Life with the Lilly's

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Max's 5th Birthday!

Max's 5th birthday party was a blast! It was held at Haw Creek Park, about ten minutes from our house. We had a great mix of friends from daycare/preschool (a.k.a. lifelong friends!), friends from Montessori school, and a few kids of our friends. Other than some blustery wind, it was perfect weather and LOTS of fun.

FYI - the photos below are in a really random order. :-)

Max and Monty!

My favorite thing about this photo is Pravara (little girl to the right under my arm) -- she is so excited about cake!

Hungry friends!

Sprinkle cake!

We prepared a nature scavenger hunt for the kids. Each child got a personalized clipboard, scavenger hunt sheet (that included finding things like a bug, acorn, Max (!), pine cone, etc.), and a pair of binoculars made from TP tubes. They were pretty excited!

Getting a group of nine four and five years olds together and looking in the same direction is nearly impossible. Consider these group shots the best of the best. Ha!

After the scavenger hunt the kids had lots of fun climbing and playing!

Buddies! Karon's mom and I were so excited to have a photo with both kids looking at the camera with normal smiles. :-) Karon and Max have been buddies since they were just a year old!

Friends from Montessori school! Left to right: Abigail, Max, Ahaan, and Pravara.

To Max's left are Dylan and Parker - friends since they were just a few months old!

We celebrated as a family on Max's actual birthday, too! Because of Hurricane Irma, Max ended up getting a day off from school on his real birthday!

Here he is at 7:04am on September 11 -- the exact moment he turned five years old!!

Max blew out a candle with his birthday breakfast!

At school, birthday celebrations are a special event! The teacher asks the parents to bring in a photo from birth and each year forward. She tells the story of a baby being born and the Mommy and Daddy being SO excited, and then shows the class the photo of the child growing each year, talks about milestones that happen with each birthday, etc. It's so special!

Then, the teacher lights a candle representing the sun in the center of the circle. The months are listed around the sun and the child holds a globe and stands by their birth month. Then, while the class sings a special song, the birthday child walks around the "sun" as many times as they are old representing the number of trips planet Earth has taken in their lifetime!

Abigail's mommy and baby brother, Evan. What a cutie!

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

August Photos

Here is a photo catch-up from August:

First day of school! Max returned for his second year of Primary (year two of three) which is similar to the pre-k level. He was PUMPED to see his teachers and friends again.

Daddy burrito and Max burrito after swimming!

Scoping out a local park as a birthday party venue!

Clearing spiderwebs with a stick.

Max worked really hard coloring this butterfly! I think he sat through three "sessions" of coloring to complete the picture. If you look closely, you can see "baby butterflies" he drew at the top, too!

One day before we left school, Max poured me a cup of water!

Helping with laundry!

We went to a small festival and the local high school art teacher and some students were doing face painting. Max hadn't napped that day and I guess the face painting experience was reallllly relaxing. Check out his facial expression! HA!