Preschool Graduation

Somehow I blinked and Brayden graduated from Preschool in June.  I am not sure how that happened so fast.  Seems like just yesterday, we were taking him to daycare for the very first time as a tiny 4 month old!

We have been blessed to be at a wonderful daycare in our neighborhood the past 4 years and Brayden made some really good friends while at daycare.  Most of the kids at the daycare live either in our neighborhood or within a 5-10 minute drive from our neighborhood so now that many of the kids have been split up into many different elementary schools, it is still easy to get them together!  As an added bonus, many of the parents have become friends as well and we also enjoy hanging out together!

The daycare had a graduation ceremony for the kids and they all performed 5 songs for the families then they got a certificate from the director.  One of my very favorite parts was the slideshow that Brayden teacher and husband had put together of the kids over the years.  Many of the pictures were taken at school so the parents had not seen them.  We saw a totally different (but good) side of Brayden through those pictures!  When he is with us, he is often shy and reserved (not always but definitly not the most wild, out going child either).  At school, we saw a kid that was having SO MUCH FUN goofing off, playing, learning, and just being a kid! 

Marching in

Classic Brayden face!

After graduation, they had a party in the clasroom for all of the kids and families. 

Brayden and his sweet teacher Ms Shaye

 

 

 

Brayden, Zach, and Trey - best buds

That night, one of the families hosted a huge cook out to celebrate.  The teachers and director were there as well as most of Brayden's friends.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone a final time. 

A little basketball after a nasty thunderstorm ran us all into the garage!

Spring school pictures

Christmas 2013 Festivities

Yeah...I am WAY behind with the blog.  This post has been written for several months now but I was looking for a particular photo and have given up.  I must be dreaming that it ever existed...

As always, we had a very busy Christmas season this year.

We started by letting the kids help with the decorating the tree which is always fun for everyone!  Brayden understands how to put the ornaments on the tree (i.e. not all in one spot), but of course, Lilly has no idea.  Brayden was really good about helping Lilly get her ornaments on the tree without making her mad.

The following weekend was Matt's office party.  We always go to his office party because we don't ever have a chance otherwise to dress up and go out.  In the past, the parties have been at fancy places in downtown or fancy country clubs but this year it was at the office.  I have to say, the ladies who did the decorating did an AMAZING job!  We had a great time and look forward to next year's party!

One of Brayden's friends, Zach, his little sister Meredith, and mom came over and decorated gingerbread houses with us.  Meredith is a few months younger than Lilly so I made small gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the girls.  The boys made full size houses out of the kids.  Everyone had a great time and ate way too much candy!!  Unfortunately, I was too busy helping the kids to take many pictures during the decorating, but the finished products turned out quite good!

Brayden was very detail oriented

Lilly was very focus on the task at hand.  She did eat about as much candy as she put on the gingerbread house!

Lilly's Gingerbread house

Another view of Lilly's

Then we had our traditional small group cookie decorating party for the kids on the 15th and then that night we all go sitters for the kids and the adults got together for a fun night. 

The weekend before Christmas, one of the other moms from daycare and I threw a party for 8 or 9 of the boys in their class.  This group of boys has been together for 4 years now and have gotten to be pretty good friends.  The theme of the party was "The Polar Express".  We planned on letting the boys watch the Polar Express movie, do a craft, have hot chocolate, do a "Who am I?" game, and do a gift exchange.  Of course, it was 70+ degrees on December 22, so all the boys wanted to do was play outside!!   We were able to get them inside long enough for an ornament craft, hot chocolate, and the gift exchange.  For the gift exchange, we did a Frosty the Snowman Pass the Gift Left/Right story.  Amazingly, our 5ish year old boys, get very confused with this and we ended up cutting the story very short!  Otherwise, the boys were running around outside having a blast!

 The same friend that took our family photos back in September came over one night and took pictures of the kids in the Christmas PJs in front of the tree.  Despite very uncooperative kids, I think the pictures came out really well!

When they were still cooperating :)

Note sure what Lilly was doing, but it looks like she is trying to dance!

I love this one of Brayden :)

Brayden's 5th Birthday Party

I am trying to get caught up with the blog, but make no promises.  Life is just busy and I don't want to sit at the computer at night after sitting in front of it all day at work. 

Brayden said since just after he turned 4 that he wanted his 5th birthday party at Young's Gym in Wake Forest.  Young's Gym is a gymnastics place but they also have several bounce castles, etc that the kids love to play on.  Many of his friends have had their parties there in the past and the kids always have a blast.  Brayden also told me he wanted a Super Hero themed party, so the planning started.  The good thing about having a party at a place like Young's Gym, is that you don't have much decorating to do!!

They have this really cool swing that the kids get strapped into and then using a pulley system, they can swing the kids super high!  Brayden has always been to scared to try it, but with the encouragement of his friends, it finally did it at his party!  It was so cute seeing all his friend cheering him on :)

I took boxes from work, spray painted them, taped them together, and added windows to make them look like a city at night since most of the Super Heros work in the city.  I thought it turned out pretty cute myself. 

I also made Batman and Superman cupcakes, but for some reason, my royal icing didn't work this time and the little logos fell apart which made me a bit frustrated.  Brayden didn't care though! 

Lilly got right into the mix with the big kids too!  She was not scared to sit with them at the table and enjoyed running around after them in the gym area!  So cute!

All of the kids had a blast at the party which is the most important thing.  Also, instead of getting gifts, we asked all of Brayden's friends to bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots.  This is the 3rd year we have done that and it is so nice to teach Brayden (and eventually Lilly) about giving to others instead of always getting, getting, getting. 

Lest you think that Brayden got no gifts, several of his friends did bring him gifts and of course the family had gifts for him as well!

On Brayden's actual birthday, we had the family over for a cookout, cake, and presents.   The favorite gifts this year...Legos (which he rapidly put together with little to no help from the adults!), a real t-ball bat (we previously only had soft ones), a Panthers helmet, and an art easel.