Mackenzie turns 6

Mackenzie Leigh ... born around 9pm on Saturday, December 23, 2006.  I cannot believe that my first born child is already 6 years old.  What a little lady she has grown up to be.  She participated in cheerleading, dance and tumbling this year.  She is in all-day Kindergarten at Park school.  She has been able to read for about a year now ... and is getting better every day.  She meets/exceeds all of the items on her report card for all three trimesters already (we know she is an overachiever).  This child is so much like her mother: likes things neat and organized, must pick out her clothes the night before, eats breakfast/lunch/dinner and a minimum of two snacks inbetween, is sarcastic and a little sassy.  We could not be more proud of her ... we look forward to all the adventures and obsticals that will come with the next year.  She is a great daughter, sister and friend to all.

For her birthday she decided that she would like to go downtown to the American Girl Store to have brunch and pick out a doll.  Mac and I got on the train and headed to the city.  We had brunch together (which was the cutest thing EVER), then purchased a "Just Like Me" doll for her and then headed home.  She was so excited and well-behaved.  I am so proud of her ... she uses her manners all the time without prompting from mom.  When we got home, she played with her new doll and changed the clothes for hours.

On her actual birthday, we went to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris and Laura.  Then the next day we celebrated with the Mertins family on Xmas Eve.  It is a crazy time of year ... birthday, Xmas eve then Xmas day.  With all the hustle and bustle at this time of the year ... we enjoy it and it gets better each and every year.

On the train to the city ... we brought Bitty with us

Hilarious ... in the cab to the store ... Mac was facinated with how TALL the Willis (Sears) tower was.

Picking out the right "Just Like Me" doll at the store

 

Got the doll ... pose for a photo

Brunch at the cafe.  This is the most adorable thing EV-ER!!!

This is the picture of HAPPY!  Mac was so excited about this day.

Eating her "perfect" heart-shaped pancakes and feeding Bitty

 

My shining star poses before we leave

Full size pose at the AG Star

Move over Mary Tyler Moore ... This is the new city gal!

Cab ride back to the train station

 

Longest train ride home ... this kid was dying to run through the train car.  Super high energy!

At home ... the doll (named Mackenzie b/c it is a Just Like Me doll) with the dog Coconut

 

First snowfall

For some reason Chicago has a glass bubble over it this year and the crazy weather has missed us completely.  Well ... not completely.  We did have one day where the snow began to fall and about an inch actually stuck to the ground.  Of course the kids just HAD to go out in it.  Here is our first snowfall of the season 12-19-12:

Ready for Christmas?

Since Mac knows how to read and write, she is all about making her Christmas list.  We received the Toys-r-Us catalog a week or two ago and each day after school she pulls it out and looks over what she wants to put on her list.  Since her birthday is at that time too - - - the list is extra long.  She cracks me up when I watch her, because she is justifying WHY she wants/needs each item and for which occasion - birthday or Christmas.  She had a day off of school when I didn't, so she got to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's where she got to make chocolate chip cookies with Grandma.  Her first year of school is off to a great start.

Mac writes down the toys she wants on her "whish list"

Here is the "wish list" - going to take some decoding to figure out where each item is on this sheet.  Everything runs together.

Baking with Grandma on a day off of school

 

Halloween

Our town does trick-or-treating the Sunday prior to Halloween.  It was a sunny yet chilly day.  We asked my sister and her family to come up to join us.  So we made a fiest out of it ... enchiladas, fajitas, and all the fixings.  We started off taking the kiddos out - bundled up - and trick-or-treated up and down the streets in my neighborhood.  We finally retired and Mac and Max decided they really wanted to hand out candy at our front door.  They only had the door slam on two or three kids as they argued over who was getting candy - HA! Here are a few photos before we went out.

Max the conductor and Josie a large bumble bee

Max, Mackenzie (swapped bee costume to be a warmer strawberry instead), Josie and Lauren a butterfly

Mac and Lo

Look at this cutie!

Kindergarten Fall Festival

I volunteered to help out with the Kindergarten Fall Festival (a.k.a. Halloween Party).  Her school did this on the Friday prior to Halloween.  What a great idea to end the week with a party.  It was a lot of fun and interesting to see who all these kids were that Mackenzie talks about at home.  Here are some photos from that.  Starting with the parade.

