Keree's 7th Birthday Extravaganza

We surprised Keree this morning with breakfast in bed. We made Keree close her eyes as my Mom sat her plate down in front of her and then we told her to open her eyes. It was so cute when she raised her hand up to her chest and goes "this is for me".

 Banana slices, apple slices, carrot cake muffin and chocolate milk

 After alot of giggling, over getting to have such a special breakfast in bed, she finally blew out her candle.

 

After we got dressed, we decided to use all the freebie birthday coupons she got. First stop was Build-a-bear. She had gotten a $5 coupon from the company but we ended up spending a little more (it was only $3.34 more). She ended up with a Cardinals t-shirt, Cardinal button-down shirt and some girl scout underwear all for KittyKitty. Once the Store Girl heard it was Keree's birthday, she also threw in some hairbows and gave Keree a special sticker. Keree was beyond thrilled and couldn't wait to get home and dress KittyKitty.

 Our next stop was Toys R' Us, where she had a $3 gift card. Our first stop was by the front desk. Keree got to pick out which birthday crown she wanted, of course she choose the pink princess one. We were disappointed because usually they give them a birthday balloon but they were out of helium and balloons. Boo!! Then they made the announcement on the store intercom that a special birthday girl was there. She just giggled anytime someone wished her Happy Birthday.We walked and explored the store. This was the first time for Keree to see one of the dancing dolls, so she had to try it out. It was so funny watching her dance with the doll. She finally decided after alot of thinking to get Tiana's Royal Turtle ride, plus it was on clearance for $3.22. (So we only paid 52 cents with tax).

Our final stop before heading home was to Pizza Hut. Keree had her monthly Book-it certificate, so she got a free personal pan pizza. While Grandma and Mommy got chicken alfredo pasta since neither one of us are feeling that great.

After lunch, Grandma and Mommy took at nap, while Keree played with some of her birthday gifts. Once we got back up, it was time to open presents. From us, Keree got some new tennis shoes, a winter cat headband, some stickers, a Brave hair set and a Spiderman bath chemisty set. Plus she got this really cool Brave card with a poster inside.

 Keree's Godmother and family got her the Secret of the Wings, Silvermist. Can you not see the excitement! She went crazy over her new doll. 

 Her Uncle N's presents are being delayed by Amazon and will hopefully arrive soon. But he did call, sing Happy Birthday and talk to her. Then he arranged for a very special birthday call to come at 6pm. So we got ready and then we sat there and waited.......and waited......and waited for the phone to ring. Finally at 6:01pm, Keree got a very special call from Mickey Mouse. He wished her a Happy Birthday. I taped the call on video because she was amazed by the whole thing.

 Then finally it was time for cake or cookie. Keree picked out a gigantic chocolate chip cookie with lots of frosting and M&M's on top. Of course, with Keree's current Fairy obsession, Tinkerbell also graced the cookie. We ended up all being so tired and not feeling well that we ended our night without eating a single bite of cookie. But before she went to bed, she did tell me that she had a great birthday and was so happy I was home.

Happy 7th Birthday

7 years ago at 1:15am you were born into this world.

 As I have done every year since your very
1st Birthday, this picture was taken at 1:15am.

And I'm so thankful that I was able to get
away from work and be here to take the picture.

Happy Birthday to my very sweet, very grown-up,
changed my life forever, Baby Girl.

On to a New Year....

When 2012 started, we really thought that this would be the year when our luck had changed. That by the end of this year all our troubles and worries would have faded away. Honestly, every year we start with those hopes and dreams.....well the year turns out worse than the previous year. So this coming year, we have no expectations. We are just happy to be together and even though we know we have some major life changes happening in the next few months, we are ready for the adventure. Because as long as we are together, that's all that really matters!

Our day started off by saying good-bye to my Baby Brother. We were sad that he had to head back to Michigan but we had got to spend 11 days together over the holidays. We made amazing memories together as a family. And to tell you the truth, life is more about the memories and time spent together.

