Olivia at 7!

Olivia is officially 7 years old! She is 62 lbs and is XX tall already! Although she's the youngest student in her class, she is just as tall and big as the rest of the kids in her grade. She actually wears size 8 clothes, although still fits into size 6-7 too. She seems to have had a big growth spurt in the past few months. Just like her big sister, she loves wearing scooter skirts (skirts with built in shorts) and tops and rarely wears anything else. She loves to wear her hair in a ponytail and rarely wears it any other way, although I can convince her to wear a braid on occasion. She also loves shoes! I think she actually has more pairs of shoes than I do! She has several pair that Sofia wore and were still in good shape, as well as many pairs of new shoes. She loves to wear a pair of blue Crocs sandals that Sofia's friend Liam's younger sister outgrew. Mikaela gave Olivia two pair of shoes in May and she's worn the blue Crocs nearly every day since then! They fit her perfectly and we actually tried to buy a new pair before school started, since I know she will outgrow them soon, but apparently they aren't made anymore. But, she is certainly enjoying them while they still fit. She has a cute sparkly pair of low heels, which she really loves to wear, although I think they aren't very comfortable. She also has a few pair of sandals and loves to decide which pair of shoes to wear!

Olivia enjoys reading, although not nearly as much as her sister did at her age and continues to enjoy. She didn't really take to the Magic Tree House series, like I thought she would. She does enjoy graphic novels and always picks out interesting books from the library. She still loves reading or being read to at night before bed. She usually prefers to read to me or her Papa, but if she's really tired she'll ask if she can be read to instead. She was diagnosed with exophoria just before school started this year. We'd noticed that during conservations at the dinner table one of her eyes would wander while she would tell a story. I took her to the ophthalmologist who diagnosed exophoria, which just means that her eye has a tendency to deviate outward when it gets lazy. We only really see it when she's tired and our ophthalmologist said it really wasn't something to worry about. She will likely outgrow it. Plus, reading really helps her eyes to focus and should help her situation.

Olivia is our social butterfly and loves having play dates with her friends. She has a weekly play date with her best friend Hannah on Thursday afternoons. Now, that has included their friend Cora. Cora is one of the sweetest girls she knows and I love when they play and hang out together. Olivia also enjoys having her friend Riley over and sometimes Poppy and Hana B. She enjoys playing with Antonio from time to time, and they really play very well together. He still comes to our house on Tuesday afternoons for piano lessons and the kids end up playing together after. They really do have a great time together, and get along well! She absolutely loves playing with her sister and looks forward to getting home so they can be together. Of course, they have their disagreements but ultimately they are great friends and get along well together.

As far as her favorite things, they are:

Olivia's favorite breakfast: pancakes, cheese omelette
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich and pizza
Dinner: spaghetti casserole
Snack: Peanut butter and banana on graham crackers or Lebanon bologna and cheese
Vegetables: cucumbers, bell peppers, oranges and watermelon

Olivia's favorite color: blue
She wants to be: NASA rocket designer or a veterinarian
Her favorite book: Magic Tree House or Eerie Elementary Series
Her favorite Movie: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Olivia doesn't really know what she wants to be when she grows up, although I suspect that in a few weeks she'll want to be a teacher. Once she's in school, so loves her teacher so much that she will want to be a teacher. She has said she wants to be a veterinarian or a dog trainer, but I don't think she really has any clue. She enjoys school and it will be interesting to see how she does in her subjects. So far she seems to enjoy it all, but especially likes recess! She loves to play with her friends!

Olivia enjoys helping and actually enjoys doing chores! She actually loves washing windows and doing dishes and will often just climb onto the step stool and do all the dishes in the sink, or grab Windex and start cleaning! She always willing to help out around the house and always lends a hand when asked. Unlike her older sister, she loves to have pedicures, play with make-up and play dress-up with her friends. She loves to play with horses and toys. She still sucks her thumb and sleeps with her giraffe, named Giraffey, every night! We are trying to get her to slow down with her thumb or stop, but so far she hasn't budged!

This summer she ran around with her summer "crew" which included Antonio, Natalia, Olivia and occasionally Brandon. The kids spent their afternoons scootering around the neighborhood, swimming at one of the houses, drinking countless Gatorades and juice boxes at my house, playing and occasionally watching a movie when it got to be too hot. They had a great time together and played very well. One night the girls begged to have Natalia spend the night, so we picked a night and they built a fort over Sofia's bed and had their sleepover. However, they also stayed up until 4am!! Poor Natalia had gymnastics for 3 hours the next day, so I know she was beyond tired. I know they had fun, but they also didn't get the idea for another sleepover!

Olivia enjoys playing soccer with her Rockets friends and is fast and aggressive on the field. The girls get along fun and it's a fun group to have outside of school. Although she doesn't always want to go to soccer practice on Tuesdays from 6-7pm, once she's there she works hard, listens well to her Coach, and is a pretty good soccer player! Sometimes in games she loses her aggressiveness, but scores goals fairly regularly and is super fast and loves running down balls from her opponents. I'm really wanting her to play tennis, but want to wait until it cools off a bit. She still enjoys piano and is quite good at it. She is diligent at practicing every day and it's great that she has that skill and likes it.

