Goldfish and Glitter: Kemble

Kemble turned 5 years old this past week. I can hardly believe it! It seems like yesterday I was starting this blog after I found out we were pregnant. I realize I've been terrible... worse than terrible... about posting updates. There are just not enough hours in the day!!

We celebrated our best girl with an old-fashioned ice cream parlor party. We had it at Mamie's house - the perfect setting for the event! We had quite a turnout and plenty of ice cream and toppings for everyone!

We made an ice cream truck photo booth for the kids, and a cute ice cream cart to serve the ice cream out of. Kemble got lots of gifts, especially dolls and doll accessories, she's really into her American Girls , she got a new Kit doll and an outfit to match Saige, as well as a gift card to shop at the AG store, and she also got lots of Barbies. Craft stuff, Elsa dolls and other Frozen goodies, a pillowcase with her name on it that she can color herself, books, princess dresses and toys, and a velcro monster puppet for some silly puppet shows!

On her real birthday, she woke up to her favorite tradition: a room full of balloons and decorations. She got to have pancakes for breakfast with candles and went to dance where they sang Happy Birthday and did the princess dance. Tuesday before her birthday she took cupcakes to school for her friends! Unfortunately Stephen had to travel that week and missed her big day but thankfully was home for the party!

At age 5, Kemble is 35 pounds and 42 inches tall. She's a very healthy little girl and rarely ever gets sick. She is almost always happy, sweet, and silly. She's incredibly smart. She LOVES to read and can read and comprehend just about anything. She reads everything she sees, and would stay up all night reading books in her bed if I'd let her. I recently did a couple of tests I found online for homeschool moms and on both of them she tested between a 4th and 5th grade reading level!!!! I'm amazed at how easily it has come to her and proud of how much she loves it.

She loves learning new words and what they mean. She has been able to write her letters for about a year, but she is still working on being able to spell all those words she knows, which can be frustrating for her at times, but she's improving quickly and loves to figure out how to spell words on her own and she is always so proud of herself when she does!

She wrote my grocery list for me. Can you guess which items she added herself?!

I have been sitting here trying to describe Kemble's personality... it's such a hard thing to summarize in your own child. I've realized though that the best way to describe her is that she is passionate - so whatever emotion she's feeling or mood she's in, it's 110%! She can be the sweetest, gentlest little loving soul, or she can be fiery and sassy, calm or completely wound up, she can be sweet to her brother and she can also be not so sweet to him, she can be over-the-top silly or serious as can be.

Telling me to get out of her room....

One of the biggest changes in Kemble in the past year, is that she has become so aware of her feelings, which I think is really healthy. She does tend to get jealous when Graham gets special attention, or even when a friend gets a special privilege or toy, etc. She has been able to identify that feeling and let me know how she's feeling so we can talk about it. It's not all negative feelings, though. The morning of her birthday I filled her room with balloons and banners like I always do, and the first thing she said was "Mama I feel special". My baby is really growing up!

Kemble has amazing faith. She prays the sweetest, most heartfelt prayers, and although her faith in God and his handiwork is so childlike and pure, it's also quite mature for her age I feel. We recently lost both Brendley and Handy, our family dog and horse, and she easily accepted that they were in heaven, where we'd see them again someday, simple as that. She loves going to Bible class and learns so much from her great teachers. Now that she's reading, she also has enjoyed singing along during worship services. So very sweet!

She loves to craft. She loves to cut and glue cards together, and she loves stickers and stamps. She loves painting. She loves to play outside on her trampoline, or in the sand & water table. She loves to ride her scooter. She often resists riding her bike, unless we make her, then she remembers she loves it. :)

Daddy's Valentine card; she wrote all of the names on her friends' and family's cards by herself!

Painting like Saige, a great self-portrait!

Making a sign for Daddy to welcome him home from a work trip :)
I couldn't resist the hilarious pictures of Graham as well!

Kemble and I with our Santas we painted at Painting with a Twist for BB's birthday.

She did hers all by herself.

Everyone has fun playing Hedbanz

She's recently enjoyed playing with her American Girl dolls a lot. She's been collecting them for a couple of years. She inherited my 5 and has gotten 3 more of her own. I love seeing her play with my old toys! That's what I saved them for all these years! She loves to read their books and watch the movies too.

Doing a photo shoot of Bitty Baby

Opening Saige last Christmas from BB and Daddy Butch

Dressing like Julie with stuff from her own closet!

Painting and she posed just like Saige's movie cover without any prompting from me....

Kemble loves sports. She loves to hit baseballs and she hits almost every one that comes to her! She loves to kick the soccer ball around, jump on her trampoline and do cheerleader jumps, and most of all, she loves to dance. She is taking ballet and tap again this year and has really blossomed as an excellent dancer. In fact, she spends most days dancing around the living room nonstop. She will turn on the Pandora app on our TV and play music and just dance to song after song. She loves to do ballet, but she also loves to do jazz and hip hop.

Playing beach baseball with the Buie clan

Playing backyard baseball

Shooting her bow from Daddy Butch and getting lessons from him and Tres in Hamilton

Dancing in the street with Gentry at the Trucks N Tunes event downtown ----- Ready for her end of the year program

Dance recital! She did AMAZING!!!

She loves putting on puppet shows. We even made this puppet theater together just for them!

Doing Wii Yoga

Bike Rodeo at Funday School

These are a few of her favorite things (according to her)

FOODS: cheese, yogurt, apples, sweets, cereal, bacon, pancakes, pizza, lemonade, milk, water, ice cream, tomato soup, beans, chicken noodle soup, pumpkin muffins

MOVIES: Despicable Me 1 & 2, American Girl movies, Frozen, Monsters Inc/University, all Disney princess movies, Toy Story
TV SHOWS: Rachael vs Guy's Kids' Cook-off, Pioneer Woman, Southern at Heart, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, the 7D, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Lalaloopsy

CLOTHES: comfy soft pants, dresses, t-shirts, smocked dresses, princess dresses

GAMES: Eye Found It, HeadBanz, Go Fish, Old Maid, Where is Lalaloopsy, Wii Sports, Wii RockBand

BOOKS: Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, Tim Bugbird's fairy books, princess storybooks, Seek and Find books, Pete the Cat books, cookbooks, her Bible.... but really she just loves any book she can get her hands on. Going to BB's book fair is always quite a dilemma of what to choose!