day ten...

I LOVE my Amelia Dawn.

My crazy girl is five years old.

We watched old video of her when she was itty bitty. It hardly seems possible that so much time has passed.

Mind you, there have been bumps in the path of life with our Amelia Bedelia. God knew what a truth would come from naming her Amelia.

She is always keeping me on my toes, and forever rewarding me with her incredible personality.

She's an original.

Like no other.

She's my Amelia...

thankfully...

Praise the Lord for this little truth!

sneaky sheik...

*confession: I had to google "sheik" to make sure of the spelling*

Amelia has been playing hide-and-seek. A fun game. But she's playing it with fairly important items and she's playing herself against the adults.

Scenario #1...The phone.

Cory needs to make a phone call. He picks up the phone and it tells him the line is in use. How is this possible when the kids and the wife are already heading outside to the van? All the usual places are checked -the couch, the counter top, the floor- to no avail. Super-sleuths that we are, we decide one of the kids must have used it last and forgot to turn it off. Amelia fesses up. She was playing. It's in her room - ON - for over 2 hours and 12 minutes.

Scenario #2...The sock.

We need to pack up to leave Grandpa and Grandma's house. As I go to put Nora's socks and shoes on, it is discovered that we are only in the possession of one sock. A mad high and low search commences. Grandma's house is immaculate, well, save the mess my girls have created during their visit. It shouldn't be too hard to find the missing orange sock. That is, unless someone has hidden it. So Nora went home with a bare foot in her shoe and Amelia sat on her secret for 24 hours. We did not find out until the next day that Amelia had taken the sock and hidden it - twice. She moved it from it's first hiding place halfway through our scavenger hunt, because she feared it would be discovered.

Hide and seek is a fun game...when everyone knows they are playing it...

day niner...

A sneak peek

at the preparations for the upcoming birthday festivities

for my favorite soon-to-be 5 year olds...

This is part of the gifts I am making for the girlies.

Can you guess what it might be?

...and the cake beginnings. The cake is always a labor of love...

day 8...

Amelia received her first birthday card in the mail. It was from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Barb. They are so faithful with their cards. Always the first to arrive for the big day!

day seven...

Amelia came to tell me a story she had written. Something about a school of fish being chased by a shark with 12 teeth. She kept glancing at the back of her pictures. I realized she was mimicking her Sunday School teacher telling the Bible story off of ABeka flash-a-cards. My suspicions were solidified when i turned the papers over and saw her "writing" on the back.

She loves her Sunday School class and her teacher, Aunt Amie. She can often reiterate the story they learned that day, which is a small feat for a 4 year old. Apparently, flash-a-cards is the ultimate way to tell a story, even when it comes to fish and sharks...

day six...

Our contribution to the family Super Bowl gathering...

I am not a football fan. Actually, I am not a sports fan in general. My brother inherited ALL of the sports fan genes from Dad. I love the atmosphere at an actual sporting event. I'll cheer for whomever you want me to. Well, I probably won't cheer, but I'll clap and get involved in all the local chants and cheers...

But when you marry a cheesehead, and you move to dairyland, and you have little cheesehead offspring, you are required to have some sort of anticipation about the Green Bay Packers playing in the Superbowl. So I made green and gold cupcakes with the girls. Voila!

Calla scrounged up some green and gold shirts and layered them. Nora wore the only Packer paraphernalia we own. (because there are loyal fans and then there are loyal fans willing to pay $60 for a jersey...we are the former.)

Gather the entire family at the in-laws. Pause for an hour-long church service, thankfully over halftime. *"I think you are the only church in the nation that isn't having an afternoon service..."* Reconvene. Eat cupcakes. Pop some popcorn. Cheer the Pack on to victory. Day six...