Lily's 1st Day of Preschool!!!

Lily was so excited to start preschool! She couldn't wait to get ready and have her picture taken in the same places we always take Madison's 1st day of school pics. She is more than ready for preschool too. We planned on her going last year, but some unexpected car issues that led to us having to purchase a new car for Don pushed back her start. I know she is ready, but are Mommy and Daddy ready for her to move on to this new phase in her life? NO!!! I can't believe my baby girl is 5 and starting preschool. Time really does fly by way too fast! But it doesn't matter, ready or not, she is off to preschool...

Here she is on her first day ~ all smiles!

Out in front of our "first day of school tree".

A picture of her cute backpack she picked out. (It is a kitty cat.)

Of course, Taegan had to get in on some of the pictures.

We took all these same pictures of Madison on her first day and Lily remembered them. We had to take a picture by this sign and the Prince of Peace sign.

Again Taegan had to be in a picture with his big sister!

Here she is posing on the Prince of Peace sign. So cute and so grown up!!

After they opened the doors to her classroom, I walked in with her and she hung up her backpack and then we walked over to the table with her nametag on it. She got hers and then posed for this final picture before I left. She was SO happy and SO excited and it all shows in this picture. She is so cute and that smile just melts my heart! When I was walking away, she turned and started helping some other kids find their nametag - always so caring and helpful. That's my Lily!!!

Madison the Cheerleader!!

From the time Madison was very little she has always wanted to be a cheerleader. She loves it! The last 2 years she has participated in a cheer camp through Washburn University. She liked it, but we thought we would try Washburn Rural High Schools this year instead. You go for practice one Saturday and 30 minutes before it is over they perform what they learned for you. It ranges from K-6th grade and they are all so cute! You can barely see her in this picture, but she is in the very back row in the middle wearing the light pink shorts.



Here she is after cheer camp was over. A few of the high school cheerleaders let her pose for this picture. She just loved it!!

Then last Friday night she got to perform at Washburn Rural's first home football game. Here is a picture before the game.

She is such a poser!!

She is on the back row again (don't they know how short my daughter is?!). This is just a snapshot while they were getting ready to perform, but you can tell how much she is enjoying herself. She just loves it!!!

Now we are all serious!!

She is just so cute when she is that happy and excited!

In the middle during another cheer...

She stopped long enough for Daddy to get a picture.

At the end of their cheer they did a stunt and, of course, Madison was the top of the pyramid (poor girl got her height from me).

She absolutely loved the whole experience and we will definitely do it again next year!!

Lily turns 5!!!!!

Last week my Lily turned 5!! I know, where does the time go? It seemed like we celebrated all weekend long! It started on Friday, her actual birthday. She wanted to go to the library and play and then we met Don for lunch (at McDonalds, of course!). That evening we let her open her gifts from us. One thing about Lily that has never changed, she LOVES cards. She is still looking at her birthday cards a week later! She has been this way since her 1st birthday. It is so funny.

Here she is peeking over the new Barbie sheets and duvet cover from Mommy and Daddy. We are going to redo her (and Madison's) bedroom for part of their birthday present. It will be repainted light pink with some brown accents and now we have all new bedding to go with it!

Her big gift from us was a Barbie cruise ship. She was so excited about it and Mommy got to spend an hour putting it together and getting all the stickers on for her party the next day!

Another thing about Lily, she loves dolls! I found this outfit at Kohls. They have a whole line of clothes that come with a matching outfit for your doll. Needless to say, we immediately changed into the outfit and then we had to get her doll ready too!

That night after Madison performed at WRHS, we had my parents and my brother and his wife over to give Lily those gifts. Here she is with her new Barbie keyboard and pillow-pet from Nana and Papa. She also got a Barbie drink machine. It makes pretend smoothies, coffee drinks, etc. (Can you sense some kind of theme to most of our gifts?)

The next day we went to YUM Bakery at Fairlawn Plaza and had her birthday party with all of her friends. We brought the cruise ship and all the girls brought a Barbie to play with. Here are some of the decorations for her party.

Here is a picture of the cute cupcakes they made. Each cupcake had a fork in it with a flower at the top that had Lily's name on it. So cute!!

Lily with some of her party friends!!

Lily got some WONDERFUL gifts! She really loved every single one and believe me, they all got opened that night or the next day! What a great group of friends she has!

As their snack at the party, YUM Bakery made something they call "Fairy Mix". Lily got to choose what items went in it and then they top it with powdered sugar. Lily chose Nacho Cheese Doritos, Cheese Balls and popcorn. They took that mix and filled these adorable paper cones with it. Everything looked so cute!!

Here Lily is playing with Don while he is trying to take a picture. It is a little fuzzy, but I just love it!!

Here are the girls all playing with the cruise ship.

Cheese!!!!

Here is one last group shot before we left. What a great party!!

That night we went out to eat at Freddy's (Lily's pick) and then we had the rest of our family over (and a few friends that wouldn't have liked the Barbie party) for cake. Here is a picture of the birthday banner I bought a couple years ago and I never remember to use. I'm so glad we finally used it!!

She got even more gifts that night, a baby doll, cash register and her own real guitar!

Grandma made her cake again this year. Lily wanted an all purple Barbie cake. Pat always does such a great job and Lily loved it!! (Even the cake inside was purple!!)

Two pretty girls!!

Here are all the kids eating on the deck. They always enjoy this and it keeps all the mess outside, which I appreciate!!

After everyone else left, Grandpa sat down and gave both the girls (and Taegan) some guitar lessons.

Taegan doesn't have his own guitar yet, but don't worry, Grandpa says he is going to buy him his own drum set when he turns 5. Oh boy!!! I told Don he has 3 years to find me a house with a sound proof room!

I love this picture of Lily and her Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Lily!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. You are such a sweet little girl and Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!!! I love you!!!!