 As for the rest of our day, we had a few errands to run and had hoped to beat the incoming snowstorm. Well we got caught up in the Clearance aisles (have a great start on next year's Christmas presents), so we got caught in the snow. It started snowing around 10am and will continue into tomorrow. We probably would have more snow on the ground in these pictures, if we hadn't used most of it for our snowman the other day. Once we got home, we spent some time packing, talking to out of town family and just relaxing (which isn't something we have done in the past few weeks).

I had hoped that Keree would make it till midnight this year, but that isn't the case. It's 10:50p and she's been asleep for about a 1/2 hr. And I have to say, I'm not sure I'll make it to midnight tonight either. Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

Movies & a Christmas Party gone wrong

Our morning started out with the Cans film festival. We donated enough cans so we could see two movies at the Theatre. Which as you know for us is a real treat, since Keree has only seen 2 movies so far on the big screen, Tangled and Brave (at the drive-in). We were so excited that we got to see Wreck-It Ralph and we got to see Brave again. I just love getting to see and hear her reactions to movies on the big screen.  I also gotta say that I loved Wreck-It Ralph and can't wait for it to come out on dvd so I can see it again!

 

 After our 4+ hours at the movie theatres, we went home and got ready for our annual Homestudy Adoption group Christmas party. Well, we purposelessly got there late. I was to the point of us not attending these group gatherings anymore but felt that since this maybe our last year and after some intense pressuring by my Mom...we compromised by showing up late and leaving early. Now the Christmas party was in full force, the little kids were watching dvds, while the few older kiddos (Keree and a few others) were coloring and talking about Santa. Now, Santa has always made an appearance and it is always a big deal because he brings the children one special present. Well this year, he didn't make it. What was worse was they gave a very awful excuse why he wasn't there. I'm so thankful that Keree was move involved in what she was doing than listening! I cringed at the thought because if she had heard what they said, it would have been our last year of secrets.

 Now as I said, the kids each get a special gift from Santa. Usually we get this amazing reaction from Keree over her gift but I think because it wasn't Santa that handed it to her....it just wasn't the same. Plus since she knows how to read, she was trying to figure out why Santa had went to Toys R Us for her gift, instead of just making them at the North Pole. We ended the evening with a group shot, this was the lowest attendance I have ever seen for a Christmas party, there was only 8 families there.

Last day of the County Fair

Today was the last day of the County Fair. Which it always makes me a little sad because we really enjoy our County Fair. We had to go in the morning and pick up Keere's premium's, ribbons and the money she had won. We started a tradition last year of having Keree get her picture taken with the premium she won Best of Show with. So here is her Dream, Believe, Love sign made out of recycled newspapers and magazines. 

First day of VBS

Today was Keree's first day of Vacation Bible School. We don't attend the one held at our church because it's so expensive ($40 a child). Plus, growing up, I always attended the Baptist Church's VBS because that was the church my Grandparents attended even though they weren't that religion. But back to Keree, she's been looking forward to VBS all year because this year meant she was old enough to sing in the musical!  This morning when we arrived, they started practicing their singing and she was downright giddy. Today they pretended to visit Brazil, Keree said that they painted a picture of the ocean. They also learned about one of the church's many missions they support in South America.

After VBS, we headed over to the Library to have Keree's reading log stamped. For her weekly prize, she decided to choose a foam donut.