The full day Kindergarten class at Park School

Full day Kindergarten with teachers and program assistants (two on left are TA's and the two on right are teachers)

 

Mackenzie the bumble bee in the school parade

 

Mackenzie and her friend Tina matched the teachers that day, so they took a Buzzing Bee photo.  The teachers are Miss Canker (the morning teacher next door), Mrs. Ewen (Mac's all day teacher), and Miss Yun (soon to be the maternity sub for Mrs. Ewen).

Mackenzie's group played Bingo first.  Her group was Michael, Even P., Mac, Cami, and Mason.

We then moved on to play Bozo buckets with mini pumpkins

Mac did actually pretty good ... made 3 of the 5 buckets.

Pin the nose on the pumpkin

Mackenzie's nose was pretty perfect on the pumpkin ... cheater!

Before we left we took a "family" photo.  Our neighbor Olivia is in 7th grade and she was a student volunteer for the class party.  Lauren was so excited that "Viva" got to be with her during the party.

Jake Clement and Mackenzie - - - Jake's mom teaches at Fremd with me.  Mac and Jake were at Fremd's preschool together and now they are in Kindergarten together.  Future Homecoming King and Queen at GCHS.

 

Injuries and illnesses - yuck!

In the beginning of September, all the craziness began.  We had school, dance, cheerleading, and loads of other things to do each day.  One day after school Lauren and Mac went out to play on the swingset and BOOM ... Lauren pushed the double swing forward and didn't move when it came back at her.  Resulting in a really nice shiner.

Lauren's first shiner

Then later that same week, while at the sitter's house, she missed a step or two while going to play in her basement.  She cried when it happened but then seemed fine.  My sitter put her down for a nap and when she woke up ... she couldn't walk on her right leg.  It was really swollen later that day so we had to wrap it up.  Here is that photo.

Lauren's sprained ankle

We realized that it wasn't broken and just really sore.  We couldn't take her to the doctor, since she alread had a black eye from earlier in the week ... probably would have been taken away in cuffs and the kids would be taken by DCFS.  That was a fabulous week of injuries.

Thinking we were free of crazy messes ... I get a call while in a meeting one afternoon from my sitter that Lauren probably has pink eye.  She woke up from her nap with a crusty/pink eye.  Sure enough, I get to the sitter's house and her one eye was so swollen and completely disgusting.  Got her right in to the doctor and picked up drops.  She actually liked putting them in and did awesome!  Here is what she looked like on the way to the doctor's office.

Lauren's left eye - super swollen and pink

From the pink eye she then moved into a great head cold with a really ugly cough, Mackenzie got the fever/chills and then I got a sinus infection, sore throat, cough and laryngitis.  We are hoping that this was it ... all germs and sickness hit us and will be gone for good.

Cheer Competition - Dream On

Well ... all my fears about having daughters came full circle ... Mackenzie joined cheerleading!  She wasn't a huge fan at the beginning, but as soon as we started learning a competition routine - she was hooked.  She competed at the Graylake "Dream On" Competition on Sunday, October 21, 2012.  Her team has 13 Kindergartners - and yes I am the coach.  This has been such a challenge for me.  I went from coaching talented high school girls that needed a push to the next level - - - to coaching girls that have no idea what a "high V" is and I had to teach them.  Needless to say, they were awesome at the end of the season.  They were so darn cute and they learned so much!  They barely knew their routine at our practice Thursday evening and they totally rocked out the routine at the competition.  There wasn't "places" given out in their division, but they did have a better score than the Grayslake 1st grade team (that secretly made me happy).  Here are some photos from the day.  I couldn't take pictures while sitting in the coaches chairs during the routine - ugh!

Miss Mascot Green - - -Ready to compete!

The bow is as big as her head.

Here is the team in our "holding" room at Central HS - their feet don't touch the ground.

The Colts Mascot Green and the Jr. Coaches

Mac and Jr. Coach Amanda

Getting bored waiting for awards to be given out

 

Mac and her friend Tina sitting in the stands after our performance

Waiting for awards ... longest time of their life!

Finally they played music - so everyone is getting up to dance to YMCA

 

The Jr. Coaches had out their gifts to the girls - they made them personalized pillows for our "Dream On" theme

 

After receiving their team gifts and pillows ... pose for a picture

 

Mac shows off her pillow

They sit patiently as they announce the winner for the Kindergarten division - it's us - the only Kindergarten team! HA!

 

The team with their trophies.  These trophies were a HIT!  We could have just bought some at Party City and handed them out to make their day.  You would have thought they were made of real gold!

Mackenzie and Tina pose for a quick photo as we grab a bite to eat after awards.  We stayed to watch the older girls from our neighborhood perform.