Olive's 7th Birthday Party

Olive wanted a Kirby birthday party for the 7th birthday.  She didn't want to do an activity like skating or gymnastics because "it wasn't about Kirby."  We settled on going to a park.  Then it turned out to be 40 degrees.  So it got relocated to our house.  Luckily we kept it small with just the girls in her class and the cousins.  I came up with some Kirby-themed games and then told Hannah she could run them.  She loved being a teacher.  First up was coloring a scene for a tiny Kirby.

Hannah is giving advice and encouragement. :)

Olive's Kirby is inhaling the bad guy.

Hannah made all the Kirby balloons for the party.

Steve made the cupcakes and Hannah decorated them.

After the party the girls were very happy when Granny decided that she and the cousins would spend the night!  Gwendolyn was especially excited because she has never slept over at our house before.  We loved having them over and we can't wait to do it again!

Disney on Ice

Granny treated us to Disney on Ice on Easter weekend.  It was the girls' first time at the Sprint Center and our first time going to show like that.  The show was a short synopsis of Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast, Tangled, Frozen, and Moana...all on ice skates.  I was very impressed with the costumes, set design, and overall show quality.  The girls loved it and were very enthralled.  Thank you Granny for the fun experience!

Father/Daughter Dance

Steve and the girls attended their first (and maybe last) father/daughter dance.  Steve and Hannah were a little unsure about it, but Olive had a blast!

They picked out his clothes and fixed his hair.

Olive is getting down on the dance floor.

After dance treats.

Easter

 We had a fun Easter.  My family was in town early so we celebrated on Friday and we were very glad we did.  It was a beautiful day, while it snowed on Easter Sunday. 

We had our usual egg hunt in the backyard.

And then we had our indoor clue hunt for Easter baskets.  BTW, Olive is dressed as Kirby.  I don't even try to fight it anymore.  

The girls LOVE hosting parties at our house.  They take their party planning seriously.  They didn't think I had enough decorations so they made their own.  And they also made up their own games.  They divided us into teams to construct our own boat using some craft materials.  Then you had to blow it across the water to see who won.  The boats: Grandpa/Grandma, Casey/Marissa, Hannah/Olive, Megan/Steve.

BTW, Hannah changed into Pikachu.

Grandpa used a fan, but it was no match for Hannah.

Hannah and Olive won!  We also had a family Just Dance tournament on the wii.  Somehow no one would allow pictures of such a spectacular event.  It was an epic battle with lots of laughter and a few tears.  It all came down to Casey and me.  Somehow Casey won even though everybody knows I'm a better dancer. ;)

Open House

The girls always love Open House and showing off their school projects.  We went to Olive's class first.  We had to guess which paper was hers and none of us got it.  It says: My favorite feature is my eyes.  I like them because they help me see and they are nice.

playing a marble maze she made out of straws

"When I am 100 years old I will live in Hawaii with Hannah.  My hobbies will be playing video games and watching movies.  I will feel happy.  But I will die soon."

Journal entry about Hannah.  Hannah wrote a very similar one about Olive when she was in first grade.  Their sister bond is strong!

We also found this in her journal...

Hannah's room did not have as many projects.  We worked together to do a STEM challenge to move a car across a table.  She also wrote this: I've learned about how to write a good paragraph with different sentence types.  I learned about fractions.  I also learned about magnetism.  And I learned about westward expansion.

Hannah's art

Olive's art

I also captured this very Olive face.

The painted sunflower from auction made another appearance at Open House.

Hannah Stats- 9 years

Hannah is now 62 pounds and 4 feet 10 inches tall.  In the past year she gained 6 pounds and grew 2 inches.  Here are her stats from year one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Hannah is in 3rd grade and continues to enjoy school.  Just like last year, she is still a girl scout and plays fall and spring soccer.  She was also elected to student council again.  As always her height and maturity make her seem older than her years, but she is still very young and innocent.  I like that she is in no hurry to grow up or act older.  She has always been interested in nature and animals and could spend all day outside.  She also likes mechanical things and building.  She made a system of pulleys and ziplines in her bedroom to shuttle stuffed animals around.  Her newest interests are piano, crochet, and typing.

I remember when we moved Hannah out of the nursery and into her new bedroom when she was almost two.  My friend Becky, a third grade teacher, said she loved the room and she could see Hannah as a third grader reading in the window seat.  It seemed so far off thinking about her being that old.  And now here we are and she does read in her window seat!  She has grown into the girl I imagined she would be: tall, long hair, loves reading, very responsible, and kind.  I couldn't love her more.

Here's what her teacher wrote on her most recent report card:  Hannah continues to make a lot of growth and progress this year.  Her curiosity for learning and desire to do her best every day is admirable and evident in everything she does.  This will serve her well throughout her school career and in life.

Hannah's favorites as a nine-year-old
restaurants: Fritz's, McDonalds, Hardees, Chick-fil-A
places: Johnson Shut-ins, Elephant Rocks
color: hot pink
animal: panda
food: ice cream
drink: Sprite
song: Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake
book: The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
TV show: Pokemon
movies: Moana, Emoji Movie
toys: "all engineering things," remote controlled toys, ripstick, Oregon Trail game, ipad, wii
activities: swimming, tennis, soccer, video games
game: Settlers of Catan
subjects in school: reading and science
special in school: pe
job when she grows up: engineer, teacher

dislikes: scary movies

Hannah's 9th Birthday Party

We went ice skating for Hannah's birthday party.  The girls had a great time and Olive figured out how to use the skate helper as a scooter.  Hannah went by so fast each time I barely got any pictures of her.  Steve and Uncle Casey got out on the ice too!

Backyard swinging.