Olivia is our fun-loving girl who is a little bit shy but very friendly and comfortable around people once she knows them. She's silly and loves to be around friends or family. She loves being creative, playing and making up stories, but prefers to have someone to do it with. She doesn't crave having time to herself, like her sister. We can't wait to see what her passions become and what she really enjoys doing.

Our big 7 year old!

Sweet girl!

Olivia with Sofia, her sweet former Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Schultz and her friends, Cora and Ciaran, visiting from Pittsburg over the summer

Olivia and Cora with Mrs. Schultz

Olivia and her best friend, Hannah

Snoozing with her Giraffey and her thumb!

The fort Sofia and Olivia built in Sofia's room and where they both slept every night all summer

Olivia practicing her piano

Hanging out with Olivia at the pool

Meeting her 1st grade teacher, Ms. Feaster, and some of her classmates over the summer for frozen yogurt

Olivia holding a toad with her friend Cora and Cora's little sister! I love this picture!

A Giraffey twin!!

Lunch at one of their very favorite places, The Rain Forest Cafe

Summer in the pool with a popsicle and her friend, Poppy

Just doing a few dishes!

My sweet girls!

On the boat

Taking a little nap. The girl loves her sleep!

Pedicure time with her best friend, Hannah

Sleepover with Hannah

Hannah and Olivia at LifeSong

The Summer Crew! Brandon, Antonio, Natalia, Sofia and Olivia

With her soccer coach, Coach Matt, and trophy

A real pedicure with her sister and me!

First Day of School!

The first day of school for the girls is finally here. I must say I think we've all been in denial that summer is ending, since it's been such a relaxing and lazy summer. Getting back to early mornings, having to be somewhere on time and have the day go by so quickly, just seems overwhelming. The girls went to bed and were not super excited to wake up early. Sofia has been sleeping about 14-16 hours a day in the past week! In fact, I started to get concerned but then wondered if maybe it's just nerves and uncertainty about middle school and starting 6th grade. On Sunday night, after napping a few hours that afternoon, Sofia actually fell asleep in the living room around 8pm! I tucked Olivia into bed and she was sleepy too, so thankfully neither one of them wanted to stay up half the night. When I left Olivia's room, CK told me he sent Sofia up to her bed. When I tucked her in and told her to sleep well, she was so sleepy and tired that she barely responded!

The next morning, it was hard to convince either girl it was time to wake up at 6:30am! Sofia came down the stairs confident an ready for her new adventure in 6th grade! It was amazing! She was so nervous and somehow she had a complete change of heart over night! Olivia came out of her room still pretty sleepy! I think she isn't overly excited to start getting up early, but I also think she's excited to get back to her friends and learning. We'll see how it all shakes out in the coming weeks.

The girls both had a good breakfast. Olivia had orange juice and toast and Sofia had eggs, toast and chocolate milk. Olivia has never been a huge breakfast eater, but I try to get something in her tummy. She does love her orange juice every morning! Sofia, on the other hand, is much like me and really loves her breakfast in the morning. She prefers chocolate milk in the morning.

After breakfast, the girls grabbed their "back to school" boards and we went out front for a few photos before it was time to get on our way to school. Sofia still wants to be an astronaut when she grows up and her favorite things are to read, play soccer, to swim, scooter, and to play MineCraft. Of course, she still loves dragons and she loves going to the lake! Olivia wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, although she agonized over that for weeks! She really has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up and I assume she will want to be a teacher after a few weeks into the school year. Olivia also loves, scootering, swimming, playing, and pretending she's either a dragon or a unicorn. She loves going to the lake.


We all went together to drive Olivia to CES and ended up parking in the church parking lot and walked to the long line of parents and kids waiting for the doors to open at 7:35am for the 7:40am start of school. It seems like the school could actually open 15 minutes early on the first day of school. Also, it started raining lightly so everyone had to stand in the rain and wait. There was a rainbow, which was really cool and hopefully it is a sign of a great year ahead. We got inside school and situated Olivia in Mrs. Edelmon's 2nd grade class. We were actually there a minute late, so we didn't linger. I took a quick photo of Olivia with her new teacher and gave Olivia a hug and left. I can't believe we have a 2nd grader!

After saying goodbye to Olivia, we drove over to CTMS to drop Sofia off. Of course, there were a million cars and it was pretty crazy. As we finally made it onto campus, I asked Sofia if she wanted us to park at the SAC so she could walk in or drop her off at C Hall. She asked for C Hall and jumped out of the car once we arrived! I couldn't believe it! She was totally ready to start 6th grade! We are so happy she's excited and not nervous about starting 6th grade, even though it feels like a totally different world than elementary!

