Ally is 6!!!

My little Ally is SIX! I can't believe it. She is getting too big too fast. She is very excited to start first grade, but a little nervous about going to school all day. She lost two teeth this last year and has a wiggly top front tooth. She loves to read, play games, dance, sing, swing, play pretend, and giggle! She is also really excited to learn how to play soccer this fall!

Ally's goal for this next year is to grow her hair really long. She doesn't cut her own hair anymore, instead she's started cutting Emmy's. One of her favorite things to do is lay by me and let me run my fingers through her hair and take out all her knots. That's how she puts herself to sleep at night, too. She reminds me of myself as a child in many ways, except she has come out of her shy mode a lot faster than I did.

Ally is our dry whit in the family. She knows how to make us laugh. She has a contagious smile, the silliest little giggle, and an awesome belly laugh that can be heard throughout the house.

 We couldn't imagine life without her!

*****

The night before her birthday, she couldn't sleep and tried to sneak downstairs to see what we were up to. Of course, she caught us in the act of putting out her gifts. So we hid them in the dining room and let her get a little worried about not getting gifts in the morning. She did find them eventually. One of her gifts was a new lunch box since this is the first year she will eat lunch at school!

She chose confetti pancakes for breakfast.

Then she had a special birthday playdate with her best friends! She planned out the whole thing. They decorated flower pots and planted Sunflower seeds, decorated paper bags and went on a nature scavenger hunt, and colored butterflies. They also played games like Twister and spent over an hour just playing pretend with barbies in the family room. I think she had fun.

Lunch with friends

Flower Pots and the Scavenger hunt

Ally picked this dirt cake off of Pintrest!

Grandma Dee came for cake and presents!

Everyone enjoyed it!

Especially Kassi!!

**************

Jeremy wasn't able to make it home for her cake during the day, so we made another one that night using the left over chocolate cake. The left over pudding was the frosting and then we used left over oreo crumbs and green frosting and worms and rainbows that Ally had picked out to decorate it!

Happy Birthday Ally!!!!

Mother's Log-August 2013

Aug. 5: 
Emmy informs Daddy that she wants to marry him some day when ''Mom is gone.''  She tells him, ''we would look great together!"

Aug. 7:
Emmy refuses to relinquish the "Birthday Girl" title to her sister, Ally, who's birthday is the next day. She is, however, willing to compromise-- "How about we have TWO Birthday Girls!"

Aug. 9:
Emmy throws away the dryer vent lint catcher and is quite proud of her helping-Mommy-out "good" deed.  Luckily, it's a laundry day and Mom discovers its absence before it gets buried too far in the garbage can.

Jeremy comes home from a rough day at work and takes about 45 minutes to unwind. Then he turns into the best dad on the planet!  He has the girls giggling with delight as he tells them animated stories of flying poodles and chihuahuas swimming with sharks. He cuddles and tickles and makes the girls feel loved and important, then he tucks them into bed. It's hard to imagine how difficult it must be to be a dad and have to constantly balance two lives in supporting ones family and spending time with ones family. Jeremy is amazing tonight.

Aug. 12:
Jeremy goes on business trip. Will be back in two days.

Kassi spends much of the day climbing the stairs and sliding down the stairs, then climbing and sliding, climbing and sliding, over and over. With a cast on her leg.

Aug. 18:
Kassi fell down three stairs, not on Mom's watch, and broke her leg. One month later and Only 3 days after getting her cast off, Kassi falls down the entire flight of stairs. Again, not on her Mom's watch... Mom's not even home... So far she seems fine, though. Just a scratched nose.

Aug. 19:
One week until school starts and the kids finally decide to try sleeping in.  Kassi slept all night for the third night in a row and slept until 8 am!  Almost a full 12 hours!

Spent the morning at cemetery riding bikes. Who knew it is such a great place to ride safely. Kassi spends the whole time on her little pedal-less conversion rider. The healed leg seems to be working fine. Those cute little legs get quite the workout, as does her smile. :)

Aug 20:
Jeremy turns Super Dad again as he adds How to Pull a Dragon's Tooth and Cats vs. The Volcano to his repertoire of short stories that make little girls laugh hysterically.   He leaves tomorrow for another few days.

Aug 24:
Daniel leaves after visiting for a few days. Kassi wanted nothing to do with him until today. She gave him and his friend, Michael, all kinds of smiles and giggles this morning. She even let Daniel hold her. She will be sad to find him gone when she wakes from her nap.

Emmy and Ally go to their first soccer clinic. Ally was very involved and had fun. She can't wait to go play some more when she gets on a team. Emmy said it was too dark and cloudy to have enough energy to play. And Emmy seems better fit for football. She wouldn't leave the ball on the grass and kept picking it up to run with it.

Aug 26:
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! For Ally and Sami. Emmy starts preschool tomorrow. After two older girls are happy in their new classrooms, Mom spends the morning canning and cleaning. Mom sits with Emmy for a bit and fills out an assessment for preschool and is surprised at how much Emmy actually knows. Emmy lays out a three part pattern with animal crackers and recites the days of the week (throwing in "Halloween Day" just to be her silly self).  Who knew she could do that!

Aug 27:
Mom spends some time cleaning out the car to get ready for lots of carpooling. As she is vacuuming out bits of month old hamburger patties and fruit snacks, Kassi decides to explore the bathroom since her older sister was nice enough to leave the door open for her. First Kassi dumps all the garbage into the toilet. Then she takes all the garbage out of the toilet. Mom comes in to check on everyone and finds three older sisters with eyes glued to the television and a baby covered in toilet water on the bathroom floor. Mom gets cranky, TV gets turned off, baby gets bath, bathroom gets locked up and quarantined for the next three days until Mom finds the energy to clean it.  Thank goodness there is more than one in the house!  And thank goodness that cast isn't still on!

