Sunday, January 22, 2017

Caroline turns 6 a month later than usual

Before December even rolled around, I saw our calendar was BOOKED. We had the annual ward Christmas party (of which I was on the food committee), a Young Woman's Christmas party, a birthday party for a friend, a baby shower, and a whole heap of other things I can't even remember right now... but I apologized to Caroline and told her we would not be having a friend-filled birthday party any time that month. We would try again in January.

Weeks flew by and pretty soon it was time to make good on my promise! She invited friends from school and from church and we kept it pretty low-key - had kids come dressed in costume (just for fun, I didn't actually do anything related to their dress-up), played games, ate a corn dog lunch, and decorated cooking in lieu of ice cream and cake. The kids all had a good time, and by the end of 2 hours we weren't even dying from kids/sugar/hyper overload! It was helpful that I decorated a few days before, and made cookies in advance, so that day we were purely enjoying ourselves instead of time-manageing the crunch.

Caroline is still my big sweetie with a tender heart. She constantly helps me, and asks me not to do things (like cook, or screen print) until she's available to help right along. She is good buddies with Ethan (they share a room), so she also helps him get dressed, make his bed, find his stuffed animals or cars, etc. They often take baths together in our massive soaking tub, and they especially like to do that when I let them wear swimsuits. For Christmas she asked for a little sister. For her birthday I got her a bunch of hair accessories because he hair is constantly in her face, and we have been trying to be more put-together for school (and being in public in general). She wants to grow her hair out, so she has been good about brushing it herself (when I ask) and not whining about it, and she also lets me do braids and interesting styles, so some accessories were in order. She has her own style, and I generally let her wear whatever she wants, which is often a bit ridiculous. She prefers leopard print to any other style, and fuzzy (like velour) to any other feel, so her outfits usually incorporate one of those elements, and often both. Her very favorite outfit it is her pink leopard dress over her tan leopard jeggings and her black leopard shoes. It is atrocious and hilarious! She writes notes to people she loves, including friends and teachers; her kindergarten spelling melts my heart every time, and her brothers take it upon themselves to correct her every time. She is the fittest of the kids and can run circles around all her brothers, and probably Joe and I as well - that girl is the Energizer Bunny of running!. We're currently reading "The Tail of Emily Windsnap," which she loves because she wants to be a mermaid (and is hoping for a beautiful mermaid tail to wear swimming this summer).

None of these are big or important or unique, but together they create a picture of our Caro-lee-aroline. I find that my memory stinks even worse than I thought it did, so I imagine I'll enjoy reading this is a few years and not remembering any of it ;)

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