Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Splish-Splash Party

One week after Skyler's Frozen themed birthday party, she joined her friends to help celebrate her buddy Reese's 5th birthday. It was a beautiful day for the pool and water slide party. The girls had a great time!   
Tons of swimming.....



 Plenty of water slide fun....

Skyler enjoyed seeing some of her friends from school that included Ailana, Serenity and Louie.




Louie's Mom, Michelle and I spent the entire afternoon chatting while watching the kids swim. She was a 2nd grade teacher at Sky's school and they just moved to South Carolina. Great family that will be missed!
The children feasted on delicious Ariel cupcakes and hot dogs with all the fixings. Wonderful party and always fun to spend a Saturday with friends!



Thursday, June 5, 2014

Last Day of PreK!

 June 5, 2014
"A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils." ~ Ever Garrison
It's hard to believe our baby girl has completed a successful academic PreK year at Highlands Grove Elementary. Skyler always came home enthusiastic to learn and shared such fun stories. The love, patience and guidance that Sky received during the 2013-2014 school year will be cherished forever! Thank you, Mercedes Fitzsimmons. 

The Princess and I got crafty one last time for our PreK class, making these summer treats....
How fun......
Each class mate received a goodie bag with a home made tag attached that was filled with a Kool Aid packet and a colorful crazy straw. Skyler was so excited to hand them out on her last day of PreK.
Of course we could never forget Sky's fabulous teacher. She received her own goodie bag, but we filled it with a gift card to one of her favorite places to cool down, Gelati Joe's.
We also gave her some fun gifts, including her favorite dessert, carrot cake, a shopping spree to Target and a gift card to one of her top Lakeland restaurants, Gosh, home of delicious sushi. I just love the gift bag, "You Are Amazing." So perfect!
We made this neat 5x7 card holder from construction paper to hold the Target gift card. Turned out pretty sweet!
Thank you Mrs. Fitzsimmons for being that brilliant compass during Skyler's fist year as a Highland Grove Hero. You created an environment of eagerness for learning, appreciation for growing and a room for making mistakes along the way. As parents, we can not thank her enough for sharing her gift of teaching! I personally thanked her for one of the greatest and lasting gifts of all.....Her friendship!

I enjoyed being the classroom Mom and walked away making such beautiful friendships with many parents and I adored loving on some great kids every single week day! Pictured below are Ellie, Sky, Ava, Reese and Maranda. Such blessings!
What an awesome ride we had! Look out Kindergarten, here we come!!!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

A "Frozen" Extravaganza

Our Princess enjoyed her Frozen themed 5th Birthday party on the very last day in May! Every where you looked, blue and white were present! Skyler shared her magical day with friends from school, family members and some pretty special adult friends. The party kicked off at 11:30AM sharp and featured the coolest 18 foot water slide in town! Yes, I was brave enough to host the party at home.
  Our precious 5 year old!
Our home was all decorated for the party goers. As soon as you entered, one was greeted to a see of blues and whites. Quite the opposite from last year's the pink and purple Princess party! The front table welcomed all THIRTEEN of her little friends with blue footballs and pink frozen watches.

 Queen Skyler....

Another designated table was the yummy candy station or as it is called, "Skyler's Sweet Shop" where the children had the option to fill their personalized "thank you" bags with all sorts of blue and white candies. The choices were endless. It was a huge hit last year and Sky wanted to her friends to experience the fun.

Our buffet serving area came in handy! We served our guest delicious food that included Arendelle Timber Tenders, Kristoff Chicken Croissants (with or without Cranberries and Pecans), Olaf Noses (carrots) Snow Dip (Ranch Dressing) Sven Snacks, String Cheese Snowmen, Snowflake Crisps, The Valley Vegetables and Queen Elsa's Fruit Wands. It was fun playing with the Frozen Movie theme....Sebastian was all ready to dig in.   


Adorable Snowmen that I made from string cheese by adding black top hats and blue scarfs.
Our Birthday Girl asked for cupcakes this year, so her wish was my command. Leslie has been designing Skyler's birthday cakes since she made her Ladybug cake at the precious age of One. She was up for the challenge and did not disappoint!
Auntie Kevie and Uncle Dawg drove over from Merritt Island to help celebrate and bought Skyler this adorable Frozen swimsuit.....
The party featured an 18 foot Water Slide, blue of course, and it was a huge hit! Tons of smiles lasted hours. Here are a few random shots of our daring 5 Year Old.....





 Skyler and Louie....

This happens to be one of my favorite pictures! Great group of Ladies that included Gammey, Mrs. Fitzsimmons (yes Sky's teacher came!) Kim Pollan (Ava's Mom), Rebecca Knowles (Clayton's Mom), Christie Bassett (Florida Finalist for Teacher of the Year who is also Ellie's Mom) Alex Lee (Bella's Mom) and the great Miss Maryl Richey (our dear friend).
 My sweet peeps, Teresa and Brandi. These girls are amazing!
A blast from the past (like 20 years ago)...Heather Sue!!! My best friend Micki Caldwell came and I just wished I had a picture of the two of us to share. Oh well, thankful for the embedded memory. 
More water slide fun continued throughout the afternoon. Luckily the dark clouds rolled out just as quickly as they rolled in and never produced any storms. Sky's gal pals, Ava and Bella.... 
 Ava and Skyler...
 We brought the cupcakes outside and sang to the Birthday Girl!
Reese, Bella and Clayton have been apart of Skyler's parties for a few years now. So sweet that friendships are forming through the past few years.
  

One Big Blow....
 Dig in....with sweet Ellie....
After our friends left, Auntie Kevie, Daddy and I enjoyed the water slide until the Fun factory picked it up around 8:30 that night. We had one sad little girl on our hands while it was being hauled away.

The Party Girl stayed up until 11PM before finally crashing. It was a fantastic party enjoyed by dear friends and loving family. All 21 adults and 13 children! Skyler opened her gifts in the morning and played doctors with Gammey first thing! We spent the next two days sending 27 thank you cards. Truly thankful from the bottom of my heart!