Sofia's Valentine's Party

When it came time to make Sofia's Valentine's box, it was easy to guess that she would want a dragon box. The girl is obsessed by dragons! We spent some time searching Pinterest for some ideas and finally found a very cute dragon box that looked like it might not be too difficult to make. The dragon was made using foam sheets, so we pulled out all of our Valentines and foam sheet supplies to figure out what we had and what we needed. Late Saturday morning, we went to see Paddington 2 with Marco, Stacy, Antonio and Luca and then Sofia and I went to Hobby Lobby for our supplies. Once we were back at the house, we pulled up the image we had of the dragon box and got busy! Since we didn't have instructions, we had to design it as we went along. It's what makes creating and making valentine's boxes so much fun. Sofia really got into it and we started by making the legs first, since it was the easiest thing to make. We then made the body and ended with the tail. We forgot about the wings until the day before, when Sofia made them and glued them to the box, without burning herself!

Sofia filled out her valentine's cards the week before Valentine's and was very elaborate with her cards to each of her friends and classmates. She included a card that included a dragon, taped to another valentine that had a scratch off surface and included stickers and a dragon tattoo. Each card took her a long time, but she really enjoyed making each one. She could have made cards for everyone in Mr. Boykin's class too, but she said she didn't want to because there are a few boys in the class who aren't nice. Luckily, the kids in Ms. Hayes' class, especially the boys are super sweet and kind. Everyone in Sofia's class seem to get along very well.

On Valentine's morning, I also had Sofia fill out a heart for Ms. Hayes and added a $15 Starbucks card for her. I took pictures of her finished box and pictures of both girls with their boxes before we headed to school.

When I arrived at Glenhope after Olivia's party, all the 5th graders were in the library! Mr. Boykin was dressed up with a sparkly red hat, red mustache and bowtie and he called out numbers for bingo. He made it fun and interesting and had different kids call out the numbers too. As the kids made bingo, they got up and picked out a white bag that included an unknown reward. Inside there were bouncy balls, squashy toys and various things that kids seem to love. Sofia sat at a table with Liliana, Frankie, her buddy Liam as well as a few other girls I didn't recognize. Sofia and Liam have become good friends and she always comes home talking about Liam, Joey and a few other boys in her class. All the kids seemed to have fun and enjoyed it for about an hour, at which point they divided up by class and returned to their rooms. As they were leaving, I asked Sofia to stop so I could take a picture of her. While she was standing there, Liam came up to stand next to her so he could be in the picture. It was so sweet, since I know they are big buddies and play together at recess a lot. It turned out to be such a cute picture too.

Once the Sofia and her classmates were in their class, they sat at their tables for a few minutes and then Ms. Hayes told them they could get up and hand out their valentine's cards. I gave Sofia a hug and kiss and headed out before the classroom became total mayhem. Sofia was so excited to pass out her cards and so happy that I'd come. This is Sofia's last Valentine's party, since they don't have parties in middle school, so I was so happy I could be there and see how much fun she has and how much she enjoys the festivities. Even though she's in 5th grade and some of the kids her age are "too old" for valentine's day parties, I love that she enjoys it so much and has so much fun! I hope she always holds on to her joy of parties and celebrating life events.

The photo we found on Pinterest that we followed to make Sofia's Valentine's box

Sofia at work!

The finished box - it turned out to be so cute!

Sofia and her dragon box (now with wings)

Sofia's sweet note to Ms. Hayes

Sofia and her table of fun kids

Sofia! Our sweet girl!

Mr. Boykin as the Valentine's Party MC

Valentine's selfie

Sofia and her buddy, Liam

Sofia at her table

Sofia ready to pass out her valentines to her friends and classmates

Sofia with her heard of dragons and her Star Wars mask. She's so happy from a fun party!

Olivia's Valentine's Party

For this year's Valentine's box I searched on Pinterest to get ideas and came across a super cute idea for Olivia. Using a memory box from Michael's I used pink, red and green construction paper to cut large hearts and then used hot glue to write "CUTIE," "BE MINE," and "LOVE." I added white glitter to the hot glue while it was still hot and then glued each of the hearts to the box. I also added "OLIVIA" to a heart and glued it to the top of the box, near the opening was cut for Valentine cards to be added. It ended up looking really cute and was very easy to make. CK and Olivia spent the weekend before Valentine's Day visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Florida, so I made it on my own. When Olivia got home, I was so excited to show her, but she was a little upset that I'd made it on my own. I offered to get another box and we could make something together or she could decorate it completely on her own. She agreed at first, but then decided she really liked the box I made and decided to keep it.

The week before, Olivia wrote out all of her Valentine's cards and picked out the dog and cat cards for the boys and the mermaid and princess cards for the girls. She added stickers to each and taped on a lollipop to each card. They really turned out cute and she enjoyed filling them out for her friends and classmates. I love the idea of valentines for all the classmates and Olivia was really looking forward to Valentine's Day and the party.

