Kaylie's Birthday and more

Well, Kaylie always seems to have her birthday right before school starts, and this year it also happened to fall on Labor Day, the day before school started. She has been excited and anxious to start first grade and to continue practicing her reading and writing skills. The Friday before school we were able to go to her school and meet her first grade teacher, Mrs. Betty. She seemed like a really nice and seasoned teacher, who knows what she is doing. Kaylie seemed to like her and was happy to hear that they had two class pet rabbits. Mrs. Betty will be good for Kaylie and reminded me a lot of my Aunt Lynette.

Nathan had to work two on call shifts that weekend: both Saturday and Monday. So, we decided to celebrate Kaylies' birthday on Sunday night. We had an easy dinner of bagel egg mcmuffins (Kaylie's choice) and then ate grasshopper pie for dessert. She got a neat Dora doll-house, 10 beanie babies, and some roller blades for her Birthday. She was very happy and said it was the best birthday ever. What a cute little 6 year old we have! She is growing up so fast and it just amazes me how quickly the time seems to pass as I watch her learn and understand new things. I love her so much and am often sad to see her grow and move on from her baby stages. I know that it is inevitable, yet I still find myself saying, "just stop growing up!" I wish I could just stop time sometimes because I love where we are and what we are doing.

Kaylie was delighted to receive 10 beanie babies, a large orange squishy ball, and a Dora Doll house for her birthday. She is really quite easy to please when it comes to presents. I just hope that it stays that way!

As another part of school preparation, we all received Father's blessings from Nathan that Sunday night. It is always a special blessing to have the priesthood exercised in our home and to feel the spirit in abundance and hear what the Lord wants our family to know at this time in our lives. I am so grateful to have a worthy husband who exercises his priesthood with honor and sets a righteous example for our children. It was cute to see even Lily fold her arms and not move while she received her blessing.

To celebrate Kaylies' actual birthday day I planned with our good friends the Ercanbracks, to have a little get-together. We first followed them to a thrift store in Fairfax that has a 75% off sale once a month. I found some good things for the kids there and they had a good time sitting on the couch there watching a movie while I shopped. Afterward we went to Frying Pan Park for a picnic. The kids really enjoyed seeing some live farm animals and even got to pet a few horses. It was a really good day.

We had to get the kids to bed early that night because Kaylie would start school the next morning.