School's Out for Summer!

First day of pre-school for 2010-2011 school year.                               

Last day of pre-school for 2010-2011 school year.

Some other last day pictures.

It's Official!

As a side note, I found this tank top at Target for $3 and used some leftover fabric from her Easter dress for the applique.  I found the coordinating tutu at Costco for $12.  Woo!  Instant birthday outfit. On her actual birthday, she spent the whole day at school (Jason volunteered in the AM and I came in the PM!).  Later, it was a trip to the pool followed by dinner at the restaurant of her choice (Bread Co!). 

Her gifts this year from us were pretty low key: Pete's A Pizza book and kit, Merliah Barbie, Rush Hour Jr. game (which has been a HUGE hit!) and a few sets for her dollhouse. Henry bought her the dollhouse family!  Fun day!

Happy #5!

This year, we decided to have two different birthday parties for Amelia--one for the family and one for friends.  In the past, mixing both groups of people is really, really fun, but it is also SO much work and expense.  

The family party was supposed to be low-key.  Amelia had made it perfectly clear that she wanted a Wendy Party (as in Wendy Darling from Peter Pan).  I vowed not to buy any new decorations or paper goods for this party.  I didn't even send out a "real" invite, I used evite instead. I hadn't actually planned on doing much decorating until Amelia started asking questions about the plans....

So, as you can imagine, I decided to appease her and we spent almost two solid days decorating (thought I took virtually NO pictures of the decorations).  I stuck to my guns, though, and didn't really buy anything new.  Luckily, Henry's first birthday color scheme was similar to the one I had in mind for Amelia's Wendy Party.

One of my favorite decorations ended up being Peter Pan's shadow.  If you are at all familiar with the story, you know that Peter loses his shadow at the Darling house and Wendy eventually sews it back on for him.  I created this with about 6 extra large pieces of black paper taped together.  I drew the outline by hand and the whole thing took me about 30 minutes.  Time consuming?  Maybe, but free since I already had the black paper and the perfect way to welcome our party guests.

It wouldn't be a birthday party for Amelia without a costume of some sort! She had planned on wearing a very long Cinderella nightgown that she claims is her "Wendy dress" despite the fact that Cinderella's face adorns the front.  She has pretended to be Wendy so many times in that dress, that there were several holes wearing through the fabric.  (It was a hand me down to start with).

Luckily, my mom and I had come up with a plan to replace her Cinderella, Wendy dress with one more appropriate.  She was THRILLED, despite the fact that I must have mis-measured the needed length by about 5 inches!  Oops!  We had to pry it off of her little body so that my mom could hem it by hand pre-party (good thing they came early!).

Henry's Peter Pan costume was much simpler.  I found a very good (read: easy and quick) tutorial on how to turn a t-shirt into a Peter Pan tunic.  The video also shows how to whip up a Peter Pan hat (which was so fun to make, I unnecessarily made several more).

Originally, I wanted to make a pirate ship cake, but ultimately, I settled for cupcakes from Costco.  We decided that with flowers and butterflies on top, they were fairy-ish.

I found someone through Facebook that made the perfect little Wendy bow for Amelia.  I think she charged me a whopping $2.75 (free shipping).  It was so cute in Amelia's hair and she LOVED it.

Our family doesn't have a lot of little kids in it right now for Amelia to play with since she is the oldest grandchild and great-grandchild on Jason's side.  But there was little Olivia who is nearly 2, Henry, and Olivia's new brother, Evan. Amelia and Olivia had a great time playing together and dining on the picnic blanket in the backyard.

I will most likely do a separate post on Amelia's dollhouse.  It was a labor of love from my parents and it is perfect.

Despite clearly stating, "No Gifts Please", Amelia racked up!  Here she is searching her new "I Spy" book with Julia and her great Aunt Therese.

Happy Birthday time!

She was all smiles during "Happy Birthday" as usual!  Then, we sang to Jason's grandfather because he and Amelia share the same birthday!

Baby Evan and Amelia!

Papa John and Henry

Baby Evan's mom, Sharla, asked if I would take some pictures of Evan since she hasn't had lots of opportunity to do so.  Being a second child myself, I was happy to oblige!

Henry and Papa Keith

Near the end of the party, Amelia's hem could no longer do it's job.  She really tried to talk us into letting her stay in her Wendy dress, but luckily she is a girly girl and was excited to have the opportunity to slip into one of her new dresses she had just opened up.  It was an added bonus that the Wendy bow matched perfectly!

Yes, I realize this picture is turned, but blogger WILL NOT cooperate right now, so could you please just turn your head instead?

It was a great party day.  I am so glad we decided to split up the parties this year.  I felt like I actually got to breath a little bit and enjoy it.  Stay tuned for the "friend" party!

