Five!

Cassidy's Five!  How time flies. 

 

We had a little celebration on the 11th for her birthday with Nana. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a transition to a new school, we weren't sure what to do about her birthday party this year.  We planned to invite a handful of kids from her daycare, but didn't have any contact information for her new friends at MA. 

After some deliberation, we settled on having the party at our house and inviting her entire Kindergarten class of 25 kids.  We arranged with her teacher to send the invitations home in her friends' folders, mailed out the others, and dropped a few off at her daycare. 

We bought a bunch of pink princess decorations as this was the party theme as dictated by the 5 year old!  We rented a small bounce house for the back yard and put up a tent canopy over the patio for some shade.  Food included some Raising Cane's Chicken fingers, a fruit plate, a veggie plate, and some Zapps chips. 

The party was great!  Cassidy loved showing off her room to her friends and they had the run of the house while the parents hung out and talked.  We had a great turn out of 15 Kindergartners, around 5 younger siblings, and a couple of older siblings too. 

I decided that rather than hire a face painter, I would give it a go myself.  So about a month before the party, I bought a face painting kit from Michael's and started practicing on Cassidy....

 

 

 

And Nana....

 

 

 

And Jeff ... but I forgot to take a picture.

Face painting at the party was fantastic; I had so much fun!   But unfortunately meant that I didn't get to socialize at all because I was painting the entire time!  I also realized afterwards that I didn't take a single picture so the pictures we have are thanks to another mom who was there.

 

 

 

There's that look again! 
We have at least 3 other pictures of her looking at Jackson like this!

 

We got Cassidy's princess cake from Rouse's again, which I was pleased with and she loved.  We had a pinata filled with goodies which the kids LOVED!

 

 

 

 

 

After the party, we did a little cleanup and then Cassidy opened her presents.

Yeah for parties at home!!!!  I'd be totally fine with that again next year. 

Cassidy may have different ideas... she's already scouting out where she wants her next birthday party.

 

First Day of K

Today Cassidy started Kindergarten!  My baby is growing up too fast!

On the way to school, Cassidy asked me if she had to wear "this" everyday.  We've talked about uniforms already, so this surprised me.  I told her that she had 3 uniform outfits to choose from and she could decide what to wear tomorrow.  She's okay with the uniform, but disappointed about the shoes.... specifically that she doesn't get to wear her sparkly/fancy shoes.  She has TOMS that she wears most days but also likes to work in her purple and green sneakers or silver zip up high tops.  For school it's plain black or plain white, though I noticed that many of the Kindergartners there did not follow this.  I'd imagine they give the new parents a bit of time to conform and that the rules are more enforced as the kids get older.  She was also very concerned with what she would be eating for lunch.  We decided to try the lunch program there for about a month before we decide if we'd like to send her lunch to school with her.  At $1.50 for lunch, it seems tough to beat for price and convenience.  We do have to send two snacks for her, one for morning and one for aftercare, so I'd imagine a lunch box of some kind will be on the shopping list soon.

 

I went with her for the first couple of hours.  Last week Friday we were at school for state testing to assess the incoming preK and Kindergartners and we met a couple of girls from her class.  This morning her new friend Ruby immediately recognized her and they were side by side almost the whole time I was there.  During that time, we had a welcome assembly for the preK and Kindergarteners, story time in her class, a brief parent/kid project, PE class,

a bathroom break, and snack time.  

After snack time, I decided she was doing fine, said goodbye, and left.  She got a little clingy right before I left when she saw me in the hallway where I stopped to sign up for emails, but went willingly into her classroom with her "new friends" without any tears.  

Yesterday, half the class was there for orientation and today was the other half.  Tomorrow all 26 Kindergartners in her class will be there so there will be some other familiar faces who Cassidy met at a birthday party this summer. 

I was sent home with a first grade math workbook that she'll be working from right away.  She'll start French class this year too.  And each of the kids got a notebook that will serve as their journal which they will be writing in on a daily basis!  

Homework will start on Monday!

I'm sure it helps that she's been in a structured classroom setting for as long as she can remember.  

Still, I can't believe we are here already!

Day 2 in her other uniform

Driving home after day 2.  Completely exhausted!

