Sara is FIVE!

Sara turns 5 tomorrow but we decided to celebrate her birthday a day earlier, mostly because we couldn't get a room at the place she wanted to have her party at for the night of her birthday.  Dan decided to take the day off and we spent time with Sara and got things ready to go for her party.

First thing in the morning we let her open her present from Nanna and skyped with her.

Sara spent the day taking care of her new dog that she called "White Stripe". 

That night we went to kangaroo zoo.  She wanted to have a My Little Pony party so we decided to put some of them on top of her cake.   She was really surprised by it and loved it.

Sara was really glad that her friend, our neighbor Nora, could come to the party.

She was excited to open her presents

She really wanted My Little Ponies

Her cool hat from Auntie Lisa

Party people

After the cake they all had fun jumping again.

Group pic

Playing with her ponies was the first thing she wanted to do tonight when she got home.

Daddy is even getting in to my little pony.

We are proud of our little five year old!  Happy Birthday!

 

Happy Valentimes!

Sara always gets so excited about Valemtimes day, as she calls it.  Even more so now that she has a school party and friends at school to exchange valentines with.   This year her Nanna sent lots of supplies for making valentines and Sara couldn't wait to get started designing them.  So we chose to give away fruit leathers instead of candy because everyone else does candy.   Last year we made pretzel kisses that she excitedly gave away.   She is so thoughtful and wants to give valentines away to everyone we know.  So this year we gave them away to her swimming buddy and neighbors too.

She totally designed them herself.  Dan only helped a little with the tape but she did all the gluing, stamping, and she wrote her name on the back of them all herself.  I'm always surprised as she gets older and older at the things she can do by herself.  Also her pre-school is very art oriented and I know has learned a ton of skills from being in that class.  

She put the fruit leather in the middle of two paper hearts and then individually decorated them herself.  They looked really unique. She even insisted on making one for her teacher.

Daddy always starts her valentines day off right with a really nice breakfast.  This morning we woke up to red heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes with strawberry filling, yum!  They were a big hit with Brennan too.

Sara told us "Happy Valentimes Day" about 100 times today, even as we were going to bed and then she asked me tonight if Valentimes day is also tomorrow.  I told her no it's only one day, but that she was invited to a Valentimes Tea Party by the neighbor, so luckily she gets a bit of an extension.

At pre-school they wove a paper heart which inspired Daddy to try and weave paper both of which we displayed on the fridge.  Check out their mad paper weaving skillz.

I think Sara gets really excited this time of year because her b'day is just around the corner from Valentimes as well.  We asked her what she wanted to do this year.  She told me earlier in the year that she wanted to have a party at the Dinosaur Museum.  I wanted her to have it at the tubing hill at Jolly's Ranch.  In the end, she insisted on having it at the jumping place that we had it at last year.   

So we arranged for her to have it there again and she seems really happy.  This year she wants the theme to be My Little Ponies, which she has recently gotten into because of pre-school.  We are getting her a rainbow cake from Costco and putting the ponies on it and also using the various drawings of the characters that she colored as decorations.   It should be lots of fun for her and really cute.  I just hope she can stay well for a few more days and not catch anything that would make her too sick to enjoy it!

Winter Activites

Sara said last year that she wanted to go ice skating, so it was in the back of my mind to take her but I never did.  I feel like she's old enough to take a group lesson now so when I saw lessons at the skating rink in Provo pop up, I signed her up. 

She took her first lesson this week.  There was a group of 5 or 6 kids and two teachers.  All the kids seem pretty much on the same level.  The teachers were great and they had a really good way to teach the kids, with games and lots of patient explanation of things.  Sara first learned "safety knees" where you grab your knees, which leans you forward so you don't fall backwards.   She also learned how to stand up like a cat with your butt up in the air, to get up from the ice. 

Her very first time on ice helped by the teacher!

Getting used to the feel of the ice

Learning to push up, almost there!

