Kacy is FIVE!

My sweetest Kacy has turned five. The year of Kindergarten, the year of lost teeth, the year of learning to read and write, the year of school buses and new friends, the year of gaining new found independence. I have always been one that looks forward to the new stages of life for my kids, and I don't dwell on the fact that it's sad to lose those "baby years" - but Kacy going to Kindergarten is admittedly making me a little sad. I fear that when Brooke gets to this stage, I will be in tears...Kacy is excited to go to Kindergarten, but she is a little nervous, too. I know she will do great, and she has the potential of actually knowing some kids in school from MOMs club and gymnastics. I really should be doing some more school work with her this summer, but I haven't been that great with it.
Kacy at five is a lot like the Kacy at any other age. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and her emotions are always very easy to read. She definitely feels how she feels and she isn't afraid to admit it. She has always been very easy going, but recently, she has been getting very angry mostly at her sisters. She gets this crazy little angry face, but luckily she usually gets over it pretty quickly. I just keep reminding her to calm down, and to think about what she is doing before she freaks out.
Some other things about Kacy these days. She has trouble sleeping sometimes. She will say that she needs to have someone snuggle with or that she thinks there are monsters somewhere. I just got her a new "snuggler", and that has seemed to work for now. The other night she told me that she didn't like sleeping alone. I told her that she could snuggle Squishy, her new snuggler, and her reply was, "I need someone to snuggle with who is bigger than me, can talk, and wears clothes. Someone like you." She won, I stayed for a little extra that night. She doesn't really like to learn too terribly much. She will do activities and games, but when it comes time to really try to read or try to learn new things, she just starts getting silly. Kacy loves being around people. Any time we dance, she always wants to be the one dancing with someone and not alone. Even though, she usually likes to be part of whatever is going on, she sometimes will just want to be alone. She will just go to her room and lay alone or play by herself. I love that because it shows me that she can take care of herself and her needs, which is always a good thing! Kacy has such a sweet, little soul. She is always thinking of others, and always wanting to help people. I sure hope that is a quality that sticks with her! Kacy's speech issues come and go, but I don't think it's anything to worry about yet. I still think that she struggles more when she is excited to tell a story and she thinks faster than she can get the words out. We will see what the school says next year. She loves to dance and sing. She also loves to help me cook, but her favorite part of being in the kitchen is being the taste tester. I think she actually taste tests more than she helps cooks!

Kacy's answers to her birthday questions -
What is your favorite color? Pink
Who is your favorite friend? Jenna and Sara
Who do you think you will marry? I don't know yet
What do you want to be when you grow up? Face painter and tattoo maker
What is your favorite food? Pizza and tortellini and spaghetti
What is your favorite show? Winx
What do you like to do at home? Play with Barbies and play "mom and dad"
What do you love about Adilyn? Her green eyes
What do you love about Brooke? Her blue eyes
What is your favorite animal? Dolphin
What are you good at? Dancing and helping
Why are you excited to be 5? I will get more dollars.

I love this kid so much! I love her million different expressions to show her million different emotions. I love the way she thinks and the questions she asks. I love her crazy tight hugs that she gives me each night. I am so blessed by her presence in our family!
Happy Birthday, Kacy! We love you :)

Kacy's Frozen (but Rainy) Pool Party!

I was so excited when Kacy decided that she wanted her party to be "Frozen" themed. I am sure that she was one of about 500,000 little girls that also wanted the same party in the last 6 months. :) With the help of Pinterest and a few of my own ideas, we came up with a pretty cute little party. I love doing all the decorations, and the girls even helped me cut out paper snowflakes. Adilyn and Kacy were so excited to see all the Frozen themed stuff. I found some wall stickers with the characters online, and those turned out so cute! My favorite little decorations were the Olaf quote, "Some people are worth melting for." in the bathroom for all our guests to see that we would melt for them too! :) I also put a huge Sven picture in the pool bathroom, which cracked me up. Adilyn loved the "frozen hearts", and Kacy loved the frozen drinks. Brooke loved pretty much everything! We had all our favorite people over for some fun in the pool, but unfortunately Mother Nature didn't get the message that we needed nice weather. It was stormy and cloudy and thundering off and on. All in all, we probably got about 45 minutes of good pool time in. Luckily, everyone that we love are so amazing that we just played in the house and had a great time no matter what the weather was like. The highlights of the day were having slushies in the rain, playing in the new pool with the "Ice Cube", and watching a little of the World Cup. Brandon came down with Dad and Kris, and Mom was already here, so it was awesome to have my whole family there! The Griffins, the Hrobars, and the Schmaltzs were also there. Kacy loved having everyone there to celebrate with her, and she, of course, loved all her presents. She was so cute and so excited when she opened every single one! The rain was a little bit of a bummer, but it was still a great day with friends and family. How did we get so lucky?

