First season of soccer.

Clara started soccer this year!  It was hysterical.  6 kids were on her team, and only 3 were on the field at a time.  The kids learned some basics like which direction to go and to NOT use their hands.  But most importantly, they had a blast out there!  Clara seriously smiled the entire time she was playing with her friends.  It was a fabulous first experience!

Oh!  And Kurtis was one of the coaches!  He was awesome!

Spring fun 2015.

For part of spring break, Clara and I headed up to Lewiston to visit the Kaufmans.  It's always nice when we just hang out and spend time together.  And these cousins always keep us entertained!

It was almost Easter, so we painted some Easter eggs to hang as a garland on the mantle.

Kurtis got roped into helping the National Wild Turkey Federation this year (even more than usual) and we had to go to the banquet.  Clara loved it and got a hat and a new scooter.  She even got to help Opa draw the name of the winner of a game that night.

I worked on a new quilt for Clara.  It was the first BIG quilt with many, many pieces to sew together, and it went so much better than I expected.  It is full of flaws, but it covers her new big girl bed!  I picture her keeping it forever, so that made it worth it!

Gwen and Mac are good at just hanging out around the house, and Gwen joined me on some runs this spring in preparation for a 10 K Teenie and I ran last weekend.  We both aren't as young as we used to be!!!

We played music on our guitars, too.

And Auntie Em graduated from nursing school at Boise State University!  Woohoo!  Go Em!  She has a job already, too!  Her time working as a CNA in the ICU at St. Als really paid off!!!  She starts nursing in the ICU in mid-June!

The proud family members!

Plenty of other things happened this spring, too!  But I'm feeling behind so I lumped all of these together!

Clara at four.

At four, Clara:

is 42 inches tall - 89th percentile
weighs 37 pounds - 66th percentile

Favorites according to Clara

color - pink and red and blue
toy - play dough
fruit - grapes
vegetable - salad - the leaves
tv show - Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Curious George
food - pizza
outfit - dresses
game -Candyland
animal - tiger
song -  "Let it Go" - ugh
book - Alice and Wonderland
drink - juice (still a rarity around here)
What is something Mommy says to you - "If you don't get what you want, you don't throw a fit!"
What is something Daddy says to you - "Christoph can't sleep in your room...he needs to sleep in the camper" - she's best friends and siblings with all the Frozen characters and they are with us 24/7
What makes you happy - hugs
What makes you sad - "when I bonk mine head"
How old is Mommy - two ones - yep...11
How old is Daddy - threes - she shows two threes - 33 with her hands
How old are you - FOUR
What is your favorite thing to do - play
Who is your best friend - Maci
What are you really good at - writing letters
What do you dream about - my brothers and sisters - she's quite imaginative
What is your favorite thing to do outside - play with my friends or cousins
What is your favorite place to go - Stanley and Kidz Again (local consignment store)
What do you need to take to bed with you at night - my pink pillow and my Mac-y (our big black lab)


Quirks at four:

• She still loves her baby dolls, and loves to carry them, feed them, change their clothes, and push them in her stroller
• She is INDEPENDENT and doesn't want help getting undressed or getting her shoes on, filling her water glass, getting her coat on or zipped, among many other things
• She loves to sing all kinds of songs
• She knows most of her uppercase letters - still needs work with D and U, and she sometimes confuses M and N if she sees them in isolation
• She knows many lowercase letters but still needs to practice - b, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, q, t, u, and y
• When she colors or paints, she still covers the page with patches of colors and leaves hardly any white space
• The second we get home she removes her shoes and socks and sweater or jacket
• She loves to touch the dead things her daddy brings home from his hunting/fishing trips - yuck!
• The girl can eat more dead meat than any kid I know - she loves it!  And she usually likes it cooked rare-ish - such sophisticated taste!
• She is finally over he obsession with milk
• She still naps for 2-3 hours a day  3 or 4 days a week.  But she skips a nap about every other day.
• She's been fully potty trained (at night and during the day) since early summer.  So awesome not having any more diapers to buy!
• She still only eats when she feels like it, but will eat almost anything (some super spicy foods bother her)
• She's extremely imaginative and loves to pack her bags and "go camping" on the dog bed, or lay out all the blankets she can find and tuck babies and stuffed animals in with them!
• She ate Life cereal almost every morning for the entire year!  She's just not sick of it!
• She's an outside girl, and feels like she's being tortured if we don't go outside to play each day 
• She loves to help clean and cook and does a pretty good job of cleaning up after herself
• She can dress herself but still sometimes struggles with buttons and zippers.  Her shoes are almost always on the wrong foot which drives family members crazy!
• She has twirled her hair, or my hair when she was really little, to go to sleep ever since she was born.  But recently, the hair twirling has taken a turn and she's waking up with knots that are nearly impossible to get out in the morning.  So we've been getting after her and asking her not to twirl, which makes me a little sad.  But the knots have to be stopped!
• During every dinner (I'm not exaggerating) she has to excuse herself to go to the bathroom.  Every dinner!
• Mac sleeps on her bed with her each night.
• She can finally (as of Christmas) say all the teen numbers.  She skipped 13 for a long time and then would skip count by 2s from 14-20.  

1st Piano Festival.

Clara participated in her first piano festival on March 14, 2015.  We didn't know if she'd be able to get her pieces prepared, and we really didn't know how things would go in the judging room without anyone of us there.

But in true Clara fashion, she did things her own way (played her songs in the opposite order of how we practiced and told her she'd play them) and everything was well in the world!  She earned a superior!

Thanks Oma for your hard work preparing that little stinker.  This summer, let's buckle down and have regular weekly lessons and get the momentum started again!!!

Nervous Oma, listening at the door...

Afterward, we girls went out to lunch and to the bookstore for story time.

It was an awesome day!