Happy Birthday Abby!

Well our Abby is finally 5. She has been waiting for this day for so long. We have been telling her for years that she can't ride the big yellow school bus until she is 5. For her that is the most exciting thing. This year her birthday was on the first day of school, so she did get to ride the bus on her birthday - and she started kindergarten! What a busy day.

The first thing she said when I woke her up in the morning was: "Guess what mom, now I'm five." She was so excited to be five! She was excited to get dressed and ready to go.

Here are Abby and Elizabeth all ready to take Abby to school. We drove and walked her in on Monday. I think she liked having us walk in with her, but then she sat down at her desk and started working on her pages that were there. Her teacher made her a birthday crown to wear during the day and we brought cupcakes for her to share with the class during snacktime in the afternoon.
Then...she got to ride the bus home from school. Here is Elizabeth waiting for the bus. We waited and waited and waited. The bus was supposed to come at 3:33 p.m. It did not come until about 3:50 or later. It was so hot outside!

But finally it came! We were so excited to see how Abby's first day went.

After school Abby told us all about her day. She talked almost nonstop for over an hour. She was very excited and had lots of fun.

We planned to have her ride the bus on Tuesday morning, but we were a few minutes late and missed it so Brian took her in on his way to work. It think it worked out okay though, because now at bedtime, she reminds us she has to go to bed early, so she can get up early and be ready for school so she won't miss the bus again! I love it!

I think Abby is going to love school. She had fun every day during the first week. On Thursday evening, we told her that she only had one more day of school for the week. She was almost in tears as she told me, "but we just got started." I quickly reassured her she could go again on Monday after a couple days off for the weekend, just like Daddy gets some days off from work. But she was a little disappointed again on Sunday when we told her we were going to church - she was ready to go back to school.

Pretty as a Princess

Abby decided she wanted a princess birthday party - so that's what we did. It turned out to be a lot of fun. She invited all the girls in her primary class and all the girls from her preschool class last year. Everyone dressed up as a princess. We ended up with 15 princesses. Here are our two princesses:

We had everyone coloring princess pictures as they came, and then they all made a pretty beaded necklace. After all the necklaces were finished we played a princess game where each girl got to try to put Cinderella in the window on the castle (kind of like Pin the Tail on the Donkey).

Then we had cupcakes! Each cupcake had a sparkly jeweled ring on it. After cupcakes we played musical chairs with princess songs (of course)! Then we opened presents right before everyone went home.

Abby had so much fun. She was so excited for all her friends to come and to be princesses. That morning as we were putting up decorations, she kept saying, "Mom, this is going to be the best party ever!"

Pretty girls

We finally tried on the dresses I ordered Abby and Elizabeth for Kelsey's wedding. They are so cute and the girls were disappointed that they couldn't wear them yet. Now we are really counting down until the wedding....

Elizabeth has just woken up from her nap. That's why we have the "crazy curls".

Finally a piano!!

Yea!! I've only been waiting for more than 10 years. I promised Mom a picture - so here it is.