8-year Well Child Visit

Sam and I took Amelie to her 8-year well child visit on Tuesday. Aunt Holly watched Leah and James for a bit so that we didn't have to drag the younger siblings along.

Weight: 53.8 pounds (38th percentile) 

Height: 4 feet, 11 inches (7th percentile) 

No shots!

She's got one more inch until she can go down the slide at the pool - I think if she eats a lot of healthy foods this summer, she might be able to grow that last bit :) Although I looked just now, and she only grew 2 inches since her 7 year well-child visit. I feel like she gains weight first and then shoots up, though, and it seems like she's on the cusp of another growth spurt according to that pattern.

8 years old:

Here's a comparison to her 5-year well visit :) 

Birthday Interview

I just realized when I linked to all the old interviews at the bottom that I'd spelled "Birthday" incorrectly in the title of the post last year. Oops.

We won't have Amelie's party for a few more weeks, but she did get several days of special celebration. Today was the last day of school, and her BFF Hattie got to ride the bus home with her and have a playdate. We went to the park and got ice cream and they tore around the house like madwomen.

Anyway, without further ado, here are Amelie's answers to the annual birthday interview questions:

1. How old are you? 8
2. What is your favorite color? Turquoise
3. What is your favorite toy? Books
4. What is your favorite game? Viva Pinata
5. What is your favorite song? Any song
6. What is your favorite animal? This is hard! I think it would be a cheetah
7. What is your favorite book? Any new book I haven't read. Okay, out of the books that you have already read, which one was your favorite? Nnewts 3
8. What is your favorite movie? The Book of Kells
9. What is your favorite TV show? Mya and Me
10. What is your favorite thing to eat? Chinese food!
11. Where is your favorite place to go? Grandma Mary's (so far, this and turquoise have been the only two the same as last year!)
12. Who is your best friend? Hattie - wait actually Kaitlin.
13. What is something you learned last year? I learned about how cool Angler Fish are. Anything else? I learned everything about the Angler Fish.
14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 8? Cursive!
15. What is your favorite part of school? Recess. What is your favorite special? Media Center.
16. Who is your favorite teacher? Ms. Malloy
17. What is hard for you to do? Writing. Why is that hard for you to do? I'm bad at spelling for some reason, but I am very good at reading and I love it.
18. What is your favorite thing to do? Read
19. What is your favorite thing to do with friends? Crack each other up - because we are very good at that.
20. What do you like about Me (Mama)? You are very kind.
21. What do you like about Dad? He's really kind about the computer and stuff like that.
22. What do you like about James? He is very cute and is a good playmate.
23. What do you like about Leah? She's cute, fun, and I wish for her to be a good person when she grows up.
24. What do you like about yourself? Ummm. I am very good at solving any kind of re-grouping problem.
25. What do you want to be when you grow up? Ummm. A farmer. (This one was the same as last year, too.) Amelie, do you even know what a farmer does? Yeah, grows plants and takes care of fish.

Four-Year-Old interview: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2014/05/birthday-interview.html

Five-Year-Old Interview: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2015/06/birthday-interview.html

Six -Year-Old Interview: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2016/05/birthday-interview-amelie-is-6.html

Seven -Year-Old Interview: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2017/05/brithday-interview.html

Even More Professional Photos

Here are the professional photos we had made in March - again with the fabulous Rhiannon Trask of Lollipop Photography.

Amelie is 7 and three-quarters in these pictures

James is five-and-a-half.

And Leah was one year! I was hoping that she'd demonstrate her skill of standing and taking some steps during the photo shoot, but she was just not having it.

I told (emailed) my friend Amanda that these were almost a disaster. I'd thrown out my back and Sam had something going on where he had to meet us there, so I'd carted the kids out to Grindstone Nature area.

I'm a sucker for pictures of the three of them together. So much personality!

I'm thinking about compiling some of the ones where Leah is really, really not enthused about the picture-taking into a separate post.

There's our happy girl. So big!

Look at that dandelion puff! You can see how she gets it naturally, from Sam's curly hair.

Family picture:

The big kids were very keen on taking this particular photo. They scouted out the bench and then just insisted that they get a picture on it.

It wouldn't be lollipop photography without lollipops!

If anybody wants prints, let me know which ones and I'll order them.

Professional Photos from September

Okay, so I was going to finally put up the pictures from Leah's 1 year photos and then I remembered I never put up the pictures from her 6 month photos. I've had them on my fridge, but do they really even count if they're not on the blog?

Leah was not exactly thrilled with the group photos, but I think it's funnier this way (and true to life). HA!

James had just turned 5.

Look how handsome!

This may be my very favorite of all time - she got some great candids.

Amelie had a softball game immediately after this (we were already at Cosmo Park).

The unparalleled Rhiannon Trask of Lollipop Photography has been doing our professional family photos forever.

Hibachi

We went to Osaka for hibachi. Leah was not quite as entertained by the cooking as I'd hoped she would be, though she does appear to be momentarily entertained by these noodles.

That frame when Nana Jana realizes I've been taking photos of her eating: 

Mother's Day 2018

I asked for a picture of me with the kids on Mother's Day, and they delivered! We were over at the playground at Shepherd Elementary after church and of course no one was around but Sam to take the picture, so he's not in it again. Hahaha.

In addition to the photo, I also received a beautiful candle votive from James, a finger painted coffee mug from Leah and an intricate card from Amelie. Happy Mom's Day, folks.

Here's the link to last year's.

Apple Tree

As I've mentioned before, I absolutely love our apple tree. We're expanding our driveway so that the cars can fit side-by-side, but we're going to save the apple tree (also, it's cheaper).

Here are some early blooms:

And here's a picture I took the next day - look how many more there are and how much lighter and more open they got just in 24 hours. 

Then I made Amelie stand in the photo so that this blog post would be more interesting. 

She strung those beads for a necklace in art class what feels like months ago. I keep thinking she'll get tired of it or lose it, but she's been wearing it pretty much every day, pretty much every where. (I love the art teacher at Ridgeway!)