Violet turns Three

Violet turned 3 last August, and I never got a post up- so getting this done before she has another birthday ;)

Personality: Violet is fun. She loves to be silly, to play make-believe with her sisters, and to laugh. She plays often with Lyla and Brielle. She loves to be held by mommy, still, and she often sits with me while I make dinner. 

Birthday: Her birthday fell on our first day of school, but it was a fun, special, laid-back day. She was obsessed with her sister's picture books from their first year of life, and so that encouraged me to finally make her one (poor fourth child). She loved it!

Transitions: She became completely potty trained within a couple of months after turning 2. 

Loves: Baby dolls, blanky, pancakes, raisins and peanuts, wagon rides

Things She Said:

"I don't want these actually"

"I put my finger in my mouth and my tongue said, 'Yuck!'"

To me: "You're my favorite girl!"

"I am idiot!"

"The door's an idiot!"

"You a cutie pie!"

Violet's Interview:

What's your favorite food? Banana and cereal

What's your favorite thing to play with? Snakes (toy, not real)

What's your favorite movie or show? I think my favorite movie is ... it's super hard, this one. I don't know.

What's your favorite song? This super hard now too. Elena of Avalor songs.

What's your favorite book? I think ... I have to go get it. Billy Whiskers' Twins

What's your favorite color? Purple and blue

What's your favorite Bible story? I don't know, it's too hard.

What do you like to with Sophie? Play with calico critters

What do you like to with Brielle? Jump on the trampoline

What do you like to do with Lyla? Playing house

What do you want to do when you get older? Be a policeman

What's your favorite animal? Bucky (our goat)

Who are your best friends? This is super hard now. Lucy.

What makes you happy? To play with calico critters

What makes you sad? When we have to leave the campground

What are you really good at? Drawing pictures

Lyla Turns Five

Lyla is truly one of a kind. I always like to tell people she marches to her own drumbeat, and she truly does. She is a challenging personality for me at times because she feels her feelings so fiercely, but I love learning her and finding ways to lean in and love her. She has learned to play so well with Violet as Brielle has joined us in school, and she and Violet have a really sweet friendship now. Her feelings get hurt easily when others disregard her, but she's fiercely loyal herself. She plays well on her own but enjoys playing with others as well- as long as she doesn't get bossed around too much. ;) She loves to sing and be silly.

For her birthday this year, it was again during VBS week. I had to fly out to Virginia Beach the morning of her birthday to meet up with my boss and co-workers for Wild + Free. I was bummed to miss a lot of her birthday, but we celebrated during the week by going to the zoo and having a tea party at Grandma's. Then on the morning of her birthday, before she left for VBS, we did a donut cake and birthday gifts. She's so sweet and laid back.

Loves: baby dolls, Calico Critters, painting, drawing, singing

Lyla's Interview

What's your favorite food? Ice cream
What's your favorite thing to play with? Brain blocks and that ball and the dollhouse people and Calico Critters
What's your favorite movie or show? Peppa Pig and Frozen
What's your favorite song? All Around the World
What's your favorite book? Dinosaur books and elephant books and bird books
What's your favorite color? Purple, orange, red, and pink
What's your favorite Bible story? My favorite Bible story is Daniel and the lion's den
What do you like to do with Sophie? Play stuffed animals
What do you like to do with Brielle? Play house
What do you like to do with Violet? Play house and then sometimes Violet quits. I like playing dollhouse people and stuffed animals with Violet too.
What do you want to do when you get older? Be a firetruck person and a vet person and a carwasher person.
What's your favorite animal? Unicorns and alicorns and pegasus
Who are your best friends? Layla and Lexi and Sadie and Braxton
What makes you happy? What makes me happy is when I play outside in the snow and sled outside in the snow.
What makes you sad? What makes me sad is when Violet quit playing house.
What are you really good at? I'm really good at not falling off the sled when I'm sledding.

Sophie turns Eight

Sophie turned 8 back in March, and I never got a blog post up! Better late than never, eh'?

Sophie continues to be a great student! She loves being read to and she will literally sit and listen to any book. She is able to read herself as well but is still not a fast reader, and often the books and ideas she is really interested in are beyond her reading level. So we read together often. She has a huge imagination. Her personality is interested because on one end, she is very practical, has high expectations, and she loves to be studious and learn. On the other end of her personality, she is creative and imaginative and loves make believing. I love that she can embody both. She also continues to love animals and spends a lot of time outside with our animals.

This year for her birthday, she had her first sleepover. She is my social bug, and she loves being with friends her age. She planned most of her birthday party on her own, and it was so sweet to have her little girlfriends here.

Activities: Sophie joined dance this year and really loved it. She took piano lessons for half a year. She did AWANA at church, and she participated in Mini 4H again. We also did Natural History Club with our local Charlotte Mason homeschool group.

Likes: animals, dance, books, stuffed animals, unicorns, movies and shows, sewing and other handcrafts, being with friends her age

Sophie Sayings:
- Sophie got really into making jokes this year: "Brielle, where did the pencil go on vacation? Pennsylvania!" "Where did the apple go to eat dinner? Applebees!" "How did the dog hear the bus? Because it was busted"
Other things she said this year...
- "Mom, how come all the chickens try to put their sperm in the white hen?" 
- "I can't wait until fall. It's like a medium between summer and winter!"
- (While reading Swiss Family Robinson to  Sophie, the word "booty" was used as in "the booty arrived home safely") Sophie: There are a lot of different things booty can mean. It can mean like the little baby shoes, it can mean treasure, or I can mean this (points to bottom). Me: Yup, you're right. Sophie: I know in this case it can't be talking about this one (points to bottom) because that would be silly for the booty to arrive home without the rest of the body.
- "If you read about it, then you'll be interested in it, and if you're interested, then you'll want to go there, and if you want to go there, you'll have to find a way to go someday!"
- "Sometimes if I close my eyes, I can imagine being there like I'm really there! If you have a big imagination, you can do that."
- "One of my favorite things about having a birthday party inviting all my friends and then they get to know each other and play with one another!" 

