A Whole Hand!

Keely turned 5 today. She had a great day starting with her 2 hours in Pre-K with me volunteering. It was so fun for me to see her in school and she was happy to be the V.I.P. and center of attention. The two hours consisted of Keely being the leader (doing day of the week, date, weather, etc.), reading buddies coming in, me leading the class in Junior Achievement lesson, Keely explaining her V.I.P. poster, some outside time and then snack. Oh and lots of singing, including Happy Birthday to Keely. Reading buddies is just so cute. Each Pre-K student is paired up with an 8th grade student and once per week, the 8th graders come down with a book in hand and read to their buddy. Keely's buddy was sick today but she was more than content to share another little girl's buddy. It was precious watching the 8th graders have patience and read to the little ones.

Then it was off to work for me and EDP for her. After school and work, she opened her present from Nana & Papa. They got her a keyboard with microphone, that she admired in a toy store in Las Vegas. She had hours of fun with it, singing dancing and making announcements (i.e. "There will be no school tomorrow and would so-and-so please come to the office?"). She is so dramatic, I really need to get her into some acting or singing classes.

We then went out to dinner at Rib City (her choice) where she chose Corn Dogs, French Fries and Root Beer for dinner. What more could a kid ask for?!?!

After dinner, it was more presents from Quinn and us. She got a new leotard from Quinn. From us, she got a Hannah Montana guitar, new play vanity and makeup case, and High School Musical dolls.
She was super happy with all her presents and brought all of them to her room to arrange them just right.
After that, she had her birthday cake and talked to Grandma & Grandpa and then Nana & Papa.

Her birthday cakes are also usually an adventure in themselves. Quinn likes easy things, like racecars, pirate ships, soccer balls and trains. Those I can handle. Keely wants princesses and those involve artistry like faces. One year it was Ariel, then it was Cinderella. Those are hard, and the faces come out horrible. Last year she told me it was ugly, and she was right. So this year I decided to forego the face and make a "Barbie Doll" cake except with an Ariel doll. This cake was super easy to make and came out just darling. Even Keely gave her stamp of approval. Here is the finished product...