Claire's Joyschool Graduation

 The year of Joyschool with Claire's friends was a huge success. I was always impressed with the fun things the other moms did. And the group of kids all got along great. Our last day, we prepared for a graduation celebration! We made graduation caps, and at the end, the moms all came for an informal ceremony where they recited the ABCs and sang a couple songs. And of course, there were treats!

Millie's Birthday

For Millie's 7th birthday, we had a fun party with all of of her closest friends (and their siblings--that's Millie for you--very inclusive and thoughtful). They made friendship frames and we printed up these pictures for their frames. We played some other games, had chocolate cake and ice cream, and opened presents. Millie is very easy to please!

We love our tradition of eating cake and ice-cream while going around the circle and hearing what everyone loves about the birthday girl. This party was no different. We all love Millie so much!

Somehow we got pictures of her sisters' gifts but none of her friends!

On her actual birthday, we had some strawberry shortcake, and talked about the day Millie was born, what a cute little baby she was, and why we love her so much.

(this is an excerpt from my journal the week of her birthday)

Millie is growing up so much and becoming more mature. She helped our babysitter last night so much! Ivie wasn’t very happy, and the babysitter said Millie was awesome! Millie is great at sharing, and helping. She loves the scrapbook she has been making. She loves ballet. She returns home from school each day happy. She was really brave this week to have the dentist pull her canine tooth that has been hurting her. She wasn’t scared at all—I was amazed by her bravery. She really loves getting money from the tooth fairy. And she was so ready not to have her tooth hurting anymore. Millie has figured out how to rollerblade quite well. She was doing Claire’s hair today on her bunk bed. That was so cute to watch. She did an interesting type of braid. I think they bonded well over that. She is a great oldest sister. We love her dearly!

Millie's Ballet Recital "Alice in Wonderland"

We were so proud of Millie for doing a great job in her first ballet recital. She and Caysja's class were flowers of some sort (was it snap dragons?). They were beautiful! The flower bouquet at the end was a must! And we got one picture of Ellie Peters, our dear friend who hurt her arm and had a cast for the recital.

Grace's First Lost Tooth

                                     

(an excerpt from Mommy's journal on April 4th, 2013)

Grace lost her first tooth today! I don’t know if I can say she was brave, though. But faithful, yes! She was SO scared about it. It’s been really loose for a couple days, but she wouldn’t let us pull it. She explained to someone, “I’m just not comfortable right now losing my tooth!” She prayed and prayed that it wouldn’t hurt, which I kind of thought it was a silly thing to pray about. I thought it would come out while she was eating, but instead, it just popped out as she was walking to her bedroom. She was SO excited! And so grateful that it didn’t hurt. We need to help her recognize that her prayers were answered. But then she went to wash off the blood to give it to the tooth fairy, and it went straight down the sink. Even though that was a quick disappointment, she got over it very quickly. She wrote a letter to the tooth fairy, explaining that it was lost and asking for pixie dust instead of money. 

She told Millie that this was her way to find out if the tooth fairy is real or not. In the end, she got a letter from the tooth fairy explaining that she can’t give her pixie dust because it doesn’t work on humans. Grace is the only girl I know who has lost her tooth while in preschool! Her new tooth is already coming in.

Finally, these two girls can bond over teeth falling out and having big gaps in their mouths! I'm guessing they were in the middle of getting their pajamas on when we just had to take a picture!

I think Millie was just so happy that Grace entered her world of losing teeth and dreaming of fairies and easy money!

___________________________________________

And just to consolidate, I'm going to post about her second tooth as well. This one is so hard to see in the pictures because the new tooth was already up back behind it. Her note to the tooth fairy is so cute, and here's a picture of our fairy house that we always set out for her the night she is coming.

1 Year-Old Ivie

We love Ivie so much! She has brought so much happiness into our home in the past year (and this year has flown by!). She is like mortar that binds us together. We all love and care for her, and we are united in our adoration for her. She makes us laugh! She is like a fun toy that just keeps on giving. The girls each love playing with her.

She is getting close to walking, in fact, the day before her birthday, she took her first few steps, but hasn’t since then. She doesn’t usually stand on her own, but we know she can, since she does the gymnast trick, and she has unknowingly stood for a long time. She just broke another tooth, so she has 5 now. She can be a picky eater, but let’s hope that’s just from teething. Good thing she likes her bottles! She seems to be switching to cow’s milk okay, so that’s nice. She is still waking up in the night for a bottle, but we are going to change that very soon!

If I had to use one word to describe Ivie, it would be “active.” She is not happy if she doesn’t have something to explore or learn from. She was looking for something to do in church today, and she found the wipes, opened them up, and proceeded to pull out each one and throw them to her side. She loves this activity! She did it three times, then I had to stop her. She gets so sad when something gets taken away from her.

She won’t sit in her high chair to eat unless she has toys to play with. She won’t just sit still, ever, unless she is sick or asleep. She needs something to hold and play with at the highchair, or she won’t sit and eat. It’s a lesson we have to continually learn. She could be starving, but won’t eat if she is understimulated. What a girl! I guess she is just really smart. And I know she is really strong. Dad Thatcher always comments about her strength. She throws balls really well (the other day, she passed a ball over her shoulder to Paul a couple times, just perfectly. Suprising!). She says, “dadda” and “mammamamamama” and said “thank you” one time. She is great at waving her hand good bye!

She loves playing with a baby doll. She holds her, hugs her, and gives a big open-mouthed kiss. I love when she gives us hugs and those same wet kisses. It’s fun to see her motherly instinct come out at such a young age.

And one last fact about her: She is still sleeping in our closet in a pack-n-play crib. A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that she would still be sleeping in our closet at age one. But when we tried to put her in the bedroom with Claire, it just didn't work. So the closet is our best solution for now, but that is going to change really soon!

We just love this sweet girl! So glad we get her in our family!