More Birthday Stuff

Both Abbie's 5-year check-up and birthday party went off without a hitch. First, the results from the visit to the doctor - Abbie is doing just fine. She is now about 41 inches tall (about 45th percentile), and about 41 pounds (about 50th percentile). Also, no shots at this visit - Yay! Abbie got all her Kindergarten shots out of the way last year, so it was smooth sailing this year, which makes all of us happy.

As for the birthday party, we had a bouncy castle, which fit perfectly on our deck. We also had a face painter and a balloon artist, both of which were super nice people. Our yard was the perfect size for all of this, not too big, not too small, and we had a good crowd of people. We served brats, burgers, and watermelon for the kids, and fajitas for the adults. Of course, there was cake, which we always get from Sam's Club. Below is the video of the kids singing and Abbie blowing out the candles.

http://youtu.be/26pX1t_Jeuk

Happy 5th Birthday!

Abbie turned 5 years old today - a big milestone. She brought some treats for her friends at summer school, and then we went out to dinner tonight. It was Abbie's choice what to have for dinner. She debated quite a bit and then decided on sushi. We have a sushi place in Old Town that we like a lot, so we walked around for awhile and took a few pictures at a few of the standard places, and then proceeded to dinner.

When we got home, we had some cake, sang the Happy Birthday song, and then opened a few presents. The official party is scheduled for Saturday, which I'm sure will yield some photos. Also, her 5-year check-up is tomorrow, which will yield all the typical metrics for me to post.

Dog Days

The dog days of summer are here and not much has been going on. Abbie's year of JK ended mid-June and the last day was filled with water games in the morning, followed by a BBQ. It was a good time to say goodbye to people that we likely won't see again because we are moving next month.

One of the most interesting things that happened is that there were multiple groups of older kids (like 4th graders) who came up to Abbie to say goodbye. One group of girls actually gave her a necklace that they had bought for her as a going-away present. Others just wanted to hang out on the playground with her. It was just so surprising to see kids that are so much older be so interested in her. And, she actually seemed a lot more comfortable hanging out with the older kids than with the kids her own age.

A few weeks ago Abbie's final report card came and it was excellent. She was above expectations in all categories. Her Spanish teacher noted, however, that Abbie seemed to have a case of the giggles towards the end of the year. What her teacher didn't realize was that this was because Abbie had developed a crush on her Spanish teacher. At home, she would often start laughing, declaring, "I'm going to marry my Spanish teacher!"

For the last couple of weeks Abbie has been involved in the Summer Program at school. She has a Spanish immersion class in the morning, and then just some general activities in the afternoons. It is nowhere near as rigorous as the school year, but it does give her something to do that keeps her entertained. Entertainment is key, as without it Abbie likes to create little dramas to break up to monotony of everyday life. Not the good kind of dramas, like "I'm going to pretend I'm a princess", but the bad kind of dramas like, "FINE! I guess if you won't let me do what I want, then I'll just sit in this corner for the rest of my life and never do anything ever again!" You get the picture, I'm sure.

Abbie's 5th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. We have decided to have her party at our house and have arranged for a bouncy house, and a face painter that also does balloon sculptures. All of this is still cheaper than holding the party elsewhere, and hopefully will be reasonably easy on us. We invited all the kids in Abbie's class, but so many of them are on vacation, that I think it will actually be a small, manageable party.