Sunday, June 22, 2014

We Love Trains!

Yesterday, we happened upon the park just as the steam train was coming through.  They stopped at the park, let the passengers off, and then backed up, came through at full-throttle and then picked everyone back up.  It was quite the production with an ambulance and police on-site.

The conductor came up to the boys and chatted with them for a bit.  He then introduced us to one of the train engineers, Charlie.  X asked him a couple questions about driving trains and Charlie answered them and then asked if X liked Thomas.  That brought C out of his shell and he even talked to him a bit.  Charlie invited the boys to Owosso to check out the trains.  He was very sweet and really good with the boys.

Since we had such a good time on Saturday morning, we invited Grandpa Oberst to join us on Sunday.  So, Mom and Grandpa met us at the park and we got to watch him with the train.  He remembers when steamies were the norm...so interesting.  It was fun to experience that with him and hear about a bit of history.







Saturday, June 7, 2014

Pre Ballet

E took Pre Ballet this year.  She loved it.  She always claimed that she only danced because she loved the recital and preforming for a crowd.  Today was the show.  She did great.  She listened to the music very well to hear her cues. It was her first dance without an instructor/helper on stage.  The girls did it all on their own.  It was good.

Her instructor, Miss Kathy, gave her a great compliment regarding that fact during practice one day.  She told me that E was in the center because she was a great leader and kept time to the music very well.

It was a fun show to the theme of the Beatles.  E danced to "Here Comes the Sun" by the Peanuts Toy Instruments.  It was a fun show.
Recital Practice...E is 5th from left

The "Sparkle" girls...all pre tap and pre ballet girls

Last pose of the performance

Most of the pre ballet girls

The boys waiting for the show

A little brotherly love happening

Right after the show

Sunday, June 1, 2014

E is Seven...life is heaven

E turned 7 a couple weeks ago.  Seven years old...craziness.  She, of course, had a raspberry pie on her actual birthday.  My girl LOVES her pie...she gets upset when she can only have 1 piece at a serving.

For her birthday, she wanted a Frozen theme.  So, she wanted a cake instead of pie.  Thanks to Pinterest, there are lots and lots ideas out there.  E had Olaf's nose her veggie at dinner...and blue finger jello for ice chunks.  I couldn't find any characters in the stores, but thankfully our neighbor had an Elsa that we borrowed for the cake topper.  The secret the cake hid was E's favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It was a chocolate cake with a center of ice cream.  It was a fun and tasty surprise.

E is my bookworm.  She is a vivacious reader.  In the past 2 days, she has read 3 Boxcar children books, a Bobsy twin book, 2 Littles books, and I think 3 more but I can't remember the titles.  We returned from the library at 11 yesterday and today at bedtime she's read at least 9 books.  She tells me all about them when I ask.  She loves her books.  The sad thing about her reading so much on her own is that she doesn't cuddle up and read with me and the boys as much.  Independence is bittersweet sometimes.

E is my little mother to the boys.  She loves looking out for them aka bossing them around.  But, she can be surprisingly tender and sweet with them too.  If someone is hurt, she's inside making them a card or running for supplies.  She's a great helper.

My girl still loves her dresses...but she started enjoying wearing jeans this spring too.  She's not quite the girly-girl that she was for a long time.  However, she does like me putting her hair up sometimes.

Dance recital is this week and she's super excited about that.  She loves preforming for an audience.

She's getting more independent all the time.  She fixes her own oatmeal in the morning.  I'm working with her to ask when things are too hard to avoid messes, but she always wants to do things on her own.

Her imagination is still wonderful.  She loves to tell stories and fabricate adventures.  She'll spend part of the day playing Star*Wars with the boys but she'll also spend time creating her own stories with her dolls or toys.

She's very excited about the upcoming move.  She's ready to have her own room again.  It is painted lavender with sparkles.  It is pretty.  She's getting a 'big' bed.  She's ready for her own space.

Bathroom humor upsets her, which makes the boys tease her even more.  They all bicker constantly...makes me crazy, but I suppose it is all apart of being siblings.  At the end of the day, they all love each other.  They were even all attempting to sleep in the same twin bed for awhile tonight. They are so cute when they aren't exasperating.

E is great at math.  I love teaching her and watching her knowledge blossom.  The gift of intelligence is an amazing blessing, and I'm so thankful that she received that gift.

She had her first day trip away this spring.  She went with a friend to Auburn Hills to Disney on Ice.  She's growing up and enjoying new experiences.  She's very excited to go to camp this summer by herself for 3 whole days.  Here comes that independence again and learning to let go bit by bit.