First Day of Pre-K

I can hardly believe this kid is a Pre-k'er!! Man I love her.

Friday we got the call on who Stella's Pre-K teachers were going to be. Then we found out Annika and Charlotte (classmates from last year) would also be in her class.

Tuesday Stella had her 4 year check-up 2 1/2 months late because either I never scheduled it or her doctor's office never called to scheduled. I didn't realize this until late July maybe. So anyways...she's in the 82% for weight, the 72% for height and wears anywhere from a 9-11 shoe size. A few 6-8 year olds we know are only 1 shoes size away from her. 

Wednesday this girl got to meet her teachers, Miss Denisse and Miss Eileen.

After meeting them me and Kimberly surprised the girls with a trip to Nail Tek for pre Pre-K mani/pedi's. We also got our own. The girls were so happy and excited to have their own area. We were too! Me and Kimberly got to sit in another room and have an actual conversation, but we could monitor the girls on camera above us.  

Stella and Charlotte both chose sparkly pink, but different shades of sparkly pink. Stella even went with one shade on her fingers and one on her toes. Any time Stella is offered a choice in colors, her choice is always pink. I can totally see us doing the "Her colors are pink and pink. The sanctuary looks like it's been sprayed down with Pepto Bismol." "No Mama, my colors are blush and bashful!"

The girl painted little white flowers on both of their big toes. So cute!

Then this happened in Kroger. She told me she was sleepy and then just went to sleep. I totally thought she was faking for a while.

And finally.....the day we've all been waiting on!! "My first day of Pre-K!!"

At 4, going into Pre-K, she weighs just a pound or two less than my dad did the day he started 1st grade! 

Her foot is about to be bigger than my entire hand which I am NOT ready for. 

In addition to wanting to be a veterinarian, an artist and a mommy, Stella also wants to be a restaurant owner. Dogs, both regular and service dogs, are welcome, of course. 

Stella loves to dress up and be "fancy", but she also adores to just be in her panties all day. If we aren't going anywhere she will most likely not put on clothes. If she does have on clothes, they usually come off soon after entering the door because she's "so hot!" Makes laundry easy for me. She can be seen pictured in just panties a few photos up showing off her freshly painted nails.

She has these dimples hidden in her eyebrows, but they appear when she smiles really big or laughs really hard when Daddy or me are tickling her. I can kind of see them in the picture here, but they are easier to spot in person.

She's fiesty, argumentative and full of attitude and I know she will kick ass when she gets older. 

She has the perfect little splattering of freckles popping up on the bridge of her nose and cheeks.

She drives me INSANE by yanking out half of the tissues out of the box to make beds and blankets for her dolls and stuffed animals.

I did not pose her and I love that she kicked her leg back like this. 

She loves anything to do with space/solar system.

She has just started helping me prep fruit and veggies by cutting them on her very own cutting board. 

She loves the man she calls Daddy so much. She loves me too as she tells me several times a day, especially when she can't think of anything else to say, but their love is different. And I love that.

Both Donald and I brought her to school and picked her up. She loved that special treat. She did great. No hesitation or tears, just happiness and excitement. So proud of her.

R-O-A-R! Stella turns 4! (The party)

So last Summer I took Stella to a Movies by Moonlight event at Taylor Brawner Park. The movie was The Good Dinosaur. She loved it. Donald bought it for her birthday. But eventually I tired of watching and hearing The Good Dinosaur over and over. Then I remembered a childhood favorite of ours-The Land Before Time. She loved it. And those two movies started a love of dinosaurs for Stella. 

I saw this invite on Pinterest or Etsy and loved it's simplicity. I asked around on Facebook for someone to make something similar and Britany helped me out with an exact replica. Unfortunately, they couldn't make it to the party, but I was so grateful for this.

We set up this seating area under the carport in case of rain or too much sun,  but literally no one sat here. Everyone mingled in the backyard the entire time.

Instead of buying decorations I just made a few out of cardboard boxes. I wanted to be somewhat "green" and we also didn't want to do a lot of set-up.  I bought some dinosaur stamps and had a few birthday stamps.  Stella helped me stamp them and she enjoyed helping with the decor.

Of course I had to put out these metal signs my mom gave me 

when Stella was born.

This girl loved helping me set up things for her party.

That huge sheet of plastic back there is actually 3 pieces put together to make Metro Atlanta's largest slip 'n' slide.

And the birthday banner I made for Stella for her first birthday.

Silly faces before the party

Simple party favors-Dinosaur stickers and grow-in-water dinos.  

See the two dinosaur things in the background? Those are bubble guns I bought off of Zulily. They were quite the hit. When I bought them I just thought they dispensed bubbles. Turns out they light up and roar. Really loudly too.  We went through a lot of bubbles with these and they caused a few fights.

Stella wanted dirt cake for her party so the birthday girl got what she asked for. 

