Hope's 6th Birthday Celebration: October 2024

 Happy 6th Birthday Hope!

Birthday At School

At Hope's school, the class gets to celebrate each child's birthday on their birthday or close to it.  The tradition is each child brings photos of herself or himself, one picture for each year of their life since birth.  The child walks around the circle of friends and teachers and shares the photos.  The child also walks around a sun, which is laid on the floor, while holding a globe ball.  The child walks around the sun for each year the child has been on the earth.  Hope walked around the sun 6 times since she turned 6 this year.  She is one of the oldest kids in her class, which consists of 3 year olds to 6 year olds.  After which the children sang a happy birthday song to Hope and she blew out the candle, which is placed in the middle of the sun.  At the end of the day, Hope shares with her school friends birthday party goodie bags, which we put together before school that day.

Birthday Party

Hope wanted a Anna and Elsa themed birthday party with all of her friends.  Anna and Elsa are characters from Disney animated film, Frozen.  I made Olf the snowman glow in the dark t-shirts for each child instead of handing out party favor bags. The children wore the t-shirts to the party.  We had black lights light up the room, so not only the t-shirts would glow, but also the glow stick bracelets and necklaces.  We had projected snowflakes on the wall, amazing backdrops, delicious treats, and a yummy Frozen themed birthday cake.  The children enjoyed playing musical chairs, toss the snowball, Frozen themed memory game, and freeze dance.  

Her friends in attendance included: Everly, Caroline, Aria, Theo, Kaylee, Ivy, Oliver, Cohen, Max, Caden, Nila, Riley, Ava, Bryn, Donny, Lexie, Emery, Alice, and Elliot,

Birthday with Mommy and Daddy

A little over a week before Hope's birthday, the coast of Florida experienced the effects of Hurricane Helene, which didn't effect us very much at all, but did significantly effect people living on the coast near Tampa.  Then a few days after Hope's birthday we were hit by another hurricane, this one called Milton.  Milton was projected to move right over the top of use, so after Hope's birthday Ray and I prepared for the hurricane by placing plywood in as many windows as we could to protect our home.  As a result, Hope actual birthday was spent playing with her newly acquired toys she received from all of her generous friends. We sang happy birthday to her and ate some leftover birthday cake from her birthday party.