Katelyn is FIVE!

FIVE!  Five year olds are a whole hand.  They start kindergarten.  They learn to read.  They might even lose a tooth.  Or attend their first sleepover.  I'm not sure I'm ready for our baby to be 5.  But she sure is.  We ate lunch with Collin one day recently and she was doing her usual "I own this place" walk around the lunchroom, and I realized how soon that would be her school.  Who knows what we have in store for us!

This year, we celebrated her birthday at INK.  She just loves that place!  Her favorite room is the hospital ("baby room").  She loves to dress the babies up in life jackets and take them across the museum to the airplane to go on a trip :)  We were so thankful to have so many family members and friends join us to celebrate.  

Today she turned 5, and we celebrated with chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream and sprinkles, a trip to the library and Babyland, and dinner out as a family at Famous Joes!

The night of her birthday party.  I think she had fun.  I came in my room and she had it all set back up on the floor!

She loved it so much, I set it back up for her this morning for her birthday!

Good morning, princess!

Finally got the cat purse at Target she's been begging for.

Brother, did you really get me my own glasses?

Loves her bubby!

My #5 birthday doll :)

Her "Katelyn" doll!

Breakfast!  Blew all 5 out at once on the first try!

She absolutely LOVES babies!  That's all she wants for Christmas!  That, and baby accessories.  She takes such good care of them, calls them sweetheart and sweetie pie, and keeps them safe from her big girl Bath and Body Works that Ethan and Emily gave her for her birthday.  (Because, you know, that's only for big girls.)   So her choice today was to go to Babyland General.  So fitting for her at this age!  I hadn't been since Maw Maw and Paw Paw took me to adopt my original Cabbage Patch, so I was super excited.  Collin, not so much, until he saw they had Legos, too.  Kate had just adopted her first cabbage patch, Madelyn (from Auntie Joy), so we took her with us and she had to have a visitors sticker to visit the hospital :)

Katelyn and Madelyn

Just in awe of all the little babies.

Giving Madelyn a haircut.

Finally got Collin to take a picture!  He refused most of them.   Such a good big brother though.  He had such a good attitude the whole time!

Time for the delivery.

It was a girl!

Watching her newborn checkup.

And she got to hold her!

Pushing Madelyn on the tire swing.

Bubby agreed to another picture!

 After all of that fun, we went out to eat dinner.  Kate's choice, Famous Joes.  She had to take Katelyn and her new seat so that she could eat with us!

Sharing her grilled cheese.

Family selfie :)

So this day pretty much sums up Kate at age 5...

She loves sweets!  Favorites are marshmallows, candy corn, nerds, and skittles.  And cake pops!  How could I forget those?  Too bad mommy can't resist Starbucks, so she gets them quite often!   

And she's really good at sharing.  Even if it's her favorite, she is always willing to offer some to others.

Other favorite foods are yogurt, cheese, cinnamon almonds, cheetos, applesauce, and turkey.  

Already said, she loves babies.  Favorite toy by far.  Kind of glad it's not American Girl yet, but I know it's coming.  She wanted Kit in the catalog.  But, for now the Target brand works!

Loves to play babies, beach (packing up babies to go to the beach), school, birthday party, going to grandmas house, Chutes and Ladders, Old Maid, "Stuck game" (where I hold on to her and make her "stuck" and she pulls me off the couch), and Twister.  She's having hard time playing independently on most days...wants me to play with her all. the. time.  Trying to cherish this time because I know it won't last!  

She's coming out of her shell.  (And she's even gotten in trouble at school for talking a time or two.)

She knows all of the letter sounds and is starting to sound out words and knows a few sight words (the, and, this, is). 

She loves to do simple math words problems.  But only if they involve candy.  (i.e. If I have 2 starbursts and you have 2 starbursts, how many do we have all together?)

She writes her first name and is working on the last name.  

She loves to color and paint and loves anything that is colorful, especially rainbows. 

She loves makeup, lotion, body splash, nail polish, and lip gloss.  (Thanks Katie!)

But she still will not sleep without her baby and blanket.  (Baby blankie).  

Her favorite show is Peppa Pig.  And her favorite princess is still Ariel.  She also likes Sophia Grace and Rosie.        

Loves PreK!  She's so sad when it's not a school day.  Loves chapel day!  Loves going to church too and is learning so much!

Just like my baby book says at her age (and younger), she is a little con artist who knows how to get what she wants.  She's just too cute most of the time!  

We just love her and she is our little sunshine!  Happy 5th Birthday Katelyn...we love you!

My big girl!

I feel like Katelyn is officially growing up.  This summer, she started swimming on her own, staying dry at night, refusing to wear a hair bow some days, singing songs I don't even know in the car, and she even wore her first maxi dress the other day!  I took her to the park one day last week when Collin was at school.  As we were playing, I was looking at all of the mommys there with their toddlers, diaper bags, and packed lunches.  All of a sudden, I realized I was almost done with this phase of mommyhood!  Ok, so maybe not until next year, because I seemed to have forgotten for a moment that Kate is not going to school on Fridays.  I remember going all sorts of places with the two of them during the week because all the "big kids" were in school and it wouldn't be crowded... Kate and I will be living it up on Fridays I guess!  But next year, she becomes one of those big kids and there will be no more weekday morning park dates, splash pads, or children's museums.