Oops...I attempted to make a tiny "North Mountain" for Kacy's cake. Long story short, we had to turn it into a "melted" Olaf. I'm glad my sweet girl doesn't love me for my nonexistent cake decorating skills. Besides, it doesn't matter what it looks like, it was still delicious!

June Theme Weeks

In order to provide us with some activities in the summer, we are doing our "theme" weeks again. Our first week was Space week, and I have to admit that I learned a lot! I could have probably named the planets, but I had no idea what order they were in or how the solar system worked. It was fun learning alongside the girls! We went to a show at the library that was a mini planetarium, we made our own solar system in order with facts on the planets, and we watched some space shows. We also went to the Museum of Natural Science and saw a show in the big planetarium.
The next week was VBS and Art week, and each day we did a new art project. Marble painting, water color resist, and string art. My favorite was watching a cartoonist doing "how to" videos, and we all copied him. The girls did great, even Cory was impressed! The girls always love art, so that was fun for everyone.
It's always fun to have a purpose for the summer and do a little learning. I need to start working a little more with Kacy on her reading/writing and with Adilyn on her math, but it's hard to get everyone motivated for that (me included!)
Here are some pictures of our visit to the Museum of Natural Science and History. The girls loved the gem gallery the most, and I loved the Native American exhibit and the dinosaurs. I didn't ask Mom her favorite, but I bet she would say definitely NOT the mummies!

Woodlands Children's Museum

We were a little ansty at home, so we decided to go to the Woodlands Children's Museum one afternoon. I had been warned that it was pretty small compared to the one in Houston, but it is a lot cheaper and a lot closer, so we decided to give it a try. It ended up being really fun! I was worried that Adilyn wouldn't like it because it was geared more toward little kids, but she had just as much fun, if not more than the other girls! They spent forever in the "theater" dressing up in the dresses and other costumes they had there. They also loved this little area that had nothing but rice to play with. My favorite was this huge playhouse with a kitchen area. You never know what is going to entertain them! We spent a couple hours there, and it was a really fun change from our normal routine.

Summer Time Family Fueding

Oh wow, we are having a lot of sibling rivalry going on this summer! Brooke is also in the mix this year, so it makes it even more chaotic. I am not really sure how to fix this very loud and stressful problem, so I have chosen the route of just ignoring it. Surely there has to be a more productive way to handle the situation, but the few things I tried, still didn't work. Then, I got more irritated that I tried and failed. Of course, I would love for them to get along all the time and have a wonderful, harmonious life together, but I just don't think that's going to happen. I am going to continue to stress that sisters should love each other and respect each other and be kind, and maybe, just maybe one day they will listen to me. Until then, I will try to keep the peace. Wish me luck...

A moment of peace at the Frio "breakfast table".

A Two Day Fun Getaway!

Mom and I decided to take the girls to a little resort in Conroe called La Toretta for the night to play. We had so much fun. There were a lot of different pools and some water slides. The girls' favorite part was the lazy river. They floated in that thing over and over again! We played at the pools for about 4 or 5 hours each day. That night we went into town and ate dinner. We played mini golf at a sad little course at the resort. I say it was sad, but the girls loved it and played two or three rounds. The room was really nice, and we all had a good night's sleep. It's always a fun time when Nammie is around!

More Frio Fun

I love that the girls are growing up at the Frio. We went back to get the camper, and this time we had wonderful weather! There were not many people at the river, so it was a very nice and relaxing time. The girls had fun floating down the current on little rafts, playing in the river, and sending a huge log down the river. We didn't have a bathroom or the key to the house, so we had an interesting bathroom set up. There was a 4 inch sewer pipe that we had to sit on...it was not the most comfortable bathroom I have ever used, but it served its purpose! Cory rigged up some "walls" with pallets for some privacy. Oh my!
It was our first time to ever go to the Frio alone (with no Ryan or other people), so the girls were all panicked about who we were going to talk to, what we were going to do, etc. They soon figured out that we can be at the Frio alone and have tons of fun!