The Perfect Party

Sara was really adamant that she wanted a Dolphin Tale 2 themed party this year.  She saw the movie twice and read the book and is really into it.  I was just thankful she didn't want another Frozen party and even more thankful when I went to the Party store to plan it.  All the Frozen stuff is totally taking over.  Anyway, it was fun to plan this party for her and to do the decorations.  

I ordered dolphin invites and we sent them out.  We only invited a couple of kids this time as opposed to last year and it turned out way more manageable and fun.

One of her other wishes for the party was to have a "sea of balloons".    Dan and I blew up 70 balloons and put them in her room the night before.  She was super surprised to wake up to them all in her room. 

 Her nice cousin Malina offered to make her a cake.  We described what Sara wanted and Malina made a really special cake that was probably better than probably what we would have come up with.  Sara was thrilled with it.

 Three kids came, one was Sara's best friend Ellie.  They were really cute together.  Her cousin Benny was there too.   They played some party games, the most popular was hide the lobster.  We had a blow up lobster and they took turns finding great hiding places for it and then finding it. Also, the other hit was tossing all 70 of the balloons over the banister that we had put in Sara's room.

 They we had cake and sang happy birthday to Sara!  The kids were really surprised at the real shells and "real" sand (brown sugar) and they loved the dolphins.  Several of them exclaimed that this was the best party they had ever been to and they wanted Dolphin parties too.

After the cake, we took a little break to watch a bit of the movie Dolphin Tale 2.

Next we had an impromptu conga line and other silliness :

Sara got some nice presents, her favorite was a messenger bag that Ellie gave her that you can color and decorate.  She colored it all day Sunday and wants to take it to school with her on Monday.

 I think it was a party she will remember for along time to come.  Dan and I actually had fun at the party too, it was really a good day.

Sara also got to spend some good time with her cousin Benny.

Some shots of the decor:

Jan & Feb 2015

In January we did some skiing and thankfully we did when we could because the snow was terrible after that.   I skied with her in Hobble Creek one day when it was 10 degrees.  She was a real trooper, even though her hands got really cold.  She skied about a mile and a half, really fast too.  I want to get her actual cross country skis next year, she is ready.

The biggest event that happened during January was that Nanna came to visit.  That meant extra trips to Cracker Barrel, lots of spoiling, and sewing lessons.  Sara really got into sewing!  I hope Nanna is able to teach Sara all about swing, knitting, weaving, and whatever else.  I just don't have the patience for it but I think Sara would really love it.

One other obsession that Sara has is dancing to Starwars Let's Dance on Youtube.  Over the Christmas holiday she danced endlessly and she's still dancing every day.  She really gets into it!

Also, Sara obsessively played My Little Pony Monopoly all through Christmas.  She has since tapered off but for a while we were playing every day.

When Grandpa Glade came to visit, she roped him into playing too.

Sara has made HUGE strides at swimming since November.  She has gotten so strong and fast. I couldn't be more proud of her!

Some things that I've been doing with Sara this year that we really enjoy are, when she gets home from school I have her sit with me and tell me about her day.   I don't know if she enjoys that time together but I do.

Also, she has discovered that being read to in the tub while she takes a bath is one of her favorite things.  So I read to her and she reads to Brennan.

I've also been doing a 365  Q & A a day book.  She has come up with some really entertaining answers.  When you finish the year, you start again and there are spaces to ask the questions again.  I think I will so it at 9 and again at 12 years of age to see how her answers change.

Lastly, she has been bringing home Star Wars books from the library every week.  So far I've read 5 of them.  I really can't stand the comic book bubble format, like really really hate it.  However she is so into these books I just can't say no.  She hangs on every word and I usually read them 2 or 3 times through during the week.  Brennan sits there and listens too.  She says she wants the whole set of these books.  Maybe we could find others with pictures but not in the comic book bubble dialog format which I disdain.   I'm excited that I got her a Star Wars coloring book and sticker book for her B'day in a few weeks.  I hope she likes it.

Sara has been talking about valentines day and her birthday non-stop for weeks.  She is really looking forward to it. Tomorrow is her Valentines party at school and she has worked all week making valentines for her whole class, she totally did it all on her own.   She made an extra special one for her best friend Ellie.  She is also looking forward to opening Nanna's Valentine package tomorrow.

**As an update, Sara got a real valentine from a boy named Carter that she chases on the field all the time.  He gave her a braclet that says "Be Mine" and he gave it to her in a special package.  She said he was really nice at school today too.

We are still trying to come up with a plan for her birthday.  We are thinking of getting a giant bounce house for the back yard but haven't decided.  She asked for a Dolphin Tale 2 party, she loves the book and movie.  We have gotten dolphin invitations, party favors, and plates.  I hope to have a party for her with a few friends, probably not as many as last year but who knows.  I think it will be fun whatever we do.  She requested that her best friend Ellie be there.  I'll be really sad if Ellie does not come because I know Sara will be devastated.   Apparently one of Ellie's older brother's is disabled and they don't get out much, so I've even offered to go pick her up and bring her home.  It would mean a lot to Sara.