On Wednesday morning, both girls woke up excited for their respective parties, and Olivia was eager to get to school to celebrate. I realized that Olivia hadn't filled out a valentine's for Ms. Feaster, so I gave her a heart to write a message for her favorite teacher. After I dropped the girls off at school, I bought both teachers a $15 gift card from Starbucks to slip into each of the valentine's cards. When she was done with her Valentine's for her teacher, Olivia took her Valentine's box and the ziplock bag filled with her Valentine's cards. I took a few pictures of the girls' boxes and both of the girls with their boxes before we headed out the door to school. Because we were running late, I ended up taking Olivia to school first and she was super excited to see her friends and start the day.

Olivia's Valentine's party started at 11:50am and ended an hour later. I arrived just as the party started and found Olivia, who was busy with her friends at her table. She was so excited when she saw me and gave me a big hug. The kids each got an ice cream sundae that they could add hot fudge, caramel sauce and/or sprinkles. Of course, Olivia was all over that! Once all the kids were done with their sundaes, they played bingo with little red heart papers. After there were a few winners and they each picked out a reward, all of the kids had a chance to pick out a reward. The kids were pretty sugared up and so excited! After they were done with bingo, Ms. Feaster told the kids they could open their Valentine's boxes that held all of their valentines. Apparently, the kids must have passed them out earlier in the day. There were so many creative and cute Valentine's boxes! They were awesome!!

Olivia picked up her box and found a spot on the rug where she opened up her box and went through all of her Valentine's! She got so many cute Valentines, many with candy, pencils, stickers, and even a small box of chocolates! They were all so creative and Olivia LOVED going through each of them to see who gave her each valentine. The party was finishing up, so I gave Olivia a hug and kiss and headed out to drive to Sofia's school for her Valentine's party which started minutes after Olivia's finished up. It was so fun to watch her excitement at the party and for each of the valentine's cards.

Olivia's finished Valentine's box

The top of the box

The "Olivia" heart on the top of the box

Olivia writing her Valentine's card to Ms. Feaster

Olivia's card: "Dear Miss Feaster - You are the (best) teacher in the world. I love you will all my heart. When I'm in 2nd grade I'm going to miss you so much. From, Olivia"

Olivia and her Valentine's box

Our sweet Valentine girl!

Olivia and her cool glasses!

Olivia getting her sundae

Olivia and her friend, Cora.

Valentine's selfie!

Playing bingo

Checking out all of her Valentine's cards

The classroom Valentine's party!

Olivia's Tooth #3! The Tooth Fairy Comes!

Olivia's lower right tooth has been lose for several weeks and she has been adamant that Ms. Feaster is going to pull it for her. Apparently, Ms. Feaster has pulled several of Olivia's classmates' teeth since the start of the year and Olivia thinks it's super cool. Over the weeks, she has checked her tooth to see how lose it is but it hasn't been lose enough. Over that time, it's been pretty cute watching her eat since she eats everything on the far side of her mouth since her tooth has been lose enough to be a problem with hard foods like apples, etc. About two weeks ago she asked Ms. Feaster to pull it, but it apparently wasn't ready. Since CK and I were out of town, we landed yesterday around noon from Phoenix, AZ to a few text messages from Ms. Feaster with pictures of her pulling Olivia's tooth! She told us to get ready for the tooth fairy to visit! I couldn't believe it! Olivia finally lost tooth number three!

When I picked Olivia up at school, she had a little plastic tooth container on a string around her neck and was so excited to show me the gap in her mouth! She was so happy and excited! Plus, it was so great to see her after we'd been away since very early Thursday morning! She was so excited to tell me the whole story of how Ms. Feaster had her hold her arm, so she could squeeze it if it started to hurt. She said Ms. Feaster tried to pull it, but it wasn't quite loose enough so she tried again later and out it came! She was so happy and excited!

For the rest of the afternoon, as she did her piano lesson, jumped on the trampoline with Antonio and Sofia, and played dragons, she kept her tooth necklace and tooth around her neck. It was so cute! For bedtime, she decided to put her tooth on the reading table since she was afraid the tooth fairy wouldn't find it. She went to bed, excited for the tooth fairy to arrive!

This morning, Olivia was out of bed without me waking her up and she called me into her room to look at her goodies from Alicia, her tooth fairy. Alicia wrote her a handwritten note congratulating her on her lost tooth and gave her a unicorn adventure art book, Strawberry-flavored Pop Rocks candy, and a $2 bill with glitter! She was so excited and loved all of her goodies, although she wondered why Alicia didn't leave any pixie dust, as she has with the past two teeth.

