Kara's 6th Birthday!

For Kara's 6th birthday, she decided to have her party at everyone's favorite childhood birthday party destination: Chuck E. Cheese.  Kara's birthday happened to fall on the Friday before Thanksgiving break (the school district gives all the kids the whole week of Thanksgiving off), so Mom and Dad thought that maybe not everyone would be able to come.  As it turned out, every single kid invited was able to come.  It was a wild and crazy party.  The pizza was just as delicious as Mom and Dad remember, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.  The highlight for Kara was her turn in the Ticket Blaster, which is basically a phone booth full of game tickets that has a fan and blows tickets around as the birthday kid tries to grab as many as he or she can (see the video).  Now we're going to have to top this party next year!

Link to pictures

Summer Already?

Kara finished with preschool, but has been keeping very busy with classes and camps.  She has a weekly ice skating lesson on Thursdays, Vacation Bible School (going on this week, only been to one, but she had a blast), and weekly farm camp.  She's also starting swim lessons next week. So much fun to be had!

Emily's new favorite game is sticking things in her mouth (like dirt and rocks) and then sticking her tongue out to show Mommy and Daddy and have us wipe it off.  Let's just hope this is a phase.  Emily seems to pick up a new word every day, but she still mostly relies on the old tried and true method of pointing and grunting.  She also shakes her head no.  Sometimes it's actually when she means no. :-)  She's becoming quite confident in her movements.  She can climb and go down the slide by herself.  We've even seen her dribble the soccer ball all over the yard.  Check out the videos!

Emily has long periods of just wanting to be carried around and essentially crying/whining because we're not doing what she wants.  This might have to do with not being able to communicate well with us, and teething.  Still, she's generally a very sweet toddler.  Mommy was putting her down for a nap and they both heard Kara crying (she had bumped her head on a table corner).  So Mommy and Emily went down stairs to check on Kara.  After seeing Kara crying, Emily walked over and gave her a big hug (complete with pats on the back) and kiss (puckered lips and all).  It was about the sweetest thing Mommy had ever seen.

Kid quotes:
Kara - "I'm sure Uncle Trey is the biggest person in the world" (shortly after stating she had the longest hair of any kid in the world)

Mommy - "I love you with all my heart."
Kara - "I love you with the middle of my heart, Mommy.  In the middle, I love our family. On the left side, I love everyone at Mimi and Papa's house.  On the right side, I love Grandma and Grandpa. In the bottom tip of my heart, I love stuffed animals and toys and things."

Kara - "I just want everyone for every second to play with me."  Shortly after complaining about having to help out with chores around the house like brushing her teeth, washing her hands, and pulling the plug after bath.  Ah, kids.

Kara - "I wish I was naked all the time. I could pee better, I could eat better, everything would just be better."

At a birthday party, Kara stopped to help a boy who had dropped his goody bag.  He replied with, "Now I know why they call you Kara.  Because you really do care."  Don't worry, Daddy has his eyes on that smooth talker...





Link to pictures