Fall 2012

First day of K4 for Sophie and first grade for Lily!

(had some camera troubles this day- sorry)

Here are some pictures of the the girls and their friend, Meredith, playing at a little fall festival at the Silverbrook Nursery and Garden

Here are a couple of recent artistic creations from Lily and Sophie.



 Pony by Sophie Hesselton

 Pocohontas by Lily Hesselton

Halloween time! Here are the lovely Pocohontas and princess Merida.

*I tried my best, but could not get Sophie to wear the wig:(

Summer 2012

Ok, so I have been somewhat remiss in taking pictures this summer- sorry!! However, I think this day of pictures captures quite well what we have been up to for much of the summer:

Sophie finally put her face in the water a couple of weeks ago- I am so proud of her! I think I may sign her up for swimming lessons this fall so that she hopefully doesn't lose this skill by next summer. Maybe by next year I will have 2 swimmers!

Lily is getting better at her above water swimming (doggie paddle), which has proven to be the most difficult for her by far!

So, as you can see we're having a fun summer. I'll try to keep you updated more frequently in the future:)

All About Lily: Age 6 Edition!

Stats:
Weight: 43 lbs- 40th percentile
Height: 45.25 inches- 52nd percentile
vision- 20/25 in both eyes

Motor skills:
Fine motor- Lily is learning how to write sentances in school, including leaving appropriate amount of space between words and using punctuation. She has also conquered the lower case b and d- no longer reverses them, which was definitely a challenge! Lily's major triumph in the fine motor department this year, however, is finally learning to tie her shoes the "grown up" way- not the "bunny ears" way:)
Gross motor - Lily has really spent the majority of her free time mastering some cool skills over this past year. In order from first to last, she learned to ride a bike without training wheels, learned to go across the monkey bars, did her first cartwheel (Weeell, close enough), and just recently learned to jump rope(thanks, Grammy!)- double jump, single jump, forwards and backwards! Take a look!

What a show off;)

School skills:
The biggest achievement in this area, I would have to say, is that Lily went from basically sounding out words to really reading. Of course, she is reading beginning reader type books, but has really come a long way in her ability to more smoothly read and with real inflection- it's so cute! She is also learning to add, subtract, count by 10's, 5's and 2's, identify the name and value of coins, and tell time. I think one of the other important things she is learning is to manage her time so that she can get her work done on time- she's come a long way with this this year! Her teacher even recently told me that Lily moved her own desk to the wall one day so that she could concentrate and get her work done! Of course, the whole plan back fired as her school mates also thought this was a good idea and followed suit, creating a whole uproar, but that's a another story altogether. . .

Personality:
She's oh so friendly, sweet, and caring. Equally, she has her points throughout the day in which she is overly emotional and irrational- sometimes related to needing a snack, sometimes not. . . She can also be distractable and a bit spacey(I know, I know- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree), and finally, she is very competitive! Being distractable and competitive can, at times, be a bad combination. For example, her teacher tells me that Lily is almost always the first to (very emphatically and urgently) raise her hand to answer a question. However, after being called on, about half of the time Lily has to ask her what the question was- oh brother!

Favorite things:
Food: meal-pizza  vegetable- zuchinni  dessert-ice cream with chocolate topping
TV show: My Little Ponies (the new version)
Book: The Bible
color: purple
Song: America
Movie: The Search for Atlantis
What she wants to be when she grows up: chef/hair stylist

Favorite activities:
1. Playing outside with her best neighborhood buddy, Carly- Many, many, many hours have been spent together outdoors on bikes, on trampolines, jumping rope, playing 4 square, roller skating. . .  Interestingly, Carly (who is a year older than Lily) accomplished many of the same gross motor skills listed above just before Lily did. Coincidence? Definitely not! As soon as Carly mastered something new, Lily just about killed herself until she was able to do the same. Describing her as competitive is sort of an understatement!
2. Leap Pad (thank you Grandpa Bill!)- Well, lets see, she can take pictures, take video, make her own story book using her pictures or choose to illustrate it herself, take care of a virtual pet, play games, etc. The girl's in heaven! So much so that she burned through 4 AA batteries in less than 2 days- the one down side.
3. Arts and crafts- Lily still loves to draw, paint, and craft. She did a couple of really nice drawings of the Little Mermaid and Pocahontas earlier this year(see below), but she doesn't draw her usual princesses/barbie's nearly as much as she used to. This year, I'd say this has definitely been overshadowed by her new found passion for the first two favorites. Rather than draw pictures, she also recently loves to write little notes/cards to her family or friends and sign her name in cursive, which is basically just her name printed with a bunch curly cues added any and everywhere:)

What a great gal!

Lily Lost her First Tooth- Finally. . .

but, not the one you might think! For those of you following the saga, her left front bottom tooth, which has been wiggly for weeks and which has another new tooth more than half way grown in right behind it, is still in! The tooth right next to it came out on Monday. Hopefully the other one will soon be following! Anyway, Lily was just beside herself with excitement at the prospect of a visit from the tooth fairy! I'm not sure of the going rate these days, but the tooth fairy brought her $1. Not just any dollar, mind you. It was a dollar folded into the shape of a heart:) Wish the tooth fairy could have figured out how to make the shape of a tooth, but oh well- beggars can't be choosers!

