Interview With a Five Year Old {Sydney}

Oh, my sweet, SWEET Sydney!  How I love you so!  You are sweet and kind and loving...your heart is so big it might surely explode with love for those around you.  You are my little buddy and I am soaking up every minute of you that I can.  Keep your loving spirit, always, and you will go far!

Favorite color:  Pinkish Purple

Favorite toy:  Shimmer and Shine toys

Favorite Stuffed Animal:  My Cheetah 

Favorite Thing to Sleep With:  Mommy

Favorite Fruit:  Raspberries

Favorite Cereal:  Strawberry Yogurt Oh's

Favorite Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs

Favorite Lunch:  Mac N Cheese

Favorite Dessert:  Strawberries and Whipped Cream

Favorite Drink:  Water

Favorite Animal:  Rhinocerous

Favorite Song:  Shimmer and Shine theme song

Favorite Book: The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home

Favorite Game:  Bubble Fever {Tsum Tsum}

Favorite TV Show:  Shimmer and Shine

Favorite Movie:  Zootopia

Favorite Thing to do Outside:  Swing

Best Friends:  Riley, Brooke, Hailey, Jake, Taylor, Ty, Reagan

What She Wants To Be When She Grows Up: Horse Trainer

As per usual with our birthdays, I put together a birthday slideshow for Sydney.  You can watch it here...
Sydney's 5th Birthday from Amanda Michelson on Vimeo.

StoryBook Ballet Dance Camp {Frozen}

Well, nothing like letting two weeks pass without updating the blog.  I wish I could say that it was just because we were so super busy that I haven't had the time to post anything, but unfortunately that's not the case.  Some crazy illness took over my body and I seriously spent 10+ days in a weird, fevered and fatigued fog.  I'm so very grateful to my parents who swept in like Rockstars and kept Sydney and Olivia at their house for an entire week while I slept and ached and tried to get better.  The poor girls got some version of my sickness {or I got a crazier version of theirs?} and ended up being put on antibiotics for ear infections.  So, my parents had to nurse them back to health as well.  But, naturally, they did that AND pretty much potty-trained Sydney, so...maybe I should get sick more often?  Uh, definitely not!

Anyway, poor Olivia missed out on a week of summer camps at Wee Blessings that I had signed her up for, but she DID make it to her StoryBook Ballet Dance Camp.  She did this camp two years ago and we absolutely loved it.  It was the Merida theme then, and this year it was all about Frozen!  {See two years ago here.  Trust me, you want to click that link.}  And, to make this year even better, she got to do it with her sweet friend, Brooke.

So, here are a few pictures from a day at camp and then some pictures from the last day where they did a little performance.

➹ Such a big girl, enjoying her Frozen treat on the first day. ➹

➹ Sydney just missed the cut-off this year, but we will FOR SURE be signing her up next year.  She was SO upset once she realized she wasn't going to be staying for the class. ➹

At the performance part of the camp, the teacher had each of the girls summarize the stories they had done each day and talk about the lessons in them.  Then they did five dances to different songs from the movie.  Two of the dances were choreographed and three of them were up for interpretation. ;)

➹ They made these tutus during one of the classes! ➹

➹ Silly girls.  Brooke is a total ham! ➹

Check out the video here.

Storybook Ballet {Frozen} from Amanda Michelson on Vimeo.

A special thanks to Grandma Irma and Poppa Peter who gifted this class to Olivia for her birthday!  She loved it so much, and really got a lot out of the class!

My Fierce Five Year Old

My Dear Girl,

A few weeks ago, you told your Nana that you couldn't wait to turn five because then you were going to be a handful.  {Meaning, showing your age would take all five fingers.}  Little did you know that you already are a handful.  You are feisty and spirited and quick to respond.  You are loyal and passionate and creative.  Your love for drawing and writing has grown leaps and bounds over the past year, and I am so proud of how much you have learned.  

Your sister looks up to you so much, and nothing brings my heart nearer to explosion than when the two of you are playing sweetly together.  Your latest thing with her is to crawl into the big chair in her room and read her stories before bed.  I have no doubt that she will always look up to you, and I hope that you always take the responsibility of leading and guiding her seriously.

Oh Olivia, we love you so very much.  We love listening to you sing and we love watching you dance.  And, while there are days where hearing you say, "Pretend you were my..." for the 100th time is more than we can take, we are always amazed by your imagination.  