I also made simple vanilla mini cupcakes for those who may have wanted just a little bite or something without chocolate.

She told me she wanted her own star cake to put the candles in but didn't even end up eating this. 

I stamped the craft paper with the dino stamps and 

set up some dinosaur books for more decor.

We did it pretty simple this year-fresh fruit and veggies, homemade ranch, crackers and cheese, plus a bunch of Papa John's pizza. We usually stick with Siracusa's for pizza, but I personally love some Papa Johns. Also, we had one of those local area coupon cards with 30% off an online order 

which made our decision easy.

Waiting on guests to come through the gate....

This kid! 

I swear she loves him! 

She just always gets overwhelmed at the guests at first. 

Every.single.year.

Eric sneaking into the playhouse and Ellery splashing in the pool.

This was the best family photo we could get. Her shirt is a pink stegosaurus and reads "Stellasaurus." Mine is a T-Rex and reads "Mama Saurus." 

My cousin Jennie made these for us, plus the ones my parents are wearing.

Love The Green Family.                             And See....told you she likes him!

This was the best we could get out of her for a photo with LolliPop.

Harper and Londynn

This slip 'n' slide/water area was such a huge hit!

Classy pose Stella!

Izzy & Mila thought this was pretty funny.

Izzy and Ethan

Let's just say the hula hoop went in the trash after the party.

What I imagine Harper saying: "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls. It is my pleasure to show you this rare creature and her spectacular tricks....Behold!"

Yay! Happy birthday/cake time!

But then reality sets in.....which means everyone crowds around her which makes her uncomfortable and a kid from the crowd ends up blowing out her candle which upsets her (understandably, of course) so we end up re-lighting the candles 4-5 times so she can blow it out the 2nd time and other kids can partake in the candle blowing out festivities the other times. 

Follow along below.

   

This year's random kid to blow out Stella's candles (it's always a different one) was our neighbor, Calvin!!!

Yep, see that face? 

She's pissed and Charlotte is upset for her. Everyone's listening to me tell them, "Ok guys, this is Stella's party, so let her blow the candles out this time and I will re-light them as many times as needed, but just give this to her!"

Whew! It worked. They listened. Stella blew out her candles. 

Mission accomplished.

And moving on to the dirt cake candles....

Alright so now she's pissed because people are poking their fingers in her cake to swipe the dinosaurs off of it. Her dinosaurs. Y'all? These are valid points, but it's still comical to me. And I can laugh. I'm her mom. 

I deal with this all the time.

 

Very quickly I scooped her out some dirt cake and she inhaled it. And was in a better mood. It may not look like it from these next pictures but she was shortly thereafter. Hey, it's her party and she can cry if she wants to...

I tell ya, she can burn through holes with that look!

And now we move on to the part of the party where they all decided the hula hoop would be the angry circle. I'm not making this up.

So just to be clear, no one is actually mad here (anymore), 

they are just pretending to be.

 

Clearly a lot of craziness was going on.

Charlotte apparently still had those angry feelings from earlier when Calvin blew out Stella's candles so she decided to take them over to the angry circle with the birthday girl. That's what friends are for!

But Maddy was all smiles!

Stella was thrilled she got to hold Maddy's little sister, Baby Sophie. 

This was such a fun party. Some of Stella's friends from school were there: Annika & Mila with their older siblings, Charlotte and Maddy. Unfortunately, Stella's boyfriend, Andrew wasn't present. She did make it through the party without him though so all is well. The Paulk's, The Green's, Kim and Grayson, Harper, Londynn, Ava & Ellery made it. Our neighbor's Alana and Eric, plus the "C" Monsters-Cameron, Cadence and Calvin were there too. 

We never put an end time on our invites, because we love for everyone to hang out as long as they want. And we aren't rushing off anywhere, of course. So a few families were left and we heard a few rumbles up above and the wind picked up. We started tidying up some and bringing in anything that didn't need to get wet. The Paulk family ended up hanging with us until sometime around 10. We weathered the storm all huddled together on the back porch sitting on camping chairs and coolers talking way too loud over the fan and sound of rain on the tin roof. When the storm passed the kids went outside with flashlights and lanterns on a hunt of some kind. At some point they went in Stella's room and ate a bunch of gum. Not sure where they found it, but I discovered wads of it in the bottom of her trashcan. Fun times. Really. Our bright star is so loved. 

Donald really pushed for a party somewhere other than our home this year. He didn't want a lot of work. Stella wouldn't have it. She told us, "No. I don't want a party anywhere else. I want it at home. All of my other parties have been at home. This one should be at home too." I sort of tried to convince her to have it somewhere else, but deep down, I wanted it at home too. I love our backyard. I love that she wanted it there. Her simple requests this year were the sprinkler and the slip 'n' slides. Done. I just wanted a bunch of happy people in our yard celebrating our girl. Done.