Happy 5th Birthday Elise!

Elise at Five Years Old!

Happy 5th birthday to our lovely little Elise! We are so proud of our smart and feisty yet loving little girl. She has more will and determination than we could have ever imagined. She is driven to succeed and do well in life and we are so thankful for her determined little spirit. She's had her own opinion since before she could talk and her dream at five-years-old is to grow up and become an artist. She loves preschool and all of her school friends. Her best preschool friend is Halynne and she tells us many stories of all the adventures that they have at recess. Ms. Maria, her teacher, is her favorite person in the world right now and she gives her a nice long hug every single day after school. She loves to read, draw, swim, and ride her bike. She just learned how to swim underwater and it was one of her proudest moments. She is a very adventurous eater. She will try anything you put on her plate and she especially loves her cauliflower, broccoli, avocado, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggs, bananas and watermelon. Her favorite thing to do on weekends, aside from bike rides, is to go on day trips, and travel to new places. She has so much energy and thrives on those full busy days where we just go, go, go. She's usually the last to tire out on a busy day, and yes, she still fights sleep, but it has gotten much better. She's become a big helper around the house too. She loves to help dust, sweep and put away her laundry. She also loves to help mom out in the kitchen cooking up new recipes. She is such a joy to have around and we are so proud of all the milestones that she has accomplished in the last year. Happy birthday sweet Elise!

Celebrating her birthday at John's Incredible Pizza

Elise is Almost Five!

Little beauty Elise at almost five-years-old

Having fun on the swing

Sisters bonding...and smiles

Sister hugs are the absolute best

Elise will be turning five-years-old in just a few days! I still can't believe how much she's learned and matured in these five short years. I took some photos this past weekend and stopped in my tracks when looking back through them on the computer. I no longer see a little girl and instead a sweet young lady, who is yearning to grow up and dress her prettiest at all times. I have to admit, that I got teary eyed seeing how beautiful she looked in these photos. She is still very much a child and has those adorable childlike qualities, but we are also slowly seeing aspects of her maturity and growth. Aside from being very tall for her age, she now has what I like to call the "grown-up voice", she talks in complex sentences and now tells stories dispersing the occasional colloquialisms throughout (for some reason this makes me feel as if she is five going on fifteen). She also makes very intelligent inferences from the things we say, and spelling things out won't always get past her anymore.

Our girl can read all by herself now and she only needs help with big words. I hope Kindergarten will be challenging enough, because she has aced every single one of those simple 1-4 letter site words. She is so inquisitive about the world and how things work; she's a definite thinker. She is still a little ball of emotion though! I will say that she has come a very long way from the tantrum laden days of past, but she is still quite emotionally driven and strives for perfection and order (according to her interpretation). All this said, I see a very sweet and very determined young lady at the core of it all. I am so proud of her for all the things she has accomplished in these last five years. She is setting a great example for little Alina to follow, and she is even helping teach her how to read small words. I am so grateful for both of our sweet girls, and for the very special bond that they share.

Sharing secrets

Serious look, but I love it as I see a glimpse of her baby face

All smiles, she brings so much joy to our lives

Summer of Birthday Parties and Fun

Everyone loves a Star Wars party, the force was with Alina!

Alina found a set of Mickey Mouse gloves, she was in heaven

Fun at the Fountains, they met Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder

A very happy birthday to Grandma!

Having fun at Colton's first birthday

Enjoying cupcakes at Anchor's Super Mario swim party

Water Play on Father's Day!

Father's Day fun at Sun Splash water park in Roseville

The girls first kayaking trip at Lake Natoma in Folsom

We had two full weekends of fun celebrating Father's Day this year. Last weekend, Daddy came up with perfect activity to do on a sweltering 100+ degree Sacramento Valley summer day; Sunsplash Water Park in Roseville. We drive past the place all the time and the girls point and exclaim, "look, a castle" or "woohoo, water slides", so they've definitely showed interest in going. They both learned how to swim last summer on their own, but we didn't take them enough afterwards, so they are at a point this summer where they are learning all over again. Elise is really close to swimming and will even jump in the water now, but Alina has clammed up since last year and needs to be held in the water to feel comfortable. They had a great time at Sunsplash, but it took a while before we could get them on the water slides. By the end of the day, they both went down the slides on their own! It was pretty fun to watch the progression from initial hesitance and uncertainty to full blown water slide thrill seeking fun. They had a great time and daddy really enjoyed the day with his girls. Happy Father's Day!

On actual Father's Day weekend, Dad was out of town, so Mom took over and showed the girls a weekend of fun. Momma and Grandma took the girls on their very first kayaking trip out at Lake Natoma in Folsom. They did really well and were little troopers, as we spent most of the afternoon out on the lake. We took them to the small island in the middle of Lake Natoma where they got to feed some geese and ducks. They really enjoyed that part, and they also loved getting to help with the oars and row the kayaks. It was a fun experience, and we hope to take them again soon.

The girls Father's Day artwork for daddy, so sweet

Sunshine and Soccer

The girls during their first soccer practice

The girls started soccer this month and it has been pretty interesting to watch. I knew Alina was a little young for it, but we decided to enroll her as we figured she would see Elise playing and follow her lead. Well, not so much, but overall I think they had fun learning and getting acquainted with the game. They definitely looked the part, but the moment it was game time Alina disappeared off the field and started trying to relocate goals, take multiple water breaks, wander off onto the nearby playground, kick the ball off into the distance and not come back, you get the drift. Elise, on the other hand, showed more motivation and stayed on the field longer, she even made a few goals during a couple games (YAY!), but at the same time she was running off the field chasing dragonflies and running out mid-game to take water breaks and express how tired and hot she was. It was the biggest exercise in parental self-restraint ever, but fun nonetheless. At the end of the day, I feel like we have success on our hands because they both asked to continue playing soccer in the fall. To be continued...

They actually stayed on the field for this entire practice

High fives after game day - Alina was "exploring"