Six Years Old

I'm a little late with posting the SIX YEARS OLD post mostly because I've been super busy and I'm finally taking time to do this.  Last year, I never got around to it.

So the birthday bits: we held the kiddo's party at Monkey Joe's (an unofficial party) and then went over to Fortel's Pizza Den for some pizza, cake, and presents time.  All in all it was a great party attended mostly by family and some very close friends.  We only invited one friend from school.  After last year, which I apparently never posted about, I was feeling a but gut shy!  More about that later.

Then on her actual birthday, the 8th, I let her open a present in the morning, take cookies to school for snack, made her do karate where she got to wear a "Birthday Girl" ribbon,open a couple more presents, and dinner at Denny's.  On the 7th, the last night of having a 5 year old, I cried, because, well, I just don't want my baby growing up.  She laughed at me because I guess in her eyes, the crying IS silly.  But after laughing she said, "mommy, I'll always be your baby".  She even let me rock her a bit.

One of the large gifts she got for her birthday was a robot dog.  I know what you're thinking, "really, that's an expensive gift that's novel for a day or so and then never gets played with" and I guess you are right but when your child asks for a sibling, a car, a real dog or a robot dog, you go robot.   It IS a very cool toy though.  I'm probably more amused by it than anyone else.

This year the things she is into are Shopkins, Descendants, Barbies, American Girl, cars, make up, dresses, pets, and crafts.

Now on to last year...her birthday last year felt like chaos.  We had the party at a tumbling gym where there ended up being no tables and we had to scramble to get some together.  We invited all the girls (and a few boys) from school and nearly all the girls showed up...which some might call a success.  We ate, opened presents, played in the gym....a total chaotic blast.  Forward a few days to find out nearly everyone at the party ended up with a stomach virus.  Rachel called to tell me Miles was puking, then a few hours later my kid was puking...and it spiraled on (even many of the adults had the virus).  I found out a few days later that I had taken out half the class...so no more large school parties.

And now a little bit about school: School is going really well this year.  Last year, in Pre-K we had a bit of a worry when her teacher told me that she just wasn't learning her letters.  We thought maybe it was a vision problem, which turned out not to be the case.  We thought maybe she needed more work at home, which we tried.  And even though her teacher reassured me that a slow start to learning letters wasn't an "end-all" situation, I treated it as one.  It also tragically turns out that the night of parent teacher conferences, October 29, 2015 would turn out to be the same day that Chris' dad would pass away.  After last year, this year seemed like a breeze (death, trouble in school, stomach virus...it was all too much).  This year, she's doing very well!  One of the things I enjoyed hearing from her teacher is that she is the kind of student teachers want more of, and that at free play time, she often goes to the book shelf, grabs a book and lays down and reads.  My heart swells!

I'm loving Family Helper days at school.  One Friday a month family is invited in the morning to help at school.  I go, even when I have to take off work, and help out.  I even stick around for lunch!

So I guess all in all, I can't complain about this year.  It's been good to me so far (knocking on wood) and even with the elections and all the crazy world events, this year has been good enough I can ignore all the bad. So here's to hoping for a good year for the next!