Lauren's 7th Birthday Sleepover

I can't believe my big girl is seven years old.  She decided several months ago that she wanted to have a sleepover for her birthday this year.  After doing a little research on line to find some ideas for what kind of activities to have for a sleepover, I ran some ideas by Lauren and she took the ball and ran with it.  That girl is such a planner and organizer.  She made a list of the activities she wanted to do.  She even wrote about those ideas at school for one of her writing assignments.  She cracks me up with her love of writing lists.  She invited four of her friends  from school and I also invited our neighbor Chloe who is Allison's age.  I wanted to make sure Allison would have a friend there in case the older girls did not want to play with her. But all the girls did great with Allison and Chloe.  I was so proud of all the girls.  

Lauren's agenda was as follows (and she had this spelled out on her paper)

   ~Arrival and take things to the bonus room

   ~Eat pizza

   ~Crafts---First craft was to decorate a pair of flip-flops with jewels.  Second craft was decorating   sleepover pillow case.  The girls did a really great job with this and they all signed their names on each other's pillow case and put the date on it.  They were so excited to put their pillowcases on their pillows when it was time to go to sleep.

    ~Eat cake and ice cream

    ~Open presents

    ~Games-----they danced and ran around the bonus room, played musical sleeping bags, had a pillow fight.....then just played with toys in the bonus room.

    ~Brush teeth, then Movie......that didn't go over too well because some wanted to play and some were getting tired...but they didn't want to miss out on anything.  They decided to stop the movie and just play.  It was amazing how many toys they were able to get out in such a short amount of time.  

At 10:00  I went in and told them it was time get settled down and get ready to sleep.  By that time the girls were pretty much delirious.  Allison gets so excited when she is trying to sleep with other kids that she can not settle down.  Bill and I both had to lie on the bonus room floor to get all the girls to finally go to sleep.  It was about 11:00 when the last one, Emma fell asleep.  Lilly and Riley did not spend the night, so there were only five to try to get to sleep, but it is amazing how hard it is to get five very tired and excited girls to go to sleep.  Allison woke up around 4:30 to go to the bathroom and she went back and woke Lauren up....and then the others.  Bill had to go in there and send Allison to her room which made her very unhappy.  I spent the next 20 minutes trying to keep her from crying and keeping all the girls awake.  Everyone finally went back to sleep and I had to wake Carissa and Chloe up at 6:30 because they were leaving for Atlanta.  That just left Lauren and Emma (her BFF from 1st grade) and Allison.  They played very well together that morning before Bill made Chocolate Chip pancakes and sausage for breakfast.  Emma left at 10:00 and the girls continued to play until Granny and Pawpaw got here around noon to help celebrate Lauren's birthday again with the family!!!  I'll post pictures of the family celebration later.

We decorated the dining room for Lauren's party

Lauren's Sleepover birthday cake

Chloe, Allison,  and Lilly decorating their flip-flops

Lilly, Emma, Carissa, Lauren and Riley decorating their flip-flops

Allison, Lilly, Emma and Carissa

Lilly and Lauren decorating their sleepover pillowcases

Riley decorating her pillowcase

Chloe, Allison, Carissa, Lilly, Lauren, Riley and Emma 

Lauren and her BFF from Kindergarten, Lilly

Lilly, Carissa, Lauren, Emma, Allison, Riley and Chloe

Opening presents...Riley, Lauren, Emma, Lilly

Riley, Lauren and Emma

Lauren striking a pose

Finally sleeping at the sleepover.....Allison and Chloe

Emma and Lauren

Lauren and Carissa

Happy Birthday my sweet Lauren.  I'm so proud of you and the beautiful young lady you are!!  I hope you enjoyed your first sleepover.