Teacher Gifts

 I have had very good intentions of making gifts for Amelia's teachers over the last two years.  In reality, though, I've relied mostly on thoughtful, handwritten notes, flowers, and gift cards to let her teachers know they are appreciated.  

Part of the problem was the sheer quantity of teachers.  This year, for example, Amelia has two classroom teachers, 4 para professionals (I prefer the word "teacher aide"), 1 extended day teacher, and 1 extended day assistant.  For the Christmas holiday, I attempted to recognize everyone with a gift, but by the end of the year, I decided on special, handmade gifts for her two main teachers and gift cards for the others.

I found some cute stationery and bought a set for each teacher when they were on sale.  I think personalized stationery is a nice touch and liked that it included not only the teacher's name, but a variety of ways to contact her (address, phone number, email, etc). I thought I would dress up a cheap clipboard a bit for an attractive way to display the stationery.  I followed Erin's tutorial on how to mod podge a clipboard.  Simple and relatively quick.  I really like how they turned out too.  I used a coordinating paper on the back, although I failed to take a picture.

The clipboards were still drying when I took these pictures, which is why the clip is still pinned back.  (I also used the same teacher's paper for both pictures.  No, she doesn't have two teachers with the same name). When they were given as a gift, I also wrapped a coordinating ribbon around the set.  I wish I would have taken a picture, but it was a crazy week and I didn't even think twice about it!

The gifts were a big hit.  I will have to remember this idea for future teachers that the kids have! 

Pete's A Pizza

 Do you know about Pete?  I had heard of the story and had seen the book around, but until I volunteered one morning in Amelia's class did I know what a fun story it was!  The day I joined Amelia at school was "Food Week" and all I could think of while listening to her teacher read the story, is that every kid should have this book and every parent should reenact it with their child.

In case you don't know the story, I will give you a quick summary.  Pete is bummed because he had plans to play outside with his friends, but it starts to rain.  His father, in an effort to cheer him up, decides to "make" him into a pizza.  He kneads the "dough" (Pete) and throws it up in the air.  He sprays the dough with olive oil (water) and adds flour (talcum powder). He adds tomatoes (checkers) and cheese (paper).  He eventually throws Pete into the oven (couch) and bakes him to perfection.  I mentioned to Amelia that we should do that some rainy day and she was so giggly just at the thought of it!

So I vowed that the next birthday party I attended, I would put together a "Pete's A Pizza" kit for the birthday child.  My friend, Erin's daughter was the recipient.  Little Elise turned 2 at the end of April.

I made some paper cheese and then bought the book, some talcum powder, a cheap set of checkers from the dollar store, and some tins to hold the "cheese" and "tomatoes". 

 

I decided that what would make this gift even better was a bag to keep it all in.  I cannot STAND games and toys with a million little pieces UNLESS they are all contained.  It was my first attempt at creating a drawstring bag (which I did without my mom's help, thank you very much) and it went great.  I followed this SUPER easy tutorial. I custom made the bag exactly big enough to fit the book.  The bag was also the perfect, eco-friendly gift wrap!

 

Amelia was so excited to see the gift come together that she immediately added it to her birthday list (not just the book, but the pieces as well).  And as requested, she received the "Pete's A Pizza" kit, minus the drawstring bag to keep it all contained.  One day I will learn.

I can think of a million books that would be so cute to package in a bag with supplies to bring the book alive.  "Harold and the Purple Crayon", "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More", "Mouse Paint" just to name a few!

Graduation Girl

Despite my best efforts to keep it from happening, Amelia has finished her pre-school career.  Next year (actually, in two short months), it is the real deal.  Her pre-school graduation was a little emotional for me.  I really love her pre-school and can only hope that we have an equally wonderful experience in grade school.

Because I'm a bit neurotic, we got to graduation almost 45 minutes early.  I WAS NOT THE FIRST PARENT!  I was actually the 4th!  Luckily, we still got a front row spot right where Amelia was sitting.  Luckily, Henry was pretty entertained by sitting in Amelia's chair, getting up, and then sitting back in it again.

Here come the graduates!

She was ALL smiles!

There was lots of singing going on!

And sitting like a lady!

Amelia claimed she wants to be an actress when she grows up!  I can see that!

Amelia and  one of her teachers, Ms. Thompson.

Amelia and her buddy, Kendra.

I am not exaggerating, when I say that she took the time to individually talk to each of her classmates after graduation.  Most of the other kids had changed out of their cap and gown and enjoyed treats, but Amelia was too busy socializing.

Amelia with her main lady, Mrs. Higgins.  She has been with her for TWO years now.  I'd really like to make it three actually...

Amelia (finally out of her gown) and Shannon.

Amelia had quite the cheering section:  Grandma

GG

And mom, dad, and Henry!

So proud of my lady and excited to see what the future holds!

It's on to Kindergarten now, I guess!