School is Out! Scream and Shout!

We are officially in Summer mode. 

School let out on Thursday and we celebrated another year completed.

{First and Last Day of 4th Grade} 

{First and Last Day of 3rd Grade} 

 {First and Last Day of 2nd Grade} 

 {First and Last Day of 3 Day Preschool} 

In true mommy fashion, I had a little pile of new things for waiting for them in the morning.

The downfall of having surprises for the kids is the excitement. 

On the last day of school Bubba, came down for a glass of water at 5 am 

and saw the gifts on the table and then woke up his little sisters.

When Nate went downstairs to go to work 3 of the kids were up and 

ready to start the day.... WAY to early. 

Let's home they learn to sleep in the rest of the summer. 

It is always fun to see the kid's delight in getting new books, notebooks, 

pencils, bookmarks, and reading logs for the summer. 

In fact that morning they were all ready delving into the books and Bubba 

was penning his first entry in his new journal. 

Let's hope this excitement lasts all summer long. 

Mommy is way to excited to start The Babysitter's Club books with Gigi. 

Next year will be Rosie's last year in elementary school. 

It is crazy to think about. 

I remember dropping her off on the first day of preschool when she was 5.

It is amazing how much the kids can learn in a year.  

Rosie continued her love for science and fell in love with geography this year. 

Bubba has found an eagerness to read.  He has ventured into more advanced chapter books and his vocabulary in one year has really broadened.  We are currently reading the first book of Harry Potter!

Gigi loves school and is my little writer.  She is always journaling and writing mini books. 

Last but not least, Lil Miss has grown up before my very eyes in 3 day pre-k. 

 We love our school. 

They really have great school pride and school spirit. 

A great tradition is the last day of school, all the students congregate outside with the parents around the flag pole to take the flag down.  In brings everyone together.  

I great way to say good-bye to another year.  

Once again we celebrated with our "Welcome to Summer" party.

The kids each had some friends over and we celebrated with music, water balloons, 

slip-n-slide shenanigans, and lots of laughs. 

Celebrating the ordinary days is what I do best. 

I love having parties.  I like the planning and the fine details (even when my hubby is 

telling me I'm nuts for decorating the chalk board at 11pm at night).

I found this quote a long time ago and I have made it my philosophy. 

Turn ordinary into extraordinary!

 Don't Wait for extraordinary opportunities, 

sieze common occasions and make them great. 

Orison Sweet Marden

  I had spent an hour and a half the night before filling up 100 water balloons. 

I have a nasty blister to prove it.  Those balloons in all the craziness lasted all of 7 minutes

when the balloons started splashing Boys vs. Girls.

We can honestly say we have jumped wholeheartedly into summer and 

can't wait to make more memories.  

More fun to come....

It's a Wonderful Life

So yesterday was my son's birthday.

He turned 9.  I am in denial, because every time I look at him I see this boy... 

my three year old, full of energy, happiest laugh ever boy.

But my mommy vision makes me blind to how much he has grown up. 

That smile hasn't changed though! 

 Since we have three birthdays in the family between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holidays 

seem to be extra chaotic.  Bubba thinks his birthday is the BEST because St. Nick arrives with presents

in the morning and he opens birthday gifts in the afternoon.  

Pretty special. 

When I asked Bubba what he wanted to do for his birthday his response was "play Xbox all day."

Oh how this made me cringe.  I even apologized to the boy's mothers who came over for the sleepover 

that their child may be playing a lot of video games. 

I did have to add my touches though, a basketball court on the floor and a chalkboard scoreboard.

My boy is not a cake lover.  I can't tell you how many birthday parties where he has declined cake.  

I learned early on that getting him a cake is not a treat for him. 

We've done ice cream, cookie cakes, and even sugar cookies.

This year I had my friend make basketball cookies and check out these Air Jordans.  

Coolest cookies ever!  

Bubba played his last basketball game for the month yesterday and birthday boy had a great game.  

 I whipped my phone out of my pocket really quick to snap this photo of his breakaway layup.  

And yes he made the shot. 

Birthday boy is sleeping now catching up on not much sleep last night.  

As I look at him all cuddled with the puppy on the couch I still see a little boy and can't believe he is 9. 

Bubba's birthday also means that my birthday is next, a harsh reality that mommy is getting older too. 

All in all, It's a Wonderful Life! 

Let's Go Glamping

Last weekend we celebrated Rosie's birthday with her friends.  

This party was thrown together in 4 days because bad mommy, me, didn't look 

at the calender and see we had no free weekend nights for a while.  

Our daily calender is not for the faint of heart.  

A free night with no place to be is something to be celebrated.

Our girl wanted a camping party. 

I was happy to oblige.  I love party planning. 

With little time and wanting to keep this low budget we pulled our tent out, some 

christmas lights, and a few glitter stars turning our living room into a camping dream.

 I found another use for my gigantic chalk board.

I seriously love this thing.

We also put up a "No Boys Allowed" sign.  

 We hung the stars from the ceiling fan and waited for her friends to come. 

Oh the excitement. 

The squealing could be heard blocks away when the girls walked in the door.

 The night was filled with games, crafts, and eating. 

Instead of a cake, Rosie wanted smores.  