1st Day of Summer Break

Well as Keree would tell it, today was her first day as a 1st grader. So to celebrate the first day of summer break, Keree and my Mom fixed orange cinnamon rolls. I can't believe that this was the first time we had made them since Keree came home and she's 6 now. My Mom use to make them at least once a month when my Brother and I was growing up. It was such a treat to have them on a Sunday morning, to wake up to that ooey-gooey smell. After breakfast, we headed into town to meet up with Keree's homeschool pre-school teacher from last year. At the end of last year, before we had our last meeting, Ms. Jen had her baby. So, we have been trying literally for a year to get our schedule together and see each other. We sat and talked together for almost 3 hours. We talked about the struggles Keree went through this year, about how advanced she was over the other kids and how I'm seriously going to withdraw her from public school. I know people think I'm nuts when I say this as a Single Mom, that I want to homeschool my daughter but with the kindergarten year from hell, where she literally learned nothing in the public school system and basically would have wasted a year of education if I hadn't been teaching her when she came home from school. Ok, ok, so I'm totally off topic and seriously that could be a whole series of posts. So after our visit, we headed home. We spent today as a down day, we watched some cartoons, we love Wild Kratts, we worked some math problems, almost finished a entire workbook just today, and played outside for a short time before the skeeters started biting. Once inside for the night, we mellowed out and talked about what we wanted to do this summer.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today was my Mom's birthday. Keree woke her up by singing Happy Birthday. It was so sweet. Because we'll be heading out in a few days to my Bro's for Easter, our plan is to celebrate out there with him. After school, Keree had her second Irish step dancing lesson. She honestly loves it and it's such good controlled physical therapy for her.

Memorial Day

I feel like I'm so behind on everything. I want Keree to have this awesome summer, full of fun activites but between the work, shows and general life and family drama....I have no time for the fun stuff. We got to see my Brother for a short time today before he headed home to OH. I hate that everytime he comes home he seems so stressed out that he can't enjoy himself. So, I fixed a huge lunch - bratwursts, spatzel casserole and turnip fries. I've eaten spatzel while I lived in Germany, so I was excited to fix it myself. Needless to say, it's so much better in Germany! Otherwise the turnip fries is a twist on traditional fries made with potatoes. They were ok, I will make them again and try adding some seasoning to them instead of just tossing them in light olive oil and parmesan cheese. Before my Brother left, Keree and him played outside. We found this awesome doorway toss on clearance for $1.49. It's perfect to put on our outside flag holder. They spent a good hour seeing how many point they good get, how far they could throw and tossing them from the front and back. For the rest of our day after my Brother left, I worked on business stuff. I know I've said it more than once but there isn't enough hours in the day. When I woke up this morning, I honestly thought about taking Keree and going up to the Memorial Day observance at the family plot (my Dad's side of the family) at the cemetary. It's a little weird to think that it was the first time in 60+ years that our family wasn't represented. I know my Grandpa is looking down on me, shaking his head that I didn't go but right now, I'm just not ready to go up there. Right now, I can't get pass the pain, heartache and disappointment from that entire family. But since it's Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) , I remember the service members in my life, who I have lost - my Uncle Tootsie who served in the Korean War, my Uncle L'mont (US Army Infantry) who served and was killed in WWII, Uncle Sherman (US Army), Cousin Wayne (US Army) and my love, Dominic (US Navy).

