5!

Erin is 5 years old!  She has had a fun birthday mini-season complete with lunch at a park in Asheboro last Saturday with my family, then a trip to the zoo after that.  We got Bojangles, Grandma A. made a yummy cake, and we opened presents and the kids played with giant bubbles and tennis.  It was cloudy out, but no rain, so we had a great time.  Thanks to everyone who came!

She had a fun day on her actual birthday, starting with a chocolate donut for breakfast, chocolate cupcakes at school, pizza dinner after gymnastics, and an ice cream cake for dessert!  She will finish up her birthday extravaganza this Saturday with a trip to Toys R Us to pick something out from Grandma and Grandpa F.  Thanks to everyone!

So, what's Erin up to these days?  I can't talk about her physically too much because she won't go for her 5-year checkup until December (her "main" doctor is very popular).  She continues to be tall and thin and eats like a horse.  She did have a little lag in appetite this spring/summer, but seems to have picked it back up.  We don't worry about Erin's diet too much either, since she has a (small) range of veggies and fruits that she will eat, as opposed to her sister.  She's even started to dabble in bread, but still doesn't love it.  I'm starting to experiment with lunch options for her to have at school next year that won't require heating, and we've got a few non-bread things that she likes.  Her sleep continues to drive us crazy - right now, she takes a couple of mineral supplements and melatonin that are supposed to help, but still has phases with night waking or waking up around 4:00-5:00am for the day.  We keep trying new things, and hopefully she will either outgrow this phase, learn to be QUIET when she wakes up, or we will find something that works!

This is her last year in pre-K, and next year will be the big kindergarten year!  So, her teacher this year (until she went out on maternity leave until January, unfortunately for us!) is working hard to get her introduced to the kindergarten classrooms and change her routine in pre-K to be more like kindergarten.  Erin has gone to visit several times already and does really well.  The kindergarten teacher said that her behavior is great, but her handwriting needs some improvement.  So, we are all working on that, and Erin is doing a great job!  She says every day that she wants to "go to kindergarten class and ride the school bus".

She is a reading machine - she doesn't look at books as much as she did for the first four years of her life, but she is definitely starting to read sight words and probably recognizes at least 100 words, if not more.  The trick is getting her to look at a new book to test her knowledge, versus "reading" words from a book that she's memorized.  In the past year, she has become SO MUCH more social and involved in what we are doing at home.  This is so big and important to us, and we are so excited about it.  We used to spend a lot of effort trying to get her to play with us or chase her around the house, but now she will join what we/Anna are doing and hang with us for awhile.  We definitely don't take things like this for granted any more, and we love it!

Right now, her favorite things to do are:  watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, play outside (swing with help, jump on the trampoline, go for walks, ride in the neighbors' Power Wheels), do art (painting, coloring, writing, cutting), go to the Y, any stores, parks, and "church school", and play "camp out" or "gymnastics" with Anna.  They have very recently started playing alone and Mommy is not allowed to play.  I can't decide if I am happy or sad about this (ok, mostly happy)!

So, that's Erin in a nutshell.  She is a happy, sweet girl and we love her so much.  We are so very proud of all that she has accomplished in her short life, and are excited about the future for her!

(Not as important, but I noticed that this is the 300th post on our blog. How appropriate, since it all started with news of baby Erin!)

September

Well, if I had more to write about and/or knew that anyone read this, I would write more often than once a month!  I am priding myself on keeping this thing alive for over 5 years, and maybe someday (if I can figure out how), we can save it as a really long essay of our life.  Any suggestions for blog topics?  Keep in mind that I don't know anything about current events or the "real world"!

Anyway - we had a great month!  The weather here was beautiful, finally cooling down, so we were all happy about that.  We really didn't travel anywhere, which was nice for a change.  We did hear of my cousin Brad and Tori's upcoming wedding in 2014, so we are looking forward to a trip to Indiana for that!

We had a neighborhood pool party on the 1st, complete with giant inflatable water slide that we had to pry Erin off of to eat and go home.  Anna had her educational debut on the 2nd at Sunrise UMC Preschool in Ms. Beth's class.  After 4 weeks, I can say that she is doing great there.  She was nervous the first couple of weeks, but evidently has opened up quite a bit.  The teachers report that she talks about Erin "a lot", and she has gotten stamps for good behavior each day so far.  I feel that this trend will be short-lived.  She is in a class with her buddy Caroline, and it has been great for them to have each other in their first class.  3 other neighbor friends and Caroline's brother Joshua are in different classes at the same time, so she sees them as well.  It's a great little preschool, and we are all enjoying her time there.



My Catholic moms group started back on the 6th, which I'd been missing over the summer, but I've had to miss the last 3 weeks due to events at Erin's school.  We met a couple of Erin's friends from school that afternoon at a park, then had a fun picnic with neighbor friends at Bass Lake and enjoyed a concert there.  Erin had her dance class on the 7th, and she was so happy for it to be back in session for the school year.  We will miss October's class - don't tell her!  Daddy went to California for work from the 8th-12th, and we had a fairly quiet week.  Erin's school had their Boosterthon Fun Run on the 13th, but we ladies sat most of it out.  Tom, Pam, and Jimmy were in town house-hunting, and we had them over for dinner on the 13th, which was lots of fun!  They found a beautiful house not far from here, and we are all excited to have them close by!

The 13th and 14th was birthday party weekend, with neighbor friend Alexia's on Saturday with a bounce house, crafts, Mexican food, and dress-up!  Ella's was Sunday, a frilly tea party that was a huge hit with the moms as much as the daughters.  It was a beautiful weekend, and perfect for parties!





We met Erin's class at Marbles on the 20th for a Family Partnership Day, and had a really great time.  There was a great turnout, which was so nice.  We had a great time at the Kids Together walk on the 21st with Aunt Maria, Cole, Mr. David, and Mrs. Liz.  The girls started Atrium classes at church on the 22nd, which they are getting used to and enjoying.  We girls all got our flu shots last week, which went very well for Erin (so brave), and not so well for Anna.

We finished up the month with a bang with a pizza party at Erin's class on the 27th, then the Hurricanes hockey game that evening, trip to Phillips Farm with Uncle Dale, Aunt Maria, and Cole on the 28th, and Mommy and Daddy's outing to the NCSU football game that afternoon with uncle/aunt/cousin time for the ladies.



Erin is on break until October 21st, and we are so happy to have her at home.  She's been sleeping late, relaxing, and taking advantage of her break!  We went to Monkey Joes on Monday morning and had a blast as the only ones there.

Happy October!  We are looking forward to a busier but fun month ahead!