Minnette and Aurelle (and I!) are participating in a very small community preschool co-op this year. It has been a lot of fun for the girls to get to spend time with their friends a couple of times a week, and fun (slash stressful) for me to have several turns planning the lessons and activities. Though, it is not nearly as easy planning educational activities for a crowd of same-aged kids (there are 7 in our group!), as it is for my own children at home. Props to public school teachers- homeschooling is waaaay easier!
Every Friday is field trip day, and one week we were able to head over to our local fire station and talk to the firefighters and see the firetrucks up close. I never had the opportunity to go to the fire station as a child (at least not that I can remember...) so this was a fun new experience for all of us!
The girls were extremely excited to go, but decided against getting a picture taken in the firetruck's driver seat (maybe next time!).
The fire fighters who were on duty told us all about the trucks, their different jobs when they get called to a fire, and even showed us how some of the equipment worked. Did you know that each truck costs over a million dollars before it even has any of the special equipment and tools on board? Blew me away.
Kyle has Fridays off of school and gets off of work early, so we were extremely fortunate to get to have him come with us. Being the only Dad in the crowd, he was quickly volunteered to be the one to try on the firefighter uniform, which weighs over 75 pounds!
Definitely getting a little hot and sweaty at this point! Though protecting you from flames and intense heat, these uniforms don't do much in the cooling department. Kyle had a lot of fun getting to try all the equipment on, though!
The girls as they watched Daddy:
Waits, just hanging out, as usual :)
Almost done.... I don't know how they are able to get all of this equipment on so fast!
The final product:
A few minutes later, they received a call to put out a house fire, and we had to leave in a rush. Though it is extremely unfortunate that someone was experiencing a fire, it was still really cool to get to see the firemen in action. As we were leaving, we got to see the huge garage doors open and watch the trucks drive off with their sirens on. We sure are grateful for these men and women who help protect us. It was such a neat experience, and one I hope to repeat in the future with our kids.
Our kids really look forward to getting to pick out their special birthday breakfast. We eat really healthy around here- oatmeal is our standard breakfast fare- so junk cereal, Costco muffins and bacon are highly anticipated birthday meals. Minnette requested milk and donuts!
Oh, Jovi... haha!
I went with the theme of zebra print and hot pink for Minnette's birthday because that is what was on clearance at Walmart a few months before. I think it turned out super cute. We didn't even get a picture of the homemade zebra print "5" pinata that Kyle and I made, darn! It was super awesome, and the kids had a blast breaking it open.
Minnette had only a few requests for her birthday. She wanted to eat pizza in the softball field. and she wanted to invite a family from our ward (who also lives in our apartment quad. You could say she was rather fond of their oldest boy!) How can you possibly deny such sweet and simple desires? So that is exactly what we did! She had a lot of fun, and it was fun visiting with Raquel and Sam and our friends.
I even came up with a pin-the-tail-on-the-zebra game- and the kids were so busy running around and playing with bikes and wiggle cars that we never even got around to playing it- Oh well.
Singing Happy Birthday
Opening presents:
I just thought this was funny. Aurelle snuck off with the camera, and she ends up stuffing it Minnette's bike bag while it is still on. Oh, the gems you find after your kids play with your camera!
One (unsurprisingly) messy Jovi:
5 year Well Check Stats:
(I lost my sheet, so I will fill these in next I head to the pediatrician and can get a new print-out!)
Height:
Weght:
BMI:
On the day of Minnette's birthday, we went to have her birthday pictures taken, and then stayed out for our tradition of a Mommy-daughter birthday lunch date. She originally picked Olive Garden (because Gramma Murphy took us there once, and they have Mac n cheese there!), but since Waits is still nursing and I left him at home with Daddy, I didn't think we had enough time, so I convinced her to eat at a burger place instead by telling her that they had chocolate shakes AND soda. She was sold.
I can't believe how old she is starting to look!
So beautiful!
The photographer told her to point at the 5:
My kids often need a little encouragement to cooperate happily for picture-taking. FYI: When you pull out the dress-up, they melt into submission
The photographer had a certain idea of the kinds of poses she wanted to take pictures of, and tried getting Minnette to gently place her balled fists under her chin for probably a good 5 minutes. This is as close as she could manage- and I like this pose waaay better, anyway! :)
Some things about Minnette at 5 years old:
•I thought the boy-crazy years didn't begin until late elementary to middle school years, but BOY was I wrong. Minnette has already decided to marry at least three boys in our ward. All at separate times. Without any encouragement from us. She will play with one of them on the playground or in the sand box, and next we'll be hearing about "how nice" so-and-so is, and that he is her friend and he loves her and she loves him. Young children love so easily, it is so sweet to see. I am also quite proud to say that she has great taste! So far, they have all been outstanding, super sweet and very cute boys that come from amazing families. Minnette, please feel free to keep this up after you turn 16, thank you!. ;)
•Her favorite movie is still Tangled and her favorite book is
•Minnette loves to sing! She sings all time, and she will sing along to anything. But usually you will know if she really likes a song id she starts singing along with it. We will often hear her practicing in her bed before falling asleep. She will actually practice the same line over and over until she gets complicated melodies down, or can sing an entire song through without messing up any of the words. I think we may be looking into a future with voice lessons with this one!
•This 5 year old still takes naps. She doesn't fall asleep every time, but she will at least 75% of the time and she at least needs the quiet time. We have tried weaning her from naps with disastrous results- our most difficult two weeks of parenthood so far!
•Minnette loves to color, draw and paint, and asks almost every day, and more than once most days!
•She is always looking forward to the next awesome thing that we will be doing. Even in the middle of the current awesome thing we are doing, she just wants to know what we're doing next. It is kind of funny, but boy, it sure can be exhausting! Sometimes she will actually miss out on what is happening because she is so worried about what is next. We are often trying to teach her to focus and be happy with what is happening rightnow.
•One of Minnette's new ways of expressing herself has manifested in drawing pictures in the air with her pointer finger in order to describe to you an object she might have a hard time explaining or just doesn't know the word for. Ridiculously cute.
•She likes to ask A LOT of questions. As far as I know this is super typical for her age, especially for girls her age. We try to always answer every question she asks as honestly and completely as we can, but I often find myself telling her "Ummm... I don't actually know..." and having to look up the answer. It's great, because we learn together!
•She loves to have her back scratched, and has ever since she was a baby. I remember Kyle's mom sitting 1 year old Minnette on her lap and scratching her back during church and Minnette would fall right asleep. Now she wants her back scratched before nap, before bed time, in sacrament meeting, you name it.