Until the past few weeks, I couldn't believe she was old enough for pre-K.  It seemed Collin was so much older when he started this year in school.  Until she started using phrases such as "Mom, I was thinking about..." or "Actually mom...".  Or playing her favorite game ("If I had 2 starbursts and you had 2 starbursts, how many do we have all together?").  She is so ready for school to start and I am so happy that she has the same sweet teachers Collin had for pre-K.  It was such a positive year for him and changed his outlook on school completely.  This will be her 4th year at this preschool, so although she loves it already, I have no doubt she will blossom just as much as Collin did and be so ready for kindergarten next year!  And I've already warned his teachers that I will pretty much be a basket case all year long (just can't believe this is our last year at this awesome preschool!).

Oh, and did I mention that the dentist said her bottom two teeth are both wiggly already?  Or that she's ready to try her bike without training wheels?  Or that this summer, she stopped coming to wake me up?  There were quite a few mornings I would wake up and she would have already eaten yogurt and had babies and/or barbies on display in the living room.

Just yesterday, we went to Kroger and she begged me to get a "car buggy".  I said no, because every time I do, she stays in for 5 minutes and then I'm left to run the impossible-to-steer empty car into everything for the rest of the shopping trip.  Considering how fast she's growing up, I'm thinking I should have given in to the car buggy....  

Collin Age 7!

I've just been so bad at this blogging thing lately!  But this post has been on my mind so much.  I know I posted about his birthday party already (way back in February), but not much about the great kid he is at 7!  He's definitely growing up fast, yet still so innocent too (like when he's reading a book and there's a word he can easily sound out, but he won't, because he thinks it might be a bad word.  Or how he still believes Daddy is magic because he does magic tricks and makes things disappear.  And how he still believes he can fly and/or breathe underwater.  And that he's already planning his leprechaun trap for next St. Patricks Day.)

Now while he's the perfect kid for me, I don't want to paint the picture to anyone that he's "perfect".  He has bad table manners, plays with his food, talks about anything related to a potty all the time, bites his nails, whines, is easily influenced by his friends, and teaches his little sister all sorts of bad habits.  But I still think he's pretty awesome and as always I'm realizing how fast time flies and trying to "let him be little."

He wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up.  He loves any and everything about ocean animals.  Hence, he still watches Octonauts all the time (and Caillou and Olivia with Kate if I'm being honest).  And I'm totally ok with that!    

Collin did well during his first season of baseball.  He played some second base and outfield and he hit a home run during his last at bat of the season!  And he had a great time playing!

At age 7, he loves any sort of technology.  He loves the iPad, kindles, and his "phone" (Daddy's old one that doesn't make calls.)  His favorites by far are Dragon Story and Minecraft.  He loves playing Draw Something (the drawing game) with Mommy and Macey as well.

He has gotten much, much less fearful of trying new things.  He still gets easily frustrated when something doesn't come easily, but can now ride his scooter and a bicycle (without training wheels) up and down our street (which has some pretty big hills!).  He has also learned to jump rope this year.  And he loved sledding during our two snows this year!  He's also doing great at swimming and running and jumping into the pool this year.  He has learned flips and handstands in the pool as well as forward/backward rolls on land and tries to do handstands.  

He loves to help Daddy build anything downstairs.

I think this is him either working on Kate's closet or the shelves for our printers/DVD in the living room.

But if there's one thing I tell him almost daily, it's that I love how big his heart is.  In the picture above, you will see Collin with his snowman.  We decided to leave on this day to go to Gulfport.  He seriously stood in front of this guy and cried for a good 5 minutes because he would be melted when we returned :)

But mostly I see it in his love for his little sis.

I realized how much love he had for her way back when he was 4.  He had to get those awful 4 year old shots (I think he got 5 at once.)  They offered him 2 prizes from the prize box for being such a big boy.  Without even thinking twice about it, he picked out one for him and one for Katelyn.

And it's just continued from there.  When he takes money for the school store, he spends an equal amount on himself and Kate.

He got a gamestop gift card for his birthday for $15.  He picked out a $10 game.  And immediately offered the $5 to Kate for a game she wanted.

We went to Kohls one day as a special treat for him.  (He wanted yet another $5 stuffed animal.)  He absolutely refused to leave the store without one for Kate too.

When we go to eat lunch, etc. with him at school, he includes his sister and gives her the biggest hugs when she is there.

Katelyn was sick during Spring Fling/Movie Night at his school so just he and I went.  He was so sad she couldn't go, and half of his prizes went to her.

Collin was in a camp (Summer Search) through the gifted program this summer.  He learned how to make power point presentations all by himself.  Pretty amazing.  The first one he made at home?  A slideshow of all the Disney princesses for Katelyn and her friend Kendal.

So excited this night to realize they had matching PJs :)

Can you tell his "love language" is gifts? :)
 
Most of the time, these little acts of love are done for nothing in return.  Nothing that benefits him really.  It's just automatic for him to include her and I love to watch it.  (Except last week, when Katelyn "needed" a Frozen gift from the Disney store for her last day of Frozen dance camp.  He wanted a plane that day.)