1st Day of 2nd Grade

Today is the first day of 2nd Grade for Kaylyn.  She was super excited!  Most of the family is excited.  The only one who isn't is Morgan.  She's not upset that Sissy is starting school.  She's upset that she has to wait another week (Monday) for her Preschool to start.

This morning, Kaylyn got up easily and immediately got dressed and put on her backpack.  She asked "Is it time to go?"  It was 6:55 am.

I convinced her to eat breakfast and brush her teeth.  And then as we thought we were ready to go (except Morgan who was struggling to find shoes), I looked at Kaylyn's feet - flip flops.  Not a problem if today is not P.E.  And we didn't know.  So she had to go find tennis shoes and socks.  And off we went.
Parking was "fun" with everyone wanting to walk their kids up instead of using the carline.  We had a crossing guard for the carline but no cars.  That'll be different this afternoon.  We stopped at "our pillar" and took a picture.  Here the girls are - first day of 2nd grade.

Yup - they did it.  This picture (above) is from the last day of school in June.  What did they do?  Grow!  Do you really want to see a change?  Let's look at the first day of school for 1st Grade.

They certainly are growing up!

After our picture, we headed off to Kaylyn's classroom.  She hung up her backpack...

And immediately sat down to work on a word search made up of the names of the kids in her class - fun!

After seeing lots of our friends dropping off their kids (some crying and making me feel guilty that I didn't cry when Kaylyn started Kindergarten), Morgan and I came home to finish getting ready for the day.  And then we're off - gymnastics, visiting teaching, and grocery shopping.

Kaylyn's 7th Birthday - Family Edition

We usually end up having two birthday parties for Kaylyn. One for friends and one for family.  Our house just isn't big enough for everyone anymore.  Most years the parties are on separate days.  This year I was smart - one day full of parties = one day of having the house clean enough for a party and one cleanup.

"The boys" came with Aunt Jo.  And Nana with Granny.  Aunt Robbie, Ian and Regan came too.  So we once again had a full house.

And a second cake.  When I told my Mom, aka Granny, about the party, she offered to make the cake.  Worked for me since I was taking care of the Hello Kitty cake.  Both were yummy!

The Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty game was still up on the wall - simply because I hadn't moved it between parties.  Little did I know that a group of boys would want to play a Hello Kitty game.  But they did!  (They asked to)

And with another party, came more presents!

Kaylyn loved her parties!

Kaylyn's 7th Birthday

Yes, it is officially closer to Kaylyn's 8th brithday and I'm finally posting the pictures from her 7th birthday friend party.
To pick her theme, we headed to a party store and did some browsing.  After going round and round trying to choose just one, Kaylyn finally picked Hello Kitty for her party theme.

Then I had to figure out a cake.  I found some online tutorials that I thought I could do but then I found this cupcake arrangement at Sam's.  I figured out that by the time I spent money on cake mix, frosting, decorations to make the cake, adding in my time and stress (because cake decorating is not a talent of mine) it was cheaper to get the cupcakes from Sam's.  Here they are with the plates and cute tablecloth.

Morgan couldn't wait for the party to start.

I found several game ideas online that I felt we could pull off.  The first - pin the bow on Hello Kitty.  To make Hello Kitty, we used the projector from Church to put a large clip art on the wall - which I traced onto posterboard.  Call it cheating if you will.  It works for me!

Another variation on a classic, here's Pass the Yarn (play it like Hot Potato).

After the games, it was time for presents.  I was smart and took pictures of each friend with Kaylyn and the present so we could remember for thank you notes.  The plan was to print the picture and put it with a thank you note.  The pictures were printed - but we haven't done thank you notes.  So Thank You to all Kaylyn's wonderful friends!

After presents, we had a small lunch of hotdogs and macaroni and cheese.  Kaylyn loved the birthday song with the candles lit on her cake.

She didn't tell me her wish but it probably came true.  She's special that way!