We survived it

Today was our second day of Kindergarten and boy does she love it. Sissy got up on the first day, Tuesday and ate breakfast, brushed her teeth, we did her hair, she got dressed all in TWENTY minutes flat. We had determined the night before we were going to do our neighborly duty and walk to school to help with the first day school madness (per the principals' request). Luckily for us, it was a cool morning. However, we took the wagon along just in case the girls got too tired or hot. Our biggest challenge was trying to convince Sugar that she can't go to school yet. (Preschool starts for her next week). Sugar has a matching backpack and carries it to the school each morning. Today she even managed to put her backpack in someone's cubbie in the classroom- oops!

When we finally made it home the first day I asked Sissy what her favorite part of the day was and she said, "when we colored and played outside".

Spoken like a true Kindergartener.

So far the week is going well. She is very hungry and tired when she gets home but we're pushing forward. For all the Grannies, aunties and friends I've posted some pictures from the first day of school.

Here she is putting her Hello Kitty backpack in her cubbie. On the back wall of her cubbie there is a really cute laminated frog with her name on it.

At "Meet the Teacher Night" the students got to pick their own seats.
So on the first day she went straight to her seat to find her name tag. She also
wanted to make sure there were other girls sitting at her table. :-)
Then right before we left, the students were doing "working hands" as there first
activity for the day. I even had to ask for a kiss goodbye... I shed two tears and
decided to skip the "Yahoo, Boo-hoo breakfast" for the moms!

Well tomorrow night is "Meet the Teacher Night" for Sugar's preschool. That one should be a little less stressful. Ha, ha. Sugar is SO anxious to go...she cries everyday, "I want to go to schooool". I'll do a new post on her first day, September 4th. It should be a good one. :-)

Happy 5th Birthday!

It finally arrived, Sissy's 5th birthday party!

Oh how we've been counting down the days and planning. Sissy first started off by wanting a Hello Kitty party but as we were driving to Party City to get the decorations we changed it to Care Bears. Then as we were walking down the aisles looking at all the Barbie paraphernalia we decided on Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses.

And so it was... exactly 12 princesses and one prince.

I think they all had a blast! They played dress up, made princess crowns, played pin the star on the wand, had a water balloon toss, blew bubbles ate pizza, cake and ice cream. I have to admit, it was probably our best party thus far. If this tells you anything, it was scheduled from 11:00 - 1:00pm and our last guest left the house at 4:30pm!

Here are a few snapshots from the big event. Here are the girls in their princess crowns they made. I'm not sure how it happened but one little prince and princess escaped before when we snapped the shot.

One of the most popular princesses there was the cake I made...Princess Genevieve.


Here they all are diligently making their crowns.

After cake they lined up to play Pin the Star on the Wand.
As you can see, two of her favorite presents were the
Blendy Pens and the Princess Genevieve My Size Barbie. Now it's time for the real deal tomorrow...our 1st day of school. Stay tuned... :-)

Tax-Free but not Tear-Free

Reality has officially set in...as early as next week I will be another mama in the neighborhood with "school-aged" children. It became official this weekend while Sissy and I participated in the Texas' tax free Back-to-School shopping weekend extravaganza.

Oh yes folks! We got up early Saturday morning and shopped the same weekend as the rest of the state of Texas in order to save about eight bucks per every $100 we spent. And then you ask, was it worth it? Because really...how many clothes does ONE kindergartner really need?

Y'all it was worth it.

Sissy and I had a great time picking out clothes, trying them one, laughing at the ones that were way too big and too small. Then, we made a pit stop at Starbucks for a quick cup of java and chocolate milk to down our donuts and muffins. We needed a little sugar/caffeine jolt to hit the next few stores. We got all kinds of fun stuff like, skirts, shirts, tights and pretty little lacey socks (you know the kind you need for gym class *smile). But the look on her face was priceless through it all.

And even though it was fun and tax-free, I couldn't help but get a little teary-eyed walking out with a bag of clothes through the parking lot with my firstborns little hand in mine. At that moment it all became a little too real. Now I will be the first to admit that I never thought I would be one of those parents who cry when they drop their child off for the first day of school, but after this weekend...never say never.

Now if I can only make it through Wednesday for the back to school BBQ and Friday for Meet the Teacher Night I should be good to go for Tuesday, right?

My new project

After weeks of looking for something of organizational use for my hobby/sewing stuff, I finally completed this little beauty.

This was (I think) a little girls dresser hutch that I bought at a resale shop for $5.99. It was a dingy yellowish and gold piece that I repainted white. Since I didn't have room on my sewing desk to use it as a true hutch I decided to hang it on the wall instead. All I did was install some mounting hardware on the back upper corners. Then to hold my ribbons, I bought four little rod holders (i.e. the kind that hold your closet rods) and drilled them on inside walls on the bottom half of the hutch. Then I found a small wooden curtain rod for $2.99 at the thrift store to use as dowel rods. I just measured the width of the shelf and used a saw to cut two pieces from the same pole. I slid on all my spool of ribbons and wha-la!

The last "thrifty" idea was storing all my new and vintage buttons. I found three clear plastic jars at said store for .50 cents and spray painted the red lids aqua blue. I used my one of my own jars from the pantry and painted that lid pink. Now they match my guest/hobby room and store all my buttons!

1 dresser hutch - $5.99

1 wooden curtain rod - $2.99

1 bunch of plastic roses - $.69

3 plastic jars - $.50

Organization - PRICELESS!

Want to see the coolest thing ever?

The fact that my hair grew 6 + inches over night? With layers, and low lights and highlights! Okay it's not the coolest thing ever but lhj.com is! Ladies, you've have got to visit the Ladie's Home Journal website. They have this wonderful linkage called TRY-A-HAIRSTYLE and it's FREE! Well of course you can upgrade but the free stuff is just as good.

Ever wanted to know what you look like with short hair, a bob, redhead, long hair, a celebrities hairstyle? You can do your own makeup and choose your own colors. The options are endless at this site. The best part is you can save your favorite looks and print them out or email them to a friend. The above picture was my favorite hairstyle and I've already printed it out the picture to take to my hair appointment this Wednesday. I still need to grow more in the length but you get the picture right?

So go now and sign up it's loads of fun!