April update

April was a busy month.  Sophia and I went to visit Grandma Barb in Connecticut.  Grandma bought Sophia some cool gifts.  We went shopping and out to eat. 

We spent Easter with Auntie Linda and the girls.  Stephanie and Hollie set up a private Easter Egg hunt for Sophia.  Sophia gets spoiled when we visit Grandma and Auntie Linda.
 

Sophia entered her first science fair.  Her experiment was entitled "Which freezes faster, plain water, water with sugar, water with salt or water with sugar and salt?"  She loved making the board and checking on her experiment ...every ten minutes for three hours!


Katie, Steve and Sophia all had the same spring break.  They took a trip to the zoo and a nature center.  Katie also passed through on the way back from a band concert.  Sophia and Steve had lunch with her. 

Sophia was in her second hunter show.  This time she rode a school horse and did the lead line and off lead classes.  She placed third and had a great time.  We are careful to help her understand that the fun is in the experience, not just winning.

Sophia loves helping out around the house and helped with some yard work.

I typically take pictures in front of our blooming azalea bushes every May 1st.  That is also Sophia's half birthday.  Which such a mild winter the azalea bushes bloomed  early so these pictures were taken on April 19th.

March update

Another late update!  This month was an exciting one.  Sophia was in her first hunter show.  She rode Elliot and placed second in the lead line class (only two children were competing but we are proud of her nonetheless.)  This is a big deal for Sophia.  She is proud to be one of very few children involved in shows at this young age.

Sophia getting ready for the show.

 

Sophia also had another first this month.  She lost her first tooth.  It happened as she was eating a chicken nugget on the way to a Girl Scout event.

Sophia and Katlyn met at the mall for some lunch and shopping.  It is harder to get the girls together now that they are both in school.

Sophia taking care of her "babies." 

Sophia also went to her first baby shower.  Sophia has played with the niece of the expectant mother a couple of times before.  They both had a blast.  They helped pass things out and hand the gifts to Heather.

February update (a little late)

Where does the time go?  Do I start every post like this?  I should.  Time flies by.  Here it is May and I am writing about February.  I guess it is better late than never.  February was a pretty slow month.  Sophia continues to do well in school.  She says her favorite part of school is recess and lunch (like most kids do!)  She enjoys learning and is excited about her work.  The school is having a science fair in April and Sophia would like to participate.  We have been talking about what kind of experiment she will do.


Sophia went to a Father Daughter Dance in February.  This was a Daisy/Brownie activity  Both Dad and Sophia looked great and had a lot of fun.

Sophia had a blast raising money for Jump Rope for Heart which helps fund research for to prevent/cure heart disease in children.  Sophia made a short video to send out to family and friends.  She raised over $150.  She even donated some of her allowance to this.  She practiced her jump rope skills for weeks.  She loved participating in the activity.

During one of Sophia's horse back riding lessons we were approached by an owner of a four year old thoroughbred (a big horse.)  She would like to start showing her horse more and asked if Sophia would be interested in riding it in shows.  Evidently Sophia shows some natural ability and the owner of the horse spoke to her instructor who is willing to coach Sophia.  We will try it out this spring.  We bought the required outfit on consignment.  Sophia loves the horse back riding but is not thrilled about the outfit! 

January 2012 update

January was another fun filled month. We visited Grandma Barbara in Connecticut to celebrate Christmas with her, Auntie Linda and the girls. We had a blast. Anne's cousin Lisa came over for dinner too. It is so nice to spend time with family. I wish we lived closer. Grandma Barbara loves spoiling Sophia and spending time with us.





We celebrated Grandma's birthday again. Linda and George had done this the week before but Linda felt we should celebrate again seeing Sophia and I were there. More cake, more good wishes... how could it ever be too much?
Sophia is doing great in school. She is learning to read, sound out words and write. She is doing first grade math work. She comes home every day having learned something new.

Sophia made cupcakes AND cake for Baba's birthday. We used the Star War items he got from George and Tracy for Christmas to decorate the cake.

