4 was a good year...

Karina turns 5 tomorrow. She has been preparing herself for the transition for a while now, but I think it really hit home as we were planning her party this week.

Every day, several times a day, Karina has been announcing that this is her last everything of being 4. Her last Monday, last day of school, last day at church, last time coloring, last time eating breakfast for dinner, last time looking out the window, last time flossing, last time organizing her elephants, last time drinking from the orange cup.....you get the idea. It has been really funny to hear her almost mourn a little bit everyday.

Along with that, here are a couple of other things words of wisdom that we have heard this week from our almost 5 year old:

"Being 4 has been hard work. 5 just has to be easier!"

"Mommy, can you make more of the foods that I don't like this week? I only want to have to take 4 bites of them instead of 5! (We have a rule of taking the number of bites of things that you are years old.)

"Will my clothes still fit me when I turn 5?"

"You know... 4 has been okay and fun, but I am definitely ready for 5!"


And my favorite so far...
"Do you think that people will still know who I am when I turn 5? I worry about that. What if I don't look the same anymore?"

I can't wait to hear what her first words are going to be tomorrow morning when reality is here and she is officially 5!

Another Zoo Visit

In late March, we took the kids to the zoo again. It's definitely been a favorite place of ours this last year. We splurged for an annual membership and it's definitely paid off. All three girls love going.

Jadyn enjoys so many of the animals. This visit she again got to feed the birds. It's pretty cool - they have an enclosed bird house, and you walk in and get a popsicle stick with some bird feed on the end. The birds are so used to people that you can then walk around and hold it near a bird, and the bird will come stand on either the stick or your hand and eat the food.

Karina always wants to see "her" elephants. Every day, usually around 2, they have their elephant keeper's talk. So we usually try to plan our trip to make sure we're over there at that time. This time, we even got a picture of Karina with Russ, one of her favorite elephant keepers. The other picture of Karina is so cute - she was gazing at her favorite elephant, Chai, with this total look of adoration.

I don't know if Makenzie has a favorite yet. We keep asking her, but she must be holding back her opinion, because she never tells us. She lights up at any animal she sees - especially the colorful ones and the ones that move around a bunch. She points and smiles really big, so we're assuming she likes them all.

This time we also put the kids in a cool climbing tree in the zoo and snapped several pictures. This one of Karina and Jadyn turned out so cute. The other one, posted on the previous post, is our favorite of the three girls.

Adorable Photo