SEVEN

Yesterday our baby turned seven...SEVEN!  As much as I tell my kids to stop growing up, the birthday's keep coming.  This year Sadi wanted a frozen birthday and so as night fell so did the snow.  We awoke to a winter wonderland.

 There were snowflakes falling everywhere and even snow on the table.

She started her day with breakfast in bed.  She had snowballs (donut holes),Anna's frozen heart(frozen strawberries), and chocolate milk.  She also enjoyed reading her birthday cards while eating breakfast.

Unfortunately her birthday landed on a school day this year (BOO!) so there wasn't much time to relax before it was time to go to school.

 Besides being her birthday it was also another little girls birthday on the same day so they both got to celebrate in school together.  We made a little take home treat for her class, a birthday balloon made with giant pixie sticks.

The class sang to both girls individually, which was so nice of her teacher to really focus on each girl one at a time the whole day.  They ran out of time because of cupcakes (from the other parent) so later this week she will get to choose a class game to play at the end of the day.  She was pretty excited to get a free coupon from her teacher for a book, along with this monster crown and silly straw.

We left school and headed for dinner at Dairy Queen.  The idea was to get blizzards (like in frozen), but by the time we were done eating the birthday girl couldn't even finish the free cone they gave her.

 She could not wait to get home and open those presents!

Funny thing is for wanting a frozen party she did not ask for one thing even relating to Frozen.  It was all about the monsters!  She got some Monster High secret keepers and cages for all of them, The Monster High Coffin Bean shoppe, and of course some new Monster High dolls she has been wanting...surprisingly we still don't own every doll.

Believe it or not this girl put batteries on her list...actually it was the top thing on her list.  She has this fur real dog that only takes "C" batteries.  We NEVER have C batteries, so we are always telling her "oh yeah we'll get some" and then we forget.  Honestly I still forgot to get these until like the day before her birthday...she was super excited.

Of course no Birthday is complete at our house without a few party games.  We started with: Do you wanna build a snowman?

 We split into teams, and it was a race to see who could build their snowman the fastest. 

 Some of these turned out pretty good.

 Some of us were deemed the "loser pants".  Can you tell which one of these two was upset he didn't win?

 It was nice Kyle made it out to party with us, or that may have been me covered in toilet paper.

Next game was called saving Arendelle(from the movie Frozen).  I just used crumpled up paper for the snowballs.

Working in teams the idea was to keep your half of the kingdom free of snow.  Each team needed to throw their snowballs onto the other teams side.  The team with the least amount of snowballs when time was up were the winners.  This was an extreme snowball fight!

The final game we played was Kristoff's ice block challenge.  You had to free your frozen snowman using only your body to melt the ice blocks.

 Some of us really wanted to win and went to extreme measures to do it.

In the end the birthday girl and her partner won by freeing Olaf.  Everyone received party prizes of "warm hugs" (Hershey chocolate hugs).

Then it was cake time!  The cake turned out...eh.  Luckily Sadi still thinks I have mad skills...I'm lucky to still be fooling her.

 I can't believe my baby is seven.  She really isn't a baby anymore.

We lit that thing up like the fourth of July and made a wish! Kelsey was able to skype with us so she could sing happy birthday too and kind of feel like she was here.

 There wasn't much time to eat cake before we had to do homework ...double thumbs down.

 

She had a fun night, and was excited to get to talk to many of you before she had to go to bed.  She told me that night how awesome it was to have such a good family.

College Life

Last Thursday I got to go visit Kelsey and experience a little college life.  They had a BBQ on the Quad for the parents and students who were in the Nevada fit program.  It was nice to have lunch and hear about all the fun she has been having so far.  I got mistaken for a college student many times which really made my day.  I even showed a few parents who asked me how to get to what they were looking for (I only knew this because of Matt showing me around campus when he went there but helped me look legit).

Kelsey showed me how much college rocks...no seriously she was ecstatic to show me this museum of rocks. She hasn't quite mastered the layout of the campus yet, and I actually felt pretty oriented so that helped in showing her new ways to get from place to place.

I took her to pick up her books at the bookstore.  I guess she decided that not everything about college is awesome.  Can you tell by that face how happy she was about the price of just some of her books. 

We went back to her dorm which was a madhouse because it was move in day for EVERYONE who did not attend Nevada fit.  It was nuts!  She was excited to show me what she had been wearing all week.  What a cute nerd!

She is having the best time, and as unsure as she was about going I think there is no doubt now that this was the right choice for her.

