And the babe turns six

 I feel like I say this every year, but apparently it needs repeating.....where has the year gone?  I think that Maddie's birthday is always the most raw for me because she was my first little baby and the one that breaks me into each new age.  I get a taste of what five will look like for all of my children thanks to Maddie! 

I think that five was a very good year for Maddie!  She did so much growing, both physically and mentally and I feel like this was a big break though year for her emotionally.  It was an emotional year for the mama as well.  I saw my girl graduate and leave the preschool that she attended since she was two and I also dropped her off for her first day of kindergarten and the beginning of her journey through primary school.  So far she is really enjoying school....hopefully that sticks.  Maddie also started dance classes this year and LOVES them!  She needs a little work on the gracefulness, but her heart is very into it.  We had a busy and fun filled year, camping, trips to the beach, a vacation to California, swimming, running and playing.  I love watching my girl grow and spread her wings.  She is turning into such a beautiful girl inside and out.  I love her quirky sense of humor and her inquisitive nature.  Her enthusiasm is infectious and her smile (when its not forced) will knock your socks off.  I can't believe how tall Maddie is getting and how intelligent she is.....some of the concepts that she is able to grasp really amazes me!  I am looking forward to her 6th year and everything it will bring.  

I love you Maddie!  You are such an amazing little girl with a huge heart and I'm so glad that you are mine.

What is your name? Maddie Rose Schultz
How old are you? Five

How old will you be on your birthday? Six

What is your favorite color? Pink and blue
What is your favorite cartoon? The Sunny Side Up Show
What is your favorite breakfast? Cereal....Lucky Charms
What is your favorite dinner? Spaghetti and meatballs or maybe just spaghetti

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a beautiful fairy princess
Where is your favorite place to go? Monkey Joes and the beach
What is your favorite toy? My stuffed animals....I love love love Crystal and she's a cat
Where do you live? In a house in Raleigh
What pet would you like to have? A puppy....a cute one with a pretty bow and painted toenails
What is your favorite thing to wear? Dresses, my butterfly dress that is pink and it has colors on the butterfly
What is your favorite part of being a family? That I'm a kid and they're a grown up and I love my parents
What is your favorite thing to do? Play on the computer, dance class and my new school and I like snack time
Do you have a nickname?  Maddie Moo and Mooter Tooter
How do you like your hair? I like my hair short
What do you want for your birthday?  La la Loopsie and a Dream Lite and a few more things too...20 things, well, I want a dozen, that means 12!
What kind of cake do you want? A chocolate cake with strawberry on the inside with rainbow frosting

What's your most favorite food? Chocolate pudding with strawberry on the bottom that's my favorite kind of pudding
What's your favorite drink? Juice and milk and water because that helps you grow healthy and strong
What's your favorite outside activity? Going on the slide at the playground

What's your favorite inside activity? Watching TV
What's your favorite treat? Candy and ice cream and cake and lollipops
What's your favorite movie? Madagascar 3 where the bear and the lemur fell in love
What's your favorite song? Call Me Maybe
What's your favorite word? Ice cream
What's your favorite animal? Elephant and falingos (Flamingos)
What's your favorite fruit? Oranges and mango
What's your favorite outfit? My Hello Kitty shirt with the jewels on it and the pink skirt
Where is your most favorite place? Hailey's house and Disneyland
What is your favorite book? I'm a Seed
What are your favorite shoes? My Crocs with Croc jewels on them
What is your favorite season? Winter because that makes me happy and I like to slide down into a pile of snow and it's kind of chilly
What is your favorite flower?  Daffodil and daisy
What is your favorite game? Playing robots with my friends
What is your favorite candy? Snoballs and jelly beans and licorice
What is your favorite restaurant? The breakfast place where I got to eat a cup of whipped cream
What's your favorite vegetable? Celery

Who is your favorite friend?  Miguel and Sophia

Asked today on her birthday:

How does it feel to be 6? GREAT!

