K.S.M.

My beautiful 5 year old has had a great year, only 20 days into the month. The day after she turned 5 she set some goals for the coming year........learn to spell, learn to read, and tie her shoes. Everyday she asks us to help her learn to spell something, and we've started just giving her words and letting her try and sound them out. Tess is even helping out by making worksheets for Kate to help her out. Kate has also started reading books to us. It is so hard to know if she is really reading, or just memorized the words from hearing it so many times.

Kate can also check learning to tie her shoes off her bucket list. This weekend she and I sat on the living room floor, surrounded by all sizes of shoes, and practiced tying the laces. Kate is learning it is considerably easier to tie the shoes when they are just sitting on the floor, rather than when they are actually on the foot. Turns out pant legs and knees totally get in the way of making a loop!

How many days until Kindergarten starts? question we get asked at least once per week.

She is the only kid I know that is totally bummed that school gets cancelled.

She is the proud occupant of the lower bed on the new bunk beds the girls got a few weeks ago. We moved her things into Tess's room and the two are making it work. Every once in a while I hear a snippet of dissent between them, but for the most part, it is good. She looks so small in this big twin bed, but don't tell her that!

For Kate's birthday, her Aunt Mimi took her to see "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" at the Coterie in Crown Center. Kate loves this book and even took along her copy to use as a reference during the play. Turns out the play was awesome, and Kate followed along and let everyone know what page coincided with the play. She got to dress up and even asked me to curl her hair.

Sorry for the sideways picture...but it takes so stupid long to download them, I hated to start over. This is her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and was such a great place for her party......they made her feel like a superstar! After she got 876 tickets in the ticketblaster, plus all the tickets she earned, plus all the tickets everyone gave her...this was her take home prize. When she brought it to show me, her smile was about to make her cheeks split, it was so big. She said she couldn't stop smiling even if she tried. That kind of happiness is from pure JOY. My thanks to the big mouse for a party well done....even if the pizza does have a laxative effect on most stomachs.