The big 5!!!!!!

Today is Esther's 5th birthday! I know I say this every birthday, but the time has gone so fast. It seems like we just brought her home. She is such a smart, sweet, and fun little girl. She is introverted, shy, extremely independent and stubborn. Getting her to comply with a request is sometimes quite challenging. But she is a really great kid and we are proud to be her parents.

Some of her favorite activities:

• Drawing, coloring, creating artwork. She brings home a stack of artwork everyday from school and she is always drawing and coloring at home. We think she is really good and are quite impressed with some of her drawings. She has started writing and illustrating some little books. It is so fun to see her imagination.
• She loves to read. She has progressed really well since she learned to read last summer. She is reading books on a 1st-2nd grade level. At nap time and bedtime she sits on her bed and reads books until she falls asleep. She loves to read and look at books, but she hates to read for other people. She will read for Josh and I, but won't do it for anyone else.
• Playing dress up and make believe. Her and Clara are always dressed up, playing with their babies, playing school, and pretending to have restaurant or a store.
• We spend a lot of time outside and her and Clara have lots of adventures. They do lots of digging in the dirt, riding bikes, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and playing in their playhouse. She loves our cats and dogs and is always hugging on them. Feeding the cats is one of her chores. 

We had a little birthday party for her this weekend. We let her decide all the details including who she wanted to invite. She wanted an afternoon party with cake and homemade ice cream. She wanted a Frozen cake and wanted it to be blue with white icing. She wanted hats and blowers. After cake and ice cream we went to the pool to swim. Several friends and some family were able to join us and she had lots of fun. Here is a little video collage of her birthday party. She was feeling shy and didn't like us singing to her and didn't want to blow out her candles.

She starts kindergarten in less than a month. We are excited and a little bit nervous to see how she does at school. We know she is ready. 

Little Swimmers

Last year the girls' swimming lessons were ok, but we knew we wanted to put the girls in swimming lessons again this year. Esther is more tentative in the water, so we knew she really needed some more personalized attention to actually make her try to swim. And we knew Clara could probably progress a lot with some good instruction. So when a friend of mine was offering semi-private swimming lessons we knew that it would be great for the girls.

The first day Esther didn't even want to get her face wet (while Clara was dunking herself), but by the end of the first lesson she was willingly putting her whole head under water. That alone was worth the price of private lessons! They both did really great. The practiced going under water, bobbing, floating, kicking, and paddling. They loved it and had so much fun. 

By the end of the lessons they were both swimming. Esther will swim short distances. Clara is a little fish and can swim across the pool. Clara would also jump in to the pool and then swim back to the side all by herself.

 We are looking forward to going to the pool often this summer so the girls can keep practicing.