That afternoon, when I picked the girls up from school, they both had had good days and were both looking forward to the coming year. They were also very tired and Olivia actually snuck away after practicing her piano to take a nap! It might be a tired week or two, but we'll soon be back in the swing of things! So excited for this school year.

Two girls are ready for their first day of school!

Sofia's 6th grade board!

Olivia's 2nd grade board!

Olivia and her board!

Happy girl!

The girls and me!

The three of us.

The girls together.

Sofia and her board.

Sofia is ready for 6th grade!

Olivia and her friends! So happy to be back together!

Olivia and her teacher, Mrs. Edelmon!

And she's off....Sofia walking into middle school for her first day of school!

Happy Birthday Party, Olivia!

Today we hosted Olivia's 7th birthday party at our house! Although her birthday isn't for another 8 days, we figured it would be fun to have an end of summer/7th birthday party. Plus, we wouldn't be able to host her birthday party for several weeks, and thought it might be fun to host it a little early. A few weeks ago, I asked Olivia who she'd like to invite and she listed out her soccer team girls and several of her school friends. The school friend group included Hannah, Riley, Antonio, Cora, Hana B, Rylee, Salvek, Scott, and Poppy. Her soccer friends who came were Margo, Brinley, and Emma, and Addison, who Olivia played soccer with a few years ago. Originally, Olivia wanted a 'dragon-themed' party but after talking to her about other options she remembered that last year she decided that she would have a 'giraffe-themed' party for her 7th birthday party. So, I looked into giraffe-themed birthday party stuff and found that aside from baby showers and 1st birthdays, there isn't a lot of giraffe-themed items. I did find enough stuff that would work and set off in party planning mode.

The party was set for 4-6pm on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to have Chik Fil A nuggets and strips, ham and cheese sliders, pretzels, bell peppers, cucumbers and carrots. Olivia wanted a cake similar to last year, choocolate/chocolate on the bottom layer and vanilla/vanilla on the top. She also specifically requested I make it from scratch. I'd found really cute birthday hats that I could add to the heads of the plastic giraffes, lions, hippo, etc. We decided to add a few to the top of the cake for decoration. I made the cake earlier in the week, froze each layer and then defrosted and frosted them on Saturday night.

On Sunday we went to Meeting, went to brunch at Black Walnut and then headed home. Olivia was actually invited to go get a mani/pedi with her friend Poppy, which was pretty cool. In the last few minutes, Olivia actually got really nervous and shy and didn't want to go with Poppy. It felt really bad and had to really convince her to go. I think she was just really tired and wanted to relax, but knew she would really enjoy it once she went. While she was gone, Sofia took a nap and I got the house ready and decorated. CK picked up the giraffe thumb print cookies, balloons and ice. Once he got home, we put the waters and juice boxes on ice in the metal containers.

Olivia returned home and Poppy stayed and played until all of their class friends showed up to swim and play. Her friends showed up right at 4pm and even Stacy, who is always right on time, wondered if she was late to the party since there were already so many kids ten minutes into the start time! It was hot but perfect for swimming, so the kids all had a great time using the slide and swimming. I'd hired Hailey, our 16-year old neighbor and babysitter to come to the party and act as a lifeguard. I knew everyone could swim well, but I also wanted a set of eyes totally focused on the group of swimming kids. A few of the girls decided to find snails and build a snail holding area. So they spent their time collecting rocks and building a cage and then collected snails to put into the cage. It was adorable and they took it so seriously!

At 5:30pm, I called all the kids in for lunch and after they had eaten, we sang Happy Birthday to Olivia and passed out cake and ice cream. It was delicious and there really is nothing as good as a homemade cake! So glad Olivia agrees with me and always wants a homemade cake for her birthday. After cake was over, some kids went back to the pool for a bit while others said their goodbyes and headed home. I made sure each of them took an animal cracker box for a party favor and had Olivia thank them for coming. At some point, Olivia headed outside and ended up opening many of her birthday presents, which were all stacked on the outside table. I couldn't believe that she ripped them open without even keeping track of who gave her each gift! I was able to piece together most of them after her friends went home, but I know several of her thank you notes will say "thank you for your gift" since I don't really know for sure some of the gifts are from the right friends. It was such a fun party!

After all of her friends had gone home, Olivia asked where our gift was for her! She actually told me she'd seen it in our closet a few weeks ago! Little scamp! I brought it out in a bag and she opened it! It was a hatchimal! She had asked for one months ago and was so excited when she actually opened it. Can't believe we'll have a 7 year old soon! Wow!

The forks and spoons and our party animals

Olivia's birthday cake!

The cake top detail.

Party animals!

The party favors

Olivia and the party favors

Olivia ready to welcome her friends!

Some of the food.

Family picture with our birthday girl!

Swimming

Girls making the snail container and collecting snails

Swimming fun photos!

Singing Happy Birthday and cutting the cake

Enjoying her birthday cake with her friends!

Two of Olivia's closest friends: Cora and Riley A.

Opening presents!

Olivia and her hatchimals