Do you feel older? Yeah I feel older, because I'm six now!
Anything else you'd like to say?  I hope that I get a chocolate cake with strawberries and a treat in my lunch.

*No music this year.....the site I use isn't working.  But the youtube video of her song is below.....click on the play button!

Maddie 6 - flash slideshow maker

 

 

 

Around the yard: May

These pictures are from our yard in early May.  We made the decision to not have a vegetable garden this year.  We are going to be crazy busy all summer and out of town a lot and just wouldn't have time to tend to everything.  I'm bummed that we don't have fresh veggies popping up, but we have an amazing farmer's market very close to us.  I think I'll try and have veggies next year.....maybe.  We do still have all of our fruit trees and of course our berries.  In these pictures the peaches and apples are pretty small and the berries have yet to fruit, but right now in June, the peaches are about ready to pick, the apples are bigger than golf balls and we have a gazillion raspberries and the start of blackberries.  Our hydrangeas are also in crazy bloom right now.  One big change in a yard is that instead of grass we have clover coming up all over.  We started seeding clover last spring and did another seeding in April this year and boy, is the clover coming up!  Clover is a great alternative to a grass lawn because it only grows so high (about 8 inches) it doesn't need to be fertilized because it gets it's nutrients from the soil and the air and it has the wonderful benefit of flowering.....which brings bees to our yard and our fruit trees and bushes.  So far we are very happy with out clover lawn.  Even Dan who is very picky about his yard seems to like it.  It's been nice playing outside this spring while the weather is lovely!

Soon to be raspberries

Soon to be blackberries

Eleanor paints

I start my girls off young with art projects.  I like art, they like art, everyone wins.  With Maddie her first experiences with art were very controlled and easy to clean up.  With Charlotte she got a modified version of whatever Maddie was working on.  Eleanor on the other hand demands that she gets to do whatever the big girls are doing.  I tried to give her less messy versions of whatever we were working on, but she refused to play along.  My baby girl is an artist!  I've never been super fussy about my kids being dirty or messy.....I just figure its a part of life.  Messy kids are happy kids!  So, I give Eleanor her art supplies and instead of hovering, I walk away and let her create.  Mostly she creates a mess, but she has an awesome time doing it and as a reward I get amazing pictures of her where it looks like she has a goatee.  I hope my girls always want to hang out and make art together!

Plastic eggs.....not just for Easter

With all of the Easter festivities that we participated in, we ended up with a lot of plastic eggs!  For a while they were scattered all over our house, but eventually I rounded them all up and stuffed them out of sight in the garage.  Well, fast forward a couple weeks and imagine very bored girls.  I had a genius idea.  I got all the eggs out and had the girls take turns hiding eggs for each other to find.  They seriously spent a good 2 hours playing hide the eggs over and over again!  We also played with smiley stickers that grandma C sent for Easter......Eleanor mostly stuck them to her face.  We were able to enjoy the plastic Easter eggs for a few weeks before they mostly disappeared and some of them were left in the yard and eaten by the lawn mower.  It was fun while it lasted!

 Do I have something on my face?

Strawberry fields forever

This was the 4th year that we have gone strawberry picking with the girls' preschool.  I can still remember taking little Maddie on this field trip with an infant Charlotte and now Maddie is through with preschool, Charlotte will be in the oldest class and Eleanor will be starting next year.  It's amazing how quickly life flies by!  Maddie and Charlotte always love this field trip because......well, field trips are fun!  They like picking strawberries (for about 10 minutes before they lose interest) they love playing in the sandbox at the fields and they especially LOVE that they get an ice cream at the end.  I love that I get to eat juicy ripe strawberries while we pick, and that I get 3 huge buckets full of berries to take home and freeze and I also love the ice cream at the end!  Eleanor had a good although she wasn't huge on eating the strawberries while we were there.....she's not a big fan of fruit!  She did gorge herself once we got home.  Since the field trip we've gone back and picked more strawberries and I'm sure we'll do it again before the season is completely over!  Love strawberries.

This is Charlotte's best friend Wynston

Strawberry face

Ice cream face