Our favorite Valentine turns SIX!

Hannah 

Sweet. Caring. Thoughtful. Generous. Artistic. Creative. Smart. Loving. 

She is a dress-and-leggings lover, excellent reader, sloppy writer, messy-room haver, bead maker, card crafter, cook, and great friend.

Love her so much. Happy SIX birthday!

 

Hannah: Party Time!

The following Saturday after Hannah's birthday we had the family down for her party!

 On the lunch menu:

curried chicken salad, Paula Deen's corn salad, olives, chips, and fruit kabobs.  

Each of those recipes are absolutely FANTASTIC and have received many compliments!!!  Highly recommend!

 

Present time: she mostly received art supplies, frilly clothes, or books. Perfect for our Hannah.

And what's a party without a CAKE?!

(red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting)

 Happy 5th birthday, Sweeter Sweets! Love you bunches!!

Hannah's Bday/Vday

I'm way way behind in the blogging business. Ya see, I used to blog while watching a movie or something. But now we stream shows via Amazon or something, and I can't upload blog pics at the same time without causing the streaming to lag. First world problems. =)

Sooo... back to Hannah's birthday which was 3 full months ago!

New tradition I made up: Birthday girl got the jackpot aka all the change from my wallet. (I needed to clean out anyway, it was getting heavy)

 We did some baking since it's one of her favorite activities.

This is us. If you couldn't tell.

Daddy brought her flowers. Hopefully the start of another new tradition.

We had a nice candlelit meal as a family for Valentine's Day.

And ended the meal with sherbet punch in fancy glasses.

And ended the day with sweet surprises from Mama. Thanks to Pinterest, I made homemade scratch cards. Their gifts were things like getting to play a game with me, or staying up extra minutes, or getting a piece of chocolate.

Fun day. =)

Hannah is FIVE!! {Feb. 14}

Five.  It just seems so OFFICIAL.  Phasing out of my at-home preschooler to a grown-up SCHOOL-AGE kid.  She is growing and learning and changing and blossoming. She is ready.  Hannah has a fantastic personality.  She is easy-going, content, sweet, caring, and generous. If you come over to visit, she'll probably send you home with one of her toys or something she made.  She's super into jewelry-making and is constantly making beaded necklaces and bracelets.  She is a fantastic helper around the house but most especially loves to cook and bake with me.  She knows her numbers, letters, letter sounds, many math facts, and can read lots of basic words.   She learns quickly and is picking up a lot of things that Eli's practicing at school. And somehow she knows North-South-East-West like nobody's business! She is social and friendly, active and energetic, yet also loves to sit and look thru books or color and write. She's a free spirit and artistic, so she's the child who has the very MESSIEST room in the house, cluttered with jewelry scraps, notes, clothes, doll house pieces, or Barbie clothes.  She loves skirts and frilly dresses, even on the coldest of snow days. Yet she's going to play spring soccer for the first time with Eli.  So proud of our sweet girl. We love her to pieces!

School time!

School started here in the middle of August.  Eli is in First Grade and he really likes his teacher and the schoolwork! He's doing very well!  Homework started this year and I appreciate that our school really promotes parent involvement. They view school as a partnership, and I like that.

And Hannah has started her second year of preschool, 3 mornings a week.

Praying our children grow in amazing ways this year and that they shine the light of Jesus in all that they do!

Hannah's FOUR!!

Wow, life this year has been exciting and fun, and when it's not it's nice that it's not. To have time to relax and just be. Watch a movie or sleep in. I'm so behind in saying that Hannah's now 4!!!  We had a joint birthday party the week BEFORE Hannah's birthday (pics will HOPEFULLY come from that, but I just can't make any promises).  But first, here is my sweet girl.  Love her so much.

Hannah....

* loves dresses and all things pretty
* favorite colors are pink and purple. but she does wear a little of everything
* is getting fantastic at writing her name now on her own, and knows SOME of the letters and most of the numbers and can even write those by herself as well
* is social and gets along well with anyone
* is a great student at her preschool
* loves playing outside and riding her bike, playing pretend, looking at books, or coloring
* is always playing with Eli whenever he's home. Although they often spend the days squabbling, I would still consider them best friends
* has the sweetest, most content personality. We are so blessed to have her in our family!!