A new "Bee"ginning

Today was the first day of school.  I don't know where summer went, but it went fast!  In preparation for the first day of school, last night I gave the kids their back to school book that has kind of become a tradition.  I found the perfect book this year which really spoke to me as a parent about letting go of control (a little...I am still a control freak).  Pete the Cat Too Cool For School talks about how being yourself is cool.  Super cute book.

This morning I saw the cutest exchange happening while I was making breakfast and overheard these two in bed discussing what the day might be like...they were speculating on what their teacher's might be like.  Pretty funny stuff!

We started off with breakfast and some encouraging thoughts for the day.

I cannot believe we made it to fourth grade already...fourth grade!

And check out our little miss second grade diva.  Yes, this is where I let go and let her pick out her first day of school outfit all by herself...trust me I questioned this look many times.  Me: "Are you sure this looks good?"  Her :"No, it looks awesome!"

I packed lunches with more encouraging notes.  Getting the theme here?  "I Hope your having a Bee-utiful day, and remember to Bee yourself!"

 Before we knew it we were re-entering those squeaky blue doors.

Chase could not wait to get to class and see his friends.  This is his new teacher Ms. Bailey.  I think he was nervous because she's so pretty :)

Sadi was a bit more hesitant to go to class.  Her new teacher, Mrs. Elliott.

Dinner time this year was a bit different, Matt had to work all night but called to see how the kids first day was, and although Kelsey wasn't here she called while I was making dinner and told me about her first day of college (kinda strange not to hear about high school).  For that fact since it was just me and the little ones I kept dinner simple and got to hear ALL about their day.

Of course there was an un"bee"lievable dessert.  Edible bees made from Twinkies.

We talked about what they learned, who they sat by, and what was their best part of the day.  They also filled out little cards that said what they wanted to "bee" when they grow up.

How do you know when it was the best school day ever?  When they both wrote that when they grow up they want to be a TEACHER! 

Packing up and Moving out...

Moving day was today.  For the past few weeks Kelsey has been packing up her room and getting ready to move out.  It was a little weird to see that closet so empty.

Kelsey was accepted into the Nevada Fit program which allows her to move in one week early and have a boot camp type college week.  She even has homework due tonight.  She and one of her roommates both were accepted into this program so she won't be all alone. Today we got up super early to make the move. 

 This is the dorm she will call home for the next 9 months.  It actually is I think one of the nicest dorms on campus.

This is one of the few times it is really beneficial to have so many kids because more hands means less loads.  It was a bit of a wait for the elevator.  Some of them complained "it was to heavy".  You can tell by this pic which one was carry those "heavy" pillows. It was funny to see some of the things kids have their parents hauling up for them.

Her dorm is actually pretty spacious (well for 3 people).  We helped her lift her bed and helped her unpack in her new home.  Sadi and Chase were having a little too much fun playing under those high beds.

 Matt helped her get all set up with the Internet.

We got to meet one of her roommates Jeni and her parents.  She is a really cute girl, and I hope these two get to be great friends.

 And soon it was time to say goodbye. 

I know she going to have the time of her life and as I saw her tears I reminded her were just a phone call away.

I really hope she takes advantage of this opportunity to embrace college life and all it has to offer.  Good luck baby girl!

Back to School Night

This past week we had back to school night...what?!  Where did the summer go?  We loaded up on $8,000 in school supplies...okay I may be exaggerating a little.  Does anyone else feel that list gets longer and more specific every year?  I mean do we really need 150 boxes of tissue and 100 bottles of hand soap...hand soap?!  Anyway we bought it all, and bought the biggest baskets I could find to fill them up which didn't even fit everything for Chase who needed more "classroom supplies".

 

The kids were anticipating which teacher they would get.  Sadi had her heart set on one specific teacher...who she did not get, but her BFF did.  Yeah the morning started in tears, but once we met her I think she got a little more excited.  She will be starting 2nd grade in Mrs. Elliott's class.  I don't know much about her, last year was her first year at Riverview but she seems very excited.

Chase was really excited when he read the class list about all the friends he was going to have in his class...until he realized he read the wrong roster and he wasn't in that class.  Chase got the new teacher...not too surprising, if there's a new teacher my kids ALWAYS get them.  She is young (like just graduated from UNR last spring).  He's pretty excited that his teacher is so "pretty"...ahh you know were still teasing him about that slipping out.

She seems like she is excited to be teaching..I am hesitantly optimistic about both teacher's.  I remember how excited I was last year and was let down.  I am hopeful they will both have a great school year.  Here we go again!