Planning the Birthday Party

Sometimes it amuses me how similiar Kristen's personality is to mine. She is a planner, an organizer, and a rule follower. Here she is pictured making a list. One of our favorite pastimes. I am not joking. I like making lists of things I need to do. I make lists of things Phil needs to do. I make schedules for our daily and weekly activities. I make spreadsheets of things we need to buy and rank them in order by priority. And I make grocery lists, which is Kristen's favorite type of list. We do it together, once a week. She gets out paper and pencils and we sit down at the table and talk through what we need to buy. She will ask me, "Did you write down bananas? Did you write down Daddy's chocolates?" She will go to the pantry and check to see if we have bread or black beans and tell me if we need to buy more. She loves "writing" down items as well. And she always wants to put donuts and ice cream on the list. If we ever make an impromptu run to the grocery store, she will recognize our route and ask, "Mama, did you forget to bring your list?" If I say yes, she will tell me, "That's okay, you can bring it next time. It's okay to forget sometimes."



In these pictures, Kristen is making a list of what she wants for her birthday. She "wrote" down the following items : princess dress up clothes, paints, stamps, stickers, and a round cake with chocolate icing.




She also brainstormed who to invite to her birhday party. Her list included just about every toddler we know or have ever met.