Sophie's Interview:
What's your favorite food? Bananas
What's your favorite thing to play with? Animal Surprises
What's your favorite movie and show? The real Dumbo and My Little Pony
What's your favorite song? The Other Side (from The Greatest Showman)
What's your favorite book? All the books you've read to me... especially Swift Family Robinson
What's your favorite color? All light colors, especially light pink and blue
What's your favorite Bible story? Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego
What do you like to do with Brielle? Play with dollhouse people and stuffed animals
What do you like to do with Lyla? Play Slap Jack
What do you like to do with Violet? Tell her the Boogeyman's going to get her and chase her
What do you want to do when you get older? Be a vet... that's the same thing I'm going to say every year
What's your favorite animal? All animals, especially ponies
Who are your best friends? Calvin, Daisy, Khloe, Wes, Addison, Addie
What makes you happy? When Brielle plays with me
What makes you sad? When Brielle says she'll play with me and then doesn't 
What are you really good at? Climbing up things

Brielle turns SIX

Six years of life with this sweet girl. Six years is a "right of passage" in our house, as it's when we officially start lessons for school. While we did plenty of learning before, we now have officially started school lessons with Brielle! She loves math, fairy tales, poetry, and copywork.

Personality: Brielle is sweet and easy-going typically. She loves people, especially her family and babies. She likes being read to, and she likes sending silly messages on my phone to her Aunt Tiff. More than anything, she likes to do whatever makes other people happy. She likes to sit on laps or close to people. When she has her feelings hurt, though, she prefers to be all by herself. She can't read yet, but she can read a few words, she knows many other sounds, and she can write all of her sister's names. She can do addition and subtraction up to number 9.

On her birthday, she woke up to gifts.

Sophie bought her a pink fake make-up kit that she wanted, and she was so excited and surprised when she opened it! Sophie was equally pleased with her response. It was sweet.

We took her to the Magic Wand for her birthday lunch - her favorite place to eat :) 

She requested the same birthday experience as last year, where I drove her around to her aunts' and grandparents' houses and work places. We first drove to visit Aunt Brianna at her work place...

Then we headed to visit Aunt Brittany...

We visited Aunt Nikki and cousins at their house...

And then we stopped to see Grandma Walton and cousin Andrew...

Next was Aunt Kelly and cousins...

And our final stop was Grandpa and Grandma Miller's house....

Loves: People, snow, playing house, iPhones, books, chapstick, nail polish, riding bike, yogurt, bananas, ice cream

Dislikes: having her feelings hurt, salmon, saying good-byes, when people cry, when her sisters have bad breath or fart (haha!)

Brielle's Interview:
What's your favorite food? Bananas and chips (salt and vinegar and potato)
What's your favorite thing to play with? Didn't you mean your favorite sister? (long pause) Calico Critters
What's your favorite movie or show? Epic and The Greatest Showman
What's your favorite song? Nothing Can Separate Me
What's your favorite book? Little House on the Prairie
What's your favorite color? Blue
What's your favorite Bible story? John 3:16
What do you like to do with Sophie? Play house
What do you like to do with Lyla? Play house
What do you like to do with Violet? Saying "I'm going to get you!"
What do you want to do when you get older? Be a fire truck person and do it with Lyla
What's your favorite animal? A cat and dog
Who are your best friends? Tiff, Louna, Stella, Andrew, and Kaden
What makes you happy? Playing with Tiff
What makes you sad? When Lyla gets hurt
What are you really good at? Playing with people and being nice to them

Funny Things She's Said:
- "I love to clean up. My favorite part to live is to clean up."
- "That's pitch purple!" (referring to a cup that was dark purple)
- "You're funnier than a rotten egg!"

Violet Turns Two

Personality: Sweet Violet turned two last month. Spunky might be a better term to describe her than sweet. She loves to keep up with her sisters and is adventurous and fearless. I was amazed how easily she could climb different ladders up to playground equipment this summer. She didn't let anything stop her. She also loves jumping off couches and other rambunctious activities. She does a cute side skip when she walks places. She loves music, singing, and dancing. She is still fairly needy and wants to be held or near mommy a lot of times... but she is starting to go off and play with big sisters more often. She loves being silly and getting laughs from people, and she has picked up on our family's love of books and brings me books to read often!

Transitions: She changed from a crib to a toddler bed a month before turning two because she climbed out of her crib! She transitioned well for the most part. I am officially done with the crib stage. It's a bit weird, but I didn't mourn it. Violet also has been doing well with potty training. She's not completely trained. Since she turned two, she has been consistent with going on the potty- if she's not wearing any underwear. But as soon as I put underwear on her (or a diaper), she goes in them. Hopefully sometime soon she gets that part down!

Birthday: We had a small, laid back birthday for her. She opened a few gifts at home and had a small cake as well. Then we went to the local ice cream shop with grandparents.

Words: She talks a lot but only when she wants to. She talks clearer than my others as well. She says some small phrases, and she always says them deliberately and slowly which I love. She says, "I love you" and "I bite you" (when playing with sisters haha) and "Ride bike, mommy" and "Where did sissy's go?" and "Go outside, mommy" ... I love hearing all the words and phrases she has learned!

Likes: Music, blanky, jumping on the trampoline, baby dolls, being held, bike rides, snacks (pretzels, fig newtons, popcorn), swimming pool, outdoors, books
Dislikes: Being told no, not being held, not getting to do what big sisters do, sisters pulling on her, not getting to buckle herself