1 Day Left!!

On Sunday morning, the day before school started, Laney opened her final gift from us to countdown to kindergarten!  She was excited!

 Todd and I looked lots of places for a little locket for her.  We wanted to put our pictures in it so that she could wear it and know that we were thinking about her and praying for her all day long while she was at school.  We couldn't find what we were looking for, so we settled on a little purple bracelet with hearts on each bead.  We wrote our names and the brothers names on the back of the beads, so she could flip them over if she started to miss us and know that we were thinking about her too!

 She raced in to show it to Todd!

Clipboard Craftiness!

Last Saturday, Laney and I got to work on a little crafty craft for her teacher.  I saw it on, none other than, Pinterest!  We got some cute schoolish paper (leftover from our Back to School Banner) and a plain jane clipboard (picked up for me by Jess) and a little bit of mod podge!  Ready, Set, Create!!!

 Sam was happy to jump in and help!

 We added some ribbon knots to the top and some stickers to spell our sweet teacher's name on the bottom!

 The back!

Slumber Party!!

We asked Virginia if Madeline could stay after the party and spend the night.  Both of the girls were really excited about their very first slumber party.  They couldn't wait to get their jammies on and set up their sleeping bags on Laney's floor.  They were all ready to get bundled in, and I had to convince them to get up and do some "slumber party" things! 

 So we painted toes and even tried to paint little flowers on their big toes.  Not very successfully, though.  This mama should not pursue a career as an aesthetician!!

When we got done painting nails, Laney asked if we could put curlers in their hair.  Seemed like a very slumber party-ish thing to do!!!

 After that we had a "midnight snack" of pasta salad.  Laney's request.  She ate noodles and Maddy ate green olives! 

 The next morning.  Such beauties!!!

 We played a few rounds of Pinkalicious!! 

 And made some homemade donuts.

 with chocolate and sprinkles.

 And drank some chocolate milk!!!  The first of many fun slumber parties for these two, I think!!!

Kindergarten Kick-off Party!!!

Last year, when my little niece Claire Bear started kindergarten, one of her friends hosted a Kindergarten kick off party for the girls on their soccer team that would all be starting kindergarten together at their school.  I made a mental note to steal that fantastic idea!  We invited the friends that we have from church that will be starting kindergarten at Laney's school.  I wanted the kids to have an opportunity, right before school started, to spend some time playing with familiar faces so that their big day would be a little less intimidating!  It was so great and went exactly how I hoped.  Happy kids playing like crazy and enjoying each other to pieces!

 Some back to school cookies!  My first run on these apples (actually pumpkin cookie cutters) had brown stems and didn't look right.  Round two was much improved!

 Chalkboard placemats!! Another thanks to Pinterest!  Who even knew that there was such thing as chalkboard fabric!   Flannel backed vinyl on one side, chalkboard fabric on the other and finished with bias tape.  These were super easy to make and I even had leftover fabric to make little re-usable tags. 

 We made little cards for a time capsule to be opened next year at our 1st Grade kickoff party (sheesh).  They drew their face on one side and wrote their name on the other side.  Moms wrote a few of the kids' favorite things on them as well.  Like their favorite food, color and tv show.  It will be fun to compare how their faves have changed in a year!

Laney wanted to take some silly pictures before her friends got there.  The brothers had already been whisked away for a slumber party at Grommy's house with Aunt Hailey!  Todd was away at a retreat for work and I knew that it would be difficult to host the get together on my own with all my cuties on board.  It was so great to be able to focus completely on Laney and her friends and know that the brothers were having a ball with Lee Lee at the park and playing at Grommy's house!

Here is a picture of all the girls except Abigail.  Paige Madeline and Laney.  Masynn and her big sister Peyton are behind them.

 They were having so so much fun!

 After lots of playing, I rallied the kids, passed out their placemats and did a little writing with chalk!  Laney didn't want to get down and write on her placemat ("because all the mommies were watching") so she helped me pass out smarties to all the smartie pants kiddos as they completed their challenges!  Like writing their name, drawing different shapes, and drawing their face!

 Then we moved on into the kitchen to build some yummy ice cream sundaes!!!

It was such a great night that left us feeling really excited about the sweet friends that we are blessed to be starting kindergarten with!

Day 3 of our Countdown!

The first part of her gift was smarties, music to my little sweet tooth having girl's heart!

 Second part of the gift was these cute little magnets!    "Stick to it!  You're so smart!" 

 Hebrews 12:1 is the verse that my youth minister and mentor, Mark Stayton, challenged me with at Disciple Now in 9th grade at Judy Jones's house right before my first day of high school.    It is the frequent prayer of my hear that my daughter will embrace the Lord's plan for her and chase after it.

Meet the Teacher!

Last Thursday night was Meet the Teacher night at Laney's school.  She was really excited about it and I was so hopeful that it would go well and leave her with a good feeling about school starting the following Monday.  We walked to the school.  It is such an awesome blessing to be within three minutes walking distance from our school!! Laney and Miles held hands as they walked down the sidewalk!

 We met up with the Paredeses when we got to the school.  Madeline and Laney got the same teacher! Praise the Lord!!!
They got to choose their lockers and, of course, chose ones right next to each other!

 Their sweet teacher allowed them to play in the play area while we worked on paper work.  Laney loved it and later when we talked about what she was the most excited about doing at school, she said that she couldn't wait to play with the cash register again.  It was just one piece ot our hugely answered prayer that Laney was made totally comfortable in her classroom so that she did not hesitate one bit on her first day!!!

 Her classroom has fish!  It didn't actually have any this night, but her teacher told us that they would definitely be there when school started.  On the way to school, Laney said that she thought there would probably be seven fish and that she would help Mrs. Thomas name them.  I think that they actually only ended up with two and Laney told me that she wanted to name them Freaky and Donkey. (akin to our "pet" frogs from our family vacation)

 My heart is so thrilled at her happiness and contentment.

 I am thinking that we hit the jackpot with Laney's teacher!!!!  She seems like the ultimate in kindergarten teachers.  I subbed kindergarten one single time during the year that I subbed once a week after Laney came home.  It was like a whole different ballgame than any other grade level I taught.  Respect and appreciation like crazy for Mrs. Thomas and her willingness to serve and love my daughter and all of her classmates every day.