Miss Kamy turned 7 this month! Oh my goodness, where has the time gone?! The fact that there are 343 posts on the blog attests to the passage of time, but it still feels like a lot shorter than seven years. She’s is an intelligent, funny, and friendly girl. I am so proud of who she is and the choices she makes every day.
Kamy has been really sweet to Caden and is thankful and gracious. She loves to pick flowers for us too.
We gave Kamy her own Kindle paperwhite e-reader for her birthday. It has been a big hit! We’re letting her stay awake in her room to read from 8:15 – 9:30 each night. About half the time she falls asleep reading before 9:30, but she has really loved the extra time to stay awake and chance to read. Kamy read the Ivy & Bean series, all 10 of them, in the 9 days between her birthday and April 1st. She’s a voracious reader!
Her cake request this time was a Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with chocolate icing — the same cake that Caden had for his 5th birthday. This time I baked it in a heart shaped pan! Caden picked out a bowling set and sparkly ribbons to give to Kamy.
In DFW we celebrated with Min, Grandbobby, Garin and Jess one evening and then met up with Nana, Granpops, and Gina the next day. There were plenty of hugs, presents, and cake to go around!
Before her birthday, Kamy got to spend some time with Min to make a new quilt! She’d been patiently waiting since Caden’s turn in October and was very excited to make one. The theme was princesses and needed to have gold fabric in it. This time Min picked out a more complicated block so Kamy got to learn several new skills and techniques as she pieced. Min and Kamy had a fabulous time and finished a beautiful quilt. The colors are all Kamy — when you look at the dresses in her closet they are overwhelmingly pink, gold, and turquoise. Min took Kamy shopping too (a very Grandmommy thing) and picked out several dresses. This blue sparkly one shed glitter like no tomorrow, but it’s her new favorite. =)
Swim lessons have been very productive this month! Kamy is getting more and more comfortable in the water. She is still a chatterbox and would much rather talk about what she’s supposed to be doing than actually doing it. I told her she reminds me of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables, because she talks so much. This video gives you an idea of her tactics — I could have edited it down, but then you’d miss the conversation! With some encouragement, Kamy can swim 25′ unassisted. She’s come a long way in three months!
Kamy was a really great helper in the garden! We’ve been working on setting and filling raised bed garden boxes in the field, so she helped fill up the wheelbarrow and buckets and dump them in the empty boxes. She also likes to help water the garden. We designated a specific garden box for the kids to plant whatever they wanted. Kamy’s side has a lot of flowers while Caden’s side added beans and cucumbers.
Inside, the kids have been busy working on puzzles. Nana gave Kamy several 500 piece puzzles, but right now Kamy and Caden are focused on two different 750 piece puzzles — Cinderella and DisneyLand. They are lobbying to make a “Puzzle Shop” with completed puzzles, but I’ve nixed that idea. At one point there were 8 puzzles strewn about upstairs. Just because there is empty counter space doesn’t mean we need to fill it up! Now they take a photo of the finished puzzle before putting them back in the box.
Kamy still loves gymnastics. She enjoys the challenge and positive reinforcement. Both kids were disappointed that the gym was closed the week of spring break so they’d have to go two weeks between classes! Kamy is working hard on the list of skills she needs in order to move up to level 4. Having the trampoline at home to practice on has been a big help — both for practicing the skills and sheer conditioning. Jumping is really physical and exhausting!
The kids did a day camp at the Discovery Science Place during Spring Break. The kids thought it was okay — they did just fine with the teachers and environment, but I guess they were not that interested in the activities they were doing. <shrug> Oh well!
Kamy has been playing Zelda and the Wind Waker on the WiiU. Keller got the newest Zelda game, which piqued her interest. He told her that if she completed Wind Waker then she could play the new one too. Zelda has been a big hit — it is an adventuring, puzzle based game where she has to figure out how to progress. It also includes a fair amount of reading, which is why we didn’t introduce her to Zelda earlier. Her reading is fluent enough now that she can follow the story and directions without any trouble.
Daddy and Kamy have been reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at night before bedtime. She loves the suspense and mystery, plus the magic makes it even more fun! Kamy has all sorts of theories about what is going to happen next and why. It has been fun to watch her experience the series for the first time.
Kamy bought a new gold dress this month! Her favorite color is now gold (move over pink), and she has been eyeing a gold sequin ball gown ever since she bought her first gold dress last summer. The sequin dress was still pretty pricey, so after digging through the options on Amazon, she landed on this one. It has been a great dress so far — it has a hoop in the skirt to make it flare out, it is washable, and it is holding up MUCH better than the last one. It is very fancy and very Kamy.
Kamy has picked up one phrase that has become an issue — “Here’s the thing.” This has become the default reply to whatever it is I just told her to do (or not do) and precedes her telling me exactly why she isn’t going to do it. If it was just a couple of times daily, it would be one thing; I’m not opposed to her voicing a protest about some things. But it quickly became overused and justified her ignoring what she was told to do. That phrase is now banned in this house and she’s back to finding more subtle ways to push back. Live and learn, right?
There was no “Spring Break” for the kids. We were home that week, so school went on as usual. Kamy is chugging through her math, which has been focused on multiplication and reading an analog clock to figure out elapsed time. In literature, we finished reading The Odyssey and started reading The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. The kids really like both books, but I think the fantasy of Whangdoodles wins. We’re also learning about the Greek civilization and Alexander the Great for history.
