Celebration of Life at Marvelously Made

At Shelby's school, they have a "Celebration of Life" for each child's birthday. They make it such a special day for them! And I was thrilled b/c the parents of the birthday kiddo are invited to spend the morning with their child at school. Thank goodness Grammy & Grampy were here to keep Hadley, so I could spend the morning with Shelby! It was such a fun day for all of us!!

As soon as we walked through the gate of the school, each teacher greeted Shelby with a big smile & "Happy Birthday!" It was so nice that each and every teacher (Shelby has several!) not only remembered it was her birthday, but they each took the time to wish her a happy birthday as she walked in that morning. It was such a small gesture, but it made Shelby feel so special! Shelby got to decorate the birthday table as well as choose a crown & cape to wear for the day. Then during the children's Gathering Time, they sang to Shelby & she got to blow out candles again! Then they read aloud "The Story of Shelby Smith." I loved this little tradition that the school has! As we were putting Shelby to bed the night of her birthday (which was the night before her celebration at school) we wrote her story to share with her friends. It was just a little fill in the blank type of story, but it was so fun to recount her life story with her! We talked about where she was born, what she was like when she was baby, and then at ages one, two, and three. She loved hearing about herself as a baby, but I think her favorite part was sharing what her "favorites" are now at age 4! She chose to write that her favorite food is chocolate donuts, her favorite colors are blue, yellow, & green, and that her favorite things to do are read & play with Ms. Melinda at school. :)

And just a random side note that I don't want to forget--parents are not allowed to send in any treats/cupcakes/etc for their child's birthday, but we are allowed to send in mini-muffins for the children to eat at the snack table. Shelby has never eaten muffins before, so we had to do lots of taste-testing to find a muffin that she actually enjoyed! Thankfully, we discovered that both girls love Entenmann's chocolate chip muffins. :)  Neither of our girls liked any other muffins we tried b/c they always crumbled and fell apart on them, but the Entenmann's were a hit!!

Here are a few pictures I snagged on my phone during Shelby's birthday celebration at school, sorry the quality is terrible!!

 

Mrs. Bethany reading "The Story of Shelby Smith"

Listening to Mrs. Bethany play the guitar & everyone singing to her :)

Just for our memory's sake, here is a random YouTube video I found of the birthday song they sing to the kids at Shelby's school. I thought it was a sweet song!

And I just had to include this last picture to document what Shelby looks like at school. :)  They don't wear smocks at Shelby's school, and they are true believers in letting the kiddos explore & not being afraid of messes. They had out corn starch & shaving cream at picnic tables on the playground. The kids get 30 minutes outside to play, and Shelby stayed at the picnic tables for twenty of those thirty minutes!! She was obsessed! I'm so thankful that we found a school where Shelby gets to learn, have fun, and truly BE a kid!