Meredith's big day

So Meredith is in 1st grade. And of course she's been learning to read all year.

And she's been doing great at it.

About a month ago, Meredith's teacher started putting names up on the "Reading Wall" at Meredith's school. I don't know if it works the same for every class, but for 1st grade, you have a reading score that depends on how many books you read and how well you test on those books that you read.

So Meredith's goal has been to have her name put up on the reading wall. Every day she would come home from school and give us an update on how many more books she had to read before her name would be put up.

So it was huge news when she made her goal earlier this week and her name went up on the wall!

She came home and was so ecstatic, I couldn't keep her from running and dancing around the house.

Well. I guess I was able to stop her for a bit to take her picture!

We had told Meredith that when her name went up on the wall, we would take her out to supper wherever she chose. For any of you that know her well, you may know that her first choice is always the Orange Place...a.k.a El Ranchero. (The restaurant is painted bright orange...hence the name that she calls it.)

She surprised us this week when she requested IHOP for supper. (Yes, my kids are suckers for pancakes, especially if they have chocolate chips and a whip cream face painted on them!) Unfortunately this happened on Tuesday...which was National Pancake Day. Otherwise known as "National-don't-go-to-a-pancake-house-unless-you-want-to-wait-forever-for-your-food-because-everyone-else-wants-pancakes-Day."

In spite of the overcrowded restaurant, we still had a great supper (who doesn't like breakfast for supper?) and were able to fully celebrate the reading wall victory!