After months of meticulous planning, ‘Giggles and Grins’ opened its doors in Highland Home on February 12.

“We are all very excited,” said Kim Rogers, director of the day care.

Rogers’ sister, Wendy Davis, is a daycare photographer and she threw around the idea and ran it by Rogers and their father, Wendell Williamson.

“This was a long process,” said Rogers.

Williamson helped with the layout and the building as Rogers and Davis got together as well and planned out every detail, from painting the daycare with an ocean theme and polka dots to doing intensive background checks on employees.

Rogers said that there were child abuse background checks, fingerprinting and many other kinds of thorough inspections to ensure the safety of the children.

The Department of Human Resources for the state of Alabama licensed the daycare to have 57 children and they have followed all of the state guidelines.

‘Giggles and Grins’ offers an afterschool program in addition to caring for children as young as two weeks up to 18 years of age.

“This is something that has been needed in our community for a long time,” said Rogers.

Rogers, who not only serves as the director of the daycare center but also has a Masters in elementary education and has been an elementary school teacher for nearly 23 years.

Rogers and Davis have made sure there is a productive agenda throughout the day when the children are in attendance.

Parents drop off between 6:30-7a.m. and the children have breakfast after being dropped off, and are made sure that they brush their teeth.

Then learning begins, as they start with the letter of the week and follow with language curriculum, and after that, the children have free time inside before moving outside for free play.

After the children come in from playing outside, they get cleaned up and ready for lunch, which is followed with a nap.

Once the children are up from the nap, they have an afternoon snack and then have free activity time outside before starting the math curriculum for the afternoon, and then have free time inside until their parents pick them up.

“As of Monday, we will have 14 kids (so far) enrolled….and are still getting phone calls,” said Rogers.

In order for a child to be enrolled, parents must have pre-admission forms, immunization shots and a blue form that a doctor must sign.

“The community has been really supportive, from the dollar store to the bank, they have been behind us,” said Rogers.

The daycare is opened from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

“We are so thankful to have our father…he’s been the driving force behind all of this,” said Rogers.

‘Giggles and Grins’ will have open house on Saturday, February 28, following the ribbon cutting at 2 p.m.