Visiting Great-Grandma

Julia and Evelyn have been looking forward to visiting their great-grandma this week.  Today's weather was perfect for all of us to hang out outside - sunny and warm, not much of a breeze.  The girls are so glad they can spend some time with their great-grandma, especially since we live SO far away from her.

Happy 7th Birthday, Julia!

We celebrated Julia's birthday in Nebraska today.  (We are on April/Spring break, so no school and week-long trip to visit family.)  This afternoon we went to see the movie, "Monkey Kingdom."  The girls really enjoyed the documentary.

 Here's our little Sunshine, always ready to pose for the camera . . .

 Several weeks ago, when Julia found out she would spend her birthday in Nebraska, she instantly knew where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner - and Chick Fil A did it up right.  She got a free ice cream sundae, a stuffed Chick Fil A cow and a balloon (not the one in the picture, we brought that with us).  Even more than Julia had hoped for from one of her favorite restaurants!

 After dinner, we headed back to Julia's Grandma and Grandpa Luster's house for birthday cake and presents.  Julia chose everything about her cake - the chocolate cake mix, the purple frosting and decorations and the candles.  Happy birthday, Julia!!!

April Trip Time

Who's ready for a trip to Nebraska?  These two girls!  Our journey started at the Boston airport this morning . . .

 . . . where we made a connection in Chicago (and ate lunch), and we ended up at our final destination, Omaha, in the evening.  We really miss the days of traveling to Nebraska on nonstop flights!

Dolphin Birthday Party!

Today was the big day - Julia's 7th birthday party!  Julia decided that, instead of gifts for herself, she wanted to collect donations for Winter the dolphin in the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida.  Since the theme of her party revolved around Winter, this made perfect sense.  And what a giving heart Julia has to do this!  So we had the donation box set up just inside the front door, where guests could drop off their birthday cards (for Julia) and donations (for Winter).

 And before I continue, let me post a picture of Julia's dolphin cake.  This was the easiest cake I have decorated - I only needed three colors, if you count black and white, which makes for quick and easy decorating.

 Back to the party . . . We had movie snacks set out ahead of time (Goldfish crackers and pretzels), as well as dolphin cups to hold the snacks.

 In the window room, Julia set up three activities:  a dolphin ring toss, dolphin tattoos and freeze dance (actually kind of like musical chairs - when the music stops, you stand on a shape with a number, and if your number is drawn, it's your turn to get a tattoo).  I know you can't see it, but Julia is posing on the shape with the number 7, since it's her 7th birthday.

 And the party table, where Julia will be served her birthday cake (and sung to, of course!).  The balloons will also be party favors for the guests to take home.

 We spent a majority of Julia's 3-hour party watching the first (original) "Dolphin Tale" movie.  We stopped half-way through for an intermission of playing games - BINGO and ring toss.  After the movie, the girls danced and got tattoos.

 Then it was time for birthday cake and singing!  After the girls had had their fill of cake (and doing sticker activity sheets), I read the nonfiction book Winter's Tail, How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim aloud to the girls.  That way the guests knew which parts of the movie were real and which parts were made up.  We ended the party by playing "Hot Dolphin" - which is like hot potato, except the girls passed around a stuff dolphin.  Did my little Sunshine have fun?  Absolutely!  She planned a fantastic 7th birthday party!

Julia's Party Prep

Way back in January, Julia decided she wanted a dolphin birthday party, and she wanted to plan every single detail.  And plan she did!  Over the past three months, I have been ordering and creating various products and activities for the big day (tomorrow).  Everything for Julia's party - except the cake - fit into this box . . . so I have jokingly called this Julia's party-in-a-box.

 Today Julia helped me bake an egg-free, dairy-free cake (one of her guests has food allergies).  Julia wanted a chocolate and yellow marble cake, which was easy to do with these two allergy-free cake mixes.

 While the cake was baking, Julia got to work decorating her friends' goodie bags.  (Meanwhile, I was working on her sister's owl party invitations . . .)

 One more thing to prepare for Julia's party:  her dress.  Julia specifically requested that I sew a dress for her.  No problem.  And I thought I was done this morning until my little Sunshine asked me to put a pocket on her dress.  Okey, dokey!  Now that the pocket is finished, her dress is really done.

Honors Band Concert

This is the season for special band performances...In January, Evelyn auditioned for the Honors Band.  This is a band for students in the three towns that feed into our regional secondary schools.  The audition is open to band students from all three towns, and Evelyn had to prepare her audition solo on her own.  A couple weeks after the audition, Evelyn got the good news that she had received - for the second year in a row - a Superior rating (the highest rating).  The congratulatory letter explained that only 10% of those who auditioned received a Superior, so Evelyn definitely has something to be proud of.

 Tonight was the Honors Band concert at the regional high school.  She only had one week to prepare for tonight's concert.  That's not much time to practice, and Evelyn got a little stressed trying to learn four songs in such a short amount of time.  But she figured it out, and loved playing in tonight's concert.

Here's our clarinet player, sporting tow Superior ribbons - one from last year, and one from this year.  Congratulations!

MICCA Gold Showcase Concert

Where was our 5th-grade clarinet player this morning?

 . . .on stage at Boston's Symphony Hall!  A couple weeks ago, Evelyn's school's advanced band competed in a state-wide band and chorus competition, and they took home the gold medal.  Only two elementary schools in the entire state earned a gold medal, so Evelyn (and her fellow band mates) were pretty excited to be given such an honor.

 As gold medal winners, the band was invited to perform at Boston's Symphony Hall during today's MICCA Gold Medal Showcase.  They performed their three songs, and Evelyn thoroughly enjoyed being on the same stage where professional musicians play.