Lauren is Six!

Lauren was so excited for her Barbie birthday! We are building an addition to our house so we had to get creative. Creative being it had to be outside since I have no kitchen. When the girls came they designed their own outfit for Barbie.

I love girls… they just giggle about everything! Then she wanted to play Barbie musical chairs.

Lindsey had a hard time keeping up w/ the older girls so we put her in charge of stopping the Barbie music. Then she wanted to do musical chairs by herself. She is such a hoot and was THRILLED when she got the chair. Lauren’s friends are always so good to Lindsey. They let her come and go when they are playing and just let her think she is playing with them.

We then decorated hot pink and black sunglasses with gems. Next, the girls had a snack. Hot Pink cookies with hugs. You can’t see the hot pink sugar- but that was Lauren’s favorite part.

Then the girls dressed up a Barbie and gave her a name. After that they got dressed up as well for the fashion show.

I had a questionnaire I helped the girls fill out. As the girls walked down the “red carpet” Greg described the girls and their Barbie's.

Then they just wanted to dance to Barbie songs with their Barbie’s.

Lauren and I both really wanted to tackle the Barbie cake w/ Barbie head sticking out. However, with no kitchen- zebra cakes w/ hot pink candles was a close second. She loves Zebra cakes so she was actually very excited about those as well.

The girls went home with their sunglasses and a Barbie party favor bag.

Then we were off to get her ears pierced and out to dinner. Very fun Barbie birthday!!

Full Swing

We are in full school mode now that Lauren has started. Next year, she doesn’t want to wait a week after Taylor before she starts. Taylor is in 2nd grade and has everything down. No problem. He has lots of advice for Lauren. She had a great first day of Kindergarten. She wanted to go on the big playground with Taylor, but instead she gave him a big hug. So cute. She was thrilled when she saw her little friend as soon as she got to the kindergarten playground. Everyone got hugs that morning!

The Latest in our Library Basket

Tomorrow is the big day! For selfish reasons, Lindsey and I are not excited. Not.one.bit. I’m not sure how we will get by without our creative, fun, energetic Lauren. She’s the party planner, the instigator of doing fun things. And she always includes Lindsey. Even when she has friends over. Pretty much Lauren spoils Lindsey and I both. She will do great things in Kindergarten!

Lauren is a Preschool Graduate

Lauren was ready to go to Kindergarten last year, but just missed the cut off date. So we did Joy School with some friends and enjoyed it. However, this year she has just LOVED everything about Preschool. Her teacher is great and I have loved her program.“My name is Lauren Gardner and when I grow up I want to be a hair dresser.” I think one of her friends decided that they would all say the same thing and hair dresser it was.

I love Lauren’s cute personality. I’m gonna miss her when she’s gone every morning!

Piano Recital and 1st Grade Program

Lauren is in her 2nd year of Let’s Play Music and started the piano this year. She has loved learning how to play the piano and is doing great. We both love the program. It’s been a really fun thing for her. In the top picture, they are doing a puppet show to a classical song. The puppet shows are her favorite and as you can see- she gets her groove on. Taylor sees what we do at home and knows all the songs on the CD’s so he and I have been doing it at home as well.

Taylor had his 1st Grade program which was really cute. The boys were suppose to wear their Dad’s shirts and tie and the girls wore their foo fooiest dress. They sang a ton of songs and did a great job. It’s fun to have grandparents come to the kid’s activities too!

Another Soccer Season

And this is the smile you get after you just scored your 2nd goal in one game. Or in any games for that matter. Lauren decided she wanted to try soccer this year.  She had one other girl on her team and had a great time.

Taylor’s coach went above and beyond and made certificates for the kids and handed out candy bars. Taylor got the “Whatchamacallit Moves” award for having moves that they didn’t even know existed and got a Whatchamacallit candy bar. He thought that was so cool! And it’s true. We saw a lot of karate kicks during a soccer game.

Fun Books

Lauren has discovered the Rainbow Magic Series and is loving having Greg and I read her “Chapter” books. What’s great about these books is there are like 20 different series lines. Party, music, animals, holidays, etc. You name it- there is a fairy book out there.

And we also found a new (to us) series for Taylor. The Magic Tree House series kept him busy for awhile. Then we went to The Little's which he liked as well. He also read most of the Ready Freedy books. But now he is hooked on the Weird School series. Taylor still likes Greg and I to read to him at night so he will read a chapter and then we will read a chapter. However, he finishes these books so fast that I haven’t had a chance to read them very much. However, I do hear Taylor laughing out loud when he is reading them so they must be pretty funny.

Dressing Up

The girls love to get in their dress up dresses, including shoes and jewelry. Then make up and painting nails.  I love how Lindsey wears her bracelets under her armpits and Lauren gets the flower tattoos out as part of the dressing up. I even sent Lauren to music class with that awesome make up job. Something I thought I never would do. But she was so proud that she did her and Lindsey’s make up all by herself. So I told her she just looked beautiful and sent her on her way.

Soccer season is Here

Lauren just started her first season of soccer and is loving it. She has one other girl on her team. She was giddy before her game and ready way early. When I asked her if she was excited for her game, she said, “No, I’m excited for the treats!” That’s my Lauren.

Taylor has been playing 3 on 3 with no goalie. He has been waiting and waiting to be the goalie.  He even had the whistle blew on him a few times last year because he would run down the field when the ball was coming and stand in the goalie box.  So this year they are 5 on 5 and he finally got to be goalie. He was in heaven and had an amazing block! And Lindsey sits on the bleachers and cheers for both of them. “Go Wawin, kick the ball”, Go Taywer, run fast” She has it down!

Leprechaun Day

No matter how many times we reminded Taylor- he still called it Leprechaun Day. And at our house, Leprechaun Day is all about the food.

We also played LUCKY Bingo and the kids went on a treasure hunt to find these GREEN desserts in the fridge with gold coins on the bottom. They spent lots of time making a trap for the Leprechaun and tried really hard to catch one.  The Leprechaun left the toilet water green, put green ribbon around the toilet paper. Lindsey who is potty training right now thought that was SO funny. He also left green pieces of fabric on the lamp and up the blinds. Guess he was trying to escape quickly.

Holidays are “kinda” a big deal around here

We had a fun night at home with the kids. We had Shrimp Alfredo w/ sun dried tomatoes, heart shaped red lobster biscuits, red jell-o, pink milk and for dessert pink love potion floats and pink lemonade cookies. I thought the floats would be a huge hit. Umm, they wanted just ice cream in a bowl. Oh well. Since I did Joy School with Lauren last year, this was her first school party. I got to go to her preschool and help out. She loved making her gumball Valentines for her friends. Taylor made Star Wars Valentines for his class party. Last year we started writing Valentine’s for each person in our family.  We got our pails out again this year.  Greg won hands down for writing the most Valentine’s to all of us. We had so much fun reading them. (Click on the pics to make them bigger)

Sisters

When I was pregnant with Lauren and we found out she was a girl, I knew I really wanted another girl.  There is just something about sisters.  I have brothers and love them too. But it’s my sister I call when I  want to know about kid things, decorating, what she’s making for dinner that night. The list goes on and on. So when Lindsey came, I was ecstatic… for Lauren. She would grow up with a sister. I hoped they would be the best of friends. And so far- they are. Lauren is an amazing big sister to Lindsey. When Lauren is at a friend’s house, Lindsey begs me to go get her. Lindsey cries for Lauren when she goes to preschool. I’m going to be in trouble when Lauren leaves EVERY day next year to Kindergarten. They have become quite the pair.