Serenity's Favorites:
School:
The biggest change for Serenity this year (besides becoming a big sister) was definitely starting school. As you might imagine considering her very favorite toys, books and dvds for her first three years were all ABC related, Serenity was VERY excited about school. She never hesitated a minute about going into her classroom. She'd always walk right in without a backward glance at Mama, ready for the next adventure. We got mostly very good reports from school. She had trouble with certain things, like changing activities when told to by the teachers, which wasn't really surprising since it was her first time in a place with strict rules to follow. But the teacher's weren't concerned, and said she was improving very nicely. She'd wake up in the mornings before school yelling, "The sun, the sun, it's up! It's a SCHOOL DAY!" And she'd sing in the car on the drive. I'm so glad she loves it, and I hope she always does. When I'd ask her about school, the first thing she would always tell me was whether she was in the "first science" or if she had to wait for the "next science." She just loved science. (And that inspired her birthday theme.) She had five teachers, Ms. Parent, Mrs. McBride, Ms. Poleman, Mrs. A, and Mr. Woytias. Plus other teachers for music, Spanish, and library. I got to be the classroom rep, so I got the opportunity to help plan a few parties, crafts and teacher gifts. I loved that!
Books:
National Geographic Kids Beginner's World Atlas. She spent a lot of time this year reading this book, either with us or by herself. She would examine all the maps so carefully. I loved finding her asleep in bed with this huge book in her lap. She reads so well, even crazily big words, but one funny thing she did while reading this book is how she pronounced Europe. It was Ya-Roop. =) Ladybug Girl: We got these from the library, but I think I need to add them to our own library. Pete the Cat: This is one we got at the book fair at school. It's hilarious! I can't be trusted at book fairs, I would get every book in sight. But this one was a worthy addition to our library, and we've borrowed all his other books from the library now too.
She read lots of other books, and I've listed a lot on my clever faeries blog. Recently we started reading chapter books! We are starting with the Ramona books she got before she was born, but we're looking to get more!
Magazines: She got two magazine subscriptions for her birthday, My Big Backyard and Highlights High Five. She loved getting the mail every month and reading the stories in them. She got really good at the Hidden Pictures in Highlights.
DVDs:
We still get most of our television shows from Papa, so Serenity works from limited options. We still watch a lot of Dora and Diego, Backyardigans, and only the occasional SuperWhy. We added Little Einsteins this year. Serenity really identified with June, the purple dancing girl. She spent a lot of the year twirling and dancing around, which led to her dance lessons this summer. We also got some Sid the Science Kid since she loved Science at school so much. She doesn't watch that one much, but when we do it's fun to talk about what they learn and try our own experiments.
Dress-Up:
Serenity loves playing dress up! Now she can get into the dresses on her own, so she often comes down stairs all decked out. She got some new outfits from Raegan, including Fancy Nancy and "Angel Baby" dresses.
Gardening:
Her gardening endeavors still include picking wildflowers and then "planting" them in the sandbox. We've talked about roots and such, but she still likes to pretend this way. We started some flower seeds indoors this year, and for Mother's Day she was sure I wanted seeds and flowers for the garden. I got a beautiful lily that she helped me plant. =) She loves to help dig and even weeds occasionally. I only weed occasionally myself for that matter.
Gymnastics:
We enrolled Serenity in gymnastics classes this year! She LOVED it! Especially jumping, which is what she'd tell us was her favorite thing when asked. She loved rolls and does dive summersaults onto her bed, and seat drops. When Daddy gets home from work he always gives "home hugs" which are basically throwing her up in the air. After gymnastics she started doing "pike" and "frazzle" (which are actually called straddle jumps) with daddy's home hugs.
There were some things she really did not like, such as climbing on the rope. She'd only go up two knots, and then she'd nearly always just let go instead of climbing down. So at the end of the year performance where the parents got to come to class, Miss Kay was really proud when she climbed down on her own.
Poptarts were another thing she wasn't too sure about at first, but now she does them on anything, including counters, bars, chairs and Daddy. She can now flip over and hang from her legs on bars.
