Queen Creek Holiday Parade

 

This year the girls' dance teacher arranged for her own float in the Queen Creek Holiday Parade.  The girls were so excited to dress up as princesses and ride the float.  It was crazy freezing, but I think they had a fun time.  It was sure fun to have the rest of the family watch and wave from the street.  They even won a prize for their float and made it into the newspaper!

Holes

 

It was a big day today for Caitlin!  For her birthday she decided she wanted to get her ears pierced!  We headed down to Claire's and let her pick out her very favorite earrings.

 

She was SO SO SO brave!  No crying at all!  She was so happy to get it done and now has multiple pairs of new earrings waiting to be tried out when her ears heal.  She's growing up!  Such a great and big girl!

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Happy 7th Birthday to our sweet Caitlin! 

 

She had her cake at her birthday tea party, but still got to celebrate her real birthday the next week!  Unfortunately, Bryce was out of town, so we celebrated multiple times.  What a lucky girl!

We kept it low key, but had a great family time opening presents and letting Caitlin pick dinner.  She's turning into such a beautiful girl.  She's older every time I look at her.  Love her to pieces!

Birthday Tea Party

This year was a friend birthday party for both Avery and Caitlin, so they decided to wait and have their party together.  They decided on a princess tea party and we invited 25 of their closest friends.

 

 

It was so fun and not even as crazy as I imagined.  We had a ton of beautiful little princesses dressed in their fanciest.  The girls all had their nails painted.

 

 

Then they each got to pick their very own tea cup to take home.

 

 

 They each got their picture taken with their new teacup.

 And we enjoyed a nice tea party lunch of pink lemonade, heart and flower sandwiches, and sweets. 

 

 Extra thanks go out to my nail technician (my mom), the photographer (Bryce), and our waitress (mom again).  What a great and exciting day for the birthday girls!

School Pictures 2012

I'm pretty sure this is the last year we will do school pictures. The only thing I want is the picture CD and they charge a ton for it. And I'm not sure they're trying very hard anymore. I mean, come on....

Ethan-Third Grade

 

 

Caitlin-First Grade

 

 

Avery-Kindergarten

Those were apparently the best smiles to be gotten that day. 

Now, I agree that my kids are beautiful and great, but I think my photographer standards are higher than they used to be.  How did they make such cute kids look so awkward?  I guess that's the real magic of school pictures. 

Crazy Hair Day

It's Crazy Hair Day.  Ethan did his own.  He says he's two-faced.  I think Caitlin's a who and Avery's Cyndi Lauper.  Girls just wanna have fun, yo!

Mustache Monday

I'm not usually a big fan of school spirit week, but I can get behind Mustache Monday.  Little effort, big reward.  Avery chose to go with the paper variety this time.

Daddy Daughter Night

The girls love it when Daddy Daughter night comes around.  And this year Noelle got to go, too.  They were supposed to dress 50's, but I had no poodle skirts, so we made do.  They sure are cute anyway.  They were so excited to go!

A picture with their Daddy!  They ran around and wore dad out and had tons of fun.  What a great time!

Back to School

It's that time again! 

I'm always happy...
and sad...
and excited...
and stressed out.

BACK TO SCHOOL!!

This year Ethan is in 3rd grade!  Ack!  Really?!  Dang, I'm old.  He has Mrs. Barber and a ton of friends in his class.  It looks like he's going to have a fun year!

Caitlin's in 1st grade and has Mrs. McKeon.  She is super excited to go back to school!

And little Miss Avery is our brand new Kindergartener!  She is definitely ready to go to school with the big kids.  She'll have so much fun.  She was so happy to get Mrs. Marquez, who was Caitlin's teacher last year.  They are already good friends.  Her 5th birthday is the second day of school, so she'll have a fun week!

This morning they let the kindergarteners go straight to their classrooms.  Here is Avery with her first ever school work.

Unfortunately they made the older kids wait in line outside.  It was crazy hot, even at 9am.  Gag.  Poor kids!

Well, we're back to school and I only have two kids at home with me now.  One is watching cartoons and one is asleep.  I think I might be able to handle this...

But I sure miss those sweeties when they're gone.

Last Day

Ethan and Caitlin were all too ready for the end of the school year.  They are looking forward to a fun, relaxing summer.  Mwah ha hah, says I. 

On the first day of school this year.

On the last day!  Getting bigger everyday!

Kindergarten Promotion

Caitlin's kindergarten had a nice, little promotion/program for the end of the year. They sang all the songs they learned and were honored with a cap and "diploma".

Caitlin, with her class after they sang their songs.  She has had a really great class this year with LOTS of friends.  She's been invited to about 12 birthday parties this year.  Her siblings were super jealous!

Receiving her diploma from Ms. Diab (AP) and Mr. Monroe (P).

Saying her goodbyes to Mrs. Marquez.  What a great teacher she was for Caitlin.  So sweet and patient!  Caitlin already misses her.  Congratulations Caitlin!

Lost Tooth

This is one of the last pictures I took of my little girl.  Just hours later she lost her first tooth and became a kid.  The baby pieces of her are starting to fall out and before I know it, she'll be a teenager!  She was SO excited!  She's been talking about losing a tooth for a year now.  She was so proud.  And she just pulled it right out herself, with no complaining.  Awesome!

And even better, the next morning she found her gold dollar left by the tooth fairy.  I heard the tooth fairy had a hard time prying her tooth out of her little hands while she slept.  Congratulations Caitlin!

Jog-A-Thon

I love the school jog-a-thon!  I think it is so nice that they encourage the kids to do physical activity, especially since they don't have a ton of PE time.  I love watching my kids run in circles.  :)

Caitlin with the kindergarteners.

Caitlin ran 8 laps!  Great job Caitlin!

Ethan with the 2nd graders.

Ethan ran 12 laps, beating his last year record.  Way to go, Ethan!

I love my kids' school.  I am so thankful for all the great experiences they've had there.  And I love being there and being a part of it.  I feel like I miss out on a lot of who they're becoming.  It's so fun to see them in action!

Jingle Jog

I love my kids' school. They do a lot of fun activities. They do a Jog-a-thon in the spring, but this is the first year that they've done the Jingle Jog. They got to wear jingle bells and run around the back of the school. Each grade had a half hour to run around as many times as they could. Parents could run, too, but we didn't. Yeah, poor sports. I probably should have. It was freezing, it would have warmed me up. I was so glad that Bryce had started his Christmas vacation and was able to come. He usually misses all the school stuff.

This is Caitlin with the Kindergarteners, getting ready to start.

And Caitlin running, she ran 3 laps.

 And the 2nd graders at the starting line.  They were much more into it than Kindergarten.  You can't even see Ethan in this picture.  He was back with the girls.

And Ethan running his 6 laps.

I was glad that they could do this.  I know they don't get as much active time as they should.  I would love for my kids to be in good physical shape.  I was always one of the slowest when we had to run the mile in school.  I've got to make sure I don't pass that trait down.

Repeat after me:  Exercise is good.  Exercise is good....

School Sing

Ethan and Caitlin had their School Christmas Sing.  Ethan sang Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and Feliz Navidad.  Caitlin sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

It's always hard to get pictures of school performances. It's just a bunch of little heads in the dark. Especially since my kids are so tall and they're always on the back row. Luckily they let us get some close-ups before the kids left. Here's my best efforts:

Caitlin

 Ethan

And Grandma Allred was able to come to see the show and to help me wrangle kids.  It was much appreciated!  And isn't she beautiful?  It was so fun to see the kids sing.  I'm so proud of them for singing and doing the actions and not being mopey, like some other kids.  Great job Ethan and Caitlin!