The birthday celebrations continue! (Early June is a wild time in our house!) On Cal's birthday morning, she woke up, opened presents, ate breakfast (I don't even remember what she chose since I didn't seem to take a photo of that part of the day . . . I'll have to see if Cal remembers and come back to update with the details!), and then got the last minute things ready for her party with friends starting at 10.
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| Gregg designed a super clever poster covered with all of Callie's favorite things and talents. Here she is playing Spelling Bee, right on her b-day poster! |
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| We moved it outside for the party, but here's a close-up so you can see all the fun details. |
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| Sam picked out some things he thought she'd especially like. LEGO dots, for one. |
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| And this cute little bubble-blowing hotwheels car. |
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| A stack of books from me, of course! |
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| I think this is probably her headlamp? |
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| She got a bunch of fun little survival-related goodies. I think these are carabiners. |
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| Paracord! |
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| A flint and steel fire starter! |
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| A jelly roll of pre-cut and adorably coordinating fabric strips. |
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| Mask and snorkel! |
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| Her gift-receiving enthusiasm just never fails! |
Callie has a gift for party-planning, which I find extremely helpful. I just guide her and she comes up with the activities and food and the whole shebang. As friends arrived, they gathered on the blanket and Cal and I helped them get started making an easy and quick friendship bracelet (the seven strand braid using a cardboard circle - thanks to Lea for teaching us this one last year when we were camping! we have used it over and over and over!).
Once everyone was here and had started their bracelet, we moved on to tie-dye scrunchies using sharpies and rubbing alcohol (easiest method ever!). (The nice thing about the bracelets like this is that you can stop and restart without losing your place!)
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| The boys got to do socks instead of scrunchies. |
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| And they're all back at the bracelets in their downtime. |
After scrunchies, it was time to decorate shirts. I was busy manning the ironing board for the iron-on fabric shapes we had pre-cut, so I didn't get any pics of this process. There were also fabric markers available to decorate with. The iron-ons didn't work very well, unfortunately. But the kids seemed to have fun anyway.
Then it was time for lunch. Cal picked grilled cheese (so glad Heather was there to cook all the sandwiches!), sour cream and onion chips, cherries, and kool-aid for her meal. Instead of cake and ice cream, Cal made a batch or two of her famous vanilla mini donuts and we set up a bar where everyone could decorate their own with a variety of icings, sprinkles, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. as toppings. The kids went wild for this! Such a fun and clever idea, Cal!
We were running out of time and still needed to open presents before parents came to pick up kids, so we moved back to the blanket and everyone snacked on donuts while Callie opened the fun and generous gifts from her friends. It was a great ending to a fun party. So glad everyone she invited was able to come and was so cheery.
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| Group shot (well, most of them, anyway). Evy, Macy, Callie, Abby, Rachel, Moriah, and Grace. Cal's primary-class friend Capri was there, too, but didn't want to be in the picture. And Sam and Bradley were off playing with cars somewhere, probably. |
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| Oh, these two little hooligans were there, too, and mostly kept to themselves with their moms while the big kids crafted. |
To top off that day of fun, Cal chose cheeseburgers (her favorite food), funeral potatoes and zucchini for dinner. Can't beat a meal like that! Sure glad we've got this awesome, smart, creative, kind, clever, witty, helpful, planner, dreamer, Callie-kins nine-year-old in our life! Love you, Callie June!
What can we add to the list of "things about Callie at a new age" from last year (a lot of which is the same, which was the same the year before - it's like she's growing into herself or something and it's a joy to watch!):
- she's addicted (maybe too strong a word?, shall we say eager to play?) to her daily regimen of word games on my phone: wordle, spelling bee, wordga, and I don't even know what else she cycles through if I let her hang onto my phone long enough . . . she loves them all and can often beat me at wordle (the only one I play so there's no competition for the others)
- she loves outdoorsy/explorery/adventurey types of books and equipment and play and learning (she has a growing collection of junior ranger badges from national and state parks that we've visited).
- she is confident and articulate when talking to adults, even strangers. I'm always so impressed that she just steps right up and asks her question at the library or says her pledge for the jr. ranger badge or whatever.
- she's silly and wild with her brother at times.
- she can mess up her bedroom quicker and more thoroughly than anyone I know, always having dozens of projects and crafts going at once.
- she's working on a quilt and has made a skirt and t-shirt and vest for herself since her birthday last year (thanks to grandma B for helping with those clothing projects). she's also made a handful of barbie outfits of her own design.
- still a major bookworm, and I'm convinced she can speed read or has a photographic memory and can read a whole page in a chunk because she is fast! but she still remembers the story and details.
- she loves having activities that are just for her like the library book club or activity days, where she can go out and do things with her age kids and no little brother tagging along. but she is good about helping and having him around at other events like after school club or LEGO robotics at the library.
- she requested to do homeschool again for 4th grade (I thought we were heading back to Valley for sure, but she surprised me by requesting another homeschool year).
- she likes to stay up late (till 10 sometimes . . . either sneakily reading or just thinking) and is becoming quite the little sleeper-inner some mornings.
- she has developed a love of ice skating last winter and roller blading (she saved up her own money and shopped around Amazon and Walmart and picked out the perfect pair!) this summer.
- she's always writing in one of many notebooks scattered around her room and the house . . . plans for clubs, play scripts, intros to stories, lists, ideas, etc.
- she hates brushing her hair
- she loves being in water - swimming, kayaking, sliding at the pool, somersaulting underwater, showering
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