Spring Soccer

We did another season of soccer for Hannah with the same team as the fall.  They definitely played better this time around and I think we ended the season with as many wins as losses.  The final game was a heartbreaker and ended in a tie.  It was a COLD season with some games being played in the sleet and snow.  Her team won those, and since their name is "Thunder," we joked that they did their best playing in inclement weather.  Hannah mostly played defender, but sometimes she was a  midfielder.

playing in the snow- Hannah on the left

Olive Stats- 7 years

Olive is now 45 pounds (25th percentile) and 49 inches tall (68th percentile).  She gained 3 pounds and grew 3 inches this year.  Here are her stats from year one, two, three, four, five, and six.

Olive is first grader this year and ADORES her teacher.  She has the same teacher Hannah had in first grade.  She came into the year reading and then she made tremendous growth so she is reading on a third grade level now.  Her math skills also took off this year.  She memorized all her facts very quickly at the beginning of the year.  I think it helped that she has been listening to Hannah practice her facts for years!  She continues to love writing.  Grandma recently gave her some stationery and she has filled it all up with letters to everyone in her family and in her class.  She is a natural leader and teacher.  She was very proud to be elected to student council and served with Hannah 2nd semester.  Here is what her teacher wrote about her on the most recent report card:  Olive continues to show excellent growth in all areas.  She is reading very well and her comprehension is great.  Her written language is strong and you can hear her "voice" in her writing.  This is fantastic.  She continues to excel in math.  Olive recognizes number patterns quickly and is not afraid to take on a challenge in math.  She is very thoughtful and considerate.

This year she has learned to ride her bicycle without training wheels, tie her own shoes, and she has lost two teeth.  She has made some new friends this year, but her favorite person is still Hannah.  Playing with Hannah is the first thing she wants to do every day after school.  They get along so well despite having different personalities.  Olive has big feelings so she loves big, laughs big, and gets mad in a big way, too.  Olive is often nervous about new things, then she gets comfortable and she is very outgoing.  She tried out dance class this year, and although she was very talented, she decided it wasn't for her.  She prefers to make up her own dances instead of doing someone else's.  And she won the school district PTA Reflections choreography award for doing just that. :)

Olive's Favorites as a Seven-year-old:
restaurant: Hardee's
place: City Museum
color: teal
animals: tiger and monkey
food: ice cream
drink: milkshake
song: Blame it on the Boogie by Jacksons
book: Princess Pink series
TV show: PJ Masks
movie: Lady and the Tramp
toys: She doesn't play with many toys.  legos
activities: playing with Hannah, playing outside, video games, bike riding, reading, writing
games: Exploding Kittens, Monopoly Deal, Candy Land
jobs when she grows up: astronomer

dislikes: guacamole

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.