How late is too late??

Some things get done EARLY around here.....

like Grace learning to play the piano.

She's motoring her way right through the first book and still loving it.

Most days she'll still go downstairs to practice three or four times.

I know she's doing this early because she has seen the example of her older sibs, but who can argue with getting a head start!

Some things don't get done quite so early or even on time it seems.....like Grace having friends from school over to play.

When John and Emily were in preschool, I knew all the kids in the class and knew most of the parents too.  We had multiple play dates with their classmates that year.

Fast forward six years and two more kids to juggle and when Grace's preschool graduation rolled around the only two kids other than Grace that I knew in her class were the same two I knew in August when she started preschool. 

Don't even test me on parents either...I would completely fail there.





All that to say, it took me until August THIS YEAR before I ever arranged a time for her to play with anyone from LAST YEAR'S preschool class. 

We had this little girl come over to play a couple weeks before school started up again....knowing things would be busy once the new school year started.


You know what I learned when this little girl's mom came to pick her up?  She lives in our subdivision.  We could realistically walk to her house.  That didn't make me feel any better as a mom.

Pictures of Grace cooking........just for fun.  I saw them on my camera tonight.  I will say all of my kids have learned early how to function in the kitchen.....just don't ask Emily to peel a banana for you (inside joke). (Sorry, Emily!! I couldn't resist that one)

And NOW for the REALLY LATE, SO LATE IT PROBABLY SHOULD JUST NOT HAPPEN, SO LATE IT'S ALMOST TACKY TO DO event of the summer........



I got inspired by managing to get ONE of Grace's friends over to play so while I was at it, I invited all of the girls from last year's preschool class to come over and play one afternoon for a couple hours.

The one little girl could not make it at the same time as the others, but Grace did manage to see all of her old buddies from preschool before heading off to new adventures in Kindergarten. 

None of these girls are in her kindergarten class since we are at a different school than last year.

They had a good time giggling and playing together.

 Just to ease some of my "MOTHER GUILT" that I put upon myself, I went ahead and bought party favors and cupcakes and juice and let them have a little unbirthday party for Grace since we were out of town and didn't celebrate her real birthday with friends back in March.  Grace was thrilled seeing as how she has spent every month since her birthday saying things like "When I have my birthday party I'll........".  It's a good thing she doesn't have a good solid concept of time or she might have gotten a little impatient with me seeing as how the party was only a mere five months late.

They didn't seem to mind at all.

 And I didn't tell the parents.....I didn't want to get into the whole bring-a-present-because-I-heard-the-words-birthday-and-party-in-the-same-sentence discussion.

How late can you have a little girl's birthday party and it not be too late???

Apparently five months is not too long to wait.

Happy Birthday (again) Grace!!!