100th Day!

It's hard to believe that Gracie has been in Kindergarten for 100 days but she has!

In Kindergarten, they do a big celebration for the 100th  day of school.  For one, we had to count out 100 of something and bring it to school.  Gracie chose beads. 

 

Making a shirt was optional but of course we did it because it involved using glitter glue.  I wrote "been loving Kindergarten for 100  days" and we made 100 hearts.  You can see the ones on the left where Gracie tried to make her own hearts and then had a fit so she quit so Mommy picked up the slack and did it.  It turned out cute anyways.

 

She had so much fun at school for her 100th day.  She made a crown, counted to 100, took 100  steps around the room, and wrote a story about 100, not to mention writing all the numbers up to 100.

And speaking of the 100th day.......we celebrated it in 3rd grade last Friday  We did a few things but our big thing was to dress like you were 100 years old.  So we did.

 

And so did some of my kiddos.

Scotty and Levi's Birthday Party!

This weekend, we went to one of our favorite places.....The Children's Museum. This one is in Frankfort but actually I like it better than one in Naperville. It's smaller but more quaint and so many cool things to do. Definately worth the drive in my opinion. We went there to celebrate Scotty's and Levi's birthday.  Levi just turned 3 and Scotty will be 5 next month!  The theme was rockstars and Gracie rocked out in her sequin dress and fake colored hair!  Ha!  The kids had so much fun and cousin Lisa even came and hung out with us.  Some of our other BFF's were there too like Jackson and Shelby.  We had a great time and even went to Choo-Choo Johnny's after.  Happy birthday Scotty and Levi!

Addie Sleeps Over!

Gracie has had tons of sleepovers with Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Amy. She even slept over at her cousin Addie's house over winter break but on Saturday, it was another first.....her first sleepover at our house! Gracie had quite the exciting day already as she had been ice skating and went to lunch at McDonald's. It was there that we asked Addie if she wanted to come spend the night at our house.  Of course that answer was "yes."  All afternoon Gracie kept asking when Addie would be coming. Finally she came and it was nonstop girl stuff until midnight!  Yep, those girls were up until midnight!  I don't even have many pictures because I couldn't keep up with them.  They were all over the place.  We made grilled cheese and PB and J's for dinner.  They also had hot chocolate and brownies.  But the fun didn't stop with the food, even though they also had ring pops. They played Barbie's, dolls school, dress-up, read books, paperdolls, crafts, games, watched 2 movies, and other stuff too.  They even had to make sure they "checked on the boys" because Chuck had a friend over to watch some fight on tv.  At 10 I made them lay in their sleeping bags and popped in a Barbie movie but they chatted all through the beginning part saying things like "she's so pretty" and "that was a great song."  But then they were up and moving again.  At 11, I tried again.  I was tired at this point and laying on the couch barely keeping my eyes open.  They thought I was sleeping.  Then the decided that they wanted to sleep in Gracie's room so we set them up there.  I went to lay down and 5 minutes later, they were in my room asking to lay in my bed.  So we tried the sleeping bags on the floor again.  Nope.  Finally at 12, they were snuggled together on the couch and they literally crashed at that point.  I covered them with a blanket and hit the hay myself.  I was tired too.  I'm so glad they had such a great time and it reminds me of the sleepovers my cousin Jen (Addie's mom) and I used to have at our Grandma's house.  Those were the days.  I'm so happy that the girls are close and get along so well.  I remember sleepovers when I was younger and they were so much fun.  Although I was a lot older when I could finally stand to be away from my mom and dad for a whole night.  Ha!  Amy even kept Evie and Presley so that the girls could have uninterrupted playtime.  I foresee many more sleepovers in our future.

Gracie Goes Ice Skating!

Today Gracie was invited by my cousin Jen's daughter, Addie, to go to her ice skating lesson. It was a bring a friend day! Gracie has been counting down the days until it was time to go.  She had never been ice skating before.  She was so excited to put on her skates.

I told her to pretend she was like someone from Disney on Ice.

She practiced walking around in the skates.

At first, she crawled onto the ice because that's what they tell you to do.

But soon she was up and trying to keep up with Addie.

She did really well for her first time.  She only fell maybe like twice.

She seemed to have fun and skated back and forth with the class.

The teacher was giving her tips on how to ice skate.

There she goes!

Then the teacher took her for a quick ride.

She had so much fun.

Here's the girls watching the zamboni after class.

Thanks Addie for inviting Gracie to ice skate with you.  She had so much fun!

And although  they didn't skate, they had fun watching and eating snacks.

Evie's First Ballet Class!

Yesterday was a big day for Miss Evie....it was her very first day of ballet! She was so excited and I think her little ballet outfit may have had something to do with it.  I wanted to put her in dance because Gracie likes it so much, Presley is doing his T-ball thing, and I want her to have her own thing too.  She is headed off to preschool in the fall (tear) and although she will be with Presley,she needs to get used to doing things without me.  It's hard to let go but I know I have to do it.  I signed her up for a ballet class for 3 and 4 year olds.  It was perfect.  I signed Gracie up for a class right after Evie's.  Gracie is in a tap and ballet class and she loves it too!  Both girls will be performing at the Rialto this spring in the dance recital.  Evie will be dancing to "California Dreaming" and Gracie will dancing to "Be true to your school" by the Beach Boys.  As far as how Evie did, I had to go in the class with her.  I helped her find her dot to sit on and waited a few minutes while the other girls went around and shared thier names and things.  I snuck out after that.  There was no crying so that was good.  I was worried about how she would do.  I peeked in a couple of times and at first she was just still sitting on her dot watching the other girls dance but near the end of class, she was dancing too.  We got to go in and watch the last 5 minutes and although she was shy, she did do some of the moves.  I am so proud of her!  She did say she likes ballet and that she wants to go back again.  I think we'll continue to make progress.  But one thing is for sure...she looks pretty darn cute all dolled up like a ballerina!

Hot Tubbing!

This week has been CRAZY but thankfully the weekend is almost here. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to hang out with Grandma Patti and Grandpa Gil. The kids had so much fun in the hot tub. I did too. Too bad we couldn't relax like this every night.