I got her roller blades with light up wheels for her birthday.  I hope she really likes them and isn't too scared to try them out.  If she is, then I know someone who won't be.


Sara is about to be 7 and I feel like Sara just gets better with age.  I try to tell her as often as I can that I think she's really and truly a wonderful person.  She is so helpful with her brother, so sweet and thoughtful of other people, and so fun and interested in so many things.  She is also good at whatever she tries to do.  Sometimes I think she is too good for this world.  She really is my idol, she's is the best person I know.   I also love that she loves Ancient Aliens, bigfoot, UFO's, Cosmos, and Egypt :)

End of the year 2014

Tonight for the Christmas activity we did an end of the year questionarie.  Sara's answers were pretty predicable except for I didn't expect her to say that Easter was her favorite holiday, I thoguht she'd say Christmas.  I think it will be fun to see how their responses change over the years.  I hope I can remember to do it again next year.  

Sara stayed home sick today and it was really sad.  Her teacher had planned a big surpise for the parents by taping their Christmas performance.  I'm really sad that Sara had to miss it.  She stayed in bed all day and slept. 

I recently gave her the choice to take Hip Hop Dancing with Brennan in January or to stay with swimming and she chose to stay with swimming.  She loves it so much and her teacher loves teaching her so it's a win win.  She has gained so much this year from swimming so I'm glad she chose that.  She has been asking to come to swimming early and stay late so she can watch the older kids swim.  She hopes to try out for the swim team this summer.  I know she will be ready by then. 

As the year ends, I would say her biggest achievement this year was her reading.  She went from reading Dick and Jane type readers to in a matter of a couple of months reading chapter books like Balto and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  She is an amazing reader and we are so proud of her.

Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas

The kids really look forward to the holidays although, Sara does not like Thanksgiving very much.  She says the thought of all the turkeys getting killed makes her sad and that they should really call it National Kill the Turkey's Day.  She still does not eat meat at all.  She says she is allergic to it, who knows, maybe she is.  They made turkey wraps at school and her teacher let her make fruit kabobs instead.  It was actually something she got really excited about so she came home and made fruit kabobs for us at home too.  They were actually really good.

I though this paper she brought home from work was pretty funny.  It says circle the foods you like to eat on Thanksgiving.  At least she circled something, vegetables, bread, and she added in pumpkin pie, which is kind of iffy but anyway....

Luckily for Sara we didn't have a big Thanksgiving meal this year, we went out of town, she she got to avoid the Turkey all together.   We went on an awesome hiking/ exploring trip instead to Bluff Utah.  She's the best hiker.  We did several trails that were really steep, one had a 4 foot drop off where i had to lower the kids down to Dan and it was on a cliff side.  The other was a trail going down into a very large gorge.  She never complained on either of the hikes, not even once.  In fact, she kept swatting my hand away when I would try to help her and saying, "Mom, I got this" or  "time to put it in four wheel drive".  I think Dan was actually way more afraid of the heights on the trail than she was.

Here are some pics of her on the riverwalk by our hotel in Bluff

 Hiking the Moon House Ruins (Anasazi ruins build around 1200) we kept trying to impress upon her what those peoples lives would have been like 800 years ago.  They had no cars or horses, no stores, they had to make all their own clothes, dishes, etc.   We tried to engage her in comparing her life to the life of what a Anasazi kid would have been who lived there.  I'm not sure she totally got it but maybe some of it made sense to her.  She also kind of liked the ruins but found it a little boring too.

She found this little mini-arch and thought it was silly to lay under it.

The next day we hiked the Honaker Trail by Goosnecks State Park.  Sara hiked it like a champ.

One of my favorite things about her is how much she loves the outdoors!

When we got home from our trip, the kids were super excited because the next day we were starting the punch calendar.  It's their favorite thing.  They get to do fun Christmas themed activities, crafts, sing songs, read Christmas books, etc.  Also they get a small candy treat in each punch.

The first night we did another advent calendar project, a Santa and a Reindeer they got to color and add cotton to and then hang in their rooms.  There is a loop for each day that they can tear off to count down to Christmas. 

The second day, we decorated windows in the house with window cling stickers and I got Sara a mini-Christmas Tree for her room that we all decorated together.  She was over the moon for her little tree and musical snow globe.  Next year I'll probably have to get Brennan a little tree for is room too.

I hope they have a really good Christmas.

Summer and Fall

Sara had a fun Summer of adventures and she grew up a lot.  The highlight was our family trip ( See the Yodame blog).  We did a ton of hiking before the family trip however.  We went to visit Grandpa in Kanab and hike all over the place.  She caught a tadpole!  She so great with her brother too, they had fun hiking together.

