6!!

Our baby is 6 today.  That sounds very big. She is a delightful person and we're so proud to be part of her family!  She makes fast friends and runs even faster.  She has lost one tooth, has one more wiggly tooth and has quite the sweet tooth.  She's learning to read, she's writing beautifully and she LOVES to draw and paint and create.  

She spends most of her day smiling and skipping and she brings out a smile in other people, too.  Her favorite things to play are Littlest Pet Shop, school (she's the teacher, I'm the student),  office, and anything that involves a couch cushion fort.  She is determined with a capital D;  she has made it her mission to conquer the long stretch of monkey bars on the kindergarten playground and she can now go down and back without taking a break.  And she has the calloused, blistered palms to prove it!  

She's the first responder to the side of anyone who is injured;  she grabs an ice pack, a blanket, a band aid and anything else she thinks might bring comfort.  I know she has a future career in the healing arts.  She's also started asking for something "stat!" when she really wants it quickly.  I only tolerate this because I'm encouraging her medical career.  

She loves sparkly, shiny things but she insists on wearing the most comfortable clothes we can find.  She won't stand a ribbon in her hair for a single minute yet will ask me to put a fresh flower she's picked on the way to school behind her ear.  

She spends the whole day moving like her daddy and goes to sleep reading like her mama.  She idolizes her big sister but isn't afraid to speak up when said big sister acts a little too big sister-y.  

She's a gem, this one.  A determined, delightful, daring little sparkling light.

 She got to wake up to balloons, confetti (Natalie made a super clever confetti maker that she taped to the ceiling), French Toast and apricots (she actually put apricots on her birthday list!) and, of course, the special red plate and the special cup.  

Natalie noticed this little fun number trick that they'll enjoy for the next 8 months!

Apple Valley Days

Our school participates in the coolest program called Apple Valley Days where the kids go back in time and attend school for the last month of 3rd grade as if they were pioneer children in the 1850s.  They assume new names, ages and identities, dress in clothes of the time period, learn to square dance and have a ton of fun.  Natalie's name in school now is Caroline Jackson.  One of her good friends is now her little six year old sister and another boy in her class is her fourteen year old brother.  They sit in rows in the classroom with the youngest in front and the oldest in the back and sometimes break into family groups to do certain projects.  Natalie made a quill pen to use at school and is keeping a daily journal "in character" so I know she'll never forget these weeks of school.  So fun.  The Laura Ingalls Wilder fan in me would have LOVED this as a kid.

I bought her one dress and then she got creative with my first communion dress (adding a sundress over the top to look like an apron) so she has two outfits now to wear until the end of school.  It has drastically cut down on laundry around here...it's awesome!  Such a fun way to end third grade!!!

 Her whole class is very into it.  They get points each

day for dressing up that all go toward their 

Apple Valley graduation ceremony near the last

day of school.  They also get points for bringing

the teacher an apple.  She has collected probably

4 dozen apples by now!  

 This is the creation she made from my 

1st Communion dress and a sundress.

So creative, this one. I cut it off in the photo

but if you look closely you can see the tip

of her quill pen (a turkey feather she found 

in MI one summer) and an inkwell (a 

beaded, blingy box of Audrey's). 

Farm Field Trip

I was able to join Audrey's kindergarten class on a field trip to a nearby farm and it was such a fun day.  The weather wasn't overly cooperative, but we still had a great time.  The kids were able to hold baby bunnies, pet baby goats and sheep, gather fresh herb bundles, plant a tomato and a pepper plant to take home, play instruments of all kinds in a barn band, take a hay ride and grind corn to feed the hens.  She loved it and so did I.

I love her classmates this year.  

Such a great group of kids.

 Yes, our girl loves a nice big juicy earthworm.

 Such a cutie.

The Braces are Off!

Natalie got her braces off a few weeks ago.  This was likely only phase one of two so she'll probably get a second set about the age when wants nothing less, but so it goes!  For now, she is all smiles and loving eating chips, gum and popcorn again!  She slept in curlers the night before so that she'd have lovely locks for her "after" shots at the orthodontist's office.  Mercy.  Where did this kid come from?

 Last shot of her with a silver smile.

 Our orthodontist makes a very big deal

of getting braces off: 

a crown, a goodie bag, a photo.

So fun.  

Look out world!

Girl Scout Crazy

Have I mentioned it's been a busy spring around here?  Girl Scouts has kept us all hopping these past few months. I started a kindergarten Daisy troop for Audrey and I'm still co-leading Natalie's 3rd grade Brownie troop.  Both troops are huge (20+ girls!) and it's so much fun to go through this Girl Scout journey with them.  Last weekend I camped with the big girl troop and this weekend we had our school Scoutfest and both troops participated in activities together.  So fun.  So busy.

 Camping was fun.  Wet and soggy, but fun.  

It rained as we slept so we woke up a little chilly 

but my girl definitely did not mind.

 She was just thrilled to share a tent with a few

of her very best friends.

 And Scoutfest is always a fun event because

the older troops (3rd, 4th, & 5th graders)

lead the little girls (K,1st & 2nd graders)

in crafts and songs.  Natalie got to lead

Audrey's troop for a fun project which was

cute to see.

 We have a large Girl Scout community 

at our school which makes events like

these a lot of noisy, crazy fun.

Mother's Day...a day early!

I got to celebrate Mother's Day this week in Audrey's kindergarten class and this morning at home!  The reason for this early Mother's Day isn't just because I have an awesome little family but because I will wake up Sunday morning in a tent at a campsite with twenty-one 9 year old Girl Scout Brownies.  Yes, our troop somehow scheduled an overnight camping trip for our Brownies on Mother's Day weekend.  We're not sure how that happened.  While I'm slightly terrified of what tonight will bring, my heart is happy from such a great week.

Audrey's class (along with the two other kinder classrooms)

performed a beautiful version of Sunshine On My Shoulders

and they signed it, too. It was so sweet.  

Then they served us iced tea, fruit and muffins 

and tried so hard not to help themselves

to all the goodies.

 And this morning I was served breakfast in bed

with oodles of art, cards, flowers and a new fit bit, too!

Such a fun way to wake up.

Happy Mother's Day!

Oh, did I mention the forecast is calling for rain

for this camp out?  Pray for me.