It Go."  Our girls warmed up to them slowly (not yet in the picture below) but only Maggie would eventually sit with them for a picture.

 

After a whirlwind 25 minutes, they led the party in singing Happy Birthday to Maggie and Stella and then they were off on their way back to Arendelle.  Like watching the Beatles leave a concert, the partygoers watched them leave in disbelief.

Not something we can afford to do for every party (or ever again), but it made a lasting impression on our girls and that made it worth every penny.

The "Frozen" birthday party - part 1

Sometimes it's difficult to believe that Maggie and Stella are now four years old.  But they are now independent, funny, strong-willed girls.  They go to nursery school.  They've been out of diapers for a year and a half.  And they like their own things (compared to Will)...like Frozen.

Stella LOVES Princess Anna and Maggie ADORES Queen Elsa.  They sing the songs on the way to school, Stella wears her Anna dress every free moment at home, and the week before their birthday party they asked if Anna and Elsa could come too.  More on that in a moment....

The girls invited some of their friends to their Frozen/Dress Up party.  We were soon overrun by princesses of all sorts and everyone seemed thrilled to be in each other's company in their fun playclothes.

They made Olafs out of marshmallows, pretzel sticks and carrots.

They played pin the nose on Olaf.

And they ate plenty of Frozen-inspired snacks and cake.

And then the real magic happened (check out the next posting)!

Snow!

We probably got more snow last year in terms of inches, but we've had more snowstorms this year than last - and more snow days off of school and work.  We had a couple of inches here and there in December and January, but it was usually gone a day or two later.  Then we got a very short, but very powerful white-out storm on Valentine's Day.  In the 10 minutes it took us to drive home from treating the kids to Ethiopian dinner, the roads became slick, we had an inch or so of accumulation, and it was a true white-out driving experience.

It was snowing so hard when we went to bed that we couldn't see our neighbor's home across the street.

So the next day was a snow day for the kids and the government closed so Patrick got to stay home as well.  Somehow our bedroom window has become the official "look-out" when it snows.

We piled into the van and drove back to the old neighborhood to enjoy their sledding hill.  The kids went by themselves, in duos, and as a three-some.  Even when they weren't the one sledding, they tended to run down the hill.  So after an hour or so, they were exhausted (yeah!!!).