Emotionally Resting

Today we took the day easy because of how emotional it was yesterday. Keree is standing next to a concrete basket that my Brother and I gave to my Grandma, one Mother's day a long time ago. It was one of the few things that my Uncle let me have. My Mom was thrilled because it matches the one that my Brother and I gave her on that Mother's day, way back when. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This morning, Keree donned her St. Patrick's day shirt, which is the same one she's worn the last 3 years. I'm a little sad that this is the last year she will be able to wear it. We took a few pictures outside (which weren't very good) before we headed to school. When I came to pick Keree up from school, the summary said that they had green milk and green butter for their snack today and that they made pictures (Keree said she made a house being attacked by meteroites). I asked Keree if it was butter or soy butter but she swore it was butter. Hmm, not sure how I feel about them feeding my child butter with their crackers. We then headed to meet with our homeschool teacher. While us adults filled out paperwork and talked, Keree spent her time playing with blocks. Then finally it was time for us to get down to business. Actually for the first time, it was a true struggle to get Keree to do anything. All she kept saying was she wanted to go home. We pushed through and I may have even given a little Mommy threat to get her to do the activities. Our first activity after reading a story was for Keree to draw and write the words of things that fly. She first drew a bird, then an airplane and finally a house. Both the Teacher and I, go Keree a house doesn't fly. Keree goes yes it does in that movie with the girl, dog and her house flies in a tornado, I know it's pretend but it did fly. Well you can't argue that. Our next project was to make wings. Which Keree colored two paper plates, she then poked holes through them and then I threaded the yarn through it and whola! Wings. I have to say once they were finished, they were Keree favorite and she loved running around with them on. Next she made what the Teacher called wind dancers. They reminded me of a windsock without a string (which we may add on our own). Keree made them St. Patrick's day themed, she drew a Girl Leprechaun on one and then made a rainbow and clover on the other. Our final project was to make a plastic bag kite. So since Keree was over school at that point and just wanted to go, we decided to spend a little time outside trying to fly our kite. As soon as we got out the door, the wind caught the kite and it was flying really well. Keree was so excited but then there was a huge gust and the plastic bag kite flew straight up. Keree and I just looked at each other and was sort of bewildered on how to get the kite back. Luckily the wind died down enough to bring it back down so I could run after and grab it. We spent probably another 15 minutes flying the kite before heading home. Once home, Keree had to show my Mom all the things she had made. Since Keree was extremely tired and grumpy, we ate a very small lunch and I put her down for a nap. When Keree got up, it was time to start fixing our St. Patrick's day dinner. We opted to have red potato fixed campfire way, cornbeef hash and finally using inspiration from Ludicrous Mama and her pesto croissants. Because it's tradition, Keree and I made the traditional Serpant bread. After putting the pesto on the croissant dough and rolling it, we added a cut green olive for his eyes. Keree kept laughing because she said our snake was winking. I have to say Keree and I loved it, my Mom, well she wasn't too impressed but she can be picky at times. I will be fixing it again for Keree and I but will make a few plain croissants just for my Mom. I didn't get much in the Crafty area done today, other than a few things for an order. So hoping I'll get back to working full swing tomorrow.

"Cleaning" the Farm

After dropping Keree off at school, we ran a few errands before picking her up. Right as I was heading in to pick her up, the phone rang. I let it go to voicemail because you can't talk on the phone while in the school. So after I collected Keree and read the summary, which said that they worked in their journals (yet again), sang the ABC song (seriously...such a basic song) and worked on writing their names (which didn't apply to Keree since she already knows how to write it). I listened to my voicemail after hooking Keree in her carseat and it was from my Uncle T. He wanted me to come up to my Grandparents farm, since he is cleaning it out. Which I hate the whole "cleaning" word because these are my Families memories and traditions that will be donated. He offered for me to come up on either today or Saturday, so I thought, we better go today because he's know for changing his mind. I was heading up there, when I called him back. When we got there, I told Keree she had to be on her very best behavior and not talk. See this is the same Uncle who's ignored Keree completely and literally hasn't spoken to her at all. I'm mean, honestly, he's seen her at my Great-Aunt's birthday party and no acknowledgement and then at my Grandma's visitation and funeral, he didn't say anything then to her either. As we walked in, he was very welcoming and I've got to say it was weird to be there. It looked like the Farm house, just the closest were bare and all the paperwork they always had laid out wasn't there. What shocked me the most, is when he engaged Keree in conversation. He asked her how school was, how old she was, he treated her like she mattered, like she really is a member of our family. It was weird. While my Uncle walked me around, my Mom and Keree waited downstairs. I was surprised at how open my Uncle was, he gave me my Grandma's wedding dress and the Maid of Honor dress she wore for my Great-Aunt's wedding (which I didn't know that existed). Now there were a few things when I was growing up, I really, really wanted and had asked that when they died, if I could have them. My Grandma always told me "No" they were to be passed down to her daughter or her sons. See my Grandma didn't consider me, her granddaughter because I didn't come from her daughter's womb. Yep, my Grandma was nuts. But after my Grandpa died, the family basically blew up and we were basically the only ones who came to visit her, other than my Uncle. So when my Uncle offered up the Engagement present my Grandpa bought for my Grandma, I about burst into tears. I had thought about those lamps, dreamed about the lamps and knew the story behind them. My Grandpa paid $35 for the set, which was amazing because that was a ton of money back in the day. I claimed quite a few pieces of furniture, even though I don't have room for them but some of the pieces date back to the late 1800's and early 1900's and belonged to my Great-Great and Great-Grandparents. I didn't have alot of room in the van, because I was still loaded from our last show but I was able to take a few things. My Uncle let me take my Grandma's mixer, most of her pots, pans, cups and plates. Because he had to leave by a certain time, we cut our visit short. He said I could come back up the next day, so I'm looking forward to being able to go through some more stuff. When we were driving home, I was still amazed that he gave me my Grandma's wedding dress and the Engagement gift. Since it was cold and late, we decided to pick up pizza for dinner. When we got home, we unloaded the car, so we could pack easier tomorrow. We spent the rest of the evening resting because we were all exhausted. I especially was exhausted both mentally and physically.

