Cassidy Grace Smith
5 Years Old
Unbelievable!
Cassidy will be a kindergartener at Mt. Rose Elementary next year. I cannot begin to understand how fast the time has gone! Five years ago today, it was closing day at Sierra Hall and we were rushing out the door; me in labor and Matt yelling last minute closing procedures to his staff.
Now our "baby" can do simple math, recite the alphabet, almost play twinkle twinkle little star on the piano, and is a few weeks off from being able to swim on her own. She also pouts, whines, is super sensitive, and gets very jealous of her little sister. But she is a fabulous big sister and pretty patient with Savvy, even when she doesn't want to be.
Her party last Saturday was cold and fun! Her friends from her preK class came and a few others to create the most multi-cultural birthday party I'm sure Reno has ever seen. They ran around the park, sweaters and hats and jackets haphazardly thrown over benches and swings as their energy kept them warm. We couldn't light the candle, so she blew out the match. Reno is way more windy than anywhere I have lived! After the last party goer had left and all was packed up, the hail and snow made a small appearance as we unloaded back home. Thank goodness Jen Williams was here! If you are throwing a kid party for a lot of people and you have more than one kid, you need a friend as awesome as Jen Williams. When I asked a month ago if she would help us out, she was undaunted by the request and happy to help! Jen helped us pack up her car with food and stuff, helped chase after Savvy, helped set up food and direct people, battled table covers attempting to fly away, and was a true genius at cake distribution :-) Cass' friends and family were way generous. Each card with a 4 year old name scrawled in crayon is displayed proudly on her bedroom door. My mom sent her two cards- thanks Mom for getting the next set of dance lessons and clothes! Grandpa Charlie and Irene write the cutest notes: "Matthew, I trust you and Jeannette will take a small portion of this and buy Cassidy a toy, then immediately put the rest into some type of savings account". Godmother Alzada sent the blessing/curse of the Frozen DVD. We've watched it every day! It really does have great music. Needless to say, Cass has a bevy of thank you notes to finish.
Matt and I, like other parents we know, struggle with the idea of gifts: what does Cass want, what does she need? How do we encourage people to not spend a lot? How do we teach her the value of not expecting a gift, but being thankful her friends and family came out to celebrate her birthday? A friend of ours (Ramya D.) recently had a birthday party for her little girl (who is freakin adorable!). She asked that people bring donations for the animal shelter instead of gifts all on her own! That is way cool. I'd like to do something like that with Cass- find something she cares about and discover a way to give back to the community. This level of altruism was way off my radar this year. Maybe next year we'll be more organized!
We typically don't do party favors, but Cass did ask if we could give out books. That's a nod in the right direction! Knowing that request is not in our budget, we hit up Grassroots Books for a stack of their "Get a Free Book" cards. They were all too happy to give us as much as we needed! It was neat to give those away, especially to people who may have never been. It's a locally owned, used book shop that also has DVDs, CD, meeting rooms, and a great kids section. I told my friend Erin I had this grand idea of decorating the cards with ribbon and creating these cute little packages....knee deep in final papers and projects I did as Elsa from Frozen suggests and I let that go....
And I think that is the moral of her birthday, learning to let go. Being ok with things not always turning out the way you had pictured in your mind and being ok with your baby growing into a little girl.
For Cass' actual birthday (today) we stayed home. She got to decide what we did. Lucky for us, one of her best buddies Billie was also at home with her dad (Matt P.). She wanted to spend the day with Billie, so we all went to see Rio 2, had lunch (Matt S. joined us for lunch!), played in the river, and went to the park. After saying goodbye to our friends, we picked up Savvy, hit up a swim lesson, then got Matt S. again.
She got extra tv time and after a very long day, was asleep before I turned out the lights in her princess sleeping bag (thanks Oliver :-)
Cassidy Grace Smith
5 Years Old
5 Years Old
Unbelievable!
Cassidy will be a kindergartener at Mt. Rose Elementary next year. I cannot begin to understand how fast the time has gone! Five years ago today, it was closing day at Sierra Hall and we were rushing out the door; me in labor and Matt yelling last minute closing procedures to his staff.
Now our "baby" can do simple math, recite the alphabet, almost play twinkle twinkle little star on the piano, and is a few weeks off from being able to swim on her own. She also pouts, whines, is super sensitive, and gets very jealous of her little sister. But she is a fabulous big sister and pretty patient with Savvy, even when she doesn't want to be.
Her party last Saturday was cold and fun! Her friends from her preK class came and a few others to create the most multi-cultural birthday party I'm sure Reno has ever seen. They ran around the park, sweaters and hats and jackets haphazardly thrown over benches and swings as their energy kept them warm. We couldn't light the candle, so she blew out the match. Reno is way more windy than anywhere I have lived! After the last party goer had left and all was packed up, the hail and snow made a small appearance as we unloaded back home. Thank goodness Jen Williams was here! If you are throwing a kid party for a lot of people and you have more than one kid, you need a friend as awesome as Jen Williams. When I asked a month ago if she would help us out, she was undaunted by the request and happy to help! Jen helped us pack up her car with food and stuff, helped chase after Savvy, helped set up food and direct people, battled table covers attempting to fly away, and was a true genius at cake distribution :-) Cass' friends and family were way generous. Each card with a 4 year old name scrawled in crayon is displayed proudly on her bedroom door. My mom sent her two cards- thanks Mom for getting the next set of dance lessons and clothes! Grandpa Charlie and Irene write the cutest notes: "Matthew, I trust you and Jeannette will take a small portion of this and buy Cassidy a toy, then immediately put the rest into some type of savings account". Godmother Alzada sent the blessing/curse of the Frozen DVD. We've watched it every day! It really does have great music. Needless to say, Cass has a bevy of thank you notes to finish.
Matt and I, like other parents we know, struggle with the idea of gifts: what does Cass want, what does she need? How do we encourage people to not spend a lot? How do we teach her the value of not expecting a gift, but being thankful her friends and family came out to celebrate her birthday? A friend of ours (Ramya D.) recently had a birthday party for her little girl (who is freakin adorable!). She asked that people bring donations for the animal shelter instead of gifts all on her own! That is way cool. I'd like to do something like that with Cass- find something she cares about and discover a way to give back to the community. This level of altruism was way off my radar this year. Maybe next year we'll be more organized!
We typically don't do party favors, but Cass did ask if we could give out books. That's a nod in the right direction! Knowing that request is not in our budget, we hit up Grassroots Books for a stack of their "Get a Free Book" cards. They were all too happy to give us as much as we needed! It was neat to give those away, especially to people who may have never been. It's a locally owned, used book shop that also has DVDs, CD, meeting rooms, and a great kids section. I told my friend Erin I had this grand idea of decorating the cards with ribbon and creating these cute little packages....knee deep in final papers and projects I did as Elsa from Frozen suggests and I let that go....
And I think that is the moral of her birthday, learning to let go. Being ok with things not always turning out the way you had pictured in your mind and being ok with your baby growing into a little girl.
For Cass' actual birthday (today) we stayed home. She got to decide what we did. Lucky for us, one of her best buddies Billie was also at home with her dad (Matt P.). She wanted to spend the day with Billie, so we all went to see Rio 2, had lunch (Matt S. joined us for lunch!), played in the river, and went to the park. After saying goodbye to our friends, we picked up Savvy, hit up a swim lesson, then got Matt S. again.
She got extra tv time and after a very long day, was asleep before I turned out the lights in her princess sleeping bag (thanks Oliver :-)
Cassidy Grace Smith
5 Years Old
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