Cookie Pizza

While reading one of Lea's books called "When I'm Big" Lea pointed out that the boy who thinks about the chef had bags and bags of candy and was probably making candy pizza. The inevitable question followed, "Can we make candy pizza?"

"Sure, why not!" So on our big grocery trip we all made lists of 3 things we wanted on our candy pizzas. We made giant chocolate chip bases with some chocolate sauce on top. Dan's had coconut (more than he bargained for after he let Lea help "sprinkle" the coconut - she dumped the whole bag on!), butterfingers and peanuts.

Lea's had just. Marshmallows and M&Ms.

Mommy's had Marshmallows, Heath Bars, Peanuts and a few M&Ms.

They took us 3 days or so to eat and they were delicious!

We did also have traditional homemade pizza that night. Lea's just had sausage and cheese, but Mommy & Daddy's was a masterpiece with eggplant, zucchini (which our Junie B. Jone's book calls Sue Kini), spinach, sausage and lots and lot of cheese!

Starting Kindergarten

The week before school we got all of Lea's things ready and decided it would be a good time for a portrait. We went out to the school around dusk. While waiting for the photographer, a police offer drove by us 3 times, I guess just wondering what we were doing loitering. But then Robert Bunch, the photographer came and we started taking pictures and all was explained. I think the pictures came out pretty great. Lea's portrait a week before school. Doing what she does best, jumping for joy!



Then we went down about two blocks and took some more photos on a playground. Here is our happy family on the playground down the street from the school.



Lea says about school "Its fun, and I like it. My favorite part is recess." The first two weeks have been great. We've gotten on a good schedule, even though Mommy is NOT a morning person. We make it to school right around 7:30 every morning. The kids have breakfast at school, so that helps get us out the door. We even got there early last Friday and had time to play with one of our new friends.

The first week the Kindergarten kids only went until noon to ease them into it and it allowed for the teachers to meet with each family for an assessment. As I predicted Lea knocked her teacher socks off. He went through the alphabet and numbers and of course Lea answered all those questions correctly. Next he had a list of colors, but couldn't find crayons to ask "what color is this?" I said, "She can read those words." His eyes go big and he smiled. Then she read the list of about 10 colors including purple and gray. And after that he kept apologizing for asking Lea such simple questions. It was pretty great.

Lea's first day in class at her table. Lea's name was spelled wrong the first day, but we got it fixed. I was so hyped up on excitement I didn't even notice. It wasn't until I showed some friends the photo that they pointed it out.

She sat by two girls who seem to be quite a little group. Stories she brings home indicate they eat lunch together every day. Lea got moved for chatting too much on her second week, but now sits next to another girl who she eats with. We've worked on knowing when to shut our mouth and open our ears during class and for our troubles Lea came home Friday with a "student of the week" button!

Lea showing her name tag to her friend.

Lea's teacher, Mr. Leal (pronounced Lee-al) holding the door as school lets out.


Lea on her second day headed toward class with her backpack.


Lea and her friend walk into the Kindergarten building.

Lea and her friend walk into school together. Lea has her Thursday envelope, which she brings home every Thursday with her week's work and important information for us parents.

Lea racing to school.

Lea and her classmate before school on Friday morning. On Fridays they get to wear school spirit shirts instead of the usual uniform.

Lea gets music and art once a week and a P.E. type class that they call "going to coach" three times a week. Lea starts the day with Mr. Leal and then has reading with Mrs. Hansen in the morning and then math with Mrs. Hansen. Lunch with Mrs. Hansen. After lunch she has social studies and science in spanish with Mr. Leal. In a parent meeting he said by spring they would be writing some sentences in spanish about the seasons and weather after walking around the school grounds observing. So part of the day is in english and part in spanish. Lea has learned a few colors, but has some problems paying attention to pronunciation. She kind of likes to make up her own word close to what she thinks it sounds like and tries to convince me she's right. Fortunately I still remember a little of the many many years (of which I didn't pay much attention) of high school spanish. But I think its going great. At the parent meeting we learned that by second grade the will be assessed at a reading level in both English and Spanish. I am very excited about that. Lea is already reading on her own in level 1 or 2 books (some level 2 books are too hard, it depends on the series) so learning Spanish I think is an excellent challenge for her. So far we are thrilled with the people (teachers and parents) that we've met and Lea is having a ball!