Sophie is 4!

Here is the latest on my precious little Sophie, now that she is 4 years old!

Stats (at 4 years 1 month):
34.5 pounds, ~43thrd percentile
40.25 inches, ~64th percentile
vision- 20/25 in R eye and 20/30 in L eye

Motor skills:
Fine motor- Sophie can write her own name and her sister's- you'll see why momentarily:) She is also starting to get the hang of cutting. Sophie's drawing and coloring have also improved significantly- both her teacher and her Sunday school teachers remark at what a nice job she does with her coloring. Her drawings of people look quite similar to last year, but with a lot more detail:)
Gross motor-Sophie is a great galloper and somersaulter:) She can pump on the swings really well now and is quite proud of this accomplishment. She is also learning to ride her first bike (thanks, Grandpa Bill!). Once she gets the hang of the whole looking where you're going thing, she'll be great!

School skills:
Sophie is starting to put letter sounds together. In fact, she surprised even herself when she read the word 'me' the other day. However, I think her area of strength is with numbers, as she is catching on to some of the same concepts that Lily is learning in school, such as coin identification and counting by 10's- much to lily's annoyance:) She is also loving learning new bible stories each week in school and she is really absorbing what she is learning. For example, she often reminds me that God loves everybody so, so much even when we disobey. . .

Personality:
I would characterize Sophie mainly by the following: Strong-willed, persistent, determined, imaginative, inquisitive, creative, loving, sweet and cuddly. The first three traits have gotten her into a bit of trouble at school on a few occasions, but I must say I'm glad that she has the courage to stick up for herself. Unfortunately, school is not a democracy and I think eventually she will learn to pick her battles. I mean, having to sit on the potty when you don't have to go (even if it is just for your teacher's own peace of mind) is not the worst thing in the world;) Moving on. . .She is definitely a mama's girl; in fact, when we are home she somehow always seems to finagle herself so that she is either sitting on my lap, or at least leaning against me, as well as gives me countless hugs daily.What a lucky mom I am! She loves her daddy a whole bunch too- while she also gives him lots of hugs, she seems to think of him as a great big play structure- ouch! Not to leave out Lily, Sophie will also frequently say, "Oh, Lily. . . I love you" in the most sincere little voice- what a sweetie- a stubborn little sweetie:)

Favorite things :
Color: pink and purple  -Say what!? Yep, green is no longer number 1, but I can tell she still likes green quite a bit.
Food: Meal- macaroni and cheese  Dessert- ice cream and  Vegetable- broccoli
Song: Away in a manger
Book: Madeline
TV show: Mike the Night  -No longer, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!- Yay!
Movie: Cinderella
What she wants to be when she grows up: Dentist

Favorite activities:
1. Drawing and coloring and any type of crafting! On the weekends, Sophie usually wakes up early and goes straight to the toy room in which she will sit at her "desk" and draw or color various masterpieces for at least 1-2 hours! Lately, her main thing is to make a card for Lily. This involves drawing a picture, folding the paper in half, then writing Lily's name on the folded half with a heart underneath. We have countless examples, but here's one of her better ones:

The front of the card- night sky with crescent moon

Inside the card- Sophie, Lily and mommy in a tent and daddy coming with plate of cookies

Back of card- Lily's name with pink and purple hearts

and here's one more of her drawings:

(Members of the Mickey mouse clubhouse holding umbrellas underneath raining heart clouds)

Here is an adorable video I caught of Sophie in action while crafting one day. I call this video "Hidden Tiger, Crafting Sophie" aka Sophie crafting while wearing her Chinese dress and tiger face paint- and singing her little heart out to boot! (the banging you hear in the background is Lily deciding to add some percussion)

and finally here is an example of how creative she is. We have some square pieces of tissue paper sitting around and she used them to make this cute little creature early one Saturday morning:

*I'd say that this favorite of Sophie's is by far her strongest favorite and is what she spends most of her time doing. In fact, I had to sit and think for a while before I could come up with other favorites. I guess this goes back to her determined and persistent personality!

2. Singing and dancing: As I've written and posted video of before(and above), Sophie loves to sing and that she does quite a lot- along to the radio, songs she learns in school, and various songs that she makes up while playing. She also loves to dance to music. She loves to learn Lily's tap numbers and can do most of them right along with her when Lily is practicing at home- it is so cute to watch!

3. Cuddling with her blankies and stuffed animals: This has been fairly consistent over the years. She loves cuddling up with her favorite blankie (over her head) and her favorite stuffed animal at the moment, which changes frequently. She continues to love and nurture her stuffed animals and neglect her baby dolls- just like Lily did!- I guess it runs in the family:)

From the words of her new favorite book, "that's all there is, there isn't any more."

Easter Program 2012!

Resurrection Eggs

Sophie's Entrance

Song: My God is so Big

Song: How Great is our God

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkte6wfxbk&feature=youtu.be

Happy St. Patricks Day! (A few days late)

Interpretive dance performance by Sophie Hesselton:)