In Loving Memory Of.....

A Memorial Service will be held at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Sussex, WI
Sunday, July 28.  

N59W22476 Silver Spring Dr.
Sussex, WI 53089

Visitation at 4pm with a service to follow at 5pm. 

 In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church.

Bittersweet: Fort Walton Beach, 2013

Our vacation this year was relocated to Forth Walton Beach because our usual TAN Gulf Shores Plantation resort was all booked up.  We rented a condo at Destin West because we'd been there before for volleyball tournaments and knew the place was nice, with a couple pool choices and a lazy river.  We specifically rented a condo with a patio that opened up directly to one of the pools so that Dad, who was rather limited on  mobility, would be able to be part of things without having to walk far. 

The condo was a lovely 1 bedroom unit with twin bunk beds in the hallway and a sofa sleeper in the living room.  The patio overlooked the pool with a picnic table just steps away from the condo. 

It would have been perfect. 

Instead it was bittersweet. 

We started out our vacation with a two hour traffic delay, an hour in Mobile and another hour coming into Fort Walton Beach, arriving Saturday evening.  We hit the pool right away and relaxed by the pool until the rain started. 

Sunday was ugly, with pouring rain and thunderstorms.  We started out the day with a stop at some flea markets and a tense drive into Destin in heavy rain, found the shopping mall we were looking for only to find it was an outdoor mall.  We decided it was too wet to go and made our way back to the condo.  Later on we had dinner at Fudpuckers in Destin and had a blast in the arcade next door.  Nana won big on her second spin on Spin and Win with 1000 tickets!  With the addition of some other tickets, some won and others acquired from a malfunctioning game, Cassidy left with a new doll and a dress up princess kit complete with kid high heels, jewelry, and a crown. 

During dinner I started feeling not so well, and by the next day I was running 101.8 fever.  I laid low with a 3 hour nap while Nana, Jeff, and Cassidy hit another arcade, and finally the weather cleared up that evening.  My fever lasted about 36 hours and was followed immediately by a wicked sinus infection.  A morning trip to walgreens for some cough drops and mucinex and I was feeling well enough to play.

The rest of the trip we alternated between the beach, the pool by our condo, and the pool with the waterfall and lazy river across the road.

Cassidy's favorite activity was wading out into the Gulf and jumping over waves.  And by jumping, I mean Mommy or Daddy lifting her over while she jumped and giggled.

Cassidy thought the waterfall pool was very cool and enjoyed jumping through the waterfall after watching some older kids do it.

We soaked up the sun along the lazy river.  The tubes were too big for Cassidy, so she used our floaty which worked out perfectly! 

The waves were pretty big the whole time we were there, and they cleared the water a couple of times because of rip currents.  Cassidy's pretty hesitant about the waves, and with our additional warnings that she needed a grownup to be with her in the water especially because we didn't bring any of her swim floaties or life jacket,  she played it pretty safe, only going without us ankle deep to fill a bucket or rinse her hands.

One morning when I was finally feeling better I got up early and went for a 2 hour walk along the beach, collecting treasures (shells) for Cassidy.  While walking, I saw 4 stingrays swimming in a shallow tide pool right by shore.  HUGE stingrays!  We also saw a dolphin swimming offshore another day.

Cassidy tried out someones body board and loved it.  This might be on the list of things to purchase and do next time.

One evening we headed back to Destin to Harborwalk village for dinner.

Nana and Cassidy took a train ride around the Harborwalk and then Cassidy got some ridiculously colored ice cream.

Cassidy is finally tall enough to stand in the 3 foot sections of the pool, so it was nice to turn her loose without having to constantly be right next to her.  Her swimming ability is coming along in spite of not doing continuous swimming lessons (they were full all through the summer), though I don't think she could get herself to the side of the pool if she fell in.  She hasn't quite mastered the getting her head up to breath thing, so if she can't swim it in one breath, she doesn't make it.  She spent a lot of time jumping in, and even more time diving for rings and other toys, as deep as 5 feet down!

It was a good trip in spite of the weather, the fever, and the following sinus infection.

Papa would have loved it.

Bittersweet.