Daddy Daughter Dance

Claire and Justin went to their second Daddy Daughter dance back in February.  Once again, they had so much fun.  Claire looked so beautiful.  We decided to get comfy shoes for dancing this year instead of being all fancy.  She got a lot of compliments!

Thankfully my sister in law was in town and was able to help with hair! She is much more creative than I will ever be :)
Justin looked handsome as well!

Her favorite part of the night was taking silly pictures in the photo booth and the ice cream sundaes!

My in-laws were in town so we let Max pick where he wanted to go for dinner.. and just like last year, he chose Chick -Fil -A!

Sixth birthday party!

This year we celebrated Max and Claire's sixth birthday party at Lifetime Fitness.  They had a few of their classmates and three friends from Greensboro come up.  I think this has been their best birthday party yet! Lifetime took care of every detail and all the kids behaved! Win/win for me!

We were in the gym and the kids had a bounce house, rock wall, balls and these wheelie things.  They had planned on organized games, but the kids were having so much fun doing everything else, we skipped them!

Six year old, Claire!

buddies!

The big guy, Max!

Punky watching the climbers!

Can't believe my babies are six! Crazy how the days are so hard and long, but the years are way too fast.

Claire is like me.... I get embarrassed when people sing "Happy Birthday"

Love!

Max and Claire ~ Six year old edition!

Whoever said the days are long but the years are short was spot on.  There are so many days I feel will never end, then I blink, and it's been a week, month, year, and my babies are now half way through Kindergarten.

Kate loves cuddling with Max!

Max, oh the buds!  He is our big guy!  He has a heart of gold, is sensitive, loves to play outside, especially riding his bike, short tempered, loves ipad/tv time and is doing good in Kindergarten.  I split Max and Claire up for Kindergarten.  I think Max has flourished.  He has found his voice and his own friends.  He seems to like math more than reading/writing (me too!).  We work on sight words and reading every day and he is getting much better.  I think we need to work on confidence.  He is often correct, but doesn't say out loud for fear of getting wrong.
He starts basketball tomorrow! We are so excited! He took a six week (once a week) golf lesson at school and loved that and has been to two BMX riding classes!

Max's six year old stats:
Height: 51.25" (off the chart by an inch!)
Weight: 60 lbs 95%
In clothes he wears a seven and I believe size 3 shoe!
He has lost SIX teeth!

My mini me!

Claire Bear, our little diva and mini me! This girl has personality!  She is the energizer bunny - goes, goes, goes.  She is a great big sister, LOVES art, people pleaser, loves to sing and dance, loves school.  Claire seems to like reading/writing better than math.  She has good handwriting and rocks her sight words! She can read most BOB books and we are working on level one books.  Since she is my mini me, we often but heads :)
Claire has been enjoying a hip hop class and has expressed interest in swim lessons.

Claire's six year stats:
Height: 47.75"  88% (big growth spurt!)
Weight: 50.2 lbs 76%
She mostly wears size small or a 6/7 and a size 1 shoe.
She has lost two teeth

We are having a small birthday party next weekend at our gym with rock wall climbing and relays/games.  Max asked for a transformer for his bday (got it!) and Claire wants her ears pierced! We have an appt on Feb. 7th!

I need to come back to add in their questionnaire like last year.

Oh, it's December!

Well November came and went pretty quick and now it's almost the end of December...end of 2016!  I'm telling ya... the days are so long but the years are so short!  We have been busy with school, trips back to Greensboro, Christmas parties, birthday parties and getting ready for Christmas!

Max and Claire are doing good in Kindergarten. They really like their school, friends and teachers. Claire is doing a great job learning her site words and learning to read.  Max is doing good with words, but prefers, and enjoys, math.  Claire has only come home with homework once.  Max gets a folder at the beginning of each week to work on at home.  It's usually math and he finishes it on Monday.  We practice our site words every night and read a book(s) and BOB books.

Kate is just as funny as ever.  She has quite the personality.  Her newest thing is having a tantrum about food....usually because a cereal bar comes out of it's wrapper or breaks :) or if I say "no" to having something she wants.  She usually cries for a minute or two then gets over it.  She can give a look and I have no idea where she learned that from ;)

#cerealbartears

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house.

Max, Claire and Kate went for a ride on the "Polar Express" and had a visit with Santa!

Our punky! Not quite sure about Santa! haha

Gary, our elf, came back!

 Went to a Christmas tree farm with Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt Darcy

Max and Claire went to their first roller skating party! I even took a few spins around the rink!

 Claire had her first birthday party slumber party! (with my nieces!) and had so much fun!

My best friend found out she was having a boy!

I love how her parents dressed for the party! (I've known them for 34 years!)

This was our Christmas card! Love them so much!

Can't believe it is almost 2017! I just know it's going to be a great year!

Kate ~ 18 Months

One and a Half. What the what?!! Our precious punker punker punker punk is growing up so fast.  She is so fun to be around and has the cutest personality.  She pretty much just goes with the flow.  She adores Max and Claire.  She likes to cuddle with Max and follow Claire around.

Her cheese face is awesome.  We ask her to say it 38284 times a day :)  Another favorite is how sweet she sounds saying "bye".  It is so cute and she throws up a wave with it.  I could seriously just stare at her all day.

She loves to dance, sing, and play at the big kids' art table.  She only likes pens - will throw a crayon if you give her one.... smh!  Bath time is also a favorite and play time with the fam before bed is always fun.  We always read 3-4 books before bed.  She loves books and definitely has her favorites that we re-read each night.

She stopped nursing completely somewhere mid 17 months.  She was only doing at night - and I cherish (miss) our time.
She eats like a champ.  Her MMO teachers have asked me to start bringing her more food.  She goes straight to the pantry when she wakes up.  Bars, pouches, eggs and recently started liking cereal for breakfast.  Lunch - yogurt, string cheese, bananas, blueberries, left overs, turkey and She eats what we have for dinner - pasta being a favorite!  She still doesn't like any type of milk.

Going through cabinets (especially ones she shouldn't be in) are her favorite!

Sleep - She is a pretty good sleeper.  We had a rough few weeks where she was waking 5-5:45 in the morning.  Hoping she is back to her 6:30/6:45.  If she wakes up before 6:30 she has a morning nap, if not, it's just one afternoon nap for about 2.5 hrs and goes to bed by 7:30.

Stats:
20.9 lbs 21%
30.25 in 8%
size 4 shoe
most clothes are 12 mo.

October

I figure I need to post about Halloween before it's Christmas! Not to mention... I think our computer is about to die :(

October flew by! We went to a pumpkin patch that had a corn maze, swings and lots of activities for kids, we had fun carving pumpkins and had even more fun trick or treating in our new neighborhood!

Kate started saying "cheese" for pictures! Seriously with this face :) LOVE

Daddy did a great job carving!

The kids got messy!

Finished pumpkins withs sweet neighbor

Doughnut, Cookie and something from Halo are ready to hit the streets!

My favorite cookie isn't so sure about her costume!

Those eyes :)

Fredrick Five!

Counting their treats!

Hoping to post an update about Kindergarten and Kate's 18 month appointment!