Dancing...

After Secret Santa we started dancing and singing along with the playlist that Nathalie had made on her iPod. Some people (like Adelina) liked slow dancing, while others liked moving around as fast as they could....and others just weren't bothered to dance at all *cough* Nora *cough* :)

Not sure if this counts as dancing, but it's funny anyway.... 

Adelina & Emilie

Fiona and Ellie

Adelina and Ziyoda

Secret Santa

The whole party began when some of us came up with the idea that we wanted to do Secret Santa, where we each had to get a present for someone else (we picked names from a bag), and they wouldn't know who was their 'Santa.' I had Zoe and I themed her present on 'Safari'

We put all of the presents in the middle of our sitting room and Ashlynn handed them out. Below are some photos of the different presents...

 

 

Christmas Party

From L-R: Mayu, Michelle, Ellie, Amelia, Ziyoda, Hannah and Ashlynn

From L-R....Top row: Adelina, Ellie, Lizzy, Michelle, Nathalie, Zoe
Middle Row: Hannah, Amelia, Ziyoda
Bottom row: Mayu, Emilie, Fiona

On the day before the last day of school, I had a Christmas party at my house. There were fourteen girls in our house that day, which is a pretty big party. There was lots of dancing and eating and more eating and a bit more eating. In other words, we ate and we danced and we did Secret Santa, but there will be another post about that. We decided that it would be a dressy party, so no jeans and t-shirts.

Goodbye Middle School, Hello High School!

There were many hugs and goodbyes at the end of the Bye Bye Blue. It had been an amazing night and I will remember it my whole life. Thanks so much to Madame Chantal who organised the whole thing and to all the volunteers who helped out. 

 Goodbye Middle School, Hello High School!  

Squish Pics

From L-R: Me, Ellie, Hannah, Lizzy, Adelina, Emilie, Ziyoda, Nora, Amelia

Daddy was amazing. He took beautiful photos and everyone thought that he should become a professional photographer. Throughout the next week people told me to thank him and tell him that he was brilliant. 

He put the best photos together onto a video which you can see if you click here, and I put them onto a blog so that people could print them off if they wanted - www.byebyebluepics2011.blogspot.com. 

Lucky me, I had a sleepover with a friend so I didn't have to help stay and clear up. Mommy, Daddy, Ashlynn and Buddy were at the school till midnight packing up the backdrop!

Ashlynn and me

Ellie and me

9JN class photo

Bye. Bye. Blue! *Release Balloons!*

Another tradition that is repeated at each Bye Bye Blue is the letting go of 120 blue helium balloons at the same time. Each balloon had a small letter attached that someone had written near the beginning of the evening. 

Bye Bye Blue.... 

Group Photo

After many squish pics and lots of dancing we had the annual photo where Madame Chantal gets up on a ladder and takes a group shot. We were very lucky that the weather was good, not sure what we would've done if it had been raining...

Me and my friends...

My friends started showing up, all looking lovely in their dresses. We spent the first half hour getting our photos taken by parents, eating food and drinking blue lemonade. I was surprised to see that there were already people lining up to get squish pics and Daddy was already hard at work. 

From L-R: Nora, Hannah,  Lizzy, Fiona, Amelia, Emilie and me. 

Me and Wendy, both in red.

My group of friends

Bye Bye Blue Begins!

Adorable cookies

Madame Chantal, who arranged the whole dance, putting a Bye Bye Blue  bracelet on me.

Me and Mommy at the entrance to Bye Bye Blue.

Mommy had volunteered to help out, so she would be staying at school as well.  This meant that my whole family was there. Mommy, Daddy, Ashlynn, Me and Buddy. 

Before the Dance...

 

After helping with the preparation of the squish pics, I got changed into my dress (that I bought in Curacao) in the bathroom. I wore high heels that I'd got at V&D, a purse that had been handed down from Mommy and a necklace that had been given to me by Memmie. Ashlynn and Buddy were there to help set up the  squish pic sheet, but they stayed for the whole evening. Lucky Ashlynn is the only kid that gets to have 2 Bye Bye Blues.

Setting up for Bye Bye Blue

July First: Bye Bye Blue. The school dance that all the girls in Y9 had been looking forward to since the end of Y8. It was a celebration of getting rid of our blue jumpers and going to black in Y10. So, basically it was our graduation party. 

Daddy decided that he wanted to help out by setting up an area to do squish pics. And for that he needed: a massive backdrop, lights, ladder and mats to go under the fabric. Here are some photos from the setting up of the backdrop for the squish pics. 

We had helpers in 4 windows of the 1st floor to pull the massive piece of cloth up. 

Ashlynn and I pulling on one of the sides.

Pull!

The concierges throwing down gymnastic mats to go beneath the cloth

9JN Class Pool Party!

A week after Ashlynn's Party we hosted another, this time for my form group. Most of the class came, except for 3 of the boys. Daddy fired up the barbaque and everyone brought their own meat to be eaten. As well as that, everyone was requested to bring some chips or a fizzy drink to share. We had enough food, which was good. We had a great time shooting each other with water guns or trying to push each other into the pool. In the evening we sat around the campfire and roasted marshmallows.

The Girls making Pringle Duck Faces!

The slip-n-slide that Daddy made

Group photo!

Sitting round the fire place

P.S. Happy Birthday to me!

Ashlynn's Birthday Party

For Ashlynn's 11th Birthday party, she decided that she wanted a pool party. And that she wanted my friend Adelina to help her make her cake. So Adelina came home with me after school on Friday, spent the night and then on Saturday morning helped to make and decorate Ashlynn's cake. She made two. One with an orca on it and the other with green icing and the words - Happy Birthday Ashlynn. 

Ashlynn and Adelina posing with the cake.

I got to invite Lizzy to sleepover the next night as well as Adelina, so Lizzy and Adelina spent Saturday night.  We did go in the pool, but not for very long...(it was just a tad bit cold)

Jumping in!

Princess Party

My group of friends summoned our inner Disney Princesses and went over to Adelina's house dressed as Disney Characters. We watched Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. 

Adelina made a beautiful cake - as usual! 

Adelina (Meg from Hercules), Me (Rapunzel from Tangled), Nora (The Genie from Aladdin) , Ziyoda (Evil Witch from Snow White), Amelia (Abu from Aladdin), Ellie (Peter Pan from You know what), Lizzy (Pirate from Peter Pan), Emilie (Ariel from the Little Mermaid) 

I'd spent the evening before making a long wig, made unfortunately from white/yellow/purple yarn. 

We had a very fun time and I loved letting out the little girl inside me and watching everyone else do the same.