In our Barbie World

So somehow turning 5 flips a switch in a little girl's brain and suddenly Barbie is the most important person in the world! Out of the blue, right before Lea's birthday she told me that "Barbie is the greatest!" and she didn't even have a single Barbie.
So Lea got some Barbies for her birthday. She got Disney princess Barbies Belle & Sleeping Beauty who have their own little world in our bathtub. Ariel has become the step mother, but she's not evil. Everyone shares chores.

From one of her new school friends Lea got a Barbie pet groomer set with dogs that pee water on a special "newspaper" that turns yellow or brown. Lea LOVES the peeing dogs and the Barbies, but the grown ups think its kind of crazy.

But we also got what was termed a "bag of naked hand-me-down blondies." A friend brought the overflow Barbies to us. There were a lot of naked blondies.

At the consignment sale I got a bag of 80s clothes that including two shiny roller skating short outfits with suspenders and homemade wrap around dresses. But what does Lea like to dress the Barbies in? A pink slip. That's what I dressed my Barbies in! I remember them always going to sleep in a slip. I think because all the Barbie clothes look really pretty, but are hard to get on. The slip just slips on. Lea says that is the perfect dress for going to The Ball. All the Barbies, no matter their age go to The Ball at night. I don't know that any have ever really made it, but we've gotten them dressed and ready for their grand entrance that never quite comes. It is hard t get some of the dresses on the Barbies. Most of our Barbies are what Lea and I have taken to calling "sticky leg Barbies." It is the kind of plastic/rubber that the Barbie is made of. Some of the bendy leg Barbies have a rubber type of skin that makes their legs sticky when you slide on their clothes. When I told Lea they were "sticky leg Barbies" she ran off to the bathroom and tried to wash them, thinking I meant they had sticky stuff (like Lea gets sticky when she eats honey or jelly). I had to explain the "sticky leg Barbies" would always be sticky leg. That's they way they were made and we will love them and their sticky legs just the way they are. We just won't put jeans on them!

Also at the consignment sale we also got a little kitchen/bath set for $6 which Lea bought with her money. It all folds flat and has an external part with a door that has a doggie door. Then the kitchen and bath are separate. It came with plastic food: pieces of cake, water bottle, a pizza box and a bowl of chips (that Dan had to explain to me — I couldn't figure out what the yellow blobby bowl was!) The bath has a stand up shower and the laundry room. The washer and dryer really spin when you push a button, but they won't stay closed with any more than a bikini top in them. Laundry would take forever at that rate!

THEN I found my pink Samsonite case of Barbie clothes. It had a note on it (that I'm pretty sure I wrote in college) "Protect with Life. Barbie clothes." It was a treasure chest of all things Barbie. Some dolls, a ton of very fashionable clothes — if you're Cher pre-nose job! Yes, I had Cher and Cher's dressing room. I don't know what happened to my Cher doll (I remember her being taller than other Barbies) but I still have her Bob Mackie style clothes.

This is not Cher, but dressed in Cher's cast offs. This treasure has a turnable scalp so she can be blonde or brunette, but in her old age lives in a freaky Cruella DeVille meets Bride of Frankenstein style. Thus the hat!

But the best find in the pink Samsonite Barbie treasure trove was the blow up furniture! Yes, a whole room of green and brown striped blow up couches and chairs. Its like a bad 70s sit com.

