Adley's Birthday Interviews

 I almost entirely forgot about doing these interviews this year! Several weeks after her birthday, Adley asked me, "Aren't we going to do those videos where you ask me questions?" Good thing my 6-year-old is on top of things! Thankfully because of her good memory, our tradition continues. Here are Adley's thoughts and feelings about life at 6 years old.

How old are you? 6

Who are your best friends? Olivia, Parker, and Eva

What is your favorite thing to do? play with toys

What is your favorite color? pink

What is your favorite food? mac n' cheese

What is your least favorite food? chicken pot pie

What is something you like to do with your family? play family games

What is your favorite toy? my stuffed animals

What do you want to be when you grow up? a singer

What makes you happy? having Mommy and Daddy around the house 

What makes you sad? not having Mommy and Daddy around the house

What is your favorite book? How to Catch a Mermaid

What is your favorite show? Super Kitties

What is your favorite movie? Encanto

Where do you like to go? shopping with Mommy

What is your favorite treat? ganache cake

What is your favorite animal? koalas

What is your favorite song? Jesus Loves Me

What is your favorite thing to wear? dresses

What is something you're afraid of? bears

What is something you're really good at? playing games

What is something you're not very good at? painting

If you could change your name, what would you choose? Emma

What is your favorite restaurant? Panda Express

What do you like to do with Mom? go shopping

What do you like to do with Dad? play games

What is something you like doing with your friends? playing at recess

What is your favorite game? Five Crowns

What do you love about Jesus? that he died and rose

What would you buy if you had $1000? a ton of games

March Misc

 Adley's Birthday

Adley's actual 6th birthday was a school day, so it was a full day for her. She got ready with enough time to open some presents in the morning. Our big present for her was a new bike (her first non hand-me-down outdoor toy!). She also opened a few gifts from out-of-town friends and family.

Jason and I were both able to join Adley for lunch at school. Adley passed out mallow bars to her classmates, and then the substitute teacher led the class in singing Happy Birthday.

We brought in a lunch from Chick-fil-A for Adley and ate with her at her classroom's back table. So special to spend this time with our birthday girl!

That evening was a busy one for our family. Jason had an evening meeting, and both Cody and Adley had separate sports practices to get to. I enlisted Grammy and Papa's help with the transportation, and they went above and beyond. Not only did Papa get Cody from track while I was at Adley's soccer practice, but they both prepared an entire dinner for our family. What a huge help!! Adley enjoyed seeing Grammy and Papa on her birthday and especially liked the tasty frosted brownies Grammy made. Yum!

On the weekend after Adley's birthday, we hosted a family gathering to celebrate all the March birthday honorees in the family-- Adley, Grandpa, Isaiah, and Micah. We always enjoy an excuse to gather with extended family!

Adley's Birthday Gifts

For her birthday present to Adley, our friend Andrea took Adley to Build-a-Bear workshop. Adley had only been once before several years ago, so she didn't remember much about the experience. Adley loved it! She spent careful time picking out just the right animal and landed on a pastel-colored bunny that she named Emma.

Adley used some of her birthday money to buy a dress for her bunny too. What a special gift!

Also for her birthday, Adley received a beginners' sewing kit from Uncle Andy and Aunt Beth. Adley is not quite done doing all the projects yet, but she has loved the experience. She can do many of the steps independently. Here are her first two projects-- a keychain and an ornament.

Building Workshop

This month's building project at Lowe's was cardinal lawn ornament. Check out the video to see how this fun project can move! 

PSIA

Both Cody and Jaden participated in the Private Schools' Interscholastic Association (PSIA) competition this month. These two boys had stayed after school every week since mid-January to study for their events. Both boys competed in three events at the district meet. They worked so hard, had some tough competition and ended up doing very well. We were so proud of them! Jaden didn't want his photo taken, but he placed 5th in writing, 4th in spelling, and 8th in information skills (which was actually a combined 5th/6th event). Cody tied for 6th in spelling, placed 3rd in maps/graphs/charts, and got a 1st place ribbon in listening skills which made him a state qualifier!

All of Salem's state qualifiers were recognized at the next school chapel. Cody is thrilled for the chance to compete again at State in Fort Worth next month. This photo was taken during Lutheran School's Week, so the kids were all dressed up for Decades Day.

Park Playtime

During spring break, our family didn't travel anywhere but spent a relaxing week chilling at home, hanging out with friends, and visiting a few places around town. One of the places we went to was Burroughs Park to enjoy biking, scootering, and swinging in the gorgeous spring weather!

Another day, we invited a couple school friends-- Kody and Kannon-- to join us at Altitude trampoline park. After jumping together, these boys came to our house for lunch and some more playtime. We even visited our neighborhood playground for a bit that afternoon.