5th Birthday Day

Our morning started off pretty eventful, actually it was just a little after 12am when the sirens started going off. I had actually been watching the storms move across the two states and listening to all the warnings the Weather people kept giving us as Keree slept next to me. I decided since it was so dark outside to watch the storm through the bedroom window. Right as the storm was moving in, I saw the sky turn colors I had never seen before. First the sky turned a bright aqua-marine, then a bright red, that is when I scooped up my daughter and went to wake up my Mom. At first my Mom thought I was nuts but I pulled back the curtain and the sky was flashing bright red and it sounded like there was rocks being thrown at the windows. As we were running to the bathroom we heard the freight train sound. As we huddled in the bathroom, the house started to breathe, literally the ceiling tiles and walls lifted up, it did it several times. This honestly is the first storm that has ever scared me. I'm the type who usually loves to be in the thick of the storm, but this time I was just fine huddling in the bathroom. When the storm finally passed and we emerged, I honestly expected to see massive damage, trees down, damage to the roof, etc. There was nothing, no tree limbs down, no damage to the house, it was a miracle because all around us was damage of various degrees. Needless to say, Keree was restless the rest of the night. When we woke her up this morning with a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday, she pulled the cover back over her head and begged for more sleep. Keree enjoyed some Crunch Berry cereal for breakfast. Then Keree put on her Birthday Girl shirt, which she has worn on her Birthday for her last 4 birthdays. The shirt started out being down past her knees and then this year it fits her perfectly. I'm a little sad that this is the last year she will be wearing this shirt but I guess I should be happy since it's a size 18mos. Before we left for school, I decided to take a few pictures. I also wanted to document the treats she brought to school, Blue and Yellow mini cupcakes, which Keree was so excited about because they are her favorite colors. Needless to say, there are more than 12 kids in Keree's class but she couldn't hold all of the containers. When we arrived at school, I was surprised when the Main Teacher actually wished Keree a Happy Birthday. I had taken the camera in because I wanted to take a picture of Keree making her Birthday crown but they were dragging their feet in getting it ready, so I ended up leaving without a picture. When I came to pick Keree up, she was so excited because they had lantern stickers and she put them on her crown. We headed home and while I worked on lunch, Keree got to open up her Birthday presents that she got in the mail and the few my Mom and I had tucked away. Keree's Great Grandma and YeYe sent her a new outfit, a lollipop shirt, some flowered tights and a white shrug. Next she opened up a card from her Great-Great Aunt F, inside was $10 and a bag of candy. Her next present was from her Godmother, I really wish I would have video taped her opening the present because she shrilled with excitement when she discovered that she got a "real camera" with Kai Lan on it. The last gift she got to open was from my Mom (aka Grandma) it was a clock of her very own. But the neatest thing we found was a Birthday card and what happens to be on front? Not only Rapunzel but also the number 5. How awesome is that. But what was even better, when you opened up the card it played a song. The lyrics are this "suddenly I see, standing here, it's all so clear, where I'm meant to be." Finally I had lunch finished, since it's Monday, I did a Birthday Muffin Tin. So I turned some cupcake liners inside out, I