5 Years

On this day 5 years ago,

we got on this rollercoaster together. 

1 year

2 years

3 years 

4 years

5 years 

Its been a blast, full of ups and downs, but we get to do it all together.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Will said...

"Find me!"

"I need Orange Play dough!"

"11...12...13...I counting!"

Mommy: Will hold still, I need to get your pants on!

Will: No! I naked!

Before bed each night:

"I love you Emma...big hug! Sweet dreams!"

The littlest helper

Emma has been taking more naps since we are spending a lot of time outside. I guess I'm wearing her out! On this particular day, Will was already in bed and Emma was waiting for me to finish cleaning something up in the kitchen so that I could read to her before her nap. I called over to her about something, and she didn't make a sound, so I went to investigate.

Fast asleep on the couch in less than 5 minutes.

And this from a kid who hasn't fallen asleep on the couch since she was a wee baby :-)

So, while Emma snoozed away for 3 hours or so, Will was up and begging to help me in the kitchen. He loves getting to sit on the counter (just like Emma always has) and pour things into the mixing bowl.

But of course, the best part is getting to taste the dough! The great thing about making so much bread dough around here is that we usually don't have to worry about raw eggs in it.

And here's my little jabberbox talking about how good his dough tastes.

Loving Preschool

Several months ago I began to transition Emma from exclusively tot school to preschool activities. The biggest difference is that her tot school work was mainly guided play and simple fact learning, while preschool has been more tasks that have a start and finish, and incorporate more critical thinking.

Emma has responded SO enthusiastically, and begs to do preschool activities every day. We have a number of workbooks that she thinks are awesome, and I am thankful that I can print off so many awesome themed activities from great blogs.

Such a big girl!

The Pals

Emma has quite an imagination when it comes to names for various animals, babies, and even imaginary friends. We were able to convince her to give her newest babydoll a "real" name, but some of the more unusual names for things have stuck.
Emma usually sleeps with her pink pal and a little frog that ribbits when you squeeze it. Lately they've been hanging out in her little bunk beds and she tucks them in and pretends they are her babies.

Meet Aesing...beloved pal, favorite cuddle, and the first thing that Emma ever truly named. Aesing is pronounced Ace-ing, and we've debated on the spelling some.

The frog started out with the name Froggy, but that was quickly abandoned in favor of Peter Rabbit...wait, what?? Yep, Peter Rabbit Jasmine Dunphy to be precise. And Emma refers to the frog by his (or her?) full name.

So a typical conversation about putting the pals away usually has Emma saying something along the lines of "it is nap time for my babies and so I tucked in Aesing and covered her up the way she like and Peter Rabbit Jasmine Dunphy needed to go down for nap too and so I put them both in their beds...yeah..."

Playgrounds

We have a nice variety of playgrounds in the area, and depending on what we have going on during the day, we go to different ones!

Here are a few pictures from our neighborhood playground. Emma loves going down "the big green slide" and she is so pleased with how brave she is because she used to think it was scary.



Will likes to climb up and down the stairs more than slide right now. He also loves to play with this spinning toy that has the planets on it. Martin told him the names of the planets once several months ago and he has never forgotten! He can name and correctly identify Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn! Not too shabby for a year and a half :-)



He also likes to reach his hand through the stairs and have me just up and give him "5".



Our favorite little playground is nice and quite and has a good set of swings.



Though not quite as much fun as this swanky swing in Townsend.



And Will is even more dangerous! He learned how to climb up this climber on his own. I don't trust him one bit, so I usually am standing right next to him the whole time (unless we need a photo).