Peyton's School Birthday Celebration

Peyton's birthday was three days after the start of school so we waited until the next week to have her school birthday celebration. Graham was off from school that day and was so excited to go to the big school and see his sister. The teacher asked Graham if he wanted to go outside with Peyton during recess so off they went and I loved watching her show him around, help him and just be so proud of her baby brother. It was a sweet moment!

When they came inside she insisted on Graham sitting right next to her which made his day! The whole class sang her happy birthday and we listened to birthday music including happy birthday in arabic and ate their cupcakes.

Then it was time for a dance party on the carpet which Graham got to do as well and then just before we left Peyton was asked to introduce and talk about her brother. I wish I had a video of it but my phone ran out of storage space and I couldn't take one. It was precious. She introduced him, told them all about what he likes to play with and do and answered questions about him. He loved being up there with her and she loved showing him off. It was a sweet moment. 

Then it was time for us to leave, which Graham was not happy about! It was so much fun to celebrate Peyton's birthday with her class!

Peyton's first week in K4

The K4 program had a soft start for the kids where they only went part of the week and for part of their normal day to help ease them into school. I am sure some kids needed that but Peyton was so ready to do this on her own and couldn't undertstand why I was there and actually regressed during the week and made me worried about her doing it on her own. Thankfully she was fine the next week when she did have to go on her own and having mommy not with her was all she needed to resume her confident, idependent self!

It was nice however to get to know her teacher more, help Peyton navigate how snack time would work being gluten free and feel more comfortable and handling her allergy at school and how to take responsibility for getting her snack out of her bag, the school provides daily snack for all the other kids and we felt it was easier and more consistent for her to have the rule that she only eats her snack.  It was such an incredible answered prayer when I called the nurse before the start of school and she said she also is gluten free and would help educate her teacher, check on Peyton and has been an amazing support for us. She even calls on certain days like when they are having popcorn to check if it is alright. It was such a huge answered prayer to have someone in the school so educated on this and a resource and support for us. 

Her classroom and her teacher are amazing and it was nice to be able to see the passion her teacher has for teaching in just that short week. Made mommy feel much more comfortable about her going to big kid school!

It's a Paw-ty

Peyton's birthday party this year was puppy dog themed so it was time to Paw-ty for her fifth birthday! She LOVES dogs! She loves all dogs, she loves to pretend to be a dog, she likes to play veterinarian with her stuffed animals...she just loves dogs, so this was a perfect way to celebrate her birthday!

One of my rules that started at Peyton's fourth birthday is that they can invite whoever can fit at our table which is 8 people (including the birthday person and their sibling). So far it has been working as last year and this year Peyton's parties have been so much more manageable and we can do fun activities with smaller groups.

Our activity this time was a pet adoption center where they would be able to adopt a puppy, get the puppy a house, go to another station and pick out a blanket for the puppy and then make it a collar and finally get an adoption certificate for their new dog. It was a great activity for the kids!

We also had pin the puppy back inside the dog house. John made a dog house for the game and I printed puppies with their names written on them for the game.

Each place setting had a name tag, dog bone sippy cup, a dog bowl to eat out of, a party hat and a party blower thing.

Peyton's dog food cake! It was super easy to make and was entirely gluten free! The cake was gluten free and we went through a gluten free peanut butter and chocolate ball cereal and picked out the chocolate ball ones to make the cake with melted gluten free marshmallows to help mold the cereal! So much fun!

Here we are explaining the pet adoption to the kids and how I have so many puppies that needed homes and asking if they could adopt some puppies today.

A lady on our camp makes pinatas and made a great dog bone pinata for the party! It was perfect and the kids loved it!

Then it was time to eat and the kids LOVED eating like puppy dogs! It was so much fun to watch them! 

Then it was birthday cake time! I had found some dog bone candles as well to go with the cake.

It was a wonderful birthday party and a great way to celebrate our sweet girl turning five!

Turning Five!

It was hard for us to believe but Peyton turned five this year! I am in disbelief that it was five years ago that she was born. It has flown by and five to me sounds really old! 

We started the day with taking her picture. She is so grown up and it is such a huge praise that she is healthy and thriving. I am so incredibly thankful for the doctors and friends that helped us get through her stomach issues and so thankful that she is doing so amazing now. Huge praises!

She is still a spitting image of her daddy both in looks, personality and everything! 

We spent the day celebrating Peyton and at lunch time John came home for cupcakes and presents. She was so excited to have gifts from us, Graham, G and Papa and her Grandma Martha.

 

That night we celebrated with our our Saudi family which is our core group of five other families. They all have younger kids who weren't coming to her birthday party over the weekend and we wanted to be able to celebrate her birthday with them as well. We had pizza and ice cream sundaes. It was a great day celebrating our five year old!

First Day of School

This year we had two kiddos celebrating their first day of school. Peyton was off to the big kid elementary school for K4 (Pre-K) and Graham was off to his first day of preschool. It was an exciting day and a little emotional watching them head off to school and realizing that my kids are growing up. 

Peyton's school had a soft start for the K4 kids where they had their parents there the first week to help introduce them to the buses, the routine and then the ended up going full time, ride the buses and everything the next week. It was nice to attend with her and see what her classroom was like but she was ready to fly solo!

Graham is attending the same preschool that Peyton did when we first moved to Saudi. He was so excited and ready. It affirmed my decision to not send him last year when other people were and cherish the time I had together with him. He was very ready to go by himself and just ran off and was fine. It was comforting and I was so proud of him.

                   

Graham had to wear running shoes because he wanted to be "super fast" at school! They both loved their new backpacks and were ready for the new adventures of school!

 

I saw a friend do signs for the first day of school so I decided to copy and do the same. Peyton's sign said that she wants to be dentist and a doctor when she grows up. 

Graham's sign said that he would like to be a firefighter with mommy when he grows up. I asked him more about it and he said that I would come help him fight fires and help him with his helmet. He loves his mommy so much and I thought it was adorable! And even several days after the sign was made I would ask him what he wanted to be when he was older and he said, "a firefighter with mommy."

Everyone had a wonderful first day of school and we are so blessed with two wonderful teachers who have a passion for teaching, kids and it shows in their teaching and classrooms. I am so thankful and our prayers were answered with their teachers. A new phase of life for sure with two kids gone half day at school, an exciting time but hard for mommy to be without her kids! I love my Thursdays when Graham is home (he only goes four days a week) and love my weekends with both of them!