Happy Birthday, Casey!

Did I scare you with this title, grandparents? Don't worry, you didn't miss anything, it's just preschool birthday. The kids with summer birthdays get to celebrate in the last couple of weeks of the year. This makes for a lot of pre-lunch cupcakes. No wonder she loves preschool.

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When we came inside from the safari, it was time for the birthday celebration. The purple ostrich (?) puppet named Goocha (according to Casey) came out and had to figure out whose birthday it was. Mrs. K told him to dance if it was a boy. No dancing. Then when she told him to dance if it was a girl. He did a little jig. Then he walked around the room, examining eyes and hands, and smelling everyone's breath (he checks for the birthday song on their breath). It was funny because I know at least some of the kids knew we were celebrating Casey's birthday, and of course it must have been fairly obvious because I was there, but they all played along and were excited when it was their turn to get checked. Casey was waited patiently for Goocha to come over, her lips were pursed as she tried to keep her secret.

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There are only two weeks left of preschool. Casey is dreading the end of it. She HATED spring break. I have never considered feeling sad when I've heard the words "spring" and "break" together.

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One of the moms is putting together a book for the teachers and each of the kids has to fill out their favorite thing about preschool. Casey said, "I liked sitting in the birthday chair." When she was in the chair, Mrs. K asked her how old she was. She said, "Three and a half!" and looked at me and I held up four fingers and mouthed "four" and she said, "Four!"

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The next morning when she woke up and said she was four, I had to break the bad news. She cried. I can see how that would be confusing. But I told her not to worry, she still has four more birthday parties coming up (at the park, in Ohio, at daycare, and at camp). We just need one more to tie the number of Easter egg hunts.

Jungle day at preschool

I went to preschool for the morning, as the year is almost up and Casey has been wanting me to come to circle time. I lucked out and showed up on jungle day. The kids whipped out their green camo toilet paper roll binoculars and we were on a safari. I have about a million pictures of Wesley pointing at the different animals, and some of just animals because Wesley kept saying, "Auntie Jamie! Take a picture of this!" (By the end Casey was calling me Auntie Jamie, too.) You would not believe how excited kids were, and they were actually looking at the animals through the binoculars. It was pretty cool, I have to admit.

Sunday night

Sunday evening we hung out with Kyle and Cami. The kids rode their bikes back and forth all evening long and then we had a big burrito dinner. Casey fell asleep in 3 minutes when we got home.

This is the life

Playing doctor, riding the train, riding bikes, and then a break for yogurt. There were too many cute pictures to choose from.

No words needed

This sequence of pictures cracked Eric up. It happened in the span of just a few minutes.

Is it summer?

Last weekend the girls played baseball (notice that I caught a picture of the pitch mid-air), made caterpillars, picked strawberries, and ... hung out on the steps? I'm not sure what they're doing. But whatever it is, they're cute doing it.

Baby's first haircut on a tractor

We decided to try the kids' haircut place, where Casey could sit on a tractor instead of a boring old chair. It lasted all of 3 minutes, but she liked it, especially the lollipop at the end. I'm not sure if we'll go back there again or not.

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The third picture shows Casey holding the Mothers' Day flower she made for me at preschool. For Mothers' Day I went running and out for coffee with my girlfriends and then came home to a big breakfast of delicious pumpkin pancakes. Then we headed out to a kids' furniture store in search of a big girl bed. I never would have imagined in a million years that we would buy a pink and purple castle bed. It has a ladder and a slide and a lot of room underneath that looks like a little house for her kitchen or all of her toys, or whatever we can fit under there. It was way more than we were planning to spend. It was just hard to resist while our little girl was skipping all around with a big smile on her face, going up and down the slide. We were getting hungry, Falafel Drive Inn (with banana milkshakes!) was down the street, and we wanted to make a decision and didn't want to come back.

Our weekly cupcakes

At Madeliene's birthday party we were discussing how soon the kids would be old enough that we'd drop them off at a party and we would no longer get our weekly birthday cupcakes. It reminds me of when Casey was two and I would have to run behind her on the playground and try to make sure she didn't take any huge falls off of anything, and I'd try to imagine what it would be like when I could let her run around on her own without chasing her. It was just hard to picture.

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Madeleine's birthday party was a great time. Not only did the kids get to play on the playground but they had a map and a treasure hunt and then and egg hunt. Casey said, "I'm Easter egging!" The Ben and Jerry's ice cream cart came by, and then the moment we were all waiting for, cupcake time. While we wanted for Maddie's mom to get the candles, the kids serenaded us with preschool songs.

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We were the last ones to go. Casey and Maddie were playing so happily on the playground we didn't want to interrupt. Now we're home. Casey put Daddy down for a nap and we're just hanging out.

Going to school

Who's got talent?

Alright - these are about 4 weeks late, but here is video coverage of the Spring Sing. It's a big difference from the last fall. Check out our girl belting out the songs:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZeXwacfwY

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlWmEoXNVxk

Still likes waving from the little cars

Last picture: Casey got the last seat on the merry-go-round. She wanted the polar bear, not the baby seal. Next time, next time.

Most embarrassing picture

There is one big seat in the middle for the grown-ups. I was up there getting my photo taken by about 5 parents, including Eric. So embarrassing. I was worried my sandals would fall off. Casey's to the left of me in the picture.

Baby's first roller coaster

We finally made it to the new Happy Hollow today for a preschool friend's birthday party. I don't remember if I mentioned it but we tried to go on the Thursday of her preschool spring break and got one of the last parking spots. It was so crowded we couldn't get on any of the rides, and then we got a call from Karen that she and Ashley couldn't make it because there was no parking left! So we met them at our house and the girls played and then we all went to lunch.

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We almost didn't make it this time because they sent the evite to Eric's email and he just ignored it. Luckily one of the other moms asked me if we were going, and I managed to rsvp after the deadline. Oops. How do they expect to have any guests if they send the invitations to the dads?

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Afraid of crowds and parking, we arrived early and went straight to the roller coaster. Casey loved it. "I yelled AND screamed. I said AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH." (We told her that on roller coasters you're supposed to wave your arms in the air and yell really loudly.) Whenever I get on a rollercoaster I start laughing uncontrollably and this time was no different. Hearing Casey yell with her arms up just made me laugh harder.

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In the last picture, Casey and I are in the first car. Unfortunately I talked Eric out of bring the big heavy unwieldy good camera with us. Next time we'll bring it.