Mari is 5!

Mari's 5th birthday arrived! We'd told her that it couldn't happen, that she's have to stay 4 longer. However, Mari said that God called and that she'd told Grandma, "Mari HAS to turn 5!" So that was that!

We spent the morning at swim class, then at Chrissy Field. It was a beautiful and crisp day. We found many shells and remnants of "unfortunate deaths" (e.g. crab, mussel and hermit crabs). They were used to decorate sand castles. I ended up with sand everywhere after an attempt to eat Mari and Kaia's noses. We went home when hunger called, worked a bit, then Grandma came to pick them up.

Mari's dinner choice was broccoli, chicken, and noodles with red sauce (the sauce she didn't end up eating). And she made a delicious fruit smoothie for dessert, blowing out one candle 5x for 5 wishes! Grandma, Papa, Don, Monique and Luca all joined us. She received really nice birthday calls and wishes from her godparents and Alessandra! Her smile was sweet and showed how much it all meant to her.

Our school year is in full swing! Our weeks are busy and filled with interesting classes and time spent with friends. There is so much that Kaia and Mari have to be proud of! Mari and Kaia love singing and are both enjoying chorus. Alternate Wednesdays are spent at Huddart Park in Woodside, learning wilderness skills and spending the day among the trees, deer, and friends. Art class has honed drawing skills and inspired making bold attempts at new animal drawings. Thursdays we spend in Belmont at Thinkering. Kaia spends his day at the cottage: astronomy and Team Challenge in the morning, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the afternoon. Mari has a group of 5 girls that we spend the day with, dancing, dressing up, reading books, cooking, doing art projects and whatever else they are dream up. Fridays, Kris comes for a few hours; he is really a wonderful part of our week, allowing me to get some planning done and the kids to play games, go to the beach, hike around the neighborhood and make haunted houses. There are so many details I'd like to capture... more soon!