The next morning, Olivia found another note from Alicia and two containers of pixie dust - a larger one for her and a smaller one for her sister, since Sofia wouldn't be losing any teeth anytime soon. Olivia was super excited and ran upstairs to show Sofia! She's now super excited to lose more teeth, and wants Ms. Feaster to pull her next one which is barely lose right now!

Ms. Feaster pulling Olivia's tooth!

Success!

Olivia's tooth

Olivia's tooth case - she's so proud of it!

Olivia's new smile!

Alicia's note and gifts for Olivia's tooth!

The note from Alicia

Even though it's 7:15am, she's so excited!

The note and pixie dust from Alicia for Sofia and Olivia!

So happy to have her pixie dust!

Sofia at 10 1/2 Years Old!

Sofia is half a year older now and much the same as she was when she turned 10 at the end of July. She loves playing with her sister and they spend a lot of their afternoons after school bouncing and playing on the trampoline. They also love to pretend to be dragons and "fly" around the house making dragon noises. Sofia decided to play soccer again in the spring and her team's practice started up a few weeks ago on Wednesday afternoon. Nearly all of the girls have returned, as well as a few new girls and we look forward to a fun season. She really enjoys soccer and has fun with the girls on the team. I'm excited she has wanted to play again this season since I think the girls are a great group of girls and it's a sport that she likely won't play for much longer. She and Olivia have been doing gymnastics for a year now and as much as Sofia argues that she doesn't want to go, she always has so much fun after she's done with her hour-long class. She still loves playing the piano and works hard at getting each song just right.

Sofia loves dragons, books with dragons and drawing dragons. She has become a great drawer of dragons and loves making up stories about each one. She really enjoys anything and everything related to dragons and especially loves reading books that include dragons in the storyline. She really loves school and despite getting behind in some of her projects during the week, due to the increased work load of the Aspire Academy, she absolutely loves her teacher, her classmates and the whole experience. There are several boys in her class who love dragons too and she often comes home telling stories of how her and her friends make up dragon hatcheries, homes, and various dragon things on the playground. One of her friends, Joey, makes intricate dragon origami and gives a new one to Sofia regularly. She said it takes Joey at least an hour to make each one and she takes them everywhere she goes, carrying them in a little wooden box. Of course, she has named each one and attributed personality traits to each of them. When she isn't taken up with origami dragons, Sofia loves all of her school subjects and loves how creative most of her projects are. She really puts in a lot of effort into all of her school work and does very well. She has started hanging out with Liam, who also loves dragons, loves playing freeze tag and enjoys similar books. The Aspire Academy has been such an amazing experience this year. She got off the bus on her first day of school and I asked her how her day went and she said "AWESOME!" Ever since that first day, she has loved it even more and has blossomed in the past months. We are so proud of her and excited for her now that she's in the Academy!

Sofia is now 99.8 lbs and 4' 10" tall! She's so grown up in many ways, but such a little kid in so many other ways. She doesn't really care much what she wears as long as she is comfortable and would be happy to wear the same clothes day after day, if it were up to her! She still loves hanging out at home, in her pajamas and playing all day long. That is really her dream Saturday. She enjoys so many different activities - playing at the park, riding her bike to Starbucks, soccer, gymnastics, etc - but she never ever wants to leave the house to do them. Once she's doing the activity, she's is happy, but getting her out of the house is often a struggle. CK and I often talk about how she has always resisted transitions of any kind, even when she was a baby! She still dislikes taking showers or washing her face and it's often a battle to get her to do either, although I've explained to her that she will be washing her face for the rest of her life so she better start embracing it now.

She loves playing with Brandon and they often ride their scooters around the neighborhood and talk about Star Wars, school, or whatever they talk about. Sometimes they walk around with their light sabers and talk. Since it's been so cold this winter, they have been spending time playing Minecraft at Brandon's house as long as Todd or Dana are home. Oftentimes they jump on the trampoline or they play with Olivia and Antonio. At 14 years old, Brandon is much older than Sofia and dislikes school and reading. However, they have a special bond and love hanging out, even though it isn't very often. Since Brandon goes to school in Dallas, he often doesn't go home until around 5pm, so they usually just see each other on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Otherwise, she loves playing with Olivia, even if they disagree from time to time. She almost never has play dates and when she does, it is usually with her friend Emma. She doesn't see Emma at school now that Sofia's at the Academy, so they tend to really enjoy each other more than when they saw each other regularly.

Sofia and her Wishing Dragon that she made. The Wishing Dragon has large front feet that you can place your thumbs in and make a wish.

Her Wishing Dragon

Sofia and her friend, Liliana.

One of Sofia's origami dragon's. It's a real piece of art!

Sofia coloring

With a new stuffed animal

Pretending to be a character in Harry Potter

With her teacher, Ms. Hayes and her best buddy, Liam