Elaina finally lost her first tooth. She is a bit of late bloomer where this is concerned, however, I did not lose my first tooth until 2nd grade so....like mother, like daughter.
She has had a loose tooth for a while and has been playing it safe with it. When she came home from school yesterday it was barley hanging on. I left to go get my hair done and Erik sent me this picture with this caption - "notice anything missing?" Apparently, she was standing in the bathroom and went to push it with her tongue and out it popped. She yelled to Erik "Daddy, my tooth fell out. It landed in the sink but I caught it before it went down the drain." Glad that didn't happen :)
She was a pretty excited little girl. About 2 weeks before we noticed her tooth was loose, she had a meltdown because she wanted to know when her tooth was going to come out. She was sad because she was literally the only one of her friends (and lots of kids younger than her) who had not lost a tooth yet. Not a huge deal, I know, but when you are 7, that is hard to understand. I actually felt pretty bad for her but told her to be patient. That's pretty hard to do no matter how old you are. So, we have been waiting on this day.
Here is a close up that I the first time I saw her with it gone after cheer practice....<3 p="">
And, a picture the next morning with her tooth fairy money. The tooth was in a bag (her doing). She asked if she could keep it. The bag had tooth fairy dust in it (glitter). When I took this picture this morning, she said "mommy, you aren't going to text that to anyone are you?" I told her no.....however, I didn't mention that it was going on the blog! Memories...one day she will understand. She has the best bed head - lol!
Elaina turned 7 so that means we had her 7 year pictures made. By the same gal that has taken her annual pics since she was 4. She did a great job again this year. We took them at the Cove at Concord.
We signed Elaina up for Cheer at Grace this year. To say she loves it is the understatement of the year. It's been fun to watch her do it. It's a pretty big time commitment which I was surprised by but we have been able to make it work. The fact that she loves it makes it pretty easy. She has made some great friends.
I have said it before - this is not really my thing. However, I am surprised at the discipline that it has taught Elaina so far. The discipline to come to practice twice a week, to show up at the games in the proper uniform, and the discipline to stand in formation for the entire game and be alert. So, those are all positive take aways from this.
Another thing that has surprised me is the size of the bows as well as the apparent "technique" to wearing it properly. Oh brother! But, I think I have it figured out. Who knew?
On to some pics...and a video or two...or maybe three. :)
Her team. Bottom (L-R) Elaina, Alli, Claire, Lottie, Keliegh
Top (L-R) Madison, Kaitlyn, Carley, Kaelyn, and Kaititlyn
Madison and Elaina
Elaina and her best friend, Kaitilyn
Now to some video.....this was her first scrimmage game. She was WAY into it. It was fun to watch her.
Elaina is the "M"....
She is the one standing on the 32 1/2 yard line :)
School started last week. Elaina is officially a second grader even though we have been calling her that all summer. It's now official.
One week into it....things are great.
I have told several people that this year was easy.....not sure why but I think it just means that we (and by we, I mean Elaina) are finally discovering our routine with school. Maybe? She has now realized that this is just what we do for 9 months out of the year with 3 months off in between. Or, she is just growing up.
And, mom and dad were not near as weepy and stuff the first day. We are growing up too!!! :) ha ha!
This was a week before school started when we went backpack shopping. She posed with the "heart" hand formation. This screams "big girl" to me for some reason.
First day breakfast - fruit and muffins
And, the first day pic at the front door....
At her desk on day 1....she was all "okay, mom. Stop taking my picture" Again, that screams "big girl" to me.
This was day 4....I just thought she looked so "big" with her outfit, shoes, etc....
Theme of this post... "big" I said it several times.
Here's to a great second grade year!
Happy 40th Birthday, Erik!! Erik turned 40 a week ago.
It's a big milestone and I was excited about celebrating it. I wanted to do something special for him so I coordinated a surprise birthday party for him. It was my first shot at coordinating a surprise party of any kind and it was the first surprise party Erik had ever been given. I pulled it off and I think he was genuinely surprised. I was glad. It was hard for me to keep that a secret and do all the planning, telephone calling, emailing, texting, ordering food without him knowing. For that reason only, I am glad the whole thing is over. I did make one goof up and I think he was on to me some but he said he wasn't and that he really didn't know a party was in the making.
I had LOTS of help from my mom and sister in getting it all set up. I just had to show up with the birthday boy. My mom and sister did all the running to pick up food, set up, and decorating.
AND, as usual, Carl and Sabrina did his cake AND they helped coordinate putting together picture collages of Erik from his childhood. They went above and beyond as always and were a big part of making the party special. It all turned out perfect. Thank you to everyone who helped.
And, thank you to everyone who came. He was touched by all the friends and family that came to celebrate his big day.
