Claire's Joyschool Graduation

 The year of Joyschool with Claire's friends was a huge success. I was always impressed with the fun things the other moms did. And the group of kids all got along great. Our last day, we prepared for a graduation celebration! We made graduation caps, and at the end, the moms all came for an informal ceremony where they recited the ABCs and sang a couple songs. And of course, there were treats!

Millie's Birthday

For Millie's 7th birthday, we had a fun party with all of of her closest friends (and their siblings--that's Millie for you--very inclusive and thoughtful). They made friendship frames and we printed up these pictures for their frames. We played some other games, had chocolate cake and ice cream, and opened presents. Millie is very easy to please!

We love our tradition of eating cake and ice-cream while going around the circle and hearing what everyone loves about the birthday girl. This party was no different. We all love Millie so much!

Somehow we got pictures of her sisters' gifts but none of her friends!

On her actual birthday, we had some strawberry shortcake, and talked about the day Millie was born, what a cute little baby she was, and why we love her so much.

(this is an excerpt from my journal the week of her birthday)

Millie is growing up so much and becoming more mature. She helped our babysitter last night so much! Ivie wasn’t very happy, and the babysitter said Millie was awesome! Millie is great at sharing, and helping. She loves the scrapbook she has been making. She loves ballet. She returns home from school each day happy. She was really brave this week to have the dentist pull her canine tooth that has been hurting her. She wasn’t scared at all—I was amazed by her bravery. She really loves getting money from the tooth fairy. And she was so ready not to have her tooth hurting anymore. Millie has figured out how to rollerblade quite well. She was doing Claire’s hair today on her bunk bed. That was so cute to watch. She did an interesting type of braid. I think they bonded well over that. She is a great oldest sister. We love her dearly!