The Party...a Sleepover!

Oh and what a party it was!

It was my first experience with hosting a sleepover and boy was it fun...well, maybe fun is a little extreme. I smartly (is that a word) hosted the party on a Friday night. My reasoning was that after a week of school, I would have a fighting shot at getting the girls to bed. I also thought parents would appreciate that by Sunday evening all kids should be fully recovered and ready to hit the school week running. Score 1 for mom on good planning!

Score two for mom was having only 4 girls. Izzy plus 3 friends, all whom live within walking distance, made for not too much girl drama and no stress for me should someone wake up and need to go home in the middle of the night. I could literally watch two of the girls walk home from my front door if necessary.

Score three...cute cute cute matching pj's for the girls. Might as well throw in a "score 4" here because the tops are simple tank tops from Old Navy and can be worn to school as they are within uniform guidelines.

Sleep masks were a surprise for even Izzy and who knew girls literally get giddy over sleep masks?!?

Perhaps my biggest "score" of the night was hiring a dance instructor from Izzy's old dance studio to choreograph a routine for the girls from a song of Izzy's choosing. This was by far the BEST money I spent on the party because it allowed me an hour to separate myself from the extremely high decibel level! ...even better was that the moms of the party guests came to share a glass of wine and watch the performance.

After the dance number, the girls watched a bit of the movie Annie and then headed to bed. Asleep by 10:30 and up at 6:15. I didn't get out of bed til 7 so not too bad. After a breakfast of pancakes, donuts (delivered by a party guest's dad at 8:15) and some packing all guests were gone by 10.

Izzy took a 2 hour nap around 3 (we woke her up so she would go to bed) and then asked to go to bed at 8:45. All in all the party was a huge success...loud, but a success!

Party guests with Izzy:




Gearing up for the dance party with Trina, the instructor.










We had pizza for dinner (I love her expression in this picture).


Followed by ice cream cake for dessert.




Getting ready for bed...


...I'm fearful of these two in the future...here they are kissing their stuffed animals!


Someone just found out he isn't sleeping in the playroom with the girls. So sad.

Izzy Celebrates at School

On Monday, February 2nd, Izzy had school. She got to bring in a special birthday treat. Typically the teachers request healthy snacks, which I think is great, but I like that for special occasions the kids can bring a sweet treat.

Last year Izzy took the heart shaped sprinkled doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. This year she originally was going to take the same kind, but once she got hold of the chocolate sprinkled covered doughnuts from the day before she quickly changed her mind.

So, Drew and I dropped Izzy off at school and then headed out to pick up the doughnuts. We returned in time to catch the kids doing a craft/free play before joining them for her celebration snack. Izzy sure has a great class this year. The dynamic between the all the students is really sweet. I was looking at a calendar with Izzy and telling her which student was having a birthday next, and when I turned around all the students were silently standing behind me just listening.

So, after the kids cleaned up and got sanitized, Izzy hopped into the leader chair for us to sing Happy Birthday.



She also got to choose the which blessing the class would say before snack. She chose "God is Great Boogie". The teachers wanted Drew to sit next to Izzy, but he refused to move until they addressed him as "Alex". He character choice for the day Alex the lion from Madagascar.

Here he is sitting in his own chair.




Izzy told her teacher to call him Alex. As soon as the teacher said, "Alex, can you go sit by your sister?" he hopped right up and took a seat next to her.



Once all kids were seated for snack, we sang Happy Birthday one more time.



Drew took a seat right next to his big sister. It is hard for me to imagine him doing this next year. I am SO not ready to let him go :(



After snack, I had the chance to talk to Izzy's teachers about what class she should be placed in next year. We have a choice of 4 or 5day for 4 year olds. Registration is tomorrow and I am really undecided as to what I want to do. I either want 4 days for Izzy and 2 for Drew or 5 for Izzy and 3 for Drew. At first I thought I wanted 4/2 so that Fridays we could just chill. BUT ...then I think about Izzy going to full day kindergarten the following year and think maybe I should sign her up for 5 days? I can always keep the kids home on some Fridays for a break, right? The flip side is that Drew will be in the 2 year old class, but turning 3 a month after school starts. So...I think he would be better off in the 3 day cause it typically consists of the "older" 2's. Let's face it, there is a big difference between age 2 and 3. One last thing, if Drew goes 3 days a week then he will have the teachers Izzy had last year and I love them! You will have to stay posted for tomorrow blog entry to see what days we ended up with. I am so conflicted! Can you tell?

Well, Izzy's teachers think I should put her in 5 day. I think to help prepare her for kindergarten and she will "mesh" better with those teachers? I heard the 5 day teachers are really really great. Very kind, caring, compassionate, gentle, and do a great job trying to get the kids ready for school, all while having lots of goofy fun. And honestly, I just want her to have fun. I want her to LOVE school. She would probably go 5 days a week this year if I let her. Everyday she asks if today is a school day and is upset when I tell her no.

Okay, this wasn't supposed to turn into an entry about school, but rather Izzy's school celebration. Here is one last shot from the day. This is the best shot her teacher could get of the three of us - and she took like 10!