Erik says he doesn't feel 40 which I think is awesome. He said this birthday really doesn't feel much different. He certainly makes 40 look good (if I say so myself) :)
Early in the day, Elaina and I went to get him Dunkin Donuts (his favorite) after church. She put 4 candles in his doughnut and presented it to him. All her idea. She had fun doing it.
Then, we hung out and had family time for the afternoon. We played lots of games and Erik got a nap (his all time favorite thing to do). I told him we could go see a movie of his choice and gave him some options for movies that were playing around 6:00pm that day. I told him my mom had offered to keep Elaina and was going to take her swimming (at her clubhouse, aka - the setting for the surprise party). He was so excited about the possibility of going to a movie that he wanted to see because I never go to movies to see what he wants (I am a big wimp when it comes to movies that are in any way scary, action, etc...). He doesn't want to watch what I want so we basically never go to the movies...I know - we are lame. It's just a mutual understanding that we have.
So, we packed up with movie snacks in my purse to smuggle in the movie theater (I had to play the part). Then, headed to my mom's to "drop Elaina off" with her.
When we got there, this happened:
He knew pretty much when we pulled in the parking lot (which I knew he would - he knows people by their cars and will spot them from a mile away in their cars). Then we all hung out, ate, and the kids swam. It was 1000 degrees but we all had fun.
The amazing cake. Complete with all the things Erik likes - Football, Notre Dame, Titans, Soccer, Beer. Each corner had a picture of him from each decade of his life underneath a fondant picture frame. It was perfect!
I loved celebrating Erik - for the amazing person that he is.....husband, father, son, son-in-law, brother, and friend. He deserved to be treated special for this day and I think we accomplished that.
I need to add that Elaina kept the surprise from him well. I was worried but she didn't let the cat out of the bag. All day that day, she kept calling me to the corner of the room to "tell me secret" asking me questions about how things were going to work that day which made Erik a little suspicious but she never slipped up.
Happy Birthday Erik! We love you SO! To many more birthday celebrations!
Elaina turned 7 at the beginning of this month. 7 is a bit hard to believe.
In usual fashion, her birthday weekend (being coupled with July 4th weekend) was busy and we over did it. But, she had a super time and was spoiled by all...including us.
July 4th we spend the night at my mom's lake house. We simply LOVE this place. I didn't get a lot of pics of July 4th because I didn't ever think of it until the last minute. But, here are a few with Sprinklers...
At the lake house
At Erik's mom and dad's house...
Pose with Kelsey and Liana
Saturday was her slumber party sleepover that Elaina requested...Frozen themed (of course). It was in short - a perfect day and a perfect party. She had 5 girls come. Only 4 spent the full night. All the girls that came were fabulous. They all got a long and, more importantly, they all had fun. Erik and I wanted her to have a pool party but she wanted a sleepover. Looking back, I am glad we did the slumber party. It was great!
I got a little crazy on Pinterest and found a bunch of cute ideas for her party. So, let the pictures of the party decor begin..
This was on the front door...my favorite part of this pic is Elaina's photo bomb in the window - lol!
So, then I invited her outside to smile with Olaf
This was the Olaf we used for the pin the nose on Olaf game they girls played
This was my attempt at trying something I found on Pinterest....the one on Pinterest looks more like Olaf but it's the thought that counts. "A" for effort. It was fun to do.
Carl and Sabrina came through with an AMAZING cake. The castle had glow lights in it. Every year they up their game...by the time Elaina is 16, the cake will have to fall from the sky or something if they keep it up :)
They even boxed it up in this box they made out of random posters so Elaina could open it like a present. They are the greatest!!!
Cheese sticks that I drew Olafs on....another Pinterest idea.
The cake....hidden.....in a box....
The spread....
The girls working on their activity books while dinner was being cooked
We got all the girls frozen night gowns to wear...here they are opening them up.
They were super excited to get these
UH-DOR-A-BLE!!! I love all these sweet girls
Katherine, Laurel, Elaina, Madison, Kaitilyn, and Olivia.
All very sweet friends to Elaina
They made Olaf puppets and this was the biggest surprise for me at how much they loved this. They did puppets shows (multiple) for a while. It was fun to see their creativity play out
The puppet show set
Happy Birthday Elaina....I LOVE this picture
Present time....
Pin the nose on Olaf was fun too...Everyone did pretty well
Sunday morning was Elaina's actual birthday day so we ate waffles and sang happy birthday to her with a candle.
All ready for church
The 7 year old
Later that night we had family over for dinner and cake for Elaina's birthday. Carl and Sabrina came back and re-made the cake from what was left of it from the night before....So, this is version 2 of the cake. They are amazing!!!
And there were cupcakes this time.
Happy Birthday...again
Did I mention we over did it?
Have you ever known us to do that?
Yes? Okay. Yes
Elaina got a beta fish from my sister, Kate. It was a HUGE hit. She has done really well with it and likes having it. She names him....Maryann.
And....the children...I mean, Quentin AND Carl took a selfie with my stolen camera
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