Happy Birthday Samantha!

Samantha's fourth birthday party was held at the Downtown Aquarium, same as Finley's third birthday party. The birthday parties there are so much fun. All the kids walk through the aquarium and then they have lunch with cake. After that it is off to ride the Shark Voyage train, Ferris Wheel and Carousel. Pretty much Finley's dream birthday party. Happy 4th birthday Samantha!

4 Year Old Check-up

Last week we went to the doctor for Finley's four year old check up. Finley was in the 87th percentile for height and 72nd percentile for weight. Her pediatrician said she is projected to be about 5'7" (same as me!) Finley is on track perfectly. Her vision is 20/25, which is normal for a kid her age since her eyes are still developing. We had quite a long wait before the visit because of some sort of mix up, but Finley was very patient. Finley had four shots this visit, she was quite a trooper. Luckily for Finley, this is her last round of shots until she is 11 years old. Thank goodness!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finley's favorite food for Thanksgiving was definitely cranberry sauce. She mixed it with everything! Finley had a wonderful day hanging out with Grandma, Jack, Grammy and Grandad. And since she is the only kid, no kid table necessary at our place.  It was a fantastic day with lots of family, food and football.  I cannot believe this was Finley's fifth Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2011
Thanksgiving 2010
Thanksgiving 2009
Thanksgiving 2008

First Target Purchase

Finley earned a couple dollars at her lemonade stand at Grammy and Grandad's house. Finley also got two dollars from Aunt Sharon for Halloween. She was very excited to take her riches to Target to select a new toy. After going through the toy section, we soon realized that her $4.86 wasn't going to go far. Then we headed to the book department and things were even more grimm. Luckily the Dollar Spot came through and Finley found four books, two Cars books, one Christmas book and a Sesame Street book. Finley was so excited to make her very own transaction at Target and was so good with the cashier. What an adorable little shopper!

Fall Festival

Finley's school had a Fall Festival on her birthday again this year.  Finley had so much fun last year, but I think she enjoyed it even more this year.  There was a train ride, singers, corn kernel dig, dance party and a big bouncy slide.  So many fun things for kids.  I volunteered at the dance area, but I did take a break to snap some pictures when Finley's train ride was ending.

Birthday at the Aquarium

Last year Finley's birthday party was at the Aquarium.  This year she asked to go there for her birthday dinner.  Every time we drive by she asks to go on the ferris wheel.  She has a season pass from her party last year, so her birthday dinner was great!  Finley had so much fun riding the Diving Bell, Ferris Wheel, Carousel and the Shark Voyage.  She also got a new stuffed shark which we decided to name Jaws.  After dinner we came home to open gifts.  Finley received a Bernstein Bears Dinosaur book, a dinosaur floor puzzle, dinosaur bingo, a dinosaur pop game and a Rex doll all the way from Disneyland. I think Finley has a future in spokesmodeling, look at how she poses with her presents...cracks me up!

Happy 4th Birthday Finley!

Finley is four years old today!  I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by.  Finley had a cupcake party at school today, she requested chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting.  This morning at school the kids had a Fall Festival, so a lot of the kids had gone home at lunch time after the festival.  There were only 5 kids left in class to celebrate, but Finley enjoyed her party anyways.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday and we passed out cupcakes to all who wanted them.  Look at how Finley has grown:
Birthday
1st Birthday
2nd Birthday
3rd Birthday

Dentist Visit

Finley was due for another cleaning at the dentist and she was evry excited. She did amazing, just like last time. I had my cleaning done the same day, so now we are in synch for our dental visits.

Trick-or-Treating

So last year's Halloween party at Aunt Rose's and Uncle Ferrell's was pretty amazing.  A haunted house, lemonade stands, carnival games...it was the best and Finley had a blast.  How did they top it?  Trick-or-treating via tractor.  We all loaded up on the hay bales being towed by a tractor and cruised through the neighborhood.  Finley had the best time ever, she didn't want the fun to end.  She was an expert trick-or-treater, even though her Dino head did give her a bit of trouble.  Not to mention the costume was probably a bit toasty in the warm weather.  Nonetheless, she soldiered on and her pumpkin was full of candy by the end of the evening.  Faith was dressed as a fallen angel, I am bummed we didn't get a picture earlier that better shows her black wings next to my white ones.  The haunted house was amazing, even though Finley wasn't frightened a bit.  The funniest part of the night was when Finley held up her hands like she was riding a roller coaster during the hay ride.

