I found these pictures of Kayleigh when she was two weeks old on my mother's camera.

I have forgotten how expressive her face was when she was as a newborn!


Got the catalog in the mail last week.
Opening this Wednesday!
Traffic impacts have been posted starting last week.
Don't know when I'll make it there, but I'm pretty excited!
:)

Summertime at the girls' daycare is a lot of fun. Many themed activities, parties, fundraisers, etc., and a few of them are meant to be celebrated with families.

On June 29th, Abby's preschool class had a Hollywood party where the kids celebrated Lightning McQueen, the racecar from the movie 'Cars.' Parents/grandparents/friends were invited to enjoy the Derby Day party and watch a show put on by the kids.

The week ended with a school-wide field day on July 1st. All classes, including Kayleigh's toddler class, participated in outdoor activities such as spoon-egg races, potato sack races, ring tosses, frisbee tosses, beanbag tosses, and more.

I was really fortunate with my part-time work schedule to be able to attend both of the week's activities. It was such a treat to see the kids in such high spirits, the teachers so in sync with one another and coordinating all the kids' activities/events with so much enthusiasm and energy.

We truly feel blessed to have our kids in this daycare environment, where academics, social responsibility, and fun are cared about and treated as equally important.

Abby getting ready for the three-legged race, partnered with Quinncy. While they waited their turns, each child held a "spirit stick," waving it in the air to cheer on their friends.

I wasn't able to figure out when Kayleigh's class took their field day, but Kayleigh really enjoyed watching the older kids racing. Trying to stay out of the way, but grabbing some shade.

Abby did well in the sponge races.


And she smoked her friends in the sack races.

After all the outdoor activities were finished, the kids went inside and made red, white, and blue beaded bracelets and more spirit sticks to decorate their classroom for Independence Day. Abby, sitting with her best pal, Olivia, were all giggles and chatter during this activity.
While the teachers cleared the tables and prepared for lunch, the kids gave an encore performance of the two dances they did for Derby Day. Maybe because it was an impromptu suggestion to perform and, as a result, perhaps they felt less pressure, all the kids really got into the dances and did a better performance than they did for Derby Day.

Life Is A Highway - 2011 PS2 Field Day Performance


Car Wash - 2011 PS2 Field Day Performance



Derby Day was actually officially called the Hollywood Party. Most classes watched a movie and did a few art activities based on the movie. But Abby's preschool class took the theme to a whole new level.

The movie they watched was "Cars." So, Lightening McQueen and car races were what they built their activities off of. All week, parents signed up to bring in items for their Hollywood party - cookie decorating items, Cars themed napkins, cups, sandwich-making items, etc. The kids spent the week making racing jerseys, Lightening McQueen Derby Racecars, racing flags, signs, billboards, you name it!

At 8:45 AM on the day of the party, they began a Walk of Fame Cookie Decorating activity. At 9:45, they met outside to prepare for Derby Races. They gathered under a huge tent and the teachers led them all in singing the "Star Spangled Banner," which surprisingly all the kids knew! Then the kids divided up into teams, placed on their bike helmets, and prepared to race. The non-racers waved racing flags to cheer on their teammates.

In the end, everyone was a winner! Each kid received a gold medal - just like in the Olympics - and we gathered inside for a really cool cars-themed song and dance show put on by the kids.


How cute are they?!



Car Wash - 2011 PS2 Derby Day Original Performance



Life is a Highway - 2011 PS2 Derby Day Original Performance

After the dance show, the kids had a Build Your Own Sandwich lunch, followed by an art project, and finishing with story time and a nap!

The kids loved it, the parents were beside themselves proud of their kids (at least I was) and impressed by the teachers, and even the school owner, director, and other teachers sneaked a peek throughout the activities to see what an incredible job this class did with the Hollywood party theme.

I wanted to make these ice cream cone cupcakes for Abby's 4th birthday. They really turned out adorable. We had them frosted in vanilla, chocolate, and cherry icing, then decorated with crystal sugar sprinkles.


When I was growing up, my mom made these cupcakes with the batter poured right into the cone, but usually, this meant that very little cake created the dome at the top for icing. By baking the cupcakes upside down in regular cupcake cups, I had a fair amount of cake to decorate, creating a much larger looking ice cream cone!

The only problem with this method was that the cupcakes became extremely top-heavy. So, how do we transport them?!

I read nearly a hundred reviews and everyone complained about the transport of these cupcakes. Oh, they're adorable and well-loved by kids, but transporting them is a pain. I couldn't find any good suggestions, so I came up with my own.


5 oz dixie cups, turned upside-down, with the bottoms cut out made for an amazingly stable ice cream cupcake holder.


Place them all in rows inside a couple of giant cake boxes we picked up at Michael's and you've got a great way to transport these cupcakes!

Plastic bags added extra stability and spacing so that cones didn't dive into one another.

This is how they are enjoyed!

Paul and I were really in a baking mode, so we also made treats to give away at the party. The intention was to create goody bags for each child, but after searching far and wide and getting frustrated with only finding cheap plastic toys, we decided to make cookies on a stick then decorate them. Paul was a huge help creating batch after batch of perfect chocolate chip cookies on popsicle sticks. Abby and I frosted and decorated them.

We were all really happy at how well the baked goodies turned out for the party.