*ALEXA'S BDAY PARTY*

Last year Alexa had so much fun at her birthday party she asked to have the same party again. At first I tried to convince her to do something elSe, but she really had her mind set on it. She wanted to see Rio. We thought that we would let her invite whoever with the hopes only half could make it. We were pretty wrong. We ended up with 33 kids! And for having that many kids, it went pretty well. We played a couple of games for the first part of it. Then I had everyone sit down to eat cupcakes and open presents. That hour and 20 minutes went so fast. I had to get them lined up and have a bathroom break before Alexa finished opening gifts.
Once we were in the movie theater, I passed out little bottles of water and candy for them to have during the movie. I was shocked at how well all of them sat queitly and watched the movie. None of them got up at all during it. After the movie we went back to our party room where the parents came and picked up the kids. Alexa tried to open up most of the presents, but she still had several to open at home.
Alexa started in on writing her thank you cards when we first got home. 2 cards in she asked me to finish and I just laughed. I told her that she had to finish writing them after she got all those gifts!
I think it for sure was a birthday to remember.

*ALEXA'S FEILD TRIP*

Alexa had a trip to the Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe. It turned out to be a wonderful day for it. A lot warmer then it has been in awhile.
I got to ride in the bus with them on the way out there. It's funny to think that I rode on a bus everyday all the way through 8th grade, but Alexa really only has gotten to ride on one when they have taken field trips.
Once there, they were taken into a room where they were told about what was organized for the day. They broke up into their three classrooms and did a hike using their compasses and answsering questions from their field guide book. Halfway through they got to walk into the creek and look for living creatures under rocks. I was surprised that only one kid fell during this part of it. He unfortunatley had to walk around in wet pants the rest of the day.
Afterwards, we met up with the other classes and ate lunch. Then all 3 classes headed back to the woods to figure out the rest of the puzzle they were given.
It turned out to be a beautiful day for a walk in the woods.

*ALEXA IS 9*

Alexa turned 9 today. I can't get over how fast the years have gone by.
It seemed like yesterday that I got to hold her in my arms for the first time.

Every year the kids get to bring in a treat for their class for their birthday, so she brought cupcakes. She also asked to have extras to pass out to her favorite teachers. We picked the cupcakes up this morning before school, so I let her get a birthday donut with sprinkles.
We are throwing Alexa a birthday party this weekend, so we took it easy tonight. She got to pick a place to eat, so of course she picked one of her favorites, 810 zone. Plus I have to mention all of the phone calls. She was on the phone all night receiving birthday wishes which made her feel super special.
Maren ended the night by giving Alexa her birthday spankings!

*EASTER EGG DYING*

The girls have been dying to color their Easter eggs this year. Each day they kept asking when they could. So finally we got the chance to dye them Saturday evening. The girls were excited, because Grandma Hauk came over to watch.
Jay made enough eggs were the girls got 6 each and we both got 1 to make on our own. This year I tried lemon juice instead of vinegar and I think it made the eggs brighter.

*EASTER BUNNY*

The day before Easter we woke up and got ready to see EB. In the years past, Maren has always been a little shy when it came to sitting on his lap. Now that she is older, I figured those fears are over. I was almost right. All through the line she acted fine up until we got to the bunny. Then she asked if I would sit next to the bunny and if she could sit on my lap. I told her no and that it was ok. He was fine to sit with. Then she asked me, how does he see? I said through his eyes. She commented that it would be awfully hard to see, since it was fabric. I just left it at that and had her sit on his lap. Later that night, Maren asked me if she would ever see the real Easter Bunny since the one we saw was fake. I asked her what her EB looked like and she said Short, Pink inside of ears, long ears and big feet. Oh, with pink on the bottom.
We can't leave out Alexa on this. She has always been able to run up and jump into the Easter Bunny's lap without any problems or hesitations.

*MAREN'S KINDERGARTEN ROUNDUP*

It's so sad that my baby bird is leaving the nest. I know I have many more years before she actually goes off on her own, but it's for sure sad that she is starting kindergarten already. It went so fast that I can't believe it's already time.

Of course Maren was pretty excited to go to Alexa's school. We went there and the first part of the morning were different people explaining how the school works. From after care, to the counselors, to the PTA president - they all explained what their jobs were. Then the parents stayed to fill out all the paperwork and the kids broke up into their different groups. Maren got to go to all the specials (PE, Art, Music, Library.) She was so excited that they did gymnastics in kindergarten. (PE had mats out that they did somersaults on and had the beams out to walk on.)
After we were done, we headed to the car and I explained that I was going to drop her off at Pre-School on my way to work. She was so cute. She said "I'm not going to pre-school anymore, I just got done with Kindergarten.) I had to explain to her that she was just seeing what it was like and she wouldn't start until the beginning of the next school year. After that, she was pretty happy to go to her school.