She's up!  I was really routing her on from the side.

Once out on the ice they first practiced falling and getting back up again lots of times.   She was really shaky getting up at first the the teacher really encouraged her and praised her (video). Then the teachers played several games with them.  During one, they rolled a large rubber die across the ice and the kids had to skate to it and see what number it landed on.  For the next game, the teachers got out a marker and drew things on the ice that they had to interact with.  It was a great way to distract them from the ice and just let their bodies figure it out, while they were not over thinking.  I think that helped them not feel very afraid and they felt like it was more fun and games.

Sara loved it.  She had a hard time standing up at first but once she got the hang of it she could stand up much faster.  Then in the span of 15 or 20 minutes she was skating all over the rink.  She was still falling quite a bit but she would get right back up again.  After her 30 minute lesson, she gets a 15 minute free skate time.  During free skate, she skated around the rink with three of the little girls she had just made friends with in her class.

Free skate w/ friends.  She said she was hoping to make friends at the skating rink. 

I couldn't go out with her, so she was happy that a nice lady out on the ice helped her tie her skate.

I expected for Sara to tell me in the car that she was a little afraid or that she didn't like falling but she didn't say anything like that.  She just kept telling me how much fun she had.   She is a great kid.  I love how she will try anything and she is never afraid and also, she never gets discouraged or frustrated.  If she falls down, she gets right back up.  She is really an inspiration to me.   I'm just glad she had fun and she is willing to go again.  Her class is 6 weeks long but we might extend it depending on what she wants to do.

Also, this past weekend we took her cross country skiing.  We skied on the Canal roads.  She did great and really loves skiing.  She got the hardest part down really well.  She learned to straighten her skis and to uncross them if they got crossed. 

We also did the big sledding hill in Spanish Fork near the golf course.  Sara loved that too!  The hardest part was walking her sled back up the hill.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

Sara looked forward to Christmas morning just like most kids do.  In Pre-school they made a Santa chain thing so that she could keep track of the days.  The idea was to tear off one chain a day and when you get to the Santa it's Christmas Day.

In the run-up to Christmas, we also baked lots of treats.  Sara made "Pretzel Kisses" for her preschool class.  She unwrapped all the kisses and put them on the pretzels.

Sara had a Christmas party at Preschool that she was really excited about.  I volunteered to be a helper parent in the classroom for that day.  I was actually feeling a little nervous about it but it was a wonderful experience.  I had a blast helping all the kids make presents for their parents and then I got to watch them play all the fun games they play and sing songs.  It was a real treat and it totally helped me become a better person (and I was proud of myself for going).

 Also, Sara really looked forward to the Sears party up at Granny Karen's house.  

Showing their really fun gifts from Uncle Ben, Aunt Wendy, and Lil Benny :

The kids, Benny and Sara, did a great job eating at the kids table.  They talked to each other and really seemed to like having their own space.  This should be our new tradition.

I love this photo.  Granny KP was showing the kids some notes on the tin whistle :

 Everyone had an eye poppin' good time :

I love our tradition of having a get together at the folks in Salt Lake and I hope we have many great years to come.

Writing

Sara has been working really hard on her numbers and letters.  She can spell out our names mostly now.  Still she does not read yet but that can't be far behind if she's spelling words I suppose.   She is also memorizing "sight" words, words that can't be sounded out.

I took some pictures of the things she has written lately.  Her writing looks kind of funny, almost like Russian but she's getting closer.

She hung these upside down on our wall but they say Rosey, Daddy, and Brennan.  We did not help her at all with these.

Here is another one with her scribbling.  She wrote Benny in the middle and Dan, Rosey, and Brennan again.  We never told her how to spell our names either so she figured that out phonetically I guess.

Sara has also learned her phone number and her street address.

We are really proud of the progress she is making at school.  Also I love her teacher Mrs. Amber.  Mrs. Amber tells her how special she is every day and I know it's been great for Sara.