No more babies

Yesterday my baby turned 5!!  She really couldn't decide on what kind of a party she wanted but knew she wanted a "friend" party.  She really loved reading Fancy Nancy books this summer from the library so I decided that would be an easy party to throw together.  We sent out invites to her friends a few weeks before.

I kept it simple with the decorations, but when Sadi woke up she was thrilled!! 

 She thought these flowers were the best!

When her friends arrived they were greeted by Sadi with a "Bonjour" and a Boa. Because Fancy Nancy loves butterflies we made some butterfly bead backpack clips.  I was too busy helping little hands with beads that I neglected to get a picture of the finished product.  They turned out really cute!

We played "Fancy"(a.k.a. Bingo).  I made my own fancy bingo cards with images from the Fancy Nancy books.  The girls had fun with this game, and loved yelling out "Fancy!" when they won.

We also played fancy, fancy girls (somewhat like pretty, pretty princess).  Each girl had a dice and every time they rolled a 5 they got to pick a piece of jewelry to wear.  The girl wearing the most bling at the end was the winner.  The most blinged out?.....

They took their bling and dove into the dress up box to get even more fancy for some fashion photos.  My photographer neglected to use my backdrop :(

This is suppose to be Sadi's "fancy" pose.

 

Rather than have cake, we  had "parfaits" (that's fancy for sundaes).  I wish I would have gotten a picture of some of their parfaits, they were loaded!!!

After her friends left, we had a quieter family celebration before Daddy had to leave for work.  Sadi had fun opening all her cards.

Daddy had a special present for her.  This one I have to explain a bit.  Sadi has a nickname "Sassafras".  It started because she is so sassy and quickly turned into Sassafras.  We usually only call her that when well...she's sassy(alright if were being honest Daddy enjoys calling her that all the time).  Anyway Daddy found a gift for her while out shopping one day.  When Chase read what it was to her this was her reaction...

Don't worry she got many other gifts that made her smile.  She got this new princess Snow White house she has been wanting,

a new scooter,

 and a new motor home for her dollhouse.

One of her friends had given her this Lego set which was a bit complicated for her I think, luckily Chase was thrilled to put it together for her....and play with it.

Later that night we celebrated with cake of her choice, chocolate!

When I told her to make a wish she wished it out loud before the big blow out.  Any guesses what she wished?

A unicorn of course! 
*I guess she decided she liked that Sassafras candy, her and Chase engulfed the entire bag before bed.

Harder

Tuesday was the second day of school for the kids.  There was no telling Chase he could not ride the bus (he wanted to ride it the first day).  Sadi was ready to ride the big yellow bus too.  This was harder than letting her go all day the day before.  I knew Chase would watch out and take care of her and make sure she would get where she needed to be in the morning.

My anxiety peaked late afternoon when it was time for them to get on the bus at school.  I worried Sadi would get lost (Chase was not allowed to pick her up from class...new rules). I worried she would get on the wrong bus.  I worried she would not get on a bus at all.  My anxiety grew as the bus didn't come on time...it was 25 minutes late!  Hello heart palpitations!  FINALLY it came and aboard were my 2 happy bus riders!

I hoped they might re-think riding the bus, but alas they love it!  Letting go is hard.

The Big Day!

Today was the day...the first day of school!  Last night I gave each the kids a new book (this has become tradition since Chase started Kindergarten).  Chase got a cute little book about a cat who takes his little sister to school.  I was a bit bummed I couldn't find the night before Kindergarten book for Sadi, but she was thrilled with her new back to school book.  And Kelsey got to read a little story sent via text on her new phone!

All too early this morning the day began for Kelsey (and myself).  She had to be to school early because she is on the Student Council, and was less than thrilled they had to wear black for their dance they preformed in the assembly.  Besides the heavy load of classes (including AP) she is taking she is Student Council Historian, Key Club VP, National Honor Society Secretary, and Varsity Football manager.  She is going to have one busy year!

Chase was the most excited for school to start.  The boy couldn't go to sleep and then woke at 6 a.m. and was ready to go.  He wanted to ride the bus, and was upset when I told him I was driving him.  He also didn't like getting his picture taken...it was too sunny.  He just wanted to get to the playground and see his friends.

Sadi started Kindergarten....what?  How did we get here?  This year the school is implementing all day Kindergarten which I am not sure how this is going to work out but we are hoping for the best.  Today is seemed like chaos...it can only get better right?  My biggest concern is the class size...up to 33 now.  We'll see....

We dropped Chase off in his class where he had a front row seat.  We thought we were getting a teacher we didn't know but I was surprised when I saw her I recognized her as being Kelsey's 4th grade teacher from the other school.  Her last name changed since she taught Kelsey her very first year of teaching to Mrs. Shepard.  I am thrilled to know he got a great teacher.

Next it was time to drop off Sadi to her class.  She also got a seat at the front of the class.  She became a bit quiet when we got there but assured me she wasn't scared so off I left them.  ALL. OF . THEM. 

I loved hearing how much fun they all had their first day of school.  I was a bit worried about Sadi when I went to pick her up she said to me "Let's get outta this dump!"  She told me there was just too many kids around, but she did tell me she had fun and is excited to go back, so I'm calling it a success!  I planned a fun first day of school dinner tonight which I'm pretty sure they all loved.  I wrapped the table in paper and threw out some markers and crayons they could all write and draw about their first day of school.

