Hadley turns 6!

It is hard to believe that six years have come and gone.  Six years of us having a little girl in our lives.  This year has been exciting!
This year you started kindergarten.  You looked like a pro.  No tears, no anxiety, just ready to go from day 1.  It helped that you had one of your best friends from preschool in your class and that your big brother was always down the hall.  You made some new friends and you learned to read.  I loved watching you grow. 
This year was also your first year competing at gymnastics meets.  You are fun to watch because you become so serious.  Not a side of you we see very much.  You work hard and you want to do well.  I am very proud of you.  You have learned so many new skills and you love going to the gym.  I love watching you playing with your teammates and listening to your coaches. 
This year you also played soccer.  It was tough for you.  You were one of the smallest ones and played with a lot of rough boys.  But you listened to your coach and by the end of the season you were scoring goals every game.  You want to play again which is all we can ask for.
You continue to be a great sister to Rice and Oliver.  You get dragged along to a lot of Rice's sporting events and love when there are other little sisters there to play with.  You like to mother Oliver which is sometimes well received.  Your intentions are clear though, you want to make sure he is well taken care of.  You love hard and you love your brothers more than anything.
You got over your fear of playful puppies and have really enjoyed Riley.  You are the one that cuddles with her the most.  I think you wish you could dress her up but I am positive she wouldn't put up with it for long.
You are sweet.  Crazy.  Funny.  Loving. And pretty much the perfect girl to balance out your two brothers.  Happy six sweet girl!  I know you have just begun to show us how amazing you can be.

Spring sports

The spring has been full of soccer for both me and Hadley.  Hadley is still doing gymnastics twice a week and she loves it as much as ever.  Saturday mornings she turns into a soccer player and plays with the boys.  Sometimes she scores a few goals and sometimes she looks at the airplanes in the sky.  This past weekend was a little chilly but it was still a great soccer day.  I love soccer as much as ever.  This year daddy is coaching.  I enjoy sliding and scoring even on wet, chilly, muddy mornings.  I switched to Smithville to play baseball this year and have learned a lot.  I am a Yankee and play first base pretty much all the time.  On Saturday I got the game ball for making a double play at first.  My first double play!  I was the coldest game of baseball I ever played though.  So cold daddy only snapped a few pictures.  We will have to bring the camera back when your fingers don't freeze.

Happy Birthday Rice.

My letter to you Rice on your 8th birthday.

Every year I have an overwhelming amount of emotions as you turn another year older.  You are the one that made me a mother, eight wonderful years ago.  The years have flown by and I have watched you grow from a newborn, to a chunky one year old, to a happy toddler, to a thoughtful little boy, to a smart big kid, and now into the passionate, lovable, funny boy who loves school, loves his friends, and loves his family.

I love watching you with your friends.  You are still learning how to put other people's feelings first but even with little bumps you can tell you care so deeply for those around you.  You love to run and play and be a rough and tumble boy.  You easily make new friends and you seem to have friends that have all different interests.  You can be a leader but you can also let others take the lead when it is their time.

I love watching you play with your brother and sister.  You love them dearly even though you would like Hadley to stop giving you kisses every once in a while.  You let Oliver join in and play along even when you would rather have some time to your self.  You set a wonderful example for you brother and your sister.  You are kind which is one of the most important things to be.

I love watching you play sports.  You are such a passionate kid.  You give it your all every time you step onto the field or onto the court.  You haven't chosen just one sport to love yet but it is fun to see you grow each season.  You work hard.  You are a good sport.  You listen to your coach.  You cheer on your teammates.  You are growing into such a big kid but I see the little toddler running around without a care in the world when I look at you sometimes.  Don't even get me started on watching you watch sports on the TV (lets just say you give excellent play by play replays.)

I know this next year will fly by like all eight years before.  But my wish for you is to live life light heartedly.  You know how to have a good time do not get me wrong but you also are so serious and even hard on yourself at times.  I want you to not be afraid to try new things even though you might not do them perfectly the first time.  I want you to not be afraid to ask for help when you need it.  There is a time for being serious but a life of an eight year old should be full of exploration without too many second thoughts. 

Since I am forever late in posting this...I am putting in a few pictures from our spring break that shows you having so much fun just being 8.

Oliver is growing up.

So that little bitty baby that once lived in our house that cried sometimes but was relatively happy, just isn't around anymore.  Now we have a two year old that runs and tackles me, wants to steal my baseball hats, sleeps in a big bed, goes potty on his own, can almost swim, and can ride on his scoot bike like it is his job.

I can't believe it.

I will leave out the potty training pictures because hey, he will one day be eight like me.

Easter

Another Easter has come and gone.  This year the Easter bunny came a few days early and left us a scavenger egg hunt to find some chocolate eggs.  I think he thought Oliver needed a warm up and I wasn't complaining because all that reading counted as my reading homework for the night.  We dyed eggs and made our traditional bunny cake but this year we did it all by ourselves.  Others were afraid to eat it but I declared it the yummiest bunny cake yet. 

Then we had egg hunt after egg hunt after egg hunt on Easter.  It was all perfect.

Reading clues and hunting.

 Jelly bean eating and easter egg dying.

 Cooking and creating a masterpiece.

 Easter morning.

 Oliver wasn't impressed with mommy's photoshoot.

 Grandpa and Catherine's

 And Nana and Papa's