A Big Birthday - and other February things

Can't. Believe. She's. SIX.

pink pirate party. (truth be told - it was less about being pirates, more about hunting for shiny treasure.)

still her BFF though they never see each other any more... Ains and B formed such a tight bond in Nursery when they were three.

went for the party-in-the-home this year. Messy chaos - but wonderful.

arrrrh matey. More chocolate cake??

Mother-Daughter Birthday Date

Jake & Neverland Pirates meets Sophia The First - on stage!

that's her pirate face

cheap seats :)

This TODDLER prefers feeding herself. (from a very young age, this has been the case) Yogurt is her food of choice.

happily imitating that cool big sis

This goofy girl at THIS MOMENT: [18 mos]

* messy eater
* loves climbing up/down stairs
* almost ALWAYS happy
* just decided to get up and walk one day - pretty much her M.O.
* surreptitiously feeds Jake like it's her personal job

WORDS she says:

'docks' = socks

'bye bye'

'haaah' = hi

'beebee' = baby

'woof woof' = dog

'lehthl..lehthl' (tongue flapping) = water

'ckkk..ckkk' (throat clearing) = cookie

'sis sis' = ainsley

'bah' = bop (pacifier)

'nah nah' = night night

'mah' = more

'dake' = jake

'meee' = milk

 This Monkey Princess AT THIS MOMENT:

* can be super silly and absolutely delightful

* can be royally stubborn and surly

* LOVES reading and writing

* can't get enough Jack & Annie (Magic Treehouse) books

* loves adventure

* needs outdoor time... especially climbing and exploring

* needs some alone time each day

* asks to hear stories about our lives when we were younger & those of her relatives

* has 3 wiggly teeth! (her first)

* sings beautifully

* loves Elsa & Anna from Frozen

* is very. very. very. picky about her clothing

* must get dressed first thing upon waking

* has entered a bit of a picky-eater phase

VALENTINES - so. After I had Ainsley painstakingly hand-make 29 cards over 3 work sessions... i discovered that they don't "do" valentines day at her school. I banked on her forgetting.... luckily haven't heard a word about it. whew!

 SNOW. snow. and sNOw!

Addie had too rough of a winter with her asthma - so we had to tag-team taking Ains out to enjoy the fluff. Sledding pulled those giggles right out of us!!

 Sisters.

In matching PJ's.

 turn sideways to read this:

after missing dad for ONE day of work travel

 Kindergarten

Ainsley has truly been lucky this year. She has a PHENOMENAL kindergarten teacher. And I think I know something about teaching kindergarten so speak with good authority on the subject. ;) Ms. Santora is wonderful. Here are a few photos from a special night when families were invited in to be guests 'shopping' at the Market they replicated in imitation of our local historic Eastern Market. The children did field research at the market, worked in small groups to further develop their own market stand, research what to sell, how much to sell it for, make props and tickets, etc. They had to count pennies and worked in earnest. Each 'team' had also developed a short marketing commercial which could be viewed and heard with headphones on the SmartBoard. They each also did a writing piece related to food markets. All of this as a small part of their year-long investigation of "where does food come from". Cool stuff.

the 'peanut tuna' was a creation by our very own Ainsley Viv.

? (where on earth did she get THAT!?)

ABear's playdough rendition of this rare dish :)

Addie played with the cool kindergarten light table:

(i want one!)