At five, Katie has a tremendous imagination and loves to talk, so we hear loooooong, complex stories about what she is interested in. Her general theme is about princesses, princes (there are frequent marriages) and dragons. When she does a marriage scene, there will always be a romantic dance with her and Prince Ali (apparently from Aladdin - she has a book with a one page blurb about this) that ends with a dip and a kiss. She also enjoys dressing up and will change clothes frequently throughout the day, depending on if she is being a little girl, a princess or a mommy at the moment (Note: mommy's wear comfy pants and t-shirts - she clearly doesn't get her style from me!). Some of her combinations are quite eye-catching! She is getting increasingly interested in reading and writing and her drawing and painting skills are improving all the time.
One of my favorite moments of each week is the nights I take her to tae kwon do. It's winter. It's dark. As we near Yorkton, there is a radio tower off to the right with two white blinking lights on it - one about halfway up and one at the top. Every time we approach it, Katie gets all excited. According to her, it's the 'Belle signal' (Belle, from the story Beauty and the Beast). It is actually Belle's shoes that flash on and off. It means Belle is in trouble, often from a dragon, and needs to be rescued. The story changes a little every week and I quite enjoy hearing what Katie will come up with!
I did take pictures of her birthday (her friend party is still to come) but they seem to have disappeared into the mist. Her bright spot of the day was coming downstairs in the morning to find flowers on the table from Daddy. She.Was.THRILLED! Later, we went for a walk and had an adventure. It involved following a dragon without being seen, which meant we had to dive behind snow banks frequently. It was a lot of fun! In the afternoon, when Dean was home from work, she opened her presents - princess dress-up stuff from us, a Rapunzel doll and horse from G'ma and G'pa Woelk, and a pretty tunic and pants from G'ma and G'pa Freilinger. She wore all of it for her phone call and Skype 'dates' with her grandparents. I'm really pleased that she actually spent time talking to everyone. She is finally getting more comfortable with the phone and Skype. Very useful when everyone lives so far apart!
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| Dress/tunic from G'ma and G'pa Freilinger and dress-up stuff from us |
Today (Saturday, Feb. 2) we had her friend party. It went really well and the girls all played together nicely. Fortunately, they all also have younger siblings and were tolerant of Jacob playing with them. Katie's room looked like a tornado had swept through it by the time they were done but as long as the kids have fun and get along, I'm A-OK with it!
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| The requested castle cake |
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| Decorating paper crowns - they LOVED it! |
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| Happy Birthday! |