Nick and Katie came for a weekend visit. Sophia loves spending time with them.
Sophia continues her horseback riding lessons. She is a natural on the horse. She continues to amaze me.

Sophia has her first wiggly tooth. I don't do well with wiggly teeth... bad memories of my dad pulling out my teeth when I was young. I am trying to be brave and share Sophia's excitement about this milestone.

December update

December was a wonderful month. Christmas could not get here fast enough in Sophia's eyes. She enjoyed shopping for Christmas gifts. This year she bought gifts on her own at school. She picked out the perfect gifts for us, a candle for me, a book light for Steve, a cat calendar for Katie and presents for her cousins.

She visited Santa and trimmed the tree.

Sophia loved her toys at Christmas. Santa brought her a Cinderella horse and carriage and dinosaur train toys. She got a DS from us with games from Nick and Katie. We spent Christmas day with Grandma Beadle, Grandma Bev and Pop Pop.We then went to Williamsburg and spent some time with Uncle George, Aunt Tracey and the girls.It was a fantastic month.

Daisy Girl Scout

Sophia was very excited about joining Girl Scouts when she entered school. They have a Daisy troop for kindergarten girls. There was a troop meeting in the evenings but nights are still so hard in terms of Sophia being exhausted that we wanted her to join an after school troop. No one stepped up to lead it. Steve and I finally decided that we would do it together. We had our first meeting in October. We have had three meetings so far. We have eight girls in our troop.

They have begun earning their petals. They are learning what it means to be helpful and caring. They love the troop meetings and the activities that are done within our troop and with other troops in the council. It is so nice to see the girls learn how to become leaders in positive ways.

We have a troop mascot which will travel home with the girls in between meetings. The girls all can't wait to have their month with Daisy Bear.
Steve and I are glad to be leading the troop.

November update

We always start November off with a bang. Sophia turned six years old on November 1st. I can't believe how quickly she is growing. I think back to when we brought her home. She was just learning to crawl, saying a word or two and totally dependent on us. Now just over five years later she is independent, active, smart, caring and funny. She wakes up every morning signing. Her creativity blows me away. She is kindhearted and well-liked. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not thankful for being her mother.

We celebrated Sophia's birthday a few days early with her grandparents. She got a wonderful horse and doll which she now plays with all the time.
We kept the birthday morning tradition this year. We greeted Sophia with a balloon, a card, cupcake and her gift from China. This year she got a song book from China.
We asked her what she wanted for dinner to celebrate her birthday and she wanted to go to Bertucci's.

Sophia had her birthday party at Jump Zone. She had a blast. She got her first Barbie dolls and now loves playing with them. The Barbie dolls always spend time at the stable and hiking! She has very down to earth Barbies.


Sophia continues to play in her room at night before she goes to bed. Tonight she had a tea party and then fell asleep on the floor. Noelle attended the tea party and fell asleep right next to Sophia.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandma Beadle, Grandma Bev and PopPop. Sophia brought some of her school work to PopPop. Katie spent Thanksgiving with us. As I said before, we have a lot to be Thankful for.
We had an active Thanksgiving weekend. We went for a hike on Friday to work off all the delicious food we ate. We also went ice skating on Saturday. Katie only went once before but she did great. Sophia did a great job for her first time. Steve and I managed too even though it has been years since we have been in skates.

Sept/Oct update

The fall was very busy and lots of fun.

Sophia is really enjoying school. She is learning a lot and comes home talking about her friends and the thinks she is learning. She is still exhausted at the end of the day but she always wakes up singing.

We visited Grandma Barb in Sept. We always have fun when we visit. We had a yard sale and got rid of some of Grandma and Auntie Linda's stuff. It was fun. Sophia came home with a bunch of costume jewelry. How glamorous.
Katlyn and Sophia had a sleep over. The next day we went to the horse center and Sophia showed Katlyn around.
October was filled with all Fall activities. We went pumpkin picking, apple picking and through a corn maze.

The horse center had a Halloween Party and Sophia won a costume contest. Sophia was a horse, of course.
We had a blast trick or treating and at the school party.