V is 5.5!

My kids are growing up too fast! Sometimes I really am sad that they are growing and maturing so quickly, but most of the time I am just happy and excited for the new things that they can do and with the progress they make.

Victoria just had a "half birthday." Now, half birthdays have never seemed significant to me before. However, to a child with a summer birthday- it is kind of a big deal at school. Otherwise, they could not have a special day at school. So a week ago, on February 20, V turned 5.5. She got to wear a crown and a ribbon at school and we were able to bring cupcakes to share at the end of lunch. It was fun to help her have a special day at school.

Victoria with her friends Maggie and Maddie.Colorful butterfly cupcakes

I think that V loves her brothers and likes when we visit for lunch. I know we like coming.

We didn't sing happy half birthday or anything like that, but Victoria had fun helping hand out the cupcakes to her friends. She gave one to her teacher, Mrs. Grider, too when she came to pick up her class after lunch. Here a few pictures of her classmates. It has been fun to get to know her peers in the classroom this year. They are a pretty good little group of kids. They really aren't the best pictures due to the nature of the lunch room, the lunch tables, because they needed to stay in their seats, and because I was also holding Grant. Hopefully I can get more another day.

From bottom center(counter clockwise): Jaelyn, Ronie, Cristopher, Nathan, Zoe, Anna, Arianna

From bottom center(counter clockwise): Aiden, Caroline, Stavros, Colin, Maddie, Jacob

From bottom center(counter clockwise): Noah, Emma, Makayley, Stella, Braeden, Linn, and Christian

Victoria saw the last post about Christian and wants me to do one like that for her. So, let me write about some of her latest accomplishments. These will be fun for us to look back at one day. We were just watching some family videos today and they were so fun to see. I think that if I keep up the blog, we will have fun looking back over it in the future.

So, what does it mean for V to be 5.5? Well, to start, she lost another tooth!

A little window on the bottom

She also is doing better and better reading and writing.

"We like to eat skittles."

and drawing. (This is a "winter picture" of our family ice skating. Too bad you can't really see the blue ice in the photo I took of her drawing.)

She still likes art too. She loves her other electives. She got all S's and E's on her report card in all of those subjects and of course work and study skills and conduct too! She is really well behaved at school and we are very proud of her for that!

Also, she is learning more about money. To help solidify the knowledge at home we played store and took turns being customer and cashier. That was fun and is a good way to remember about the values of coins and dollars.

A few of the items we sell at the store.

V with the cash box (from her teacher from church Sis. Rue! How appropriate was the timing of that. She is a great teacher and lets them pick a treasure when they remember their scriptures for a certain number of weeks in a row. V does not want to forget them! Speaking of scriptures, she is realizing that she can read some verses herself now. Very slowly, but very cool too. It'll take some practice.)

She helps Christian pay for his groceries. It may be hard to see in this picture, but we really did make price tags.

She is moving right along. FYI- she made some good goals this year too. One that I can remember off the top of my head was writing her whole name, Victoria Paige Soderholm, without looking at anything. She accomplished that one pretty easily, she just needed to learn how to spell Paige. Another goal she made for 2009 was learning how to read all 12 of her Dick and Jane books without help. She is doing well!

It sure seems like it is pretty cool to be 5.5!