Izzy's 10th Birthday

 We were blessed with Jackie and Josh coming over to celebrate Izzy's birthday with us.  Jackie and John created such a fun atmosphere with their attention to details that for those of us who's birthday it wasn't still had an sensational time.

What I want to remember about Izzy over this past year:

1.  We are in the midst of puberty!  With this comes a desire to be treated older while holding onto her childhood.  You want to stay up later than your siblings.  However you still cannot sleep without silky or teddy.  In addition, you are interested in learning more about the changes going on with your body and ask many nights if we can read more from the book I bought you.

2.  You still have an anxious temperament though are getting better at using the coping skills taught to you.  You often find another technique in fencing beside retreating or reposting.  Your nerves got the best of you with trying skiing outside of ski school.  However in a short amount of time, you overcame this and thoroughly enjoyed the mountain.

3.  You have one of the biggest, caring hearts.  You often think of someone else's feeling and want to include anyone including teachers, classmates and even siblings.  I've watched you help orchestrate play when your siblings have play dates.  You are becoming aware of social circles at school and how feelings can be hurt including yours when someone tries to break apart/into those circles.

4.  You define yourself by theatre and fencing.  You are excited for trying out for the school play and hope to get a larger, leading part.  You often sing in the car to "practice" knowing you will have to sing a solo in the play.  Your fencing skills are improving all the time.  This past tournament you felt proud from fighting in the elimination round only to loose by one point.  That was disappointing for you.  However, you are now asking to go to practice more often next year in hopes of honing your skills.

5.  You are your own self and comfortable with who you are.  Sometimes you were the oddest combination of socks to school but you do so with pride.  You were not phased by wearing headgear to school as you didn't want to wear it at night.  You don't always follow the main stream of activity choices at school or in your after school program.  Your circle of friends remain the same and are very similar to you in having slight oddities.  Those core friendships make you solid in knowing who you are.  I can't wait to see what comes next for you!

 This was Izzy's favorite present.  Her coach, J.D., mentioned that the fencing masks could be airbrushed.  A quick google search showed many of the masked had very intimidating paintings.  As her cat Coco is one of her treasured possessions, this seemed quite fitting.  Google came handy again when locating airbrush artists.  Roscoe was up for the challenge as he was "bored" of t-shirts.  He went above and beyond what I imagined.

 John and I attempted to incorporate a "10" inside her cake.  What we didn't expect is for the one and zero to float up on the cake batter.  In the end, it tasted great.  And we were surprised that the "10" could be seen.

Fencing Cookies

 Izzy wanted to create fencing cookies to take to her fencing class for her birthday.  It was hard to find a fencing cookie cutter.  Thanks to Etsy, someone created one using a 3-D printer.  So we were in business.  This was both of our first time trying the flooding technique for frosting.  In the end we were pleased with how they all turned out.

 Using an edible pen, Izzy created a cookie for each of her coaches.  Watching their faces when she handed them out was such a kill.

Izzy's Fencing Birthday Party

 For Izzy's 10th birthday she requested to have a party at her fencing club.  Not only was she excited about her birthday, she was also excited to share with her friends one of her extracurricular activities.

 Izzy with two of her coaches who supervised her party, Yasser and J.D.

 Her requested / designed birthday cake.

Originally Micah wanted to join in the fencing.  However he was hooked on the video game system which had over 200 games to choose from.  Her really enjoyed a favorite ol' school game, Mario Brothers.

 Warming up and practicing before teams were created and a challenge was made.

 Izzy requested the glow in the dark party option which made the challenge more suspenseful and lively.

A salute at the end of the challenge.

Teacher Appreciation Week

 One of the responsibilities for a room parent at the kid's school is organizing something for teacher appreciation week.  As I'm the sole room parent for each of the kid's classrooms, it was up to me to get creative for teacher appreciation week.  I'm grateful for John always being willing to be my partner in crime with these endeavors.  The PTO typically encourages door decorations but each classroom can decide what they would like to do.  As Izzy's classroom is within the library, John and I were baffled as to how to let Izzy's teacher know she is appreciated without a free wall or door to decorate.  John came up with an idea of creating a mailbox with the students "mailing" her letters or packages throughout the week.  We then decided to create mailboxes for Micah and Victoria's classrooms as well.  Both of us were amazed at what we created.  John was the builder and I was the decorator.  We do make one outstanding team!

 Often forgotten on teacher appreciate week is the non-classroom teachers.  These are two of Izzy's Learning Center teachers.  She would not be where she is now with her reading if it weren't for these two amazing teachers.  We created a mini version of the mailboxes for them.  Unbeknownst to us, Izzy made letters for all the students that attend the LC requesting that they "mail" the LC teachers a letter throughout the week.  She is one incredible daughter and student. 

Izzy with Ms. Gallagher, her 4th grade teacher.

 Victoria with Ms. Herard and Mr. Shi, her 1st grade teacher and para.

Micah with Ms. Young and Ms. O, his 1st grade teacher and para.

Bunny Pictures

 For some Easter fun, we had a handful of pictures taken at a local studio.  Every year they have bunnies for a few weeks that are the spotlight of the pictures.  These bunnies are then adopted after their work is done.  We were matched with Jelly Bean (totally an appropriate name for an Easter bunny!).  Oh how everyone loved Jelly Bean.  Not only was he a ham for the photographer, but he was soooo soft.  I had to remind the kids that the cats would not mix well with Jelly Bean.  It was tough for them to leave him behind.  But we captured a few good memories with him.