Roller Skating

At the end of the month, Adley attended a birthday party for a friend at a roller skating rink. Using the "Skate Mate" helped Adley feel really confident, and she even proudly showed Jason how she could briefly skate with her hands off the Skate Mate. She had a great time and has already been asking when our family can go roller skating again.

Innovation Lab

We love our school's emphasis on STEM projects and hands-on group problem solving. This year's addition of a school innovation lab has been a highlight for all three of our kids. Cody and Jaden's classes recently completed construction of a roller coaster. Their innovation lab teacher sent us these photos, and the boys enjoyed explaining the details of their coasters. And yes, the boys do have green hair in these photos. It was another Lutheran Schools' Week dress-up day-- Extreme Blue and Green Spirit Day.

Stomp

As a special treat for our kids (and ourselves!), Jason and I purchased tickets for our whole family to attend a production of Stomp at a downtown theater. Jason and I had seen this performance once before a looong time ago and absolutely loved it, so we were excited to share the experience with our kids. Unfortunately, the lengthy show, later in the evening, with no intermission made for some extra-tired and somewhat grumpy kids. They all admitted that the show was good (at first) but complained about the length of it. Bummer! Guess we will remember to take them to only matinee performances until they're older or just buy tickets for the two of us. Oh well, it was a good cultural experience for them, and Jason and I thoroughly enjoyed the show!

Adley's Piano

This little girl has been continuing with her weekly piano lessons and still enjoys it immensely. She jumps at the chance to play every possible duet with me, so we are building up quite the musical video collection. Here are some recent favorites.

And that's a wrap for March!

Adley's Fairy Party

 Adley requested a fairy party for her 6th birthday, and this ended up being such a fun idea! Adley helped with a lot of the planning and preparation, and this made her even more excited for her big day.

I loosely copied the idea for her cake from a photo I saw online. Adley and I both loved how it turned out!

Adley had a group of 6 sweet friends attend her party. When they first arrived, the girls signed Adley's new hardcover "Twinkle" book, and then each girl colored a picture for our fairy garden.

Jaden and Cody were excellent helpers on the day of the party. Their first job was hanging up all the fairy pictures under Adley's homemade "Fairy Garden" sign.

Once the girls were finished, I took them into the living room to explain the party format. The girls were excited to see the 4 treasure boxes on the piano. I told them their job throughout the party was to collect keys that would open each of the boxes. I explained that they'd earn keys by completing 4 different activities.

The girls listened so intently and were very eager to begin. What a sweet bunch!

The girls' first activity was to use lily pads to cross the pond where they'd find keys awaiting them on fairy island.

Each of the girls easily collected her first key!

Each time the girls found a key, I let them all "twist" their keys in the lock before we'd open the treasure box together.

The first treasure box contained fairy wings! Each of the girls was so excited to recieve a set of wings and practice "flying" around the room. This led right into our second activity-- fairy action cards. Each girl drew a card out of the bag, and the whole group had to complete the action. The cards said things like "Leap onto 4 giant toadstools," "Spin around 8 times," or "Sprinkle fairy dust onto 3 people." The actions were extra fun to carry out while wearing fairy wings!

The girls earned another key for completing all these action cars and found a set of fairy wands in the next treasure box. The plain-colored wooden wands were just begging for some color, so the girls decorated their wands with stickers and glitter.

Our next activity was outside where I captured a cute shot of the newly winged fairies. Don't they look so cute?!

Activity #3 was a fairy scavenger hunt. While the girls were inside decorating their fairy wands, Jaden and Cody snuck outside to hide sets of pictures in the yard. Each girl had 6 images to find, all color-coded so no one would pick up another girl's picture. The images were all (you guessed it!) fairy-related, things like a wand, a toadstool, fairy slippers, or a fairy dress.

Some of the pictures were hidden in tricky places, so the girls ended up all helping each other at the end.

Finding their full set of pictures earned the girls another key! The key opened Treasure Box #3, which contained fairy candy (pastel M&Ms) and face paint. The girls happily munched on their candy while I painted (quite amateur) designs on their cheeks and while Grammy read Adley's Twinkle book.

My face paint designs were veeerrrry simple, but the girls were just thrilled! What a fun age this is!

The final activity was Catch the Gnome. The girls' objective was to tag all three gnomes (Jason, Cody, and Jaden) before the gnomes could set one another free.

The boys sure gave these fairies a workout! Eventually (after a pre-determined code word from Mom), all three gnomes were captured, and the girls got their final key.

Treasure Box #4 contained fairy houses! The girls went back to the craft table to paint their fairy (bird) houses.

After each treasure box was opened, Grammy and Papa helped add the keys to the girls' fairies in the fairy garden. 

 

Then, with all the activities completed, it was time for gift-opening,

pizza dinner,

and fairy cake!

We sure love our new 6 year old and enjoyed celebrating her! What a fabulous party with these great girls!