Morgan's 4th Birthday

Morgan had breakfast in my bed for her birthday. She had chocolate chip, banana pancakes, shaped into a 4 and strawberries with whip cream. Strawberries are Morgan's favorite and she hasn't had any since we'be been on Guam because the cheapest I've seen them for is $4.29 a basket and they did not look good. Well, the night before her birthday, I went to pick up some last minute things and the strawberries were $1.99. I couldn't resit. She LOVED having them for the next few days. I went back to get more and they were $3.99 so she'll have to wait. We babysat some boys ages 3 and 5 most of her birthday so we did some fun things. It rained most of the day so we had to do inside activities. We did some science projects found here including goo and colored foam as well as fireworks in a jar found here. Sorry there are no pictures. We also made and of course ate cupcakes. (Notice the strawberry shirt!)

After Daddy got home from work, she got to open her presents.This is a cool color wonder paint set she got from  grandma Judy. You can paint without making a mess and the paint  brush lights up the color of the paint. She also got some new color wonder metallic paper and markers.  She has already used them several times. Aunt Kalli sent a fun package with craft projects and beading for bracelets. She also sent Tinkerbell and princess water bottles for Morgan and Jaycee that they love to use all the time.

She got some fun games, puzzles, shoes, clothes, art set and Rapunzel doll from us.

The next day was the party. We had four other girls over and although things didn't go exactly as I would have liked, I think everyone had a great time. A lot of my ideas came from pinterest so I'll try to link them in case anyone is interested. We started at 3pm and I had food ready when they arrived. We had tinkerbell coloring sheets to color while we waited from everyone to arrive. For the food we had Ham and Cheese Pretzel bites I found here, (They were time consuming so I don't think I would do them again on a party day but they turned out pretty good.) cheese sticks, grape and strawberry skewers, peanut butter and jelly triangles, chex mix, and licorice.  

Here Jaycee is sitting with Suzie.  She is our backyard neighbor and we play at the park all the time.  Jaycee really likes her, it's pretty cute.

So after eating, I gathered the girls around the table and did a Tinkerbell puzzle.  But when we got to the end, there were four pieces missing. We had to go on a treasure hunt to find the missing pieces. 

Before we left, the each got flower head pieces I had made for good luck and Morgan got some butterfly wings as the birthday girl. They also got a treasure map to follow.

 It began to pour down rain on our way to our first stop. Luckily there was a porch we could go under for our activity. We did a little relay pouring water from one bowl to another with a cup trying to rescue a little fairy. Adapted from the idea here.

Then off to our next stop.  They were looking for the hanging balloon.  Luckily it had stopped raining.

At this station, each girl made a kite to fly down to the park and back. I can't find the kite site I used but this one is similar found here. I couldn't really remember exacltly how to do it so the kites didn't fly great but they still had fun decorating and making them.

 Our next activity was marshmallow shooting.  I made the shooters ahead of time and we were just going to have a distance contest. Shooters found here. However, I couldn't find any mini marshmallows so we cut up big marshmallows.  That made them too sticky do they didn't work too well. Just FYI.




Finally, they were off to the treasure chest.  They were looking for the X that marks the spot. They found the treasure chest (our document safe wrapped) with their "goodie bags" 4 inside with their names on them. I sewed candy, lip gloss and nail polish inside paper shapes. Idea found here. They received a puzzle piece and clue after each activity.  Their last puzzle piece was in the treasure chest.

So we went inside to finish our puzzle. Then we had cake and ice cream and they all went home.

There are no good pictures of the cake. And yes, the back of the heart is not frosted. I didn't frost the cake until 5 min before the party started and ran out of frosting. Oh well, it looked okay from the front.

A fun evening

 Most nights after dinner, we go outside to watch the sunset. This night,  Morgan asked Brent to throw her high in the air. She loves being thrown.  I know some people are very against this but she kept coming back for more and I couldn't stop them so I started taking pictures.  For a girl who is quite scared of a lot of things, she sure trusts her daddy.

  Jaycee had to get in on a little of the action as well. Just not going quite as high of course.

These pictures are not edited and there are no filters. The colors were so bright and beautiful.

More snorkeling and scuba diving

So it's official, we're scuba certified. Unfortunately we don't have a camera we can take below 35 feet so our scuba pictures are limited. This is a jelly fish Brent saw while snorkeling at Double Reef.

 These are from fish eye. The whole dive is only about 30 feet deep or less and the visibility was pretty bad. It's mostly glorified snorkeling but still pretty cool

This is what you see at the bottom of Spanish Steps.  Brent has been trying to get out here since we moved here and it has been closed.  It finally opened on Monday after 4 months so we went. It's about a mile round trip hike down some pretty rocky terrain but beautiful most of the way.  Really pretty ground cover, tons of coconut trees and sprouts, and lots of little crabs and lizards. The water was fantastic. The tide was coming in and bringing lots of fish with it. We just snorkeled about and were the only ones there. The fish were beautiful but I got a little overwhelmed by them.  Nothing really traumatic I'm just a little paranoid, much to Brent's chagrin.  

This is an octopus right in the middle. It was poking it's head out of this hole but when Brent got closer, it would change color and shrink back into the hole. I did get up the nerve to come see it but certainly wasn't getting close. 

Enjoying Guam

 Visiting Chamorro Village. Every Wednesday and Friday night, the Chamorro Village is open downtown. There are lots of little booths selling handmade goods, Guam souvenirs, local food, live music and Carabou rides.We went with the Pine family who have sadly already moved. 

Morgan was not sure about the Carabou
at first but I think thought it was okay by the end of her short stroll around the parking lot.

Morgan has been taking a tap/ballet class weekly that just ended.  She loved it and will pick it up again in the summer. 

Although this looks like they're pooped, this picture is from before they started.

She makes a beautiful ballerina. 

My friend's husband is off island working for a while so Brent offered to watch her daughter while the two of us went Kayaking.  It was so nice to be able to go out and enjoy a relaxing ride. Afterward, I took out Morgan and Brent took out Jaycee and we explored a little. As you can see the water is super calm so we weren't too nervous.  We didn't want to go too long though because Jaycee is a wiggle worm and doesn't like to sit still very long.  She was standing in the boat before we were through.

 When we got home, there was a fabulous sunset. I know it is hard to get the full effect here but pay attention to the different bands of color. It was truly amazing.

This is Morgan and her neighbor friend Suzie enjoying the free movie at the theater during military child appreciation week.

Did I mention we like it here?