A Half Birthday with Some Planets

This year Elina's half birthday celebration at school landed on the same day as her planet presentation. Her half birthday always seems busy at school...last year she had their annual Snow Day on her half birthday. Lots of fun things seem to happen around her half birthday.

Elina's class has been studying Outer Space and each student had to present a planet to the class. The planet Elina randomly picked out of a hat was Earth. She had really wanted Saturn because the rings are so pretty, but she was pretty satisfied with Planet Earth.

We had to do some research together and fill out a fact sheet as well as decorate a poster board cutout of Earth. It was fun figuring out creative ways to decorate Earth. In the end, we decided on cotton for the poles and for the clouds. For the green part of the land Elina used green gems and for the dry or mountainous areas she used orange gems. Underneath it all, Elina painted the planet itself with 2 different shades of blue. It turned out pretty well, don't you think? It was awfully sparkly...just what Elina wanted!

At home, we had gone over a few interesting facts about the Earth, but Elina seemed to freeze up when she got in front of the class. I can't blame her...I'm a horrible public speaker and I used to be SO quiet whenever I presented anything. I would rock from left to right on my feet, look away from the audience, and whisper my presentation to the class. It helped that Elina's teacher asked the questions off of the fact sheet and all Elina had to do was answer the questions. It didn't help that the kids in her class were extra rowdy that day. I've been to class many times and this was the first time I had seen them that worked up. They would answer for Elina and she would just nod her head in agreement with what they said. We were still so proud of her hard work in decorating her Earth and in researching her planet.

Here is Elina quietly (really quietly) answering the fact sheet questions...(hint: you might have to turn up the volume to even barely hear her responses)--


Later that day, we celebrated Elina's half birthday at snack time. I made strawberry cupcakes (because Elina wanted something pink) with lemony buttercream frosting...DELICIOUS! (S, it was too bad you missed this one!) I placed the cupcakes on Elina's table so that it said "1/2" and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Elina. She was in heaven! Eli was also really happy to be able to join in the festivities!


At the end of the song, the teachers sang, "And many more..." Later that day, Elina asked J what they were saying because she had never heard that part.

J: The teachers were singing, "And many more..."
E: Many more? Many more what? Cupcakes?
J: No, they wish for you to have many more birthdays.
E: Why?
J: You know, it's like they're wishing you luck...so that you can have more birthdays to come.
E: Oh, in case I die?
J: Sure, Elina....

Is our little girl morbid and serious or what?? I thought it was funny, but weird at the same time. Oh, Elina.

We hope you had a happy 1/2 birthday!