Jonni's Fifth Birthday

I know what you're thinking. She's HOW old??? That's not possible!! Yet, somehow or other, Jonni is five. That means *shudder* kindergarten!! What next? Dating?
At any rate, I'm not here to alarm anyone, I don't want to start a panic, I just want to tell everyone how Jonni hurdled this particular milestone. She had her first ever birthday party. Now, we've had family parties before, and even invited a few friends of John and myself to share in the momentous occasion of Jonni's birth, but this was the first one where we invited who Jonni wanted to invite, and we did the party Jonni's way. I dare say, it was a success. What else, with Jonni at the helm?
We had four girls over (we invited five, but one got sick), and we colored a mural, played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. The girls had a blast, and the adults sat around and enjoyed watching them. Here are just a few pics of The Occasion;

Here's Jonni blowing out the candles on her cake.

I love this shot, I think it's hilarious.

She's just a bit tired of me taking pictures at this juncture.

Here's Jonni and all her girlfriends opening presents.

She got a pretty good haul this year.

Here are all the girls doing their mural. They had a blast with this one.

And what did they draw? Monsters!!

I especially liked the birthday cake monster!

So, another year in Jonni's life has passed. It's been a big one. She fished for the first time, went without her mom for almost a week for the first time, started preschool, and finally turned five. Yep, a big year, and mostly good. Happy Birthday Jonni!!

Here's to many more,

The Almighty Liz

Pre-School Oral Reports

Yep, you read that title correctly. Jonni had her first oral report this week. In pre-school. A little sooner than I expected. They were studying space for the month of Febuary, and so Jonni's report was to be on Mars. John helped her, since he is the space nut, not I. They decided the best route would be to pick some pictures, and then Jonni could describe them. Jonni picked six pictures. That's a lot for a soon to be five-year-old, I thought. Here are some of the cooler ones;

This Olympus Mons, the biggest mountain on Mars and Earth.

It is also roughly the size of Arizona, and an active volcano.

This is a sunset on Mars. That teeny tiny dot is the sun.

Anyway, so pretty cool, but still, I was way worried about her handling an Oral Report. As a safety measure, John wrote all the dialogue on the backs of the pictures so the teacher could help her. We have been assured many times that Jonni is extremely shy at school, and I just didn't know how she was gonna do this. It turns out we needn't have worried. Jonni was flawless. Not only did she do the things we practiced with her, she brought a book on space she's had at home for awhile, flipped to the section on Mars, and proceeded to expound upon her original report. The teacher said she went on for a full ten minutes, with no mistakes, and as she was reading over Jonni's shoulder, all the book stuff that she didn't practice with us was correct as well. Needless to say, her teacher was beyond impressed. Most parents just print something out, apparently, and the teacher reads it to the class while the student just stands there. She has never had anyone do what Jonni did, and she's been teaching pre-school for like twenty years! That's m'girl!!