2-4-6-EIGHT!

Tuesday our baby turned eight years old.  EIGHT!  Because it was a school day it was an early morning breakfast in bed.  Normally she loves her sleep, but she was excited so she was up early with a smile.

She enjoyed reading all her birthday cards she got in the mail over her breakfast of french toast and chocolate milk.  One of her cards had a picture of bacon on to which she exclaimed "you forgot the bacon!"  You know the bacon she NEVER requested...how could I forget?

Then it was time to get ready for school.  I hate when birthday's are also school days.  We made sure to have a treat ready to share with her class.

 She wanted chocolate donuts.  So, we made them into 8's.

One of the highlights of her day was getting rid of that Booster seat in the car.  I told her when she turned eight we could toss it out, and that is just what she did first thing in the morning.  Probably could have went without it awhile ago, but her weight really doesn't fit the guidelines of being without. 

 After school we rushed home to open presents....

She could barely wait for Matt to get through the door before tearing into them.

She was excited to get this evil monster high doll she has been wanting for awhile (Torelei the daughter of the werecat).

 She also got some new Lego friends, and a new outfit for cheer.

 She got right to work building with Chase and Daddy.

This year for dinner she chose mac-n-cheese with chicken nuggets (her favorite) and cucumbers.  She actually asked for a vegetable?!  She must be growing up.

She had asked for a cheer party and because we had cheer practice right after dinner it worked out that practice became the party.

I was a little sad that it wouldn't be fun having school AND practice on her birthday, but this smile during water break told me I had nothing to worry about.

The whole squad sang Happy Birthday to Sadi and we brought mini cupcakes to celebrate with the team.  It ended with some loud, happy girls.

We then headed home for more cake.  Sadi wanted a chocolate cake with vanilla icing and chocolate chips on top.  I bought what I thought were blue chocolate decorating chips.  Once I was done decorating I popped one in my mouth...SOUR.  They were NOT chocolate.  Apparently I did not read the label very clearly. I threw on some real chocolate chips in between the blue to try to redeem myself. 

This kid still gets scared when we light the candles, and refused to come to the table until every candle was lit.   Then it was all smiles before blowing out every single one.  I guess I didn't mess up the cake too much, the kids said those blue candies were the best! 

As much as I love watching her grow, I wish we could slow down time.

Wingmen

On Sunday Grandpa and Grandma Llama invited us to go with them to the air show out in Minden.  We arrived at the airport just before flight time, and had time to walk around and see some amazing planes.

Not only did we get to see some up close, we also got the chance to go inside some of them including this U.S. Air force f130. 

It was pretty neat meeting the pilots and crewmen aboard who were there answering questions. We even found some wolf pack stickers inside some of the planes. Way to represent!

 My two pilots for the day....

Chase got a hands on lesson on how to fly...

We also got an up close look at a Grumman TBF Avenger (torpedo plane) just like the one George W. Bush piloted in 1944.  Grandpa loved teaching some history to these two.

Once we had a chance to look around a bit, we found a spot to park our chairs and get ready for the show.  It started off with the national anthem and the flag being parachuted from the sky above.

Then it was some serious stunt flying by a couple of the smaller planes in the show (forget which ones specifically).

Besides flying side by side and doing some crazy tricks, they took a run at playing chicken in the air, pulling up at what looked like the very last second.

They had a few breaks in the show which we took advantage of and did a little more walking around.  I took the kids to see this U.S. army chopper.

The kids practiced strapping in, and pretending to get ready to jump out the side with a parachute.

Sadi tried her hand at flying.  Not sure I want to fly with her anytime soon as she exclaimed "Ahhh, we're going down!"

Then it was time to get ready for the big show, the Thunderbirds!  With planes that fly faster than the speed of sound, many of my pictures look like this...

Although the show was up in the sky, poor Sadi was just too short to see when the planes were coming over people's heads, so Daddy got an extra workout that day.

 

They were so much fun to watch, and I would highly recommend going to a show if you get a chance.  Their skills are amazing!

I loved that they left a special message for all of our military members and their families...

It was the perfect day for an air show, and spent with some of our favorite people!

