End of the preschool year

Kaylin absolutely loved preschool this year.  I loved it too.  We chose to go to a co-op.  I worked in the classroom 1-2 times a month and I watched my friend's daughter 1-2 times a month while she had a turn.  I loved getting to know the teacher, the kids, and the other parents.  Kaylin went to preschool twice a week, but some kids went three times and other kids went four, it was up to each family.  There were also monthly parent meetings where we discussed matters relating to the preschool and we learned about topics that would help us parent and teach our children.  It was an awesome program for both of us.  We were sad to see the year end!

Near the end of the school year we went on a field trip to Seahurst Beach.  The parent educator, who is in the classroom a couple of times a month, is a volunteer beach naturalist.  We went on a really low tide day and Teacher Susan was able to tell us all about the various creatures we found.



Lauren was mostly interested in the many puddles on the beach, and then she found the biggest puddle of all:

 
 I need to buy that girl some rain boots.  Luckily I am well aware of her puddle obsession and I brought a full change of clothes.

The kids put on a fun Mother's Day celebration.  They made us flowers and a place mat with a butterfly made from their hand prints.  They served us fruit salad that they helped prepare and performed some songs and poems.





On the back of the place mat each kid wrote something about their mom.  We had to walk around and try to figure out which one was ours based off the description.  I walked right on by mine, multiple times.  Here's what it said:

"My mom likes it when it's her birthday because we give her presents and she loves Mother's Day.  She likes to go shopping because she gets things for bake sales.  She likes earning things.  When she was little she liked to play jump rope."

I don't know where she comes up with these things.  KAYLIN likes birthdays and Mother's/Father's Days.  KAYLIN likes to earn things (she's had quite a few sticker charts).  I have no idea about the bake sale comment, I've never participated in a bake sale and I don't even know where she's heard about one.  She does love to go to the monthly potluck at church, so Eric and I are thinking that it might have been a miscommunication with the teacher.  I'm also not sure about the jump rope reference.  I did love to jump rope, I was in the jump rope club in elementary school, but I haven't told her that before.  Anyway... she's a funny kid.  She was so proud of what she said so I of course acted like I knew it was mine immediately.  The kids weren't in the room when we were figuring out whose was whose, so she'll never know.  Lots of other kids said that their mom likes to cook, clean, and sleep, so I was definitely impressed by Kaylin's creativity :-).

One of the last days of preschool was pajama day.  They had some tents and sleeping bags out and a pretend campfire.  I was assigned to work that day and was in charge of the snack so I had breakfast type foods.  The kids built towers and other structures with empty cereal boxes.  It was a lot of fun, and the inspiration for the pajama birthday party that Kaylin wants to have next year, as I mentioned in my last post.


Kaylin and her best preschool friend.

The last day was Preschool Graduation.  Kaylin is a super fun, outgoing, talkative kid... on her terms.  She doesn't like to be in front of people.

Do you see her?



Yes, she's the one not smiling and not wearing her graduation cap.  Oh well, at least she went up there.

I can't believe how much Kaylin is learning and growing.  It's going to be hard to send her to kindergarten in the fall, but she is so excited and ready.

Kaylin's {Tangled} 5th birthday

Kaylin turned 5 (a few months ago, but who's counting?)!  She loves a party and decided shortly after her 4th birthday that she was going to have a Tangled party for her 5th birthday.  [Side note:  She has decided that she will have a pajama party for her 6th birthday.]  I started compiling ideas in a folder in my email.  It's hard to believe, but I wasn't using Pinterest at the time.  Once I started actually planning the party I was a Pinterest addict and transferred my favorite ideas to a board.

First up, the invitations.  Come get Tangled in fun at Kaylin's 5th birthday party!!

I was inspired by a tower shaped invitation.  I found a tower shape in the Silhouette store and let my new toy do the dirty work.  I was having some problems with my printer, so I wasn't able to use the print and cut feature.  I settled on just writing it out by hand.

Here is what our guests saw as they arrived on party day:

Rapunzel's Braid!

Idea found here.

To keep our royal guests occupied while others were arriving, I covered the dining room table in Ikea paper.  I told them to draw, "just like Rapunzel".  I don't know if they drew like Rapunzel, but they enjoyed coloring all over the table.  Please notice that Kaylin wanted all of her friends to dress up, but at the last minute she refused to wear the Rapunzel costume we borrowed for her.  Let's just say I was very happy I didn't make or buy one for her.

Down the hall from the front door, past the dining room, is the entrance to the kitchen/family room.  I made a kingdom banner (idea found on pretty much every post about a Tangled party) and Laura made the amazing tower.

 

Isn't that awesome?  It was the best part of the party!  I'll try to take some credit... I made the braid :-).  Yes, I got the easy part.

As guests arrived, I took their picture inside the tower (they had to stand on a stool) and later used the picture as part of the thank you note.  Here's my cute niece:

We played some fun party games:

First we played "pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider":


 Apparently I hung the poster a little too high.  I need to remember not to base things on the height of my incredibly tall daughter... at her 5th birthday check-up she was the height of the average 7 year old and she's a full head taller than quite a few of her friends.  I originally saw the idea for the poster here.  I printed a coloring page off of the Disney site and traced it onto poster board at my mother-in-law's school using her document camera.  I cut the frying pans with my Silhouette and put each kid's initial in the center to make it easier to see whose pan was whose.

Kaylin loves pinatas, so I came up with a lantern pinata:

  
 I used a goldfish cracker box (Costco size).  I glued strips of crepe paper, that I cut to make it look fringed, around it.  I cut suns using my Silhouette and taped them on top.  I made it a pull-string pinata, I wasn't about to have kids swinging a bat in my family room.  Plus I didn't have anywhere to hang it, this way I could just hold it up.

No party is complete without favors!


 I first saw the idea here.  I used purple gift bags (bought at Michael's) with the sun medallion.  My printer was working again, so I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette and printed each kid's name on a sun.  It worked well because they were able to put their pinata prizes in their bag and they didn't have to worry about getting them mixed up.

Each girl received a sun medallion necklace as they arrived:


Laura had the suns in her stash and donated them to the cause.  She really came through for this party!  I just strung them on thin purple ribbon.

Rapunzel Paints:


I first saw this idea here.  I bought sets of water color paints and used, you guessed it, my Silhouette to cut out suns and labels.

I let Kaylin decorate her own cake using sprinkles and her Tangled figurines:

Although she refused to wear it at the party, I made Kaylin a Rapunzel braid to wear.  It has since seen lots of action.

Kaylin had a blast!  It was a lot of work and I said, "I won't do this again!"  Someone please remind me of this when it is time to plan the next birthday party.  Although I'll probably do it anyway, because Kaylin loves a good party.