Happy family

May took a few pictures for us. She's so good.

More birthday pictures

Check out the bike birthday cake Grandma Micki made for/with Casey. Casey was more excited about having a "candy cake" than about the bike on top, but it looked pretty cool. Especially the streamers. And you can see Casey's full outfit in the last photo. Stripey leggings, check. Flowery skirt with attached shorts, check. She won't wear it without a dress over it, so, pink and orange dress that she wears almost every day, check. Green t-shirt with picture of ice cream cone, check. She wouldn't even wear the pink t-shirt that said "I love my bike" that Grandma bought her. I was pretty surprised. We were able to talk her out of wearing the hoodie sweatshirt but the rest of the layers stayed. Then at the end we were all cold and she wasn't.

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We gave out books as party favors. "DW Rides Again" and "Mouse and the Motorcycle" for the bigger kids. It was perfect because she's very into DW and Arthur and also all of the Beverly Cleary books. We've finished all of the Ramonas and all of the Mouse books, and are on Henry Huggins.

Baby bear is 5

The bike birthday bbq was a big hit. All the kids brought their bikes and rode on the bike path around the picnic area. They played on the playgrounds. They ran around. They just played and entertained themselves. We hired someone to pick up the food and work the grill and we talked to our friends and played with the kids. It was a great day.

Always game for a party

[Eric posting...] A couple of weeks ago, we had a company "fun event" at a local bowling alley. It was close to Casey's camp, so I picked her up early and had her join us. She was *very* excited - there weren't really other kids, but she really didn't care. She had a 6 lb ball, bumpers, a ramp for the ball (she even got a strike), and of course snacks. And best of all, she was asked to help pass out prizes at the end (she the photos). I especially loved the polka-dot and stripes she chose for herself that day.

Baby's first silkworm sitting gig

Casey (well, Eric) is silkworm sitting for the neighbors. There are three of them. They eat mulberry leaves.

Happy birthday at Happy Hollow

Grandma Micki and Papa Ron took Casey to Happy Hollow for her birthday. How nice to go to Happy Hollow on a weekday. Casey went on every single ride from the roller coaster to the kiddie cars. When I asked her what her favorite part was, she said, "Just Grandma and Grandpa."

A special day for the birthday girl

Casey got to celebrate her birthday at camp, and she got a special pink fluffy tiara from her team leader, Beth. She wore it proudly all day. As far as I can make out, everyone sang "Happy Birdy" to her, which was apparently hilarious. And everyone in her group made her a picture. She was bouncing off the walls when I picked her up. Part of the bouncing was the excitement of knowing that she was going to have some surprise guests for her birthday dinner. Her grandparents were originally planning to come on Friday, so she suspected it was them, "Is it someone who has a dog named Kahuna?" "Maaaybe." I'm terrible at keeping surprises. She was thrilled to see them. She got a new globe and got to go to her favorite Japanese restaurant and have Reeses ice cream afterwards. We were there for the tail end of the farmer's market and got a great deal on a HUGE flat of beautiful strawberries. I better start cleaning them for the big party.

Growth Chart

[Eric Posting] Ok, so this is a bit nerdy, but I wanted to see what Casey's growth over time looked like. Here's the data as of her 5th birthday! Doctor Drucker told us she was in the 10th percentile for height. She sure seems like a big girl to me.

Almost 5

Oh our girl is getting so big. This week she's left DogDog at home (or in the car) every day. On Monday she was considering it and I sweetened the deal by throwing in the promise of a candy bracelet that she had just found while rummaging through my backpack (from preschool "fun" day). When I picked her up she was very proud of herself and when I handed her her prize she said, "I've been thinking about this bracelet all day!" Yesterday she got a candy necklace I had stashed away in the old pumpkin prize bucket and today I am tapped out on the candy bling, so I have to figure something out. She is really getting so big. It's crazy.
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Today is superhero day at camp, so she's going as pink polka dot girl, her not-so-hidden alter-ego. She wore her favorite outfit of pink polka dot dress, pink polka dot sweater, and brown polka dot winter tights. With her new pink backpack filled with her new pink lunchbox, her birthday presents from her Ohio grandparents, covered by a pink cape with a C on the back. So she looked more like the pink polka dot hunchback.
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She got some games for her birthday from her North Carolina grandparents yesterday (sorry grandparents, we open packages as soon as we get them) and one of the games has two letters and you have to add a third. She sounded out her first words. It was pretty amazing. She did some more this morning before camp. SAT and CAT.

