school birthday: annabelle

We celebrated Annabelle’s summer birthday with her class today. They are a nutty bunch and it’s always interesting with that crew. Annabelle wanted bomb pops like her sister and her teacher was brilliant to let them have their sugar in the sun and then run around for a bit before the day ended.

This girl is going to be 9, very soon. Still hard to believe.

school birthday: gwyneth

Here’s how this went down…

Me: “Miss G, we are celebrating your birthday with your class this week at school. Would you like me to make cupcakes?”

G: “ooooo, how about popsicles?”

Me: “I can make popsicles, but I can bake a really mean cupcake!”

G: “what are those popsicles from the store called that are the different colors?”

Me: “You know, I’ve hosted hundred of cupcake wars parties and made thousands of cupcakes. Some may even call me a professional cupcake maker! I could make chocolate, chocolate with extra chocolate just like the way you like them…”

G: “Bomb pops! Let’s get bomb pops! My friends will think those are The BOMB!”

Me: ” uh …… “

G: walks away laughing hysterically at her superb sense of humor.

Her friend, Dylan loved this picture because he said it looked like he was eating her head.

That’s a lot of boys around that little girl.

Yep, her celebration was “The Bomb”.

My little baker may not appreciate cupcakes, but she sure does like bread. Tonight she made a blueberry loaf. Yum!

spring party: 2nd grade

And so it begins…

The end of the school year is drawing near. There is an event/celebration on the calendar every day until the last day of school. Let the partying begin!

Today was the 2nd grade spring party. All the classes have their parties on different days which is helpful because I don’t have to split my time between the girls’ classes.

2nd graders got tattoos, had snacks, got chalk coloring in their hair and did some karaoke. Great party for a great group of kids.

This was the best picture I could get of them all together.

chocolate

Gwyneth’s class has been reading some classic Chocolate books: Superfudge, Chocolate Touch, etc. Their teach organized a trip for them to the Science Museum to visit the Chocolate exhibit. I took the morning off work to spend with Gwyneth and her classmates.

They are a really lovely group of kids. Just a special touch of silly, smart, and sassy. They seem to get along well, especially the girls. The boys rough house, but I have zero knowledge of raising boys so that seems about right to me.

We took the tour of the exhibit and then enjoyed hot chocolate and a hershey kiss. They played in the kids learning zone and then we had a picnic lunch outside. It was a beautiful day and a great opportunity to be with my baby girl (yeah, she’s in 2nd grade, but she’ll always be my baby girl).

teacher appreciation week

I was assigned to be the coordinator for Annabelle’s class for teacher appreciation week. I truly, truly appreciate both of the girls’ teachers and couldn’t be happier with their progress this year.

I did my fair share of belly aching about being in charge of the gifts this week. And then I remembered that I like to be in charge. I like to plan, plan, plan and get crafty. I wasn’t excited about giving up a Sunday afternoon to go decorate a door, but then I remembered how much these teachers so graciously do for my children and quit whining about it. The girls came along and helped and we enjoyed an afternoon of celebrating these teachers and seeing their friends at school.

Sarah’s family decorate Gwyneth’s teacher’s door:

The girls and I decorated Annabelle’s teacher’s door. She loves owls and Annabelle did most of the work. She did great!

Monday: hot chocolate mix, mugs and marshmallows

Tuesday: gift certificates for books

Wednesday: flowers (real and drawn!)

Thursday: Chips, salsa and a gift card for Mexican food on Cinco De Mayo

Friday: movie goodies, gift cards, tickets, popcorn popper, popcorn, candies, etc.

bj’s fundraiser

We joined families from the girls’ school for dinner at BJ’s. The school was hosting a fundraiser for the middle school field trip. We were happy to support the students although it may have been a bit too distracting for the girls to try and eat with so many friends and their teachers there!

book report in a bag

The girls have standardized testing for 2 + hours each morning this week at school. I don’t make a big deal of such things because 1.) My girls are super competitive and B.) tests stress Gwyneth out! One of the benefits of the testing is that they don’t have any homework this week. No spelling tests, no math, even the evening reading is optional.

There’s no dancing school this week or girl scouts. Everyone else is on spring break. We have so much time in the evenings! I love it.

Annabelle has been working on a book report in a bag. She had to read a Newbury winner or nominee and she chose The Great Gilly Hopkins. It was a challenging book for her. She read a lot on her own and we read a little together. There were deep story lines about race, anger, and abandonment. I’m proud of her for tackling a difficult book and for pulling together her book report.

The book report in the bag was very detailed. She had instructions on what needed to go where and then picked 5 significant items to carry in the bag. She needed a little help with formatting and cutting, but she did it!

After dinner we took advantage of a beautiful evening and went mini golfing.

Annabelle takes her games very seriously!

Miss Gwyneth is a bit more silly

Miss Annabelle even managed to get a hole in one!

science fair, friends, and nuggets game

The Science fair is next week at school and the girls had a lot of fun with their experiments. They both did research to find the perfect project. Annabelle got to make sodas explode and Gwyneth got to dye milk.

Admittedly at this age it still feels like a parent project. Until they can drive and get their own supplies it still feels like more work for the parents than the kids. They were enthusiastic and learned a bit so who I am to begrudge them that?

Exploding sodas!

Shaking sodas

Very serious little scientist

They did a great job and made great presentations — which I forgot to take pictures of but hope to get some at the actual science fair.

Friday was another half day for conferences so I picked up the girls and Annabelle’s friend Karsen for an afternoon of fun. We went to Freddy’s for lunch, Gwyneth’s choice and then met her friend Nora and her family for some bowling.

We dropped Gwyneth off to hang out with her friend Ruby and Annabelle and Karsen had the run of the house. They are such sweet friends.

Saturday was all about birthday parties. We had two at the kitchen and then joined the Clingmans for a surprise party celebrating Noelia’s 40th. They did a great job surprising her and the decor was great. B went to highschool with Brad and Noelia and I met them at their wedding almost 21 years ago. Yikes, now I’m starting to feel old.

Sunday was a day of cheering for the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. The girls performed at half time at a 3:00 game. They did a great job and it’s always so fun to watch them. Our little ladies are proving to be very good luck as the Nuggets won it in overtime!

My favorite