We had cafeteria food for dinner complete with lunch trays and all.  There was even a menu up when they got home so they could see what was going to be served.  Can you tell how excited this kid was over that chocolate brownie?  We never have dessert for dinner.

Everyone enjoyed the coloring, and it lasted way past dinner time.  Quite artistic don't ya think?

Let's hope tomorrow is as great as today.  One day down, 179 to go!!



All I want for second grade...

A few nights ago Chase lost his first top tooth, it has been wiggly for quite some time but I had noticed they looked different.  Sure enough it was ready to "pop" out.  It looked cute for about one night, then that one remaining tooth made a move...to the middle of his mouth...and turned crooked.  So all the sudden we were staring at a snaggle tooth every day, NOT cute.

With school starting in just a few days I knew there was no way he could go to school looking like a redneck so we begged him to take out the second tooth.  We (OK Matt) bribed him with cash (this boy loves to spend his money).  His negotiations made him $4.  Totally worth it!

 So now he is ready to go to "thecond gwade"! 

Olympic Dream

We have been watching a lot of the Olympics this year, and we were sad this past weekend to see it come to an end.  Our kids have been playing some of the Olympic games in the back yard (diving and swimming in the pool).  I decided it would be fun to have our own Olympics.  It was so fun!   The first ever Denning Family Olympics are sure to become a tradition!  We started the night with the lighting and passing of the torch.  Each of us got to run a lap with the torch and wave our flag.

The first event was an obstacle course.  The winner had to beat the fastest time.  This was part of the obstacle course (including that ever so tiny tunnel you see to the left of Chase which I am sooo glad the video camera ran out of juice and did not catch me completely biffing it down the slide and squeezing through the tunnel).  Let's just say the adults all walked away with injuries from this first event.

Second event:  the discus (a.k.a. Frisbee).  Actually harder than you think!

Third event was the balance beam.  You had to cross the beam without falling in the fastest time.

Next up was Olympic horseshoes (notice the size of those things).  Daddy was favored to win this event but possible injuries from the obstacle course made him choke to the pressure.

And the final event Olympic UNO where Sadi who ALWAYS wins was the favorite but had some tough hands.

When all the events were completed we had an official award ceremony including podiums where the flag was raised behind the gold medalist and their favorite song was played over the stereo.

The final medal count: 

Obstacle Course:   Gold-Chase, Silver-Kelsey, Bronze-Sadi

Discus:  Gold-Matt, Silver-Chase, Bronze-Kelsey

Balance Beam:   Gold-Sadi,  Silver-Karen, Bronze-Chase

Horse Shoes:   Gold-Kelsey, Silver-Karen, Bronze-Chase

UNO:   Gold-Chase, Silver-Matt, Bronze-Sadi

The top three winners got endorsements after the ceremony,

and the most decorated Olympian also received a cereal box deal where his picture will be on this family cereal.  This boy deserved it, he medal ed in every competition!

We had a closing ceremony where we extinguished the flame, had fireworks (pop-its), and watched instant replay of the games (video).  There had been some dispute about cheating(possible to much juicy juice) in the obstacle course which was confirmed after viewing the video but no medals were revoked.  It was an amazing night!  So proud of all my winners!

The Big 4-0

Yesterday was Matt's 40th birthday.  I wanted to throw him a big party but when I started planning out what to do I realized it would be almost impossible with all our friends and family living so far away to come out.  So plan B was to bring you all to him by way of memories.  Thanks to everyone who made this possible.  First off I made this huge timeline of his life with photos.

Below the timeline was a basket filled with a few surprises and some of his favorites (he thought this was his gift which was great).  You'll notice a very old looking history book in this basket.  He loves history and loved this book.

The best part...it's not an antique book at all but a hollowed out book which I had hidden a treasure map in, which led to his real gift.

  The map read:

According to legend August 2, 1972

a great treasure was revealed.

Each year it has grown

in wealth and legend be told

 it is buried where only the greatest can uncover it.

The map was marked with locations that lead him to places through our house and yard.  (Kelsey's room was dead man's lair, etc.) 

Hidden at X marks the spot was this really cool treasure chest I had found with his real present inside.

The treasure was all of the memories sent to me over the months each of you have  had with Matt over the years.

As much as I wanted to read all of them as they arrived, I didn't read any of them.  I wanted to be able to share this with him as he re-lived his memories too.  It was THE BEST!  He spent the morning reading each letter,

 looking at old videos and pictures,

 and laughing hysterically!!

I have to say I haven't been able to pull too many surprises over on Matt and I think this one really topped all.  Thank you all sooo much for all your thoughts you shared with us. I have to say I really do think this is one birthday he will never forget!!

Trek 2012

Yesterday I dropped off Kelsey to take part in Trek.  Trek is a re-creation (on a much smaller level) of the pioneer journey across the plains pushing/pulling handcarts along the way.  She looked so cute dressed up in her pioneer outfit. 

 Her, along with her friends all looked the part.  I just hope they were prepared for the days ahead.  Although they had all been on smaller hikes leading up to this I don't think anyone predicted the 99 degree weather yesterday.  It was hot!  I hope they all come back with smiling faces like this.(and maybe a new appreciation for all those things we take for granted)