Everyone is a sister that fluctuates in age from 3 to 16, except of course Ken in his make shift dolly clothes - he's dad and one Barbie is mom. How Lea can tell them apart is a skill specific to the 5 year old eye. They look the same to me, but they all have a different name and back story. There's (left to right) Ken, Skipper, Pretty, Starlight, Mom and Auntie Cher (who for some reason has a Southern accent like Elvis when its my job to talk her). Charlotte is not in this picture - Hey I guess I can tell them apart!

They eat and sleep more than any other activity, but sometimes Lea sends them on photo shoots or to gymnastics/swim class or other crazy adventures. That Barbie family never knows what's going to happen next.
But remember its no fun playing just one thing... We must play dress-up while playing Barbies!

Drive In

The first week of August we headed out South to a drive-in Theater in Ennis, TX with some friends for their son's birthday. We had a quick stop for cake at J&G's house. The cake was a fantastic replica of a game that their son and Lea love to play. Plants v. Zombie's. So great!




We had a convoy of about 4 cars and trucks and were ready for anything... except rain. It hadn't rained for over 10 before nor 10 days after, but on that particular Friday we got a good sprinkling with an awesome cloud show on the drive down.



Fortunately it only rained until after the opening credits, then it cleared up. So we put lawn chairs out and tail gated with our yummy burger and popcorn. The concession stand was awesome. But through it all Lea and her new friend had a cozy comfy place to watch Cats & Dogs 2. We brought pillows and blankets for the back of the van. I think this popcorn is bigger than they are!


The revenge of Kitty Galore was pretty entertaining for what it was. The 5 year old set loved it. We got done around 11pm so it was a pretty late night with our 45 minute drive home. But it was a blast!

Makes it all worth it

After reading stories to Lea I went in to check on her and this is what I found:

Lea was reading her princess book in bed. This is a book she got from Lalanya and Bonny for her birthday and we set it aside to practice reading. We had not read this book aloud to her and she was reading it all on her own! Its about dancing princesses. And apparently if you're a five year old girl it is riveting literature! I wanted her to go to sleep, but also encourage reading so I told her to read it once and put it down and go to sleep. Next time I went in she was asleep. Pretty awesome! Later while playing house I was the kid and I had her read the story to me. She only missed a word or two. She said "handsome" was a pretty hard word.

Last Saturday morning she asked if maybe her Daddy knew what Wolf Gloves were. I said neither of us knew. And asked a few questions like where she heard it. Well she explained it was in the story book. The night before in the book that I was reading it talked of Spring and Summer flowers like daffodils, jonquils and foxgloves. She asked what foxgloves looked like and I couldn't pick out which picture they were so I said we'd look it up on the computer in the morning. So we figured out that Wolf Gloves = Foxgloves. She and Daddy looked them up. So now we all know that Wolf Gloves are tall purple bell like flowers.

Lea's birthday

We had Lea's 5th Birthday party at the end of July. I got a little carried away inviting people, but we're so lucky to be involved with some great people. We invited our long time friends like Anna & Molly, and the girls from our play-group that we've been with for a few years now and our new friends that Lea will start Kindergarten with in August. In all we had 14 kids! I was a little overwhelmed when 3 or 4 of the Kindergarten kids and parents all came at once, but it was so wonderful to see them all. I just let go and hoped the things I'd set up would entertain the kiddos and I think everyone had a wonderful time. I know I had a great day and Lea sure had fun.

Our theme was artistic mermaids.


The octopus that made its debut at Lea's 2nd birthday, welcomed guests.

The first Mermaid to arrive was Vivian in her Mermaid costume. Lea got a wonderful tail from Tina while we were on vacation so she was set for her Mermaid party.
Everything looked great.

Dan made waves on the ceiling with crepe paper and hung crepe paper outside like seaweed. Lea and Dan made "jellyfish" out of pudding cups and ribbon (from Family Fun magazine) that were beautiful!

I was pretty darn proud of the cake. Here is Lea with her cake.


