Six?!

So Isa turned six last week.  I tried leaving her countdown chain too high for her to reach so she couldn't ever get to the end and turn 6, but it didn't work. ;) 

Our kids' birthdays are all within exactly 2 months of eachother (June, July, and August!), and after doing 2 rather large birthday parties last summer- one of which I was 36 weeks pregnant at and dialated from 1cm to 4cm over the weekend of her party- I told the kids they would not be having birthday parties this year.  They were both perfectly fine with this- we did a small "family" party and then the 5 of us went to Disneyland for Cade's birthday, and Isa was completely content knowing we would only be having a family dinner for her birthday, not a huge party with friends. 

So why we went from that to having not one but two birthday parties for her, I have no idea.  Actually, I do.  I'm such a sucker.  I got to thinking about how this was her first year of being able to invite her friends from school, and I knew how excited she would be to get to do this....and I couldn't resist.  But then we made the invite list and decided our small little house in the hot July heat just couldn't accommodate everyone all at once.  So we split it up.  2 parties.  Oh boy.

Isa was thrilled when we bought a big waterslide and told her it was for her birthday party.  Immediately she was sure this would be a Tangled party.  I'm not a fan of ready-made parties and party supplies, so right away I started searching for ideas.  I painted a poster of Rapunzel for the kids to put their face in.  I made little Pascal party blowers.  I made cupcakes and jello boats and spent way too much time cutting out letters for a painting project.....of course, because Rapunzel loved to paint.

So now would be the time when I would post pictures of all this fun....except I don't have any.  Actually, I do, but I "misplaced" the cord to my camera's battery charger and I only took a few pictures before the battery died.  Luckily, my mom (I would link her blog here if I wasn't too lazy to figure out how to do that...)took lots, so you'll have to head over to her blog to see them.  I'll post more pics of the finished painting projects later- I think they turned out pretty cute.  For now, instead of pictures, here are some six-years-old highlights for Isa:

• She can READ just about anything.  I'm super impressed.....and pretty proud.
• 85th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for weight.
• She is in Girls Level 1 gymnastics, and loves it.
• She's also learning to spell.  Marcus and I can no longer spell words we don't want her to hear.  Instead, we add all kinds of extra letters to disguise words (such as xwlypmomstnai....did you see the word mom in there?).  I have a feeling even that won't last long.
• For a long time she's said she wants to be a chef when she grows up.  The other day I heard her say she wants to be "just a regular mom." (i.e. one that stays home).
• She can count to 100 many ways- by ones, twos, fives, tens, and twenties.
• She recently overcame her fear of the deep end of the pool while at a friend's birthday party.  She was swimming all over the place!

I could go on and on.  Isa is such a smart, sweet, caring little girl and I am so very proud to be her mommy!