Babies

I didn't realize until after I did the post on Ariana's birthday that I left out the picture of the babies, and I wanted to put in the picture of Ariana's picture frame that she made, with the picture in it.

Ariana's frame and picture to always remember her 7th birthday. I should have gotten a picture of all the kids holding their frames, there were some very cute and clever ones, but I didn't think about it til it was all over. I should have gotten more pictures of the whole thing, but you stay pretty pre occupied with that many kids!

All the babies at the party. Anela, Dilyn (Lauren's youngest 1.5 years), and Kimberly

Birthday Party

Sorry this has taken so long. Ariana had her birthday party on her birthday, Saturday the 4th. It was a lot of fun, but not many of her friends came. Luckily my good friend Lauren was able to come with her 3 kids, and Kirah came with Kimberly as well. Otherwise it would have been terribly small. Of all the kids we invited from her old school, and her new school, only 2 came. Maddy and Zac from her kindergarten class. With my 3, Laurens 3, Kimberly, and Maddy and Zac we had just the right amount of kids for a fun party. The kids all made picture frames out of card stock and we took their pictures with Ariana to put in their frames. We had pizza and cupcakes, and let the kids play at the park. I think they all had a lot of fun, and consider my first "kids party" a success. Of course now Gerry is expecting to get a party, so I have to figure out what to do with him!

This picture is from this morning, I just had to take a picture when she came out in all this pink. It reminds me of myself at that age. I even had pure pink keds!

Ariana's 'abstract' artwork. She has been having a great time with her birthday presents. She got art kits from both Zac and Maddy, and I had gotten her some paint too. Since she loves art so much, she is definitely getting much use out of them!!

Ariana with her friends at the party.
Gerry, Camden, A.J. Ariana, Maddy and Zac

Pictures with each friend

Camden (Lauren's oldest 1month younger than Gerry)

A.J. (Lauren's 2nd, 4 years old)

Zac (The one she says she is going to marry, because he asked her to!!)

Maddy

Birthday Girl

On the morning of Ariana's birthday we let her open presents from us, and the one from my mom before we got ready for her party. She got some clothes and new pjs (that I bought on sale in February!) She got a lot of books. We have been buying books at DI, since most of the children's books are 50cents, and 50 cent books are 3 for a dollar. I got her 9 Barbie books for $3! She also got some other books that I just thought looked cute to read, also Peter Pan because she loved the Disney version so I thought it would be fun to read, and The Secret Garden because I loved that when I was little. I also got her a few "homework books" she loves the little work books, and I found 2 different ones about the U.S. that I knew that she would love because they have maps of the country, and of all the states, and she loves maps. She didn't have any Barbies but has wanted them for a while, I found a Barbie suitcase at DI that was full of Barbies and clothes, she LOVES it! I have wanted to find a nice kitchen set for her for a long time but have not found a nice one that I would afford. My favorite one that I have ever found was in a catalog, it was pink wood, and in 2 separate pieces, it was $99 for each piece! Well I found one almost identical to that one at DI for $8 a piece! It's used of course, but in pretty good shape. I got a some cups and bowls, mixing spoons, whisks, and hot pads at the dollar store to go with it for now. She really loves that too, that is another thing she has been wanting for a long time.

My mom was not able to come for her birthday, but she knew what she wanted to get for Ariana so she just gave me the money to get it here so that Ariana could have it on her birthday. It is a really nice Disney art kit. It has a projector with over 80 images of princesses and fairies to trace and color. It came with paints, markers, glitter glue and magnets to hang the pictures on the fridge.

Art projector set

tons of books

Kitchen set

Playing with the Barbies

First couple weeks of school

I know that I said that I would get pictures up of Ariana's first week first, then of Gerry's, but I just slack when it comes to keeping up on posts! Ariana has been in first grade for 3 weeks now, and Gerry has been in kindergarten for 2! Wow, I can't believe how bad I have been slacking! Not much has gone on in school, mostly still just getting to know the school and routine. They haven't even gotten homework, except for that they are supposed to read every day. They both love their classes, there teachers and the school in general.
Ariana loves that she gets to stay for a full day now, and gets to have lunch at school. They have both made quite a few friends, I was surprised that Ariana has actually made a several friends who are in different classes too. She was worried that she wouldn't have friends since it's a new school, but she is such a friendly girl, she makes friends where ever she goes!
Gerry is doing really well in school, he has had so much fun! He is learning a lot already, and just having a ton of fun with all the work and his new friends. His class does show and tell every Friday, but they get assignments for it. The first week they had a theme of 'gingerbread man' the whole week. So for show and tell, the teacher sent home a full page outline of a gingerbread man that he had to decorate and bring back on Friday. This week, the show and tell assignment was that he had to bring something that starts with the same letter as his name. I asked him what he wants to take, and he immediately said "Genasee!" We have pointed out to him several times that not only does her name start with the same letter as his, but that it is a 'G' that says the 'J' sound. I thought that it was cute that he wanted to take her, but thought that a picture of her would probably be better. Genasee came over yesterday morning and brought us some cheese cakes and cup cakes for Ariana's birthday party (which is today) and she brought some pictures of her and her husband Rich playing with a baby lynx and some baby tigers. So he took the pictures to show and tell, he thought that was really cool.
Anela really wants to go to school with them, but has been really good about not getting mad that she can't go, and she hasn't been really clingy to me when they are gone. When Ariana went to preschool, Gerry was so clingy to me for months! And when she went to kindergarten he was upset that he didn't get to go too. So I am glad that I don't have to go through that with Anela. She just asks a few times a day where they are, but has gotten to were she doesn't ask as often, and when she does she answers the question herself.

Gerry posing in his new Buzz Light year shirt, new pats and new shoes

Another shirt from Toy Story 3 (they were on a good sale, what can I say)

Ariana showing off her new school clothes

She loves her Barbie lunch box!

Her very first day of first grade. She hated getting up early the first 2 weeks,

but this week she has been getting up before me. You can't really tell in this

picture, but she wore the same outfit to her first day of first grade that she

wore to her last day of kindergarten.

That's it for now. Today is Ariana' s 7th birthday. She is having her first 'friend party' this year, and is very excited. I am a bit nervous, we have always just spent her birthday with our extended family, now I have to entertain a bunch of kids. We will see how that goes! I will post in a couple of days to let you know if I survived, and pictures of the event.