I knew I wanted it to look like water with Ariel surrounded by a beach and sea. I knew I was going to put jello in the cake (jello poke cake like my mom used to make - yum!) with a jello ocean on top (which I'd seen in family circle and saw some great examples on the web). But how was I going to create an island paradise for Ariel and my little mermaid? A lady at work (Amy D.) saved my skin by bringing in an amazing cupcake book that said you could microwave starburst or taffy for 3 seconds and sculpt. Voila! I started with one lone strawberry crab.

There were pretzel palm trees with tootsie roll coconuts with sand made from graham cracker and brown sugar.


Marshmallow seagulls. (The cupcake book told me how to make those). Of the pretzel pylons, Lea said "That's where you dock a boat." I was shocked she knew that's what those were for!

A lobster, crab, starfish and some swedish fish in their blue jello ocean.

The final product.



The first activity as the kids came in was painting mermaid tails. I had visions of them wearing their tails around and playing tag, but we got carried away with fabric paint and it was just too hot to do too much outside. Everyone seemed to love making their tail and having it to take home. Here Kindergarten kids painting mermaid tails.

The painted mermaid tails drying in the sun. There were some beautiful creations!

We played a quick round of Pin the tail on the Mermaid. Aunt Teresa liked the game best.
Everyone else just wanted to SWIM!!!

But first we had cake.
The girls waiting patiently to cut the cake.
Then the kids got to swim.
Lea and some kindergarten friends are seeing how long they can hold their breath.

The chaos of swimming and our great life guard and jungle gym: Andrew.


Andrew with Lea in a noodle lock

Andrew was a trooper and got very worn out. He did the bulk of the life guarding and playing and Dan finished off with some feats of strength. Dan being a sea horse. But then he stood up with all the girls on him! He was a little sore the next day!

Lea and Molly climbing on Dan.

The mermaid queen and the birthday girl
Lea in front of her mural. I imagined all the kids painting and drawing on the mural, but with swimming and tails it was kind of an after thought. Teresa made this great little note of happy birthday and near the end Andrew got it really going with a gigantic Happy Birthday. While not everyone at the party got to enjoy the mural, we've left it up for two weeks and Lea has enjoyed drawing on it and sticking jewels. It's become quite the master piece.
Three girls stayed late after the party for some low key play time and snacks. The girls get a pretzel tree each.

Jenae stayed to play Barbies with some of Lea's new presents.

As everyone left they got a gift bags and our sand clay that we made from sand we collected at Myrtle Beach. It molds like play dough, but dries hard in a week or so. I found a recipe in a magazine on the way to Myrtle Beach so we collected bottles of sand for the clay. That's what's in the ziplock bags and then a toy & lollipop in the paper bags.

On Sunday we let Lea open her family presents. The biggest one first from Mommy & Daddy. Its a BIKE!! with training wheels.

"You can only ride in the house on your 5th birthday!" Later in the week Lea and Mommy did ride bikes down to the park and it was wonderful. Later in the week Mommy broke out her old pink bike and we rode down to the park. It wasn't too hot and we had a wonderful ride. Looking forward to many rides around the neighborhood.

A present from Grandma to her little chicken.

Grandma, Mommy, Lea and Daddy played one of the two games Lea got as a present. Balloon Lagoon is pretty fun with 4 different "carnival games" to earn balloons.
We had a wonderful birthday with Grandma, Mommy & Daddy on Sunday. Aside from wonderful gifts, we ate steak and went to the movies for Despicable Me in 3D. Everyone loved it. And of course we couldn't stop saying "It's so FLUFFY!" And speaking of fluff...

The big present Lea got from Grandma was princess sheets and comforter. She got a big girl single bed from Grandpa. So she was ready ready to Sleep like a 5 year old princess.

But all got kicked aside for good ol' blankie.
She's since started sleeping with the comforter nightly in such a fluffy bundle I can't see the girl for all the princess fluff! Being 5 is pretty awesome.