Preschool Party and Family Party

In celebration of Rebekah's birthday I took cupcakes for her preschool class on Wednesday. Since they were recognizing Fire Safety week and exploring a fire truck before snack I decided to join the class early to participate with Rebekah. Of course, this gave me a great photo op since I normally would not get to be part of this event.

Rebekah did not like the alarms and sirens as you can see her on the front row holding her hands over her ears.


Listening to a fireman talk about fire safety and learning from Sparky the (electronic) dog.



Rebekah's class with Sparky


Rebekah and Sparky


Touring the front of the fire truck



Rebekah's class poses by the fire truck


We then went back to the classroom for snack. Rebekah was the snack helper for the day, and she handed out the cupcakes to her classmates.


She felt pretty special when her friends sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She even made a big deal about it that night over dinner.





This evening we celebrated Rebekah's birthday as a family. She had been itching to open her gifts from Aunt Donise and Uncle Mark. She actually wanted to open them early, but I told her she could open them on her birthday. So this morning she was ready to tear into the box first thing this morning. Knowing me, I have to get pictures of these special events, and I wanted the rest of our family to take part, so I encouraged her to wait. Well, I finally started to give in by late this afternoon, but she managed to get distracted and did wait until we had our intimate family celebration.

When Darrin arrived home from work he entered the house with a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. Rebekah's face lit up when she saw them, and she was so proud that I put them in a vase and in her room. It made her feel grown up.

Rebekah had asked for tacos for her birthday dinner, and afterwards we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate leftover cupcakes from her preschool party.



Joshua's taco face :-)





Rebekah then opened her presents. Joshua gave her a tutu and matching head band.


Darrin and I gave her Monopoly Jr. and an orange shimmery leotard. Her main gift from us will be her birthday party on Saturday. She is so excited!

Rebekah and I played Monopoly Jr. while Joshua took his bath. This is such a great game for this age! Rebekah can do simple math, but this takes it to a new level since they learn how to form different dollar amounts with what they have or to make change. It was just the right length of time for a game at this age. It kept Rebekah's attention, so it wasn't too long, and the game is simple enough and fun too. I loved that they made it in the theme of an amusement park to relate to children as well. There is some light reading, but I just read what was too difficult for her, which is fine since she will only be playing this with me and/or Darrin anyway.



Rebekah got a Madeline set from Aunt Donise and Uncle Mark. I'm not familiar with this character, but she looks really cute. Rebekah got a book, DVD, and matching doll. Donise had also introduced us to Angelina Ballerina about a year ago, and now she's pretty popular in our house, so I'm sure Madeline will soon become a favorite as well.


After her bath Rebekah was excited to try on her leotard, tutu and head band. The leotard doesn't match the tutu set, but Rebekah didn't care. She had a blast dancing away!