Reunion

Saturday we had a reunion with 9 of the 18 families from our China trip. It was really amazing to see everyone. Other than the four families we hang out with (and met at least a year before our trip), we didn't really get to know the other families as well as we would have liked. It was so nice to sit down and talk and watch the girls play, swim, swing, and eat ice cream. This was the best picture I could get of all of them. From the left: Cami, Kaila, Ashley, Casey, Ava, Kyle, Sara, Simone, Brynn, and Sydney. We partied until the girls collapsed. We're already planning a party in Southern California next summer.

I almost forgot

The bugcatcher, the magic wall, the house, the talking stick, and I'm not sure who the last guy is. I guess he was for the city. At dinner Casey said, "Daddy, after dinner do you want to fly a kite or catch bugs?!" I think the kite is from last week.

Pajama day

Pajama day was certainly easier than dino/robot/pirate day or recycling day. On recycling day the kids had to dress in recyclables (I guess that's a word now). Eric made her a lovely v-neck dress with fringe sleeves out of a grocery bag, which Casey decorated with stickers. Eric made her some lovely shoes out of a FedEx box (in the style of the ones Nicholas made her). I helped her make a little paper bag puppet to be her DogDog. She almost made it to camp with her outfit on before she freaked out in the parking lot and started tearing it off. At first I was thinking it was good that she was learning to do homework, but then when we checked in the counselors said the parents were having a good time with this, which I think means that the parents are getting good practice in doing their kids' homework.

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Anyway, she picked her own pajamas for pajama day. Here is a picture of her with her counselor, Beth. Can you tell if she likes her? The picture also shows her buddy Dhruv, who used to be in her swim class, and is now in her camp group. They have been inseparable all week and no, he's not her boyfriend. She wants him to be her brother, and his mom and I can be twins. Dhruv's mom also heard this same plan.

The theme this week is "We built this city" and the kids collaborated on floats for a parade (photo 2), and murals (last two photos). We got to be the lucky lucky family to take it home. She made the red person on hers. Other campers did the painting and another kid made the other person on hers. The third picture shows her little propeller thing, that can blow in the wind. They also have some experiments with dirt, water, and a bean. So I have two cups of mud now... .

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They made water filters, using 2 liter bottles and lots of filtery sponges at the top, so you can pour in dirty water and clean water collects in the bottom. Luckily she didn't want to bring it home. She wasn't sure what any of the things did, but she had a great time making them.

Doctor and camp update

*updated.

Casey went to the doctor today. Four shots. Poor baby. And poor poor mommy. She's 32 pounds -5th percentile, 40 inches -11th percentile, and has a BMI of 14, which is the 16th percentile. Her pulse was 102 and her blood pressure was 88/42. A little low. Afterwards we went to See's Candy and that made her feel a little better. When she got her eyes checked, they made sure she knew all of the shapes before giving her the test. The guy showed her a circle, she said circle. He showed her a square, she said square. House, house. Check. Apple (without a stem), and she said a nose. The guy said, "a nose?" and she said, "A BIG nose. Like my daddy's." Hahahhahaha. It was hilarious. He said sometimes kids think it's a heart but he's never heard nose before.

She is still on the blue team at camp this week, but her team leader is out for a couple of days so she has someone else until Beth gets back. I met her because I had to pick Casey up early to take her to the doctor, but I didn't catch her name. She said Casey is VERY polite and she made a really cool Native American talking stick with lots of colorful beads. I guess I will see it on Friday. This morning she wanted pigtails. I put in two and then she requested a third one in the back. She was already wearing an orange and pink summer dress with red and other color striped winter tights, so I figured why not, it's probably crazy hair day anyway, and of course it was. Tomorrow is team color day but she doesn't want to wear blue (even though she is proudly sporting blue finger and toe nail polish). Wednesday is recycle day (I guess you wear a brown paper bag?), Thursday is water play day, and Friday is pajama day. Yay for pajama day, I've been waiting and hoping for this one. We have plenty of pajamas.

