**Playing catch up again on blog posts. Â Maybe I’ll get back to present day at some point.**
In March Miss Kamy turned 6! Â She’s gotten so big and is really maturing. Â She’s smart, has a fabulous memory, and loves playing with Caden. Â She’s also learning to be more encouraging and sweet to her brother! Â Caden has always had a selfless attitude about a lot of things, but Kamy is finally picking up on his queues. Â “I am going to do this for Caden because he does ___ for me.” Â Kamy has come a long way in this area!
We drove into DFW for Kamy’s birthday and had two great family get togethers. Â Kamy loves being the center of attention and had a lot of fun. Â For the past two years or so Kamy has said she wanted a “rainbow cake” for her birthday. Â Thanks to Pinterest, I actually managed to pull it off too!
Before her birthday, Kamy and Keller ran their first 5K!  They trained all winter and had set a goal to run the entire distance.  It was a beautiful day for running.  They did awesome!  They ran the course in 40:20, which was a personal best too, despite the two big hills on the course.  It was such a great experience!  Everyone was so encouraging and were *very* impressed that she was running the 5K.  Plus they loved her outfit.  =)  There was only one other 5 year old who finished ahead of her, so that fired up her competitive spirit.  Kamy also ran in the kids 1K to earn another finisher’s medal.
The Tyler library has a program called 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. Â The idea is that early exposure to books helps instill a love of reading and learning. Â We read all the time, but we started tracking the books we read so we could complete the program too. Â Our “house rules” meant that both kids had to be there to listen to the book — either have someone read it to them or have Kamy read it out loud to the both of them. Â I didn’t want Kamy getting far ahead of Caden on the tracker and it was a good incentive for her to read to Caden. Â They have been flying through the program. Â There are different rewards throughout the program, but the highlight is a paperback book of their choice at 500 and a large, hardback Disney storybook at 1000. Â Plus they get to put their name on the wall at each 100 mark. Â Again, Miss Competitive was all over it!
It has increased her confidence in her reading too. Â She started doing more “free time” reading where she’ll sit on the couch and quietly read a book to herself. Â I love seeing her read and definitely want to foster that! Â Speaking of reading, Kamy and Daddy finished reading “The Indian in the Cupboard.” Â They’re enjoying the one on one time before bed and Keller likes reading books with a longer and more complex story than picture books.
Min also brought out the quilt that Kamy pieced in January. Â Kamy was so excited to have it and loves all the ballerinas!
Easter fell on the final weekend of March. Â We went to the City of Tyler’s annual egg hunt at Lindsey Park. Â There were SO many people there, but they split the kids up by age group. Â “Egg hunt” is a mis-nomer though — volunteers basically dumped tons and tons of candy in the outfield of the baseball fields. Â When the organizers said go, it was like a swarm of locusts. Â It was insane! Â I suggested that the kids not stop at the first candy they saw but instead run to the far end of the outfield for easy pickings. Â They both FILLED their buckets to the brim! Â We also hid several rounds of eggs in our yard for the kids to find. Â It was fun, even if there wasn’t any more candy in the eggs.
Lastly, one evening the sunset was particularly beautiful, so I stepped outside to take some photos. Â The kids ran out with me and were playing in the grass. Â The lighting worked out just right that I got a great photo of each of the kids.
WOW! I love the library reading idea!
Mike and i saw a great movie last week called ‘Captain Fantastic’ about a father raising six kids in the Pacific Northwest. I think you might like it.
xoxoxoxo