Stars of the Weeks

We had a few weeks of pure stardom around here!  May was a BIG month for being celebrated and it meant heads were held high and proud the last month of school.

First, it was finally Natalie's turn to be Star of the Week.  Being Star of the Week is a BIG deal in 2nd Grade.  And Natalie had to wait patiently until the last month of school because for the first time EVER the list went alphabetically by first name.  I mean, who's ever heard of such a system?  This special week meant she got to share 3 special things:  her favorite book (Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse), her Star of the Week Poster (which she worked all weekend on) and her pet gecko, Zipper (which made me incredibly nervous but worked out totally great).

The book and the poster she shared entirely on her own, but sharing Zipper was a family affair. Corey brought the gecko to school to help Natalie present him to the class and Audrey and I joined the audience.  And then Audrey just went ahead and joined the presentation because what not-quite-yet-5-year-old isn't at all daunted to be in front of 32 second graders?

 It was awesome watching Natalie explain all she knew about crested geckos to her captivated audience of fellow 8 year olds.  And while she was talking, Corey let Zipper crawl up and down his arm (and even the classroom white board) to the delight of her classmates.  The kids and teachers were totally captivated. It was awesome.  Natalie took questions from the audience of raised hands.  She answered most of them herself. She's quite the gecko aficionado, this one.   After the presentation, every student lined up single file, upon Corey's instruction, to closely examine Zipper and even touch his skin. Clearly this had to be the best share ever.  The entire year.  At least for the As through the Ns.

And soon after we came down from the high of celebrating our firstborn star, it was time for our second born star to turn 5.  And while turning 5 is just THE best anyway, turning 5 during your last week of preschool is even better.  She got to go out with a birthday BANG! She sat in the special birthday chair, wore a sticker and a birthday crown, got birthday hugs from her teachers and friends and served 21 homemade rainbow fruit salads in pink peace sign happy birthday cups to her friends while wearing her favorite tie dyed peace sign dress.  She's for peace, this one.  And she had her birthday luau to look forward to the following weekend, so the celebration lasted for days.

 We take birthday mornings pretty seriously in this house.

You wake up to birthday balloons in your bedroom and 

banners in the kitchen. You get to drink out of

the special birthday glass with a pink straw and eat off the 

"You Are Special" red celebration plate all. day. long.

It's a pretty fabulous morning to start the day off just right.

Yup, June might be rough on these two 

after all this super stardom!