Kansas City Trip

Because the end of the school year madness, birthday madness, and the upcoming gymnastics performance clearly weren't enough, I decided we should squeeze in a trip to Kansas City between party #1 and party #2.

My cousin and her two sweet babes live in Overland Park and we were loooong overdue for a visit.  Amelia and my cousin's son, Evan, have been pen pals for several years now.  They are close in age and always have so much fun together.

So post party, my mom and I loaded up the kids in the car and headed West!

One stop we made was to Fritz's for dinner.  I thought my kids were going to fall out of their chairs watching the trains drive all around the restaurant.  And when it was time to deliver their food by train, I thought Henry would never stop smiling!

These two were so sweet together all weekend!  We really, really need to make the trek to KC more often!

Ms. Janie supposedly had dinner before they arrived, so she had a HUGE banana split while the other kids munched their burgers and fries.

The next day we headed to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.  The kids loved it!  We could have stayed their for days, I think!

Amelia, Evan, and GG "Not smiling".

Amelia and Evan "not smiling".

Our short trip was definitely NOT long enough.  The night before we left, my cousin treated us to a yummy dinner at her house.  She also made a dessert and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Amelia.

 

Sweet Evan picked out a super cute Lego Friends set for Amelia.  She had gotten a similar set at her friend birthday party and so this was a perfect add on!

Henry and I once he finished his dessert (in record time). The boy likes his sweets!

We spent some time swimming with the kids in the morning before it was time to head back to St. Louis.  We had the whole hotel pool to ourselves (although the kids seemed to prefer the hot tub). Such a fun time with these 4!  

Button Rings

Speaking of button rings, here is a small sampling of the rings we made for the birthday goodie bags for Amelia's friends.  I had an assortment of buttons already from various projects and I picked up some more, colorful ones.  I bought the adjustable ring bases on ebay.  Super fun project and we have enough supplies to make many, many more.

Friend Birthday Party #6

Amelia had her friend birthday party over Memorial Day weekend.  What a busy time of year!  With the end of school, gymnastics performance, birthday, and a party or two things were crazy.  I took the easy way out for her friend party this year and rented an indoor playground at a local church.  It was definitely the easiest party I've ever thrown!  

I still wanted to do a "theme" and we finally settled on polka dots.  None of my party pictures are really that great.  Something about hosting 30 children at an indoor playground leaves little time for good looking pictures.....

Here are the invites.  They were pretty simple, thanks to my mom's Cricut machine.  I also did a little sewing on them just for the fun of it! I had the colored envelopes left from a party I held about 5 years ago!

There really wasn't much space to decorate, but I wanted to do a little bit where I could.  There was a long table where the kids ate cake and ice cream. I loved the idea I saw on Pinterest to use wrapping paper as a table runner.  I fell in love with this polka dot paper from Hobby Lobby.

I think the button "6" was also a Pinterest find.  Certainly not necessary, but fun and easy to do.  And, now it is hanging in Amelia's room.

This is the only picture I got of the party favors and it is awful at best.  All the things inside where spherical (or at least circular).  My favorite was the button candy.  Amelia and I also made up button rings for the girls.  They were really cute!

Homemade cupcakes with skittles on top along with ice cream was it for the food!  I picked up some juice boxes and water for the parents too.  But, man was that easy!

Here's a picture of the indoor playground.  It kept the kids busy for the whole 2 hours (with a short break in the middle for cake, ice cream, and presents).

Here's the gang of kids that celebrated with us!  (Those who weren't camera shy, anyway).  Mostly kindergarten school friends came with a couple others from pre-school.  Our neighbors and Amelia's very best friend she went when she was 1 were also there.

I'm so thankful that both grandmas wanted to come and help out at the party.  And lots of parents stayed too!  

We even did polka dot nails for the big day!

Henry wasn't so sure about riding home in the backseat with all of the balloons...

The party girl was crashed out by 2:00!  I love that my 6 year old will still nap on occasion!

It was a great party with friends!  Now on to the real birthday!

Bookworm Baby

From very early on, Amelia has been quite the bookworm.  I have memories of rainy days in my bed together reading stacks and stacks of books until I could no longer stand it (and I love to read!).  She would outlast me every single time.  And to this day, it never fails--when there is a rainy day outside she always says, "This is the perfect day to read in bed all day".  Books are in every room of our house at all times and we have a whole library in our car.

Now that she is a kindergarten graduate, much of her reading can be done on her own.  She was reading proficiently going into kindergarten and I cannot believe how much her reading has grown!  One of the best things about summer will be more time for trips to the library and more time to read!

Good Bye Kindergarten

Well it's hard to believe, but the last day of kindergarten is here!  It has been a great year for Amelia and I am so glad that she loves school so much!  

We started the morning with a special "Good Bye Kindergarten, Hello First Grade" straw.  Why does First Grade sound so much older than kindergarten?

 

Then, it was time for the front porch photo shoot.

 

They call the last day a "half" day, but dismissal was at 10:00 or so.  Hardly worth the effort to get there really.  They have an all school mass that is followed by a changing of the seats by grade.  The kindergarteners got to move to the first grade spot.  Tear.

Mrs. Bell was Amelia's kindergarten teacher.  She was firm and strict and that was good for Amelia!  No getting away with stuff in her class! And Amelia loved her!

She is lucky enough to have some great friends at school.  Old friends like Natalie, who has been a friend of Amelia's since age one!

And lots of new friends too! Amelia is such a little social butterfly.  She knows no strangers!  

Let the summer begin!