Aug 30:
Big girl Emmy who is now an official preschooler takes to ordering people around, especially her mother.  Mom is not OK with this....even though it is rather cute.

Mom's friend, Tiffany, comes to visit!  Tiffany just moved here from Oregon.  Hurray for childhood friends!  Tiffany has a little girl who is three. Her name is Uilani.  She and Emmy don't quite get along yet but they will figure it out.

Aug 31:
Emmy meets her soccer team and has first practice. She is the smallest on the team by a whole head. At least we will always be able to tell which one she is.

Jeremy comes home after being gone a whole week!  Arbitration: good experience for Jeremy, ucky for Tamra.  Single parenthood is just not fun with four little girls.

Ally has two less now!

On May 25, Ally lost her first tooth!!  Then on July 18, she lost her second tooth!!  She was extatic both times. She is so funny about losing teeth, though. There is very little yanking involved. She wants them to just fall out on their own. Both teeth hung by almost a thread for a good week or two before finally coming out. The first one actually fell out while she was eating dinner. She almost swallowed it!  The second one she let me pull but only once it was mostly out on its own. So now Ally has a nice little gap in the bottom of her mouth and she couldn't be prouder of it.  She has also become a fan of the Tooth Fairy. :)

May 25

 

Emmy's FOUR!!!!!!

 My little peanut is getting bigger every day.  She is getting more mature and funny to be around and beautiful.  She is losing her baby face.  The features are lengthening.  It makes me sad and excited all at the same time.  She's finally over 20 pounds even!!  Emmy was the most adorable hit in the ballet in February and she's adding soccer to her activities this next month.  She's also starting Preschool this year!!  She learned how to spell her name (along with the names of everyone in the family) and all her shapes and she is getting her letters.  She's very excited for Preschool!  SO BIG!

 

The night before her Birthday, Jeremy told her that she wasn't allowed to get big:

 

Daddy:  Repeat after me--I Emmy

Emmy:  I Emmy

D: Solemnly promise

E:  Solemmy promise

D: To never get big

E:  To never get big!

D:  Ok, so no growing up!

E:  But Daddy!

D: No, you promised!

E:  But Daddy!

D:  No...

E:  No, Daddy, LISTEN!

D: Ok, I'm listening.

E:  I will get growing up but not BIGGER, OK?!

 

 Rise and Shine!

 Emmy had her two best friends over on her birthday for a Special Playdate!

 We had cake ball ice cream cones!  (Cake balls on top, Ice cream underneath)

 Everyone enjoyed some!

Mia

 Angelina

 Ally

 Kassi

 My Emmy

 My parents were here visiting over the weekend so we did an early party for her!

lagoon

  (June)  Last Saturday was Lagoon Day for Jeremy's firm. It was 100 degrees, though, so we opted out of standing in lines and did Lagoon-a-beach (the water park) instead. We spent hours just floating on the lazy river and watching the girls go nuts on the kid slides. Kassi LOVED it! Oh how I wished my camera was water proof. In the river, Jeremy and I sat on tubes and the girls swam around us, climbing up to join us every now and then. Kassi sat on Jeremy's lap with the biggest grin on her face. Then she figured out that she could sit on the edge and dangle her feet (and eventually her hands went splashing) in the water. She was in heaven! Good times.

 

 

Then about nine days later we did Bounce back and went with some friends.  Tanner was so cute, hanging out with my girls and enjoying all the kiddie rides.  His big brother, Preston, hung with Sami the whole day.  They rode as many big kid roller coasters as they could brave. :)  I rode the Bat with the two of them. My friend, Brooke, rode The Spider with Sami because Preston (the same size as Sami but over two years younger) wasn't ready for it yet.  

I also took Emmy on her first real roller coaster.  The Bombora is a family favorite of ours.  It's the smallest of the big roller coasters, plays Beach Boys music the whole time, and has been the only one Ally's brave enough ride every summer.  I discovered on this trip that Emmy is finally tall enough for it so I took her and sent Ally with Sami.  Emmy didn't say anything or even scream until the ride was over.  When it began to stop I asked her if she liked it.  She was very straight faced and said "Not Really."  She then became her chatty self again and explained that she thought the ride was too big for her and that she was too little to be riding big kid rides.  THEN, when we started to get out, she said, "Let's go again!"  :)  Silly girl. 

Right before we left Sami talked me into riding Colossus with her.  It was my favorite ride when I was a teenager.  It was the newest ride in the park at that time.  Now, over 15 years later, it seems a little unsafe.  I didn't realize this until we were on it, though.  There is nothing but a little bar holding you in and the first thing after the big drop is a double loop-d-loop.  It was Sami's first time going upside down on a roller coaster.  Her head was tucked between her arms, hanging on for dear life and holding her breath the whole time.  :)

Kassi's second time on a carousel.  She still wasn't sure she liked it.

Kassi and her little friend, Giselle.  Giselle was too young to ride the rides but she was so good just hanging out in her stroller all day.  She even took a nice long nap for her mommy! 

Kassi's first official ride (below).  I wish I could have gotten a better picture--the joy of phone cameras.  She was very serious the whole time, like she just wasn't sure what to think.  I'm so glad Sami was there to hold onto her and make her feel safe.  I didn't realize until after the ride started that it would go so high!  After this, she rode a helicopter and whale with Ally, a boat with Tanner (above), and a jeep and water ride with me.  I think she had fun.