She had a big end of the year piano recital in June that Grandma and Grandpa came to.  She was really nervous before hand and we were super proud of her for going up and playing her songs even though she was petrified.

She also took a special piano class this summer that she worked very hard at. 

 We spent Father's Day at Red Butte, she's a total daddy's girl so this was a fun day for them to spend together.  They both really enjoyed it.

She had TONS of friends and fam over and pool parties!!  The backyard kiddie pool was a huge hit this summer.   Went went through tons of water balloons.

We also had fun around the yard.  The kids grew a big watermelon.

They also grew a giant sunflower.  Brennan held it down while Sara harvested the seeds, then she did a school report on growing sunflowers.

 She arranged frogs in the garden and wanted to make a tiny fairy garden but we didn't get around to it, maybe next year.

  We fed ducks at Novell several times this Summer, always a big hit with the kids and the ducks.  One time we even picked grapes to feed to them, we found out ducks don't really like grapes that much.

Sara and Brennan do lots of fun stuff together, they are best buds.  Usually they keep the arguing to a minimum. 

We did her school workbook to keep things fresh in her mind over the summer an worked on her writing.  She loves doing her workbook and a lot of times once she got started doing it, it was hard to get her to stop.  She was great at the math sections and picked up addition and subtraction right away.

Over the summer, Sara's reading ability really took off.  We didn't work with her on it, she just figured it out by sounding out the words.  We took a long Summer trip and she spend a lot of time in the car reading and was reading the signs to us at the various parks we went to.  She got a lot out of it. 

We were a little worried when she started first grade that she would be way ahead of where she needs to be.  However it seems likes she is really fitting in well in her class.  I credit part of it to her teacher, who is really on top of things, very observant, and really cares.  She noticed right away that Sara is very smart and a little ahead and where she needs to be.

We recently had our 1st parent teacher conference and the teacher says that Sara thinks outside the box and is very creative.  She definitely has her own style and we love that about her.  Also, her teacher has been sending her to a special math class once a week for kids who are ready for more advance math.   Sara is also is the top reading group and it able to help her friends when they need help, which makes her feel good.  Recently they paired her up with a 4th grader who is struggling in reading and Sara was able to help her out. 

 Her teacher says that Sara really loves everything they do in class and that seems to be what we are hearing from her at home, she loves school and learning.  In fact, when she gets home, she plays teacher with Brennan as her student.  She loves to repeat any of the math activities or songs that they learn at school that day.

Dan and I couldn't be more proud of her.  She is the coolest little girl in every way.

Recently we went out for mother-daughter night.  I took her to the pet store and we looked at all the pets.  She was very sad that we couldn't take home a hamster, Guinea pig, or bird.  I told her we need to go slow and let Daddy get used to the idea of pets slowly.  We might be getting a fish tank for Christmas and then hopefully a rabbit next summer.  Maybe we can work out way up to a bird someday.

After the pet store, I let her choose a place to eat and she picked, Macaroni Grill.  It's getting close to Thanksgiving, so we talked about things we were thankful for.  We took turns telling each other the things we are thankful for.  I told her I was very thankful for such a wonderful daughter like her and she replied that she was very thankful for her teacher Mr. Olson.  Oh well, sometimes Motherhood is a thankless job.  Also we talked about how the world is the way you see it.  If you think that the world is against you and you have tons of fear and anger, then that's is what the world will show you.  If you believe that the world is a happy and beautiful place full of wonderful people, then that is what you will see.  I think she totally got it, well as much as you can at 6 anyway.   I hope we have many more mother-daughter nights.

One of Sara's happiest moments was when Daddy got her a bunk bed this Summer.  She has been dreaming of having a bunk bed for a long time.   She promptly made herself a nest in the top and it's her reading den.  She loves to sit up there and read, it's her oasis. 

As the seasons changed and Fall set in, we did even more hiking.

We took a 3 day camping trip to Cathedral Valley.  She really is a good buddy camping.  She helps me put up the tent, cook, and take care of Brennan. 

We said goodbye to Fall in Cathedral Valley and camping for 2014, hopefully we will have many more camping trips in 2015. 

After this, Halloween was just around the corner.  We surprised Sara with a Merida Costume.  Brennan was amazed at her red hair.

They had a blast trick-or-treating at Novell with Daddy and then in the neighborhood.

Winter is now on it's way and she's looking forward to the snow.

She was telling me that she really dislikes Thanksgiving because of all the millions of turkeys that have to die.  She is still very much a vegetarian due to the fact that she can't stand to eat animals.  She has always maintained this despite the fact that most of the rest of us eat meat occasionally.  I like that she sticks to her principals.

She is really looking forward to Christmas.  Nanna will visit and she is really excited about the punch calendar.  I hope her Christmas is a very merry one.