The whirlwind birthday weekend continues! Cal's birthday was on Sunday, June 9th, but we opted to give her her first gift on Saturday morning, and this is why: it's a new (pink and purple and white!) bike, which we were planning to send home in my dad's truck after our birthday bowling shindig so he could bring it to South Dakota the next week on our family reunion campout there. We wanted her to have a chance to ride it and love it before it got shipped away, but we also wanted it to make the trip to the campground instead of sending her old one. So Saturday morning before breakfast we had her close her eyes and Gregg wheeled the new bike to the front room (it had been stored in our bathroom for the night, where he had done some final tweaking after assembly the evening before). She didn't even believe it was really real at first - she was so shocked she didn't know what to say! But then she was all grins. The best part (besides the fact that it's pink and white and purple)? It has a kickstand!!
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| Sam had a little moment of sadness when he decided he didn't want to ride a pink bike anymore. (He got over it and still rides Cal's old little bike like a maniac every chance he gets.) |
Later on Saturday morning we decorated Cal's cake together. This was a first - usually I send everyone away while I'm in frosting and decorating mode, but it was fun to have her help bring her vision (and my interpretation of her description) to life. Sam got to help too, and everyone ate plenty of candy in the process!
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| Sam helped me find the "naturey candy" at the Winco bulk bins - and he was the one who spotted the gummy butterflies which weren't even on my radar to look for. They worked perfectly! |
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| Tryin' out the new wheels! |
On Sunday morning, as breakfast (birthday girl request: "that stuff that comes in a red can with little potatoes" aka corned beef hash!) was just being finished and served, Cal couldn't wait any longer to open her last few presents. Then Dad had to be off to an early morning meeting and the rest of us got ready for church. Callie looked so cute in her new birthday dress from Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard! And she was so excited to be sung to in primary and get to pick a pink slap bracelet from the birthday box.
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| Soccer socks (for soccer camp next week)! |
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| Books (for the voracious bookworm)! |
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| Wipes?! |
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| Nope! A soccer ball (also for soccer camp)! |
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| Birthday girl in her birthday dress with her birthday owl by her birthday poster (which, I must say, I'm quite proud of that unicorn art that I managed!). |
After church we had a little lunch of leftovers and while Sam took a nap, Callie got busy arting with her new supplies from Grandma and Grandpa Elwood. Later we had dinner (chicken enchiladas, corn on the cob and cherries, also per Cal's specific request) and leftover birthday cake.
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| Intently following the directions in the book. |
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| Ta-da! A fingerprint cupcake! |
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| A better six-year-old I couldn't have wished for! |
bonus video!
And because I love to look back on how she's changed each year (or so), here are a few things about her as she moved through age five and is now embarking on age six:
- loves learning new things: "mom, we need to get some books about bones. I want to learn more about bones" (after seeing a pile of vertebrae and hip bones at the cabin in Island Park last summer); picked out a book called Compost Critters from the nonfiction section of the library and totally loved learning about all the bugs and creatures than live in a compost heap
- has a growing vocabulary, thanks to all her reading - latest favorite word seems to be "tremendous"
- is always humming or singing to herself while she does art or other things
- obsessed with art, but also loves science (be still my heart!), construction (blame daddy and the cabin building youtube channel and teardrop project for that one) and monkey bars (she is developing quite the callouses on her hands because she's constantly doing them at the park until she can't hold on anymore)
- started and completed kindergarten and loved it (most of the time) - her teacher said she has come a long way in being able to go with the flow of the class and participating in things that seemed a bit scary/intimidating to her before; as far as academics go, she was at the top of her class in reading (she tested at a 6th-7th grade level!!!!) and way ahead of her "goals" for all other criteria, and her handwriting has improved immensely!
- figured out how to blow her nose (sort of) but usually refuses to try when I suggest it might help the sniffing problem (stubborn)
- is starting her own blog about summer
- likes a clean room but doesn't like to get it or keep it that way
- has become a super skier, going off the big lift now with Dad
- loves to play games and is able to beat us at anything: Dos, Uno, Racko, Mancala, Qwixx, No Match, Set
- getting better at remembering words to primary and other songs, and the tunes are coming along, too
- loves to read nutrition labels and report the calories and "how many sugars" there are in everything
- learned to draw stars and tie her shoes in the same week
- had her first ever cavities filled (the dentist and assistant said she was the easiest kid ever to work with, she was so brave and so chill!)
- loves to go bowling (and is always trying to get a strike)
- hard to keep her in books - she reads an entire chapter book in an hour or less and doesn't like to read aloud to me much anymore because "it's faster to read to myself in my head"
- tried soccer camp and loved it!
Watch Callie grow: 5 years | 4 years | 3 years | 2.5 years | 18 months | 12 months | 11 months |
10 months | 9 months | 8 months | 7 months | 6 months | 5 months | 4 months |
3 months | 2 months | birth
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