Leah is 8! Pool Party & Doctor Visit

Leah had a great big class birthday party & we took no photos at all (in my defense, I was in the pool). We rented out the ARC indoor pool & invited her whole class & nearly everyone came. A good time was had by all! 

The big sibs could invite a friend each & Shauna's middle kids were there to swim with them, so I think Amelie & Jim had an equally good time!

Papaw came over with a present: 

We also had her 8-year well-child doctor's visit that happened to be on the same day as Fancy Lunch at school - where they put out table cloths & drink out of fancy cups & use their best manners. 

Height: 47.3 inches - just shy of 4 feet (& therefore too short for the water slide at her party!) 
Weight: 60.5 pounds
No shots!

Dr. Swofford was able to admire her earrings. One of the reasons I was able to convince Aunt Holly that it would be okay to get the piercing done at Claire's was that our doctor could check them out shortly thereafter. 

And the other big news is that she moved out of the booster seat & we are car-seat-free in the Buffaloe household for the first time in very close to 15 years! 

Spring Band Concert

Jim's moved from the trombone to the tuba. The good part about it is that the school gave him one to keep at home & one to keep at school (since they're huge!) 

He's the second one from the left - sitting on an encyclopedia to boost him up!

Here's a link to the winter concert. 

Tiger Tuesday

Leah won Tiger Tuesday! Nominated by Coach Mason, no less. She won a meal at Raisng Cane's!

And got her picture in the RAP! 

Here’s what the email said:

Leah was our winner this week for Tiger Tuesday! She earned this for displaying exceptionally safe, kind, respectful, and responsible behavior in PE! 

Fun Day, Goalie, Minecraft

We had a big day! (The other Saturday! Not today - soccer's been rained out.) 

Leah had soccer & got to be a goalie in a game for the first time! 

The elementary school had their big fundraiser. Only a little color hair spray got on her uniform (& I got it out!)

And then we all went to the Minecraft movie. I haven't ever played it & didn't know what the big deal was! A lot of folks in the theater were shouting out lines (I guess because they'd seen clips online? Or they're a part of the game? I don't know!) I thought it was supremely dumb! The kids had fun, though! 

Easter

We had another Easter! Last year, Amelie didn't want to do matching dresses, so we didn't. This year, I had the genius plan to see if she'd be more amenable if she was the one who got to pick them out. It worked! And, miracle of miracles, Jim and Sam played along, too. 

We went to church in the morning & then had dinner and an indoor egg hunt at Sam's folks (due to weather). Plus the sirens went off & there was a tornado warning so we spent some time sheltering in their (thankfully quite large) interior bathroom.

Ellie & Amelie were reading. Jim and Ben sang a song (Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne, of course). Leah was not happy, but cheered up with some Bluey after the all-clear. 

Here's the grandparents with all the cousins!

Here's the link to last year. 

I Hate Shakespeare

Jim was in the middle school play - he had a nonspeaking role as a Zombie in I Hate Shakespeare. They put on a great show! 

This was my favorite part: Mark Antony comes out and says "Friends, Romans, Countrymen ... wait, hold up!" and the zombie hoard carries him off. 

Here's Jim giving me the thumbs up from backstage: 

He's also in a class play for his elective, Musical Theater Production, and in rehearsals for the community theater show coming up. 

My 2 Front Teeth

 Leah’s missing her 2 front teeth! They were loose a LONG time! And now she sounds pretty funny/lispy.

Birthday Interview: Leah is 8!

I almost forgot about the birthday interview until Nana Jana reminded me today! Leah started off strong but had to be prodded a bit to finish it. 

1. How old are you? 8
2. What is your favorite color? Spring Green (breaking Orange's long run!) 
3. What is your favorite toy? Hmmmm. Green Tea. It's a squishmallow cat. 
4. What is your favorite game? Hmmmm. I know what it is, but I don't really know what it's called. Can you describe it? It has to be on a windy day. You stand at one side of the yard & when the wind starts blowing in the opposite direction, you start to run forward & when the wind stops blowing, you run backward, and you try to see if you can get all the way across the yard before the wind stops blowing. Did you learn this from Bluey? No. Where did you learn it? I actually made it up, but when I told other people at school about it, they said somebody had already made it up. Do you play it at school? Yeah. 
5. What is your favorite song? "Beep Beep, I'm a Sheep" 
6. What is your favorite animal? Fox
7. What is your favorite book? Wings of Fire
   

   
8. What is your favorite movie? BFG 
9. What is your favorite TV show? I don't really know. Mark Rober videos
   

    
10. What is your favorite thing to eat? Salmon!
11. Where is your favorite place to go? Cosmo Park  
12. Who is your best friend? Frankie 
13. What is something you learned last year when you were 7? Last year I learned about sea dragons What are those? It's a type of slug that lives in the sea that kind of looks like dragons
    

    

    
    
14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 8? How to ride a bike without training wheels definitely
15. What is your favorite part of school? Probably reading & writing 
16. Who is your favorite teacher? Ms. Bashem
17. What is hard for you to do? (long pause) Thinking of things like this 
18. What is your favorite thing to do? Crafts 
19. What do you like about Me (Mama)? (long pause)  I do but I can't think of anything! (after another pause) You help me with stuff
20. What do you like about Dada?  He usually makes our dinner
21. What do you like about Amelie? Oh! She lets me borrow pretty much anything 
22. What do you like about Jim? He's good at music
23. What about Spark? He always wants to play with us
24. What do you like about yourself? I get back up again when I fall down. Is that literal or metaphorical? It's kind of both. The recess that I spent the whole time playing my favorite game, I fell down, got a bandaid and then started playing again. 
25. What do you want to be when you grow up? A chef!

Links:

7th birthday interview: https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2024/03/birthday-interview-leah-is-7.html 

6th birthday interview: https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2023/03/birthday-interview-leah-is-6.html

5th Birthday Interview: https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2022/03/birthday-interview.html 

4th birthday Interview: https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2021/03/leahs-first-birthday-interview.html

Pierced Ears

Leah's been asking to get her ears pierced & we said she could do it for her 8th birthday. Aunt Holly & I took her to Claire's in the mall and made an outing of it. 

She was looking a little nervous at first: 

But she was an absolute champ - it didn't faze her at all. 

It was also buy 3 get 3 plus 20% off since we did an ear piercing, so Holly & Leah had fun looking at every item in the store to pick out some things - including some earrings to look forward to for when she can change them in 4-6 weeks and this flower clip. 

Turns out it's kind of hard to take a picture of a tiny earring! 

Aunt Holly was skeptical about going to Claire's but we changed her mind!   

Drum Debut

Sam & Jim played at church - they'd done this before with Jim on the ukulele, but this was his debut on the drums. 

 Here’s the video (Sam wrote the song): 
It was during the burning of the grudges, and thus pretty noisy! You can see the flashes of light when the paper goes up in flames reflecting against the wall. 

Zoo Lights

I didn't think we'd be able to make the zoo lights this year - it was predicted to rain almost every day in St Louis - but the chance kept going down & there were only a few drops on the last day. I had (unfounded?) high hopes for this photo opportunity spot. 

The snow is fake! It was bubbles: 

We saw some sleeping sea lions and went through the penguin house. I thought this moltey penguin was amusing: 

We got hot chocolate & churros 

We walked around for about 3 hours!

We rode the carousel twice: 

And watched the 4-D movie - Rudolph this year. 

Here's the link to last year.