thought I had birthday themed ones but I couldn't find them, so I settled on the stripes. In the first cup, was a slice of cheese folded in half, I then cut out a salami cupcake and for the candle, I used a piece of licorice tie. The next cup is some cherry yogurt with small candy princess crowns. Keree was so excited about those princess crowns. The next cup is another piece of folded cheese and I cut out a 5 also out of salami. In the next row, the first cup is some pasta salad leftover from the weekend. The middle cup was two stonewheat crackers and then the final cup was the rest of the kiwi that didn't fit on the kabob. In the middle of the tin was a kiwi and marshmallow kabob. Keree didn't have a lot of time to eat but she did finish all of her kiwi, the kabob, and salami. She ate a good majority of the rest but honestly we ran out of time. We then headed out to my Mom's doctor's appointment. Luckily Keree fell asleep on the way there and took about a 1 1/2 hr nap plus the upside also was my Mom was only in the doctor's office for about 2 1/2 hrs. While my Mom was in the doctor's office and after Keree woke up, she was excited to play her new vtech game she got for her Birthday. It's rated for a 4yr-6yr old so I thought she would be challenged on the easy level but it was way to simple, so once I flipped it over to the difficult level it was a little better but honestly, she was breezing through it also. I'm thinking for next Christmas we are going to be looking for a more challenging learning game system. After my Mom was finished, I had to stop at HL for some supplies and then we had to head to Wallymart to get my Mom's prescription filled. Since my Mom wasn't feeling too hot, I told her and Keree to wait in the car and I would take care of it. While I waited the 15 minutes (ha, it turned out to be almost an hour) for the prescriptions, Keree and my Mom witnessed a lady hit the concrete pole the stop sign was on. When I finally got back to the car, that was the first thing Keree told me, she said it was scary and the lady kept going back and forth, back and forth and there was yellow paint up and down her car. Because Keree had cheerleading picture tonight, we had about 40 minutes before we had to be there. Since we didn't have enough time to really do anything, I let Keree pick a fast food restaurant for her birthday dinner. Not exactly what I had planned but it was that or nothing. So Keree picked McD's and got chicken nuggets and fries. Once we were at cheerleading, we changed Keree into her uniform. Tonight they were having team pics taken. It was a little disappointing that 2 girls didn't show up but for some reason that always seems to happen. Now my plan was to quickly have pictures taken and then leave, instead the Coach decided we should wait for the 2 girls who didn't show up, so we were there waiting for our entire practice. I was not happy but there was nothing we could do. When we were finally done and headed home, my Brother called to wish Keree a Happy Birthday and talk to her. They talked the entire way home (20 min) plus a good 10 minutes after we got home. This evening, we surprised Keree with a carrot cupcake, we sang Happy Birthday to her and then she got to blow out her candles. I asked her later if she remembered to make a wish, she said she did but couldn't tell me her wish. We also surprised her with some knock off dippin dots. She had seen them several times and wanted to try them, so what better time then a special occasion. Keree almost finished off the entire cup of cotton candy flavored dots. She ended her 5th Birthday by calling her Birthday Twin and wishing her a Happy Birthday and then talking with her Great-Grandma and YeYe. Right before bed, I asked Keree if she had a good Birthday, she just smiled. Happy 5th Birthday Baby Girl!