Computer: We spend quite a bit of time on the computer. She has recently become addicted to YouTube. We usually look up Alphabet Songs or Butterfly Songs and let her go from there. She only gets this ten minutes at a time though, mostly because it just doesn't feel like it's that good for her, and partly because I have to monitor while she's on YouTube much more than when she's on NickJr or Starfall. We still do pbskids, nickjr and starfall a lot too.
Stack the States/Countries: Patricia always finds great Ipad games, and this is one of the best! After they came to visit us for Serenity's birthday, I downloaded these. Serenity learned ALL of the states and their capitols from this! In Stack the Countries, her favorite country was South America. This started her love of maps! =)
Stepstool: Serenity loves her stepstool. It is her favorite kitchen tool =) She always insists we get it out whenever she helps cook, even if it would be easier to just get a chair and work at the table. She likes to help make her own quesadillas (She spreads the cheese, I microwave.) She can nearly do a pbj by herself, right down to the cookie cutters we almost always use on sandwiches now that she is anti-crust. I have to keep an eye on her because she has a tendency to lick the jelly spoon and then dip it back in to get more. She's a big help with baking, and loves to measure, break eggs, and stir.
Favorite New Games:
We still play all the old favorite games, so I just want to share a few new ones from this year.
AnimaLogic: My favorite is AnimaLogic. When we got it I thought it might be awhile before she could figure it out and really do the game. So at first we just played by having her set it up and match the picture. But after a month or so she could really figure it out! You have to figure out how to get all the animals across the river. Each animal can follow an animal of the same type or the same color, and there are four animals and four colors. She knows how it works, and if she gets stuck (An AnimaLogic Knot!) She can backtrack and try a different way across. It's a fantastic game and we all love it. It's fun for adults to figure out too!
Where's Sock Monkey: Aunt Judy got us this game. It's genius! There are only so many hiding places for adults, so this game makes Hide and Seek much more fun. Especially since Serenity still giggles and says "Here I am!" when it's her turn to hide. =) You hide sock monkey somewhere, and then you draw cards and the hider answers questions about the hiding place until it's time to Go Look, and then you have a certain amount of time to find it before you ask more questions to narrow down the location.
Chutes and Ladders: This was Serenity's choice for her Christmas money from Papa. She chose the princess version, which I like because the pieces are nice rubber figurines instead of the cheap paper kind. Eric and I discovered this game takes a lot more patience than we remembered. It's really easy to slide all the way back to the beginning! Serenity sometimes gets tired and just wants to swoosh her pieces around the board, but usually she follows the rules really well. We have a lot of fun with Candyland too.
Rush Hour: Uncle Colen gave us this! We love it and have already gotten one for another friend.
Favorite Crafts:
Sewing: Whenever Serenity sees me sew, she wants to help. So I came up with several ways for her to sew. She pulls out pins and steps on the pedal when I sew. I tried plastic needles and letting her sew felt buttons onto felt and embroidering into burlap. We also did a little plastic canvas. She loves doing what I do! It makes me so happy, because that is just how I was with my Mom. Whenever she did a craft, she'd find a way for us to all participate.
Weaving Yarn (spiderwebs and Christmas ornaments): This was a huge hit. She asked to do it on several different occasions. At Halloween, I cut notches in paper plates and she weaved yarn around and around to form a spiderweb. We added little spiders made from pipecleaners to the end of the string. She made maybe a dozen of these, so at Christmas when I saw circles cut from cardboard and wrapped with embroidery floss I knew she'd love that too. Eric got in on that project as well. If you wrap carefully you can make fancy stars and stuff.
