Celebration weekend!

This past week, Luci had her Kindergarten screening. When Luci entered her Pre-kindergarten class last fall, I had decided that I would probably enroll her in Developmental kindergarten for a year before actual kindergarten, simply because of her age. She just made the cut-off by 5 days! So she is of the youngest in her class. But I also left the door open...maybe she would surprise us and have a stellar UPK year! That's exactly what happened! In the fall, she seemed very immature, her speaking ability was less than impressive and I felt she would probably need the D-K. We had her tested for speech and they found only one incident during the testing of stuttering and labeled her advanced in her fine motor skills! In the end they did NOT recommend extra help for her speech and thought she would most likely outgrow any remaining speech issues. I was happy to hear that! Getting back to Kindergarten screening...she did phenomenally well! I sat down after the screening with the principal and she went over the results with me. She was amazed at how well a 4.5 year old could do! She scored a 97%!! Now, her only downfall was counting...due to her speech. Luci cannot yet annunciate the soft "TH" sound, so when she said 13, it actually sounded like 14, so they stopped her there. In reality, she can count to 30 and beyond if you remind of her of the tens! She is truly a smart cookie and my friend Julie said it best, "She's got the whole package...beauty, brains and personality!" I couldn't agree more! Now...on the other hand, her ability to pick out clothes and dress herself...well, just see below!

Yesterday was Julie's daughter Hannah's 8th birthday party! She had a tea party at a local children's museum. The guests got to decorate their own tea party hat. Luci waits while Mary hot glues her flowers on.

Here's the whole group in the gardens at the museum.

Drew and her new American Girl doll, Daphne. She bought this one with her own money! She'll get her other AG doll, Eva, on the day of her party...this coming Sunday.

Luci and her "American Girl" doll, Daisy. No, Daisy is another brand of doll, but Luci doesn't know nor does she care. I just couldn't justify spending that amount of money on a doll for a 4 year old!

They were treated to tea (aka lemonade and fruit punch), finger sandwiches, truffles and petit fours!

I just loved this shot of Hannah opening one of the gifts we got her...a doll for her American Girl doll Felicity. I think she liked it!

Luci gets bored with watching the presents being opened when she's not the one doing the opening! Ha ha! She and Brynn wander away to play with the miniature horse stable.

Luci with a horse hat on. She has a real affinity for all things equine...we may have to spring for riding lessons when she gets a little older!

Here, the girls listen to Matt the Moose, a talking animated moose head!

And last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my Mother's Day today! Last night, I planned a Margarita night with my good friend and cousin, Heather. Unfortunately, as I was making them, I got the recipe mixed up and made the drinks very strong! They were still pretty good and we had plenty of them...too many for me! Anyway, I woke up with a mother of a hangover and spent a good portion of today in bed! Eventually, I made my way downstairs to find my Mother's Day gift. Dean and the girls painted this sign which is placed above a measuring board in my kitchen. In my old kitchen, I had a measuring board that I kept track of how tall the girls were getting. I saved the board when we demolished the old kitchen and kept meaning to transfer the markings to a new board and continue measuring the girls. Well, life gets in the way and it never got done. But apparently I mentioned it enough times that Dean thought it would be a nice surprise and indeed it was! The sign is the icing on the cake! I love it! Another happy little surprise is when I mentioned how nice it was that he had left space to add another name or two. Then he said, "No, I left enough space for up to 4 more names! We've got a big house now, so we need to fill it up!" with a big smile on his face! I told him not to tease me and he got a little chuckle from that! He never ceases to amaze me!

Here's a close-up of the markings. If you look closely, you'll see that Luci's marks are on the right and Drew's are on the left. I measured them today and found that Luci is about an inch or so taller than her 2.5 year older sister! We keep reminding Drew that SOMEDAY she'll really appreciate being small!! Anyway, despite the large hangover, I had a wonderful Mother's Day!