Happy 10 years, Sarah!

A decade with our first born! Three thousand, six hundred and fifty days with our sweet Sarah in our arms!

Weight: 78 lbs
Height: 4' 9.5"
Clothes: 10/12, L
Shoe: size 5

Likes: babies, bike rides, legos, planning

A day in the life

7:00am: Sarah is almost always one of the first ones down for breakfast. She can fix it all herself and help the littles as well. 

Morning: After breakfast she does her morning chores, which include piano practice. We try to start school by 8:00am during the school year. She liked to start school with math!

Lunch: Open-faced peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have been her favorite lately. She eats at least an apple a day and has a sweet tooth.

Afternoon: Sarah continues to read and play quietly during "nap" time. It is a chance for her to finish any school work, read for fun, and have some alone time. After rest the kids play together or we run errands.

Dinner: Rice is a favorite, along with tacos and pasta. She is a good eater.

Bedtime: The kids all get ready for bed by 7:00pm. Sarah gets to read until 8:00pm!

How we celebrated: Sarah chose to start the day with cinnamon rolls, but we tinted one icing pink and put oreo crumbs in the other. During the morning we opened a few gifts, spent time playing together, and looked back through pictures from each of the last ten birthdays. Such special memories! Lunch was "rainbow lunch": strawberries, orange fanta, mac and cheese, broccoli/sugar snap peas, blueberries, and grapes. Anna gave her unicorn ice cream to have for dessert. During nap time we watched Beauty and the Beast. A little scary, but they were glad to know the whole story! She had a strawberry and oreo cake and requested drive through Chick Fil A for dinner. An all around delicious day!

Random, but fun:
* Sarah learned to type this year and took her first writing program. It is really neat to see her mind on paper.

* This was her first year as a confident swimmer.

* Last summer she took gymnastics and she got to start lessons again. It is a joy!

* Sarah continues to love nursing, but is also interested in opening an in-home daycare. 

A Chronological Look At Our Sarah Over the Past Year

Always a first aid kit at the ready :)

My babies meeting my friend's baby- so sweet!

New friend when a missionary shared at church.

Fire station field trip with our homeschool group.

New friends at the Seminary.

Sarah created a snack to make with her friends for a playdate.

City Market in Indy after a field trip.

Our last outing before lockdown.

The girls still wanted to dress up for Easter morning :)

Dressed as Katharina von Bora for her final presentation in Essentials.

Helping make her birthday cake on her last day as a 9 year old.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Happy 4 years, Anna!

Anna is FOUR! She is funny and imaginative and the darling of her siblings. We love how our littlest one is growing into our family culture.

Weight: 41 lbs (87%- courtesy of a trip to urgent care on the eve of her birthday...story below!)
Height: 3' 4" (home measurement)

Clothing: 5T
Shoes: size 11

Likes: being read to, skirts/dresses, doing everything the big kids do (other than cleaning up!), "helping" cook, blowing bubbles

Dislikes: being excluded, pants

A Day Her Life:

7:00am Come out of her room for breakfast. She continues to start her day with warm milk in a sippy cup. She and I debate whether or not she is going to eat her banana (spoiler alert: she is . . . every day) and she has cereal with milk.

Morning: Anna spends the morning playing while we do school or joins the big kids in play. They are really good about including her. She makes a great patient in a hospital or baby in a home. :)

Lunch: Anna loves PB&J and fruit or veggies and hummus.

1:00-3:00pm: Slowly, but surely, Anna has been dropping her afternoon nap. We've been letting her look at books during nap time in the hopes that staying awake will help her go to sleep more easily at night. That does seem to be the case, but in the beginning she often caved to sleep right at the end of nap time. Now she tends to either stay awake the whole time or go to sleep right off the bat.

Afternoon: We love playing outside during these lovely summer months. Chalk and bubbles and the little pool are great.

Dinner: Her favorite dinner would be mac and cheese from a box. Anna isn't picky, but she IS lazy if she isn't excited about what we are eating. And she almost always need to go potty right after we pray. :)

7:00pm: Down for bed! Which jammies she wears may be the most important decision of the day. Ha!

How we celebrated:

Anna's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Normally Sundays come with routine, but this week it rained and our outdoor worship became home worship. Upshot was that Dave got to be home with us to celebrate. It was a simple day at home filled with Anna's favorites. We started the day with cinnamon rolls, opened gifts, talked to family, and had mac and cheese and green beans for lunch. After nap time we had purple icing oreo cake (per the birthday girl's request), watched an Angelina Ballerina movie that she picked out at the library, and finished the day with purple pancakes. She was sad the day was ending, which we could call a success. Our baby is four!

Fun Things:

*Anna is remarkably good at not spilling when she eats from a spoon, such as with milk and cereal. She detests having wet clothes, so maybe that is why?

* Gross motor skills are vastly improved! She probably isn't completely up to age level (ex: hopping is tough for her), but does really well.

* This girl loves all things Frozen. Funny enough, she prefers Elsa over her name twin. She says Elsa is better because she has powers. Who can argue with that?

* Anna is taking dance lessons this summer and it is just as precious as one would expect. A room of three year olds all staying on their X per COVID regulation- it is delightful chaos and she is learning much more than merely ballet.

* We made it one day shy of a year without a doctor visit. As did her sisters before her, Anna put a bead up her nose. After trying everything at home, we took her to urgent care. Urgent care couldn't get it and referred us to an ENT. Yikes! While there they sprayed an agent to reduce swelling in her nose. Thankfully, we were able to blow it out before bed!

A chronological look at the past year:

Anna attended her first VBS last summer

Anna got to join Lydia at story hour last summer!

Shelby and Anna, both overcoming their fears :)

She was very compliant, but scowled the whole hair cut!

A certified helper

Anna was Elsa for Halloween. Elsa has the powers!

Happy worker pretending to type.

Delighted by the robot Josiah made her

All ready for drive-in worship

Look closely and you'll see the finger hole in each bun :)

Anna is taking ballet this summer!

Holding her hair back. This is such an Anna pose.

Urgent care during the time of COVID on her last day as a 3 yr old

We love our Anna Caroline!