First Day of School

As much as I wanted summer to last forever, it came...

The first day of school for us was Tuesday morning.  I did not have to wake these two kids, who were bubbling with excitement. 

 I think I am still in denial that our babies (yes babies) are in 3rd,

 and 5th grade!  How did that happen!?

 Before I knew it they were off....

okay if you thought that was as far as I went, you are mistaken.  They did actually want me to walk them to their classes.  We first dropped of Chase down the big kids hall with Mrs. Mahali.

Sadi was a bit more nervous I think and wasn't really sure she was ready for me to leave her in 3rd grade.  But I did finally leave her in good hands with Mrs. Ranft.

Normally when the kids go back to school, I have time to get all those things done that I have put off all summer, but this year I am our school's Booster President so back to school for them, meant back to school for me.  I spent almost as much time at school that day as they did.  After school I got to hear all about their great teacher's.  Chase exclaimed he has the "BEST TEACHER EVER!", and Sadi said she got a bazillion points for being good.  I really think this is going to be a great year for both of them.

Anticipation's Over

As summer was coming to an end the kids were really getting excited to see who they would be getting for a teacher, and the anticipation was building.  Because I have been working at the school, I knew who Sadi would be getting for a teacher, but kept it to myself so she could be surprised like everyone else.  The Friday before school started we went to check out the class lists that were FINALLY  posted.

Sadi did not get the teacher she had been wishing for and once again none of her best friends would be in her class.  Chase got the new teacher (real shocker there since my kids ALWAYS get the new teacher if there is one).  He wasn't thrilled until he saw all 3 of his friends he REALLY wanted in his class had the same teacher...woo hoo!

On Monday they had an open house at the school so we loaded up our crates of school supplies (seriously that list is ridiculous) and packed up a sweet treat for our new teachers.

Sadi had a whole list of items to do when she arrived at her classroom.  She got to pick her desk and write a goal for herself for the upcoming year.

Her teacher's room is completely themed in Dr. Seuss, I absolutely love it!  She also had all kinds of cute thoughts posted all over the room. 

Chase's classroom is almost entirely pink (with some black mustache's thrown in).  His teacher loves Hello Kitty, and her room is so cute!  Not sure all the boys dig it, but Chase thought it was pretty cool.   He also got to choose where he was going to sit and write a hope for the year on his desk.

I had to ask Chase if I could read his hope since his teacher thought it was so funny.  Here is what he wrote...

Chase's 4th grade teacher made sure to track me down before we left and assure me he did learn a lot last year.  I don't think she like his little public comment, but we both laughed about it.

After open house was over it was time to go home and get ready for early bedtime and back to school routines to start.  We read a new book which has become a tradition the night before school  This year the book was stick and stone, a story about friendship and how being together your not alone.  Then it was off to bed with our first day of school jitters.

Early Celebration

We had been talking about what to do for Sadi's birthday this year.  I hate that she has school on her birthday.  We bounced around A LOT of ideas.  When it came down to it what she really wanted was just a day spent with her BFF.  We decided with school/after school activities our time was limited when we could do it so I decided to go ahead and let her have a celebration before school started.  We started out the day going to lunch at her choice Dairy Queen (which has really become her favorite this summer).

She wanted to have a "cheer" party.  I looked for ideas for a cheer party...nada.  Or at least nothing that looked very fun.  I suggested we go to an indoor bounce party house so they could practice all their jumps.  Sadi loved this idea and wouldn't even hear any other ideas.

This ended up being a fantastic idea.  These girls jumped, and jumped, and jumped!  Sadi got lots of practice doing toe touches.

They had several different bounce houses to play in which made it fun to "bounce" from one to another.

 These three had so much fun bouncing and sliding all day!

They were completely drenched in sweat when I told them it was time to go.  5 plus hours of jumping, and they still weren't ready to quit.  We had planned to go get ice cream, but they decided on icee's from Maverick instead.  It was a good way to cool off after a full day of fun.

Sadi said it was the best birthday ever.  I hope so since I have been so busy I haven't even had time to think about her "real" birthday.