The big question is how are they going to top the hay ride next year?  I think it is impossible.

Halloween Party at School

Finley's class had a party for Halloween yesterday. They had lots of yummy snacks to share and fun was had by all. They had made mini pumpkin pies in class that we got to take home for her to eat later. Finley hadn't napped at all, but she took a nap after school at home so that she could go trick-or-treating at Aunt Rose and Uncle Ferrell's house. Luckily, she slept for almost two hours at home so she was ready for Halloween night fun!  Thanks to Miss Madison and Miss Andrea for a majorly fun party.

Happy Halloween!

Dance Class Videos

Halloween Dance Party

Finley's dance class had a Halloween Party today. The girls got to wear their costumes and they performed a few dances for us. Finley was the only non-girly costume in the bunch, there were fairies, princesses and a big pink dinosaur named Finley. Finley had so much fun dancing and enjoying Halloween cookies with her dance class friends. Videos of her dances coming tomorrow...

Radiator Springs Racers

Our Own California Adventure

Finley created her very own California Adventure today with her toys. There was Cars Land where Red, Lightning McQueen and Mater all rode around. Paradise Pier with the Mickey Ferris Wheel, Toy Story Mania (talking Mr Potato Head) and the Zephyrs. There was also a spot with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the Disney Jr show. We used our map to help create it.

Disneyland: Day Five

We started at California Adventure on Tuesday morning. We thought it opened at 8 am. It didn't. It opened at 9 am. So we got to be in the front row for the rope drop, well Clifton and Finley were, I was in the Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass line. I got the Fastpasses, then met Finley and Clifton at Toy Story Mania to ride a couple of times. We then headed for our final Racers trip and one more ride on Monsters Inc. It was then off to Disneyland. We knew we had to get to Mickey's house to meet him. Lucky for us, Mickey was at the park entrance, so we saw him there. The lines had been crazy for the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion, it was a little less crazy, but we finally saw it and it was so much more than I expected. We rode Big Thunder Mountain one last time and it was onto Buzz Lightyear for a couple more times before it was off to the airport. Finley is already excited to return!

Disneyland: Day Four

We woke up bright and early this morning to make it to California Adventure at park opening to Fastpass Radiator Springs Racers.  Clifton waited in the crazy Fastpass line while Finley and I went on Luigi's Tires.  It worked out that Clifton made it to us just as we were getting on the ride, so he got to ride as well.  After the racers, we headed over to Soarin', Finley liked it so much that we rode it twice.  From Soarin we headed to check on Toy Story Mania, which still had a crazy line, so we headed over to ride the Mickey Ferris Wheel again and to ride the Symphony Swings.  Then Finley participated in a show with the Army Men from Toy Story.  We rode the Little Mermaid again (can't wait to see it in WDW) and Monsters Inc about 20 more times (maybe not 20, but Finley loves this ride!)  We grabbed a smal and early lunch in Hollywood.  Then we headed to Radiator Springs Racers.  We went through the tire shop instead of the pain shop this time, which was really lucky.  We did one final ride on the Tower of Terror before heading to Disneyland.  We ran into Pluto as we were walking in and we took a nice cool break in the Tiki Birds show.  Then it was back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Finley's new favorite ride and a visit with Woody.  The line for Mickey's house was long, so we played in Goofy's house, Donald's boat and Chip n Dale's treehouse for awhile.  We walked by Small World and Finley said she didn't want to ride it.   It was "too long" and she would rather go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again.  Little girl is growing up.  We did stop for two spins on the teacups, Finley melted down on the first because we did not get a pink teacup.  We rode on the Crooked Choo Choo one time before our dinner at Blue Bayou.  We got a pretty bad table at dinner, but Finley behaved so nicely, it didn't even matter.  It was time for one final ride on Big Thunder before the park closed and we headed back to California Adventure.  We did a couple rides in Bug World, the swings and rode the trolley.  Finley and Clifton shared some ice cream and we headed off for World of Color with our Fastpasses.  After 5 minutes of waiting for it (with 15 to go) Finley was dead asleep, so we called it a day.