Every morning, she sets up elaborate tea parties for herself and her sisters and Mommy.
Tea Parties with Bug
Apr 26th, 2016 by ECM
Grandma Comes to Visit!
Apr 24th, 2016 by ECM
We’ve had a fun few days with Grandma and will miss her tons when she leaves tomorrow…
Garden Birthday Cake for Our Outdoorsy Girl
Apr 21st, 2016 by ECM
We’ve been on the go for the past four days, out of the house almost all day. So we didn’t get around to having Susie’s birthday cake until tonight, with Grandma. At Q’s request, a garden cake, complete with dirt, grass, and worms!
Susie Q at 5!
Apr 19th, 2016 by ECM
Happy Birthday, Susanna! Our favorite five year old insists she is old enough now to drink without a sippy lid (yep, Mommy has an aversion to cleaning up spilled milk) and too old to suck her thumb. She is now practically grown up. Last week, we realized that Janie and Elizabeth like snuggling together, while Susie likes her space, so we swapped beds so that Susie has the top bunk to herself while the other two share the bottom bunk. Everyone is getting along better at nighttime. Susie still gets up first every morning and comes up to my room to snuggle with me. This morning, she did it with a huge grin on her face.
She still prefers to live in her tutu, or in swirly dresses if the tutu is unavailable. She likes ballet, but she wants to try soccer instead this fall, as long as Daddy is her coach. She looks to be the most tomboyish of the Muller girls, with more stamina on hikes than any of her siblings. Yesterday she begged to start Elizabeth’s phonics book and proudly insisted that she’s starting kindergarten now. (Since she’s been sitting in on the big kids’ lessons for years now, she already has most of the K and 1st grade poems memorized, so we’ll have to figure out some new things for her to learn.) While she generally follows along with whatever Elizabeth is doing, she often seems old for her age. She is always curious and usually quite emotional. I choose to be grateful that God saw fit to give me a classic strong-willed child. No succumbing to peer pressure for Q!
Opening presents tonight was so much fun. Susie was thrilled with all her gifts, as you can see from her facial expressions…
Killing Time at the Park
Apr 18th, 2016 by ECM
Tommy is in standardized testing this week all the way up in Ventura! So I grabbed the new camera and its manual and took the girls to the park while Tommy was introduced to the joys of Common Core implementation as practiced by small charter schools in California (thusfar it hasn’t affected our curriculum one bit, so I’m willing to let Tommy spend two days out of the year practicing standardized tests in exchange for the $4000 they give us for tennis and ballet classes, art class, printer, curriculum, art supplies, and the like).
I realized that I don’t take the little girls to the park very much at all! Tommy and I were at parks almost every day at Janie’s age. All the other moms there had a toddler and a big belly or a newborn in a carrier. But now that we spend our mornings doing school, we don’t get out much. The girls had a blast. No time to edit pictures–I’ve got to get ready for Susie’s birthday–so these are straight out of camera shots.
Ballet Practice at Home
Apr 13th, 2016 by ECM
Tommy’s 9 Year Stats and Janie’s 3 Year Stats
Apr 11th, 2016 by ECM
The most surprising take-away from Tommy’s check-up with Dr. Vallance was how little calcium he eats. He doesn’t drink milk, doesn’t really do cheese or any other form of dairy, and eats fewer fruits and veggies than his sisters. Dr. Vallance reminded him that the coming decade is full of lots of growing, so we took a look at calcium-rich foods and are charting his eating habits for a few days to try to get more calcium into him!
Height: 53.25 inches (58%)
Weight: 67 lbs (62%)
He’s a fine, healthy specimen!
Janie got a cheerful pep talk on using the potty (and came home telling everyone that Dr. Vallance wanted her to be a big girl), and I got reassurance that my second little peanut is just as healthy as my two average-sized kids.
Height: 37.5 inches (63%) (Susie was 37.25 inches, Elizabeth was 37 inches, Tommy was 38 3/4 in.)
Weight: 28 lbs (22%) (Susie was 27.4 lbs, Elizabeth was 33 lbs, Tommy was 38 lbs)
Singin’ In The Rain
Apr 8th, 2016 by ECM
On a rainy spring morning, of course the best thing to do is to put on tutus and jackets and go dance and sing in the rain.
Girls With Umbrella
Apr 7th, 2016 by ECM
This little umbrella is the girls’ FAVORITE toy to play with at James and Ellis’ house. Josh says he knows when the Muller girls have been over to play because of the toys that are out when he comes home. Last week, Sarah and the boys brought over the umbrella to play with at our house. There was much rejoicing. And yes, I haven’t just gone out and bought one myself because it never rains here, and if we had one (or three) at home, playing at the DenHartogs’ might lose some of its special appeal.
Girls With Light Sabers
Apr 6th, 2016 by ECM
Need I say more?