*The first photo is of Casey going through the "fun machine" entrance to camp. The second is her new dog, PupPup, Stripe, Stripe Stripe, I'm not sure his/her name has been determined yet. We were at Party City buying some supplies and she saw it and had to have it. So she spent 8 of her 11 dollars that she'd been saving. We sent PupPup instead of DogDog so that we could wean her off of DogDog, but when she arrived, everyone said, "Where's DogDog?"

Wesley! And Brynn!

Saturday we met Wesley and family so the kids could play on the playground and ride their bikes on a bike path around a field. Wesley is fast! And without training wheels! I brought my running shoes and ran a few laps, but Casey is already faster than me. Wesley's mom brought her rollerblades, so it was a lot of fun.

That night we met Jeanine and Brynn for dinner and a minor league baseball game. Casey seemed to like the game ... or maybe she just liked hanging out with everyone and sitting next to Brynn with a giant bag of kettle corn.

Campers on strike?

I have been wanting to go to camp. It sounds so fun. This week was the Forbidden City, so Casey was excited to learn about China. One of the weeks is Detective in Paris! Parents can pick the kids up at 2:30 on Friday and hear about what the kids have done that week, watch them sing a song, and then visit the art and science classrooms and pick up their stuff. I got there ten minutes early, because not surprisingly, there is less traffic at that time and I forget how much faster it is to get into the car without a kid, a lunch, a backpack, stuff, DogDog, and whatever Casey is able to talk me into bringing. I had to wait in the "parent party tent", where all the parents (including me) stood with their Trader Joe's and Whole Foods grocery bags (as instructed) for carrying home art and science projects.

The main counselor comes in and asks if we want to play a game. Um, no. Then she tells us with lots of drama and flare, the things the kids have been working on this week. We had to do a chant with hand motions, "Imagine, elaborate, create, and INNovate." It sounded fun, but all that chanting and rah rah made me glad I don't have to go to camp.

I went in and the bigger kids sang that "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" song, which I thought was sort of an odd choice, and I was looking EVERYWHERE for Casey and finally the younger kids came walking through, holding their home-made masks. Thank goodness they didn't teach the little kids (a.k.a. the nebula group) the kung fu song. Eric and I already have our heads full of:

"Casey, show us how you get down!"

"No way!"

"Casey, show us how you get down!"

"OK! D.O.W.N. That's the way I get down. Whoo! D.O.W.N. That's the way I get down! Whoo!" (She said she added the "whoo" herself.)

I also have "I Never Go to Work" by They Might Be Giants in my head. So the last thing I need is Kung Fu Fighting. Other current favorites are Doe a Deer and the national anthem.

Casey had dressed as a dog (the dress up theme was Chinese zodiac, so luckily we had the dog visor from her 2nd birthday party) and Eric fashioned a tail out of a sunglass holder bag and some tissues.

The science and the art rooms looked pretty cool. They had to make sturdy bridges out of toilet paper rolls, tape, and cardboard. Hers, well, wasn't so sturdy. We could barely get it to the car without tp rolls flying around the parking lot.

By the time I picked her up she was starving because she only ate her snacks at lunch and not her mac and cheese. She was so tired. I'm glad I came early that day. The other days she's been bouncing off the walls.

Camping a la mode

I finally sorted through all of the camping pictures. We're going to have to lay low this weekend and not do anything where I might want to take pictures. Since we'd already had s'mores the first night, Jonah made homemade (campsitemade?) chocolate ice cream on the second night! In the sixth picture you can see him leading the girls to the ice cream maker and in the one after that they are licking the bowl. We had a good campsite, close but not too close to the bathroom and the playground, and the girls had a great time playing on the playground and in the campsite together, climbing on, walking on, and jumping off of logs. But all of them said their favorite part was the beach. It was a gorgeous beach and a beautiful day.

On the first morning, the girls feasted on cake 'n bacon for breakfast. On the last day, Jonah made what Eric called our 7,000 calorie breakfast. We ate oatmeal, scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes, bacon, and I think there may have been fruit. I can't even remember what else. I am full just thinking about it.