Our Karina turned 6 this past August. She has the third and last of the summer birthdays in our family and has to patiently wait through her sibling's birthday celebrations until her's arrives. On the other hand, she gets to see what they get for their birthday presents and sometimes gets good ideas.
This year, that was the case... When it was time to open her presents...
She was very specific in what she wanted.
She got a pair of ice skates! The girls took ice skating lessons this past summer and really enjoyed it. Eliana got a pair of ice skates earlier for her birthday and Karina wanted a pair as well.
She also got a pair of roller skates and some other presents.
That was our family celebration that we do with the kids. We always also have a party with their friends. To help prepare for that, the kids helped make the snacks and treats that Karina wanted. Here they are helping make brigadeiros, which is a Brazilian dessert that tastes a lot like chocolate fudge.
Karina also helped fill her piñata with candy. Yes--it's a glass slipper piñata.
She was filling her piñata while wearing her roller skates. She sometimes wears the skates around the house, while doing chores, helping to set the table, etc.
We also made cupcakes with pink frosting. She doesn't really like cake but realizes that most everyone else will be expecting it at her party.
At her request, we had the party at a local park. We lay the food down on blankets and the kids helped themselves. Gabe planted himself close to the food--smart boy!
Here are her little friends snacking on the treats.
Eliana is also enjoying the food as well.
Then came time to open presents. She got many wonderful presents from her friends. One is a set of many rolls of scotch tape, but instead of clear tape, the tape was colorful and decorative and had lots of different patterns. You can use them to decorate your shoes, books, etc.
Then came time to smash the glass slipper with a wooden bat! Karina got to go first as the birthday girl.
Xiao Yu took a few swipes.
A swing and a miss! From Gabe.
And when some candy fell out, the kids rushed in like a pack of hyenas.
And last but not least, it was time to sing and blow out candles. It was a bit breezy and so the candles were going out by themselves. So Elvin used his body as a windshield and we had to sing quickly.
Overall it was a fun party and clean-up was very easy since this was at the park!
One big accomplishment that Karina has made recently is riding her bike. She decided that she wanted to try to ride her bicycle without training wheels. So we packed into the car to go to the local school with a track with a rubberized surface. And why waste time putting on your helmet later when you can put it on now?
Ok, training wheels are off!
And off she goes!
We told her to go around the track a couple more times. Elvin is out of shape and couldn't keep up. She picked up her new skill pretty quickly!
Karina still has a hard time starting and stopping by herself, but otherwise she's pretty much got it.
Gabey also came along to ride his trike. It was quite warm that day and because he gets so sweaty, he ended up getting a bad case of helmet hair.
The weather is cooling down and the days are getting shorter. It's definitely back-to-school season!
It's hard to believe that summer is over. At the same time, the kids were starting to go crazy without the structure of school and it is nice to get back into a routine.
Xiao Yu was the first one to start up school again. He goes to his pre-school four days a week and loves it.
Here he is on the first day...he is waiting outside for the little bus to arrive. His backpack is so big it looks like he is wearing a turtle shell.
The bus picks him up and drops him off every time--it is soooo convenient. Also...he LOOOVES riding the school bus. It might be the highlight of his entire day.
Eliana is being home schooled right now but goes to school in a classroom through the school district once a week. She has opted to take the bus, which is convenient except for the fact that the pick up time is at the wee hours of 7:02AM. Ouch. That means either Mommy or Daddy have to get up at 6:30AM to get her up and help her get ready for school. It's hard to believe that only a short time ago we were getting up at all hours of the night to take care of crying babies. But now that our kids are (mostly) sleeping through the night, we've gotten spoiled and are used to sleeping till 7:30AM.
On Eliana's first day of school last week, everyone in the household was excited and decided that they also needed to get up early. Hence the "group goodbye" to Eliana as she boards the bus.
Also on Tuesday's, Karina attends one day of classroom school in addition to being homeschooled. She leaves for that a little later in the morning.
On her first day last week, Daddy drove her and walked her in. Here is her classroom and in the background, her new teacher. This is a big adjustment for her; it's the first time in a "real" school as opposed to the pre-school that she's attended for the past 3 years.
In addition to school, the kids are starting up various extracurricular activities. Karina is doing dance along with Eliana.
Here are the buns that Mommy braided for her.
And last but not least, Ruffy is starting up pre-school again. This year, unlike last, he is happy to goes and enjoys it. It helps that he has the same teacher, Mrs. Nuce, who is very nice to him and a great teacher. He is wearing his new basketball jersey outfit and his new Paw Patrol sweatshirt, which has a mask on the hood. You can pull the mask over your face so that you'll look like one of the characters (Chase the dog) while still being able to see through it. Very exciting stuff.
So our family is getting back into the swing of things. Hope you are having a good fall!
Karina got a new toy recently, as a reward for doing some of her homework. It is a robotics kit for little kids. There is a motor and you can build various things around it, like a bird, dog, or in this case, an insect.
Karina loves building things and figuring out how to make things work. So this is currently her favorite toy.
She found a box for it, which is it's nest. Inside is a couple balls of rolled up tissue--it's eggs.