They ended up making smores over sterno flame in the kitchen. 

(supervised of course!)

There were a lot of burnt marshmallows because no one had the patience to 

carefully cook their smore correctly, but they were shoved in their mouths with joy anyways. 

To the end the night, they watched the best camping movie ever... Parent Trap. 

There were lots of naps the next day. 

But one little almost ten year old was full of smiles. 

Friends, sugar, and laughter will do that. 

It's A Lalaloopsy Party!

 So last week we had a very special birthday party! 

Gigi turned 6!! 

She had asked to have a birthday party like her brother and sister, but instead daddy

and I decided she would have a few friends over.  Very low key. 

Except mommy was in charge, and I am always the hostess with the mostest. 

We started with who she was going to invite and couldn't narrow down the guest list of the 5 girls she wanted to invite.  So after asking daddy if it would be okay, we had 5 on the guest list. 

More than a "few". 

Then I let my little girl pick the theme of her birthday party. 

In the wave of Christmas gifts, her newest infatuation has been her little Lalaloopsy dolls, so Lalaloopsy it was. I can't tell you how many times I have explained what a Lalaloopsy is to daddy.

It is little dolls with a sewing theme.  (mommy is loving this!)

They have button eyes, and each doll comes with a little pet. 

For weeks she has been carrying around her Lalaloopsy dolls in her pockets to school, to church, and all the way to Ohio and back. 

I patted my girl on the back for an awesome theme for her party, and ran away with it. 

I kept in mind daddy said low-key and wasn't going to spend alot of money because we had just had Rosie and Bubba's birthday parties two months prior. 

So I tried to do it cheap and fun.  

Poor birthday girl, on her actually birthday Wednesday, she fell ill.

As I was walking into school with her birthday treats for her class, the school nurse calls my cell and tells me she has bad news.  She proceeds to tell me that Gigi had just gotten sick and was in her office throwing up.  I tell her I am outside and will be right in.  10 seconds later I am in the office and the nurse gives me the award for the quickest response time to a sick child. 

I sadly drop off the treats for the rest of the class with no cute picture of her handing out the treats, or picture of the birthday girl with her teacher, and I gather up my sick birthday girl and head home. 

 

I am pretty sure it was something in the school lunch that made her sick because the girl didn't have the flu.  She was perfectly fine when we walked in the door at home. 

Yes, she milked it and she got 7-up on the couch bundled up in blankets and the bucket right by her. 

But not even 15 minutes home she was asking for cookies and milk.  

So since her birthday was a bummer in the birthday extravaganza department, I wanted to make her birthday party extra special.  She was finally allowed to wear her Lalaloopsy dress I made on Saturday for her party.  As soon as she put it on she was full of

energy and bubbling with excitement. 

(my first attempt at making long sleeves on a dress and using elastic thread for the gathering)

I was taking pictures and she was giving me pose after pose, a complete natural in the spotlight.

{this girl has lots of sass!} 

{Gigi and her brother}

I had thrown together a few inexpensive decorations for the party.  I mean really cheap!!

I took some empty Starbucks frappucino bottles and made cute bottles decorated with black vinyl, ribbon, and buttons to hold princess wands and straws.  I cut cardboard circles out of an old diaper box and painted them with spray paint to make buttons to decorate the mantle and dining room. 

I had purchased a garland from target and crea paper to add a touch of "festive" to the room.

{Lalaloopsy decorations}

The parting gifts were bags of Hershey kisses and magic wands. 

Oh, and I put wraps on the water bottles to make them Lalaloopsy waters. 

(creative way to make the girls WANT to drink water!)

For all the decorations I cut up the packaging from the Lalaloopsy stuff she got from us, her aunts, and Mama Judy.  So we had Lalalopsy Everywhere!!

As a craft to keep the kindergartners busy, the girls and I had

hand painted wooden beads and we made necklaces and bracelets. 

Gigi got to practice on her sick day at home and helped me make sure logistically it was

going to work. 

She doesn't look very sick does she?

On the day of the party, the girls had a blast picking out each of their beads and stringing them on their necklaces and bracelets.  Another cute souvenir to take home. 

I didn't purchase a cake for the party. 

I made Gigi's little Lalaloopsy cake and then for all the girls we made

strawberry cupcakes with pink sprinkles. 

They were a hit!!  

{Make a wish}

{Goof Ball}

{Gigi and her friend Olivia} 

For 6 kindergartners we had to be creative to find things that were cheap and would keep them busy while they were here.  We had the bracelets/necklaces which took about 20 minutes, then we had some lalaloopsy coloring pages followed by snacks and cake and ice cream, but how to fill the other hour?  We played dress up relay. 

I had pulled out 3 pairs of heels, 3 scarves, and 3 oversized hats for them to dress quickly and then run around our house to the finish line.  It was a riot and I am impressed how well some of the girls walk in my heels.  They put me to shame.   

I know Daddy was watching the clock wondering when all the squealing was gonna stop, but I thought the time flew.  Before I knew it the parents were knocking on the door.  I had just 5 minutes to quickly pick up all the balloon remnants and crea paper that was thrown all over.  It looked like a disaster area. 

 I think this girl had a successful Party!! 

She can't wait for next year.  LOL 

 It was sew much fun!!!!