Little Red Riding Hood.......No

Lauren

Lauren

At first glance you may think my very creative little girl may be pretending to be Little Red Riding Hood, but that's not the case.  She's actually dressed as Mary Ingalls.  I started reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to Lauren this summer.  We are on the second book, Little House on the Prairie.  Lauren  loves the books.  Allison will sit in some and listen, but I read a lot at night when I'm putting Lauren to bed.  Lauren lays on the bed and I can just see her mind picturing what I'm reading.  She listens very intently and we discuss a lot about the pioneer times.  I am enjoying reading the books to her as much as she enjoys hearing them.  Bill has also taped the Little House on the Prairie television show and the girls have enjoyed watching that.  Well they only watch one episode over and over.  The girls are also enjoying playing like Lauren is Mary, Allison is Laura, and one of their dolls is baby Carrie.  I enjoy listening in on their play.  Lauren actually has said, "Yes, mam" to me more because that's what Laura and Mary say.
While reading the books, Lauren has also decided she is a lot like Laura because Laura loves to play, get dirty and have fun.  She also doesn't always mind.  I think it's funny how she has made the comparison.  She says she is not like the character Mary.
In the pictures, Lauren took a basket liner and tied it around her head like the bonnets Mary and Laura wear.  I absolutely LOVE her imagination.  The pictures were taken as we were leaving church tonight.  She wore the bonnet all the way to church and really wanted to wear it in to class, but decided at the last minute to take it off.  She put it right back on when she got in the car.
Lauren Elizabeth Mease........I love you so much!

Off to Kindergarten

What do I say when all I want to do is cry.....?  I can't stop thinking about my dear friend Cindy's quote that she has adopted as her mantra these days, "Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened."   Not that I haven't shed a few (well a lot) of tears today...... but, I would rather focus on the "smile" part for this post.

Allison woke up this morning to her own alarm clock ringing.  She was very excited about going to school.  She got dressed, made her bed and was ready to head downstairs for breakfast before I was ready.  She was all smiles!  After breakfast, she couldn't wait to go out to get her first day of school picture taken. 

After pictures were taken, we loaded up and as we were driving our short little drive to school, Allison continued to sing, "I'm going to school, I'm going to school!"  I think the fact that she was actually getting to go to "real" school, with her sister.... was so exciting for her.  

Allison's 1st day of Kindergarten

Allison and Lauren ready to go to school together for the 1st time

Allison and Lauren at the door of their school

Standing by her cubby

Her sweet teacher, Mrs. Fox

Finding a table to sit at in her classroom.
 

After a very big hug from my little angel, I said goodbye and managed to get down the hallway without a major breakdown.  I held it together until I got into the van before the tears really started to flow.  While the tears have been swollen in my eyes through out the day, I can't help but realize how blessed I am to have been able to stay home with both of my sweet girls these past seven years.  That is precious time I will never ever  be sad about.  I will forever be thankful for these wonderful years and appreciate my sweet husband for allowing me to be with our girls for their growing up years!!!!  I love you, Bill and I love you my sweet Lauren and Allison.

Allison, I pray that you will have the best year of Kindergarten!!!!

First Day of Second Grade

What a blessing it is to have a sweet girl who loves school as much as Lauren does!!  I pray that she will feel this way about school forever!!  She woke this morning to flash me her "morning sweetness" smile.  Some time last year Allison and Lauren started waking up and giving me the sweetest smile with their eyes closed when I would go in to wake them up in the mornings.  Of course, when I make a big deal out of that sweetness, they try to out do each other with the smile each morning!! (Another blessing..... those girls are so pleasant and easy to get up in the mornings....probably because of our strict bed time we enforce!!!!!)

It was a cloudy morning and I was afraid we wouldn't get our traditional school picture outside on the sidewalk, but the rain held off for our pictures.

Lauren's 1st day of 2nd grade

Lauren & Allison

Lauren and her neighbor Carissa are in the same class this year

I walked Lauren in to school today and her class was still sitting in the hallway waiting to go inside the classroom.  I started to leave without getting a picture of her with her teacher, but I overheard another second grade teacher telling another mom it was okay to get a picture with the teacher.  So I went back and waited for Lauren's class to go inside their classroom.  I asked Mrs. Campbell if Lauren was getting to big to get a picture with the teacher and she said, "No."  So happy, because this is a great picture!!!!

Lauren and Mrs. Campbell

After praying for Lauren to get this teacher last year for first grade, I guess God wanted to teach me a lesson in patience.  Because after more prayers this summer, I found out that Mrs. Campbell moved up to second grade, and Lauren got in her class this year!!!  Yeah!!!!  A teacher friend at Brickey to told Lauren she would LOVE Mrs. Campbell and said I would LOVE her even more!!!  Thank you God for giving us this great teacher!!!

Lilly, Lauren's best friend from Kindergarten and her neighbor Carissa are in her class.  Her best friend, Emma, from 1st grade is across the hallway.

I think Lauren is off to another wonderful year of school!!!!