November Odds & Ends...

Sometimes we get the entire morning routine just right. Other times we skip a step...

Dessert cookies for activity days.

Not sure why I took this one but it's cute so it's here.

All the places to sit in the house and she chooses....

Rebekah grew a lot this last year. This was around her 8th birthday:

This was her 7th.

Rebekah loves to help in the kitchen.

Ironically, I only bring out the aprons when she is cooking with me. Otherwise I'm apathetic.

Practicing for baptism, coming late December.

Waiting for snow:

Snow!

Swim friends:

Never too old or to cold for chalk art.

Loving the ice skating decorations.

Learning a new skill:

Wrote her brother's name on the armed forces tree.

Worked the space puzzle:

Didn't want to try it on so proved it fit in some other manner:

Found her reading nook:

Diving practice:

Asking dad if we can buy fancy Christmas ornaments.

Dad said yes:

Learning how quickly $100 goes at Costco:

Painting with grammy:

Art work:

Circle diagram:

Space crown:

Idea for a tent:

Think this was an oldie but still a goodie.

November School

Apparently Rebekah's teacher is surprised that anyone actually sends corrected work / tests home these days. However, we - or I suppose I should say I - made a stink about it at parent teacher conference. To that end we are seeing some work.

I liked this one. Love learning about my little girl.

This spelling test was great. The last ten words are same letter combo words. Example: 6 - 10 are "ea" words, 11 - 15 are "y" words. Honored that mommy and Abby (her cousin) made the list.

100% spelling test and after school brownies. Who could ask for more?

Monday Rebekah came home saying parents were invited tomorrow to come to a class production. Sure enough in her Monday week bulletin her teacher mentioned the same thing. The exact wording was, "Reader's Theater - Tomorrow 12:30 in our classroom. We will perform a couple of very short plays for parents / family at 12.30 tomorrow. You will be out by 12:50ish. You are more than welcome to attend." I'm having a hard time with the whole you are welcome to attend but I'm giving you less than 24 hours notice. Good thing I don't work out of the home and was able to go.

Her first speech: 

Then she was a part of a smaller production but it was too long to post in the blog. She did great though!

Afterwards her teacher gave a brief speech and then Rebekah came over with her thankful paper.

And then came holiday break. Yay for no school!

The Actual Day

The actual day of her birthday was a school day. She woke up to her birthday wall - space themed. Each star is something we love about Rebekah. I only noticed a few days ago I didn't put the number 8 up there anywhere. Ah well, I suppose one can't think of everything. 

When she got home from school Rebekah ate her birthday cupcake with the 8 candle I forgot for the family party. Don happened to stay home from work because he wasn't feeling well, however I didn't understand I wasn't suppose to get dad in the video. Again, one can't get everything correct. 

Mondays are swim days so they were festive at swim. I love her swim group. Such kind kids and supportive adults.

And just like that she's 8. People keep quoting, "the days are long but the years are short," and for good reason too. Seems like just yesterday she was suffering from reflux and refusing her bottle. You blink and she's stealing your slippers and leaving them in her room making you think you're loosing your mind because you can't remember where you put them. 

She has such a sweet heart. She desires to be perfect and never make a mistake, which can sometimes keep her from trying new things. Her potential to learn and achieve is remarkable; she lacks desire to put forth effort at times but when she does watch out. She has wonderful self esteem but when she gets out in front she can doubt herself. She loves all things space, science however she has a strong dislike for homework. She cares about others so much. She loves friends and friends and more friends, loves to play, snuggle, sing, eat candy / treats and be in charge. She still is very anxious at times and nightly prays for no hurricanes, tornadoes, strong winds, storms, fires, earthquakes, drills, and so on so she can sleep in peace. She loves family, immediate and extended, constantly calls, texts, and Marco Polos them, and cannot wait to see everyone in December. 

She's just under a foot shorter than me and gaining height fast. I constantly ask her what I'm going to do when she gets too big for snuggles, to which she replies she will never get too big for snuggles. I hope it's true. She has, however, asked me not to call her snuggly buggly except when no one else is around. And so it begins.... 

Family Party

The next day we planned to head to mom's for the family party. Grammy knows Rebekah loves a good birthday balloon and she was prepared for the occasion.

First order of business was lunch, but quickly thereafter was presents.

Right after presents grammy asked Don to check on his Aunt Ruth who has not answered the phone for a while. Turns out she needed medical attention and there was much that needed to be done by grammy. While the others were busy helping aunt Ruth, Rebekah and I checked out her new microscope from grammy. 

We also made the above lego set. 

Eventually we all got back together and had the much desired cake. And no, I still couldn't handle getting the toy cake toppers all frosting-y, so I opted to strategically place them in front. 

Grammy let Rebekah use the knife to cut the cake. She was very excited.

Got the hair out of the way and going in.

It was getting late and school was tomorrow so we headed back home. On the way we saw a beautiful sunset. Rebekah quickly took my phone and captured the moment.

Except for the tragedy with aunt Ruth, who is feeling much better now, it was a beautiful day. So glad we got to celebrate our little girl. 

Friend Party

From the beginning I limited the big birthday celebrations to 5, 8, 12, and 16. (I'm a little nervous about the 16 year one...) But I digress. We were heading into the 8th and had to get prepared. First we found some fun invitations.

Then we did the preparations, which was the last post, feel free to scroll back. Finally it was time for the guests to arrive. Once they were all here we jumped right into apron decorating.

Rebekah went total space theme. Love her Saturn.

I also love how all the girl's apron reflected little pieces of their personality.

And then, we jumped into decorating.

And presents of course.

The giant slinky was pretty epic.

But all good things come to an end and the girls had to leave. But on the bright side, Rebekah finally got to eat the cupcake she was too distracted by the fun, girls, and presents to eat.