Mckenna's 5th Birthday

For Mckenna's 5th Birthday party, we took a group of 10 girls (Kiara and Mckenna included) to Build a Bear in the Strongsville Mall.  It was so much fun.  Mckenna was center of attention, had all of her friends with her, and everyone got to pick a bear to stuff and take home.

After everyone chose a bear, all the kids took turns getting their bear stuffed.  While they waited, the party planner asked the girls questions about Mckenna and the one who knew the answer got a sticker.  Mckenna felt very special (you could tell by the look on her face).

Mckenna getting sung Happy Birthday to.

Here is the Birthday crew with their bears!

  Girls from Preschool, our neighborhood, and one of Kiara's friend (and Mckenna's too) Kayla,.

After the party we went up to the food court for Mckenna's favorite dessert (brownies & ice cream).  Mckenna really wanted to open her presents (last year we took them home to open) so of course she got her wish.  This was her opening Kiara and Ava's present, a Build A Bear dresser for all the clothes.

Mckenna's Preschool Friends!

I love these girls and all of the moms as well.  Next year will be difficult for me because we spend a lot of time together.  I hope to meet some great girls (and Moms) in Mckenna's Kindergarten class as well!

On Monday, February 6th, we celebrated Mc's birthday at home.  Her choice for dinner was Taco night!! 

Daddy brought Mckenna a real football from work because

                                     "Now that you are 5, you are ready for a real football!"

Mckenna still wanted brownies and ice cream for her birthday dessert at home. 

Happy 5th Birthday Mckenna Kay.  We love you!

Hard

It is hard when Kiara comes home from school with this paper in her work folder. 

My special place is Seattle.  I like it because all my family lives theire.

Good thing Gram arrived today to bring a little Seattle to us!!!!



HAPPY VALENTINS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At school evryone got to dekrate a hart and this is my hart.I put a piksher of Aden.I also put a piksher of sum of my cusins and a piksher of me and my sisters. I also put a lot of stikers. I roat (wrote) with pastels. I put a chane of five at the bottom.  I love my valentine!!

Disney on Ice

We have done this every time possible with our kids.  The girls love it and Tom and I do as well.  For this performance, they had three short stories, Cinderella, Tangled, and Princess and the Frog. 

Daddy with his girls.

Kiara and Mckenna enjoying their 25 dollar snow cones :)

Ava was with a sitter, and I really enjoyed watching this with Kiara and Mckenna and no other distractions!!

V.I.P.

Mckenna was the VIP last week in her preschool class. On Monday she was to bring in 5 pictures of her family as well as a list of questions answered.  On Friday, she got to have a guest reader come to the end of her class and read a book.  And finally, "Smiley", a stuffed smiley face, got to spend the week with our family.  Smiley came with a journal where the kids could put pictures of what smiley did with their family.  Here are the pictures Mckenna choose to put in the journal with the captions we wrote (Mckenna was very specific as to what words we used :)).

Ava likes smiley too!

Smiley went to soccer to watch Mckenna kick the ball.

The babysitters came and smiley was good.

(Tom and I went out to dinner with AJ and Toby at Great Lakes Brewery, it was fantastic)

Smiley went to Ballet with Mckenna.

Smiley slept with Mckenna.

Here is a look at the questions Mckenna answered about herself.  Mckenna was the first preschooler to write out all of the answers to the questions by herself and I was very proud :).  

1) Birthday:  February 6

2) Favorite color:  Pink

3) Favorite food:  Noodles (from Olive Garden)

4) Favorite book:  Star Wars (?? interesting)

5) Favorite activity:  Ballet

6) Favorite movie:  Horton (?? again, interesting)

I LOVE her "interesting" answers however I have no idea where she comes up with them.   But when Mckenna decides on something, that is it :). 

On Friday, Mckenna got to have a guest reader come to her classroom and read a book.  For weeks Mckenna has talked about when it is her turn she wanted Kiara to read to her class.  Tom and I talked about it and decided this was a great reason for Kiara to miss an hour of her school. The night before, Kiara and Mckenna picked out the book Larry Gets Lost in Seattle.  Jeff and Carin gave Kiara this book for her birthday after we moved and it is one of our favorites.  They were both SO EXCITED about this and of course Kiara was a rock star.  She did such a great job (probably better than most parents do :).

Ava was in the stroller (for about a minute) but wanted to get into the action with her sisters.

As the kids began packing up, Ava got herself up on the couch and started to flip through the book.  Ava trys so hard to be a big girl!

Kiara has aged a few years.....

Kiara needed a hair cut BAD.  She was very proud that her hair was the longest in the class, so did not want to go.  Tough, you need it cut.  I took Kiara to a salon and said "cut a few inches off the bottom and if you feel like she needs layers that is fine.  Just make sure you can put her hair into a ponytail, she plays sports."

When we were leaving Kiara said (something like) "Mom, I love it.  Can I get it cut like this every time?"  I looked at her, smiled and thought - I am not sure, you look a little old :). 

Happy New Year!!!

Tom and I have no memories from New Years last year.  We were approaching Ava's MRI and are thinking that is one of the main reasons why.  This year felt much different.  With surgery and many tests behind us we were happy to celebrate the end to 2011 and excited to celebrate the coming of a new year.  It seems odd that a particular night such as New Years Eve can bring a feeling of hope and excitement for what is to come.  It cannot change the past but there is always hope that a new year can bring happiness for our family and friends.  This year the Headlee's celebrated with a bang!! We put Ava down at 8 and changed the girls bedtime to 9pm.  This extra hour was SO EXCITING to them.  We didn't want to spoil it by telling them they stay up that late almost every night, reading and falling asleep :). At 8 pm we got out the cookies, drinks (juice for Kiara and Mckenna, beer for Deborah, and Captain and Diet Coke for Tom) and had game night.  At 5 to nine we got out our hats, noise makers, and blower things and got ready to count down.  We counted down and at the stroke of 9 made more noise than I thought possible for the 4 of us.  When it was over, Kiara said "that was SO FUN, can we do it again?"  Of course!!!  We knew that Ben would have liked that as well.  After two countdowns, we had dance party and took some pictures.

 

Kiara and Mckenna celebrating the New Year!

Daddy and the girls!

This is a keeper (hahahahahaha)

Mckenna wanted a picture with "Twinkle"!!

I think we have a new tradition, for a few years anyway.  On to 2012 and wishing for much deserved happiness to all of our friends and family!