Painting (Pic from Jo-Ann's): One day Serenity saw an ad for Jo-Ann's that came in the mail. She ran to me with the flyer and said, "Oh Mama, can we make this? Can we go get supplies and make this right now? Well, the project she saw was a really involved crochet project, but I was so thrilled that she just knew we could do it ourselves that we figured out a way. We made our own interpretation of the craft in paint! It's one of my all-time favorite projects, it turned out really cute. I might even frame it =)
Writing: She started to learn how to write letters in school, and can occasionally be coaxed into writing on our craft projects now. She made me this Valentine all on her own, and it's one of my favorite things ever. =)
Colored Tape: I got her a set of colored masking tape for a present on her rainbow birthday. She wanted to use it to wrap her Christmas presents this year, and the packages turned out darling. =)
School: She of course came home with tons of adorable things from school. I especially loved one day when she came home with a paper scribbled with lots of colors and told me "This is Ecuador! It looks just like the country Ecuador!" It was the first time she'd ever told me that she drew something in particular, and it was too funny that that is what she drew. =)
Scissors: She is getting much better with scissors. She doesn't do fine cutting yet, but she can use the scissors by herself. She loves to do scissor practice and makes some nice confetti. =)
Holidays:
We really enjoy the holidays around here =) We went on our traditional pumpkin patch outing with the Thorps. Serenity rocked her blue heart sunglasses =)
She enjoyed every minute of helping me decorate for Christmas. She stood on her little white chair placing ornaments so carefully around the tree, and then when she was done she ate her pbj sitting on that chair right by the tree so she could enjoy it. She remembered the advent calendar from the year before, and rushed downstairs every day to see what fun was in store.
December 31st I took down all the decorations from the tree... a new record for me. Serenity objected, until she saw what I had in mind. A New Years Tree! We decorated the tree with streamers and our rainbow ball, and hung streamers all around. And we made party hats!
We started another new Easter Egg tradition this year. Instead of hiding only candy inside the eggs, some eggs had little coupons for different treats! She got ice cream, games with Daddy and Mama, 30 minutes of undivided attention, and her favorite, stay up as late as you want night! We turned that into a sleepover, doing every single activity from her Strawberry Shortcake sleepover book. Mom and Serenity fixed their hair in pigtails, we danced, had snacks, and cuddled up to watch a show! Daddy stayed downstairs with her all night. She made it later than Mama did!
Toys:
Bells: I got the rainbow bells for a present at her birthday, and so we could use them at her party. They are rainbow colored metal bells, one for each note in an octave. She uses them all the time, and we often hear them through the monitor even after bedtime. It's very cute though!
Felt Food: My mom got me patterns for all sorts of felt food, so Serenity got quite a few different kinds to play with. She especially loves the donuts and cupcakes. We mostly eat them, but sometimes she pretends to make them as well. =)
Play-Doh: Serenity really loves play-doh. This year she actually started making more things on her own instead of just directing me to make what she wants. At one point she taught her pig her letters with her alphabet letter cutters, which was adorable. She got an ice cream play-doh maker at Christmas, and a Mr. Potadoh head (use Play-doh for the potato with all the parts you'd get for a normal Potato Head.) She is starting to mix colors more now, so we end up with a lot of shades of brown. Which works for potatoes later so it's good.
Strawberry Shortcake Dolls: Serenity is not really into dolls that much, but she does love the characters from Strawberry Shortcake, and she asked to be Lemon Meringue for Halloween, because she has yellow hair just like her. We have the little doll house size dolls (and a slide for them she picked out herself), a remote control car, and several books.
Samantha Vo: I call Samantha Serenity's invisible but not imaginary friend. Ever since we visited her in the Spring, Serenity pretends Samantha is always around. When she was sick, we had to give Samantha medicine too. She was a good girl and always took it. =) She'd say Samantha was sitting next to her in her car seat, and that Samantha needs her own pillow on Serenity's bed. Samantha had a lot to live up to when she came to visit, and Serenity showed her usual exuberant affection. She only tackle hugged her a few times, and she told her "I love you" and "I like you" a lot. Samantha I don't think enjoyed the tackling as much as Serenity, but hopefully she had fun playing with Serenity too. =)
Maps: For Easter, I drew maps of our house and put stickers where I hid the eggs. She LOVED this and wanted to do it over and over again. We also drew little road maps for places we go often, like school, so she could sit in the backseat and navigate as we went. She often asks which direction we're going, North, South, East and West.