Keep blossoming and growing and changing into the strong, brave, beautiful young girl you are becoming. 

Love Always,

Your Mommy

Favorite color:  pink

Favorite toy:  Pirate Fairy doll

Favorite Stuffed Animal:  Ellie the Elephant

Favorite Thing to Sleep With:  Pillow Pet Dream Light {Unicorn}

Favorite Fruit: Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries

Favorite Cereal:  Cheerios

Favorite Breakfast:  Toast with butter & sprinkles {cinnamon sugar}

Favorite Lunch:  Quesadilla

Favorite Dessert:  Ice cream sandwich or Cool Whip

Favorite Drink:  Sprite {which she has had maybe 5 times in her life}

Favorite Animal:  Elephants, horses, and unicorns

Favorite Song:  Weightless by Natasha Bedingfield

Favorite Book:  The Ballerina Princess

Favorite Game:  Guess Who

Favorite TV Show:  My Little Pony

Favorite Movies:  The Pirate Fairy, Secret of the Wings, and Frozen

Favorite Thing to do Outside:  Swing on the swings

Best Friends:  Kendall and Brooke

What She Wants To Be When She Grows Up:  A unicorn or horse trainer

As is customary, I made a birthday slideshow for Olivia.  If  you've got an extra 15 minutes and love seeing {even more} pictures of her, this is the video for you!

Our Girls in Their Element

Opening gifts and singing!!  Ha.  It was definitely not the same as having Grandma and Poppa here for Christmas, but they sure did enjoy the gifts they sent them.  {You may want to turn your volume down because Olivia is about to sing at the top of her lungs!}



Opening Gifts from Amanda Michelson on Vimeo.

More Gifts from Amanda Michelson on Vimeo.

A Wild Time at the Zoo

Last Friday while my brother was in town, we took the girls to the Phoenix Zoo.  We hadn't been there in ages and my brother really wanted to film part of it and make a little movie trailer like he did with Olivia a couple years ago.  {You can see one of them here and another one here and another one here.}

It was a gorgeous day out and I had fun taking pictures with my new camera.  The girls were really well behaved and Sydney did a great job in her acting debut!  She even rode the camel for the first time!

A special thanks to Ryan for creating this trailer!

And Just Like That, She's Two

Two weeks ago, my sweet, darling baby turned a whopping two years old.  I can hardly believe it.  I truly think I've been in a state of denial about it.  While it doesn't really seem like it "was just yesterday" that she was born, it certainly doesn't feel like two whole years have passed since that very first birth day.

I knew from that very first day that she was the sweetest of sweets.  She was just so easy-going and laid back from the very beginning.  I mean, no other baby could have been passed from nurse to mama and back again 25 times to film a commercial on her first day of life without making so much as a peep.  And, no other baby would have allowed their big sister to lay down in their little bed with them and wrap them up in their tiny little arms without even making a little fuss.  No other baby but our sweet little Sydney girl, that's for sure.

While I am sad that these baby days are over, I am also excited for all that is yet to come with this baby of the family.  She is growing and blossoming like crazy these days.  The shy little one who preferred to be held by either her mama or her poppy now gives out hugs to mom friends and babies alike {although she is still a little hesitant of new people}.  Her vocabulary has really taken off in the last couple months and I'm excited to not only have conversations with her, but to overhear conversations between her and Olivia.  For the longest time, she really only said mama, daddy, nana and poppy, but she is now stringing multiple words together and is really trying hard to communicate with us.  I just love hearing her little voice come out.  When she says to me, Pay to, Mom, I just see these glimpses of her as a teenager grabbing the car keys and thanking me as she runs out the door.  {Mom, Sydney?  Mom?  Can't we go with Mommy for at least another year?!}

One of my favorite things about Sydney is how loving she is.  I swear she would give us hugs and kisses all day long if we let her.  {And sometimes we do.}  She is the perfect little cuddler and I have to admit that it makes me a little sad that I don't still rock her to sleep at night.  She loves to hug her sister, although sometimes those can get a liitttttllee aggressive. ;)

Sydney does a great job with independent play as well.  If her independent play is a little too quiet, I know she is up to something.  The girl is obsessed with water.  She loves to play in the bathroom sink and she can be sort of sneaky with cups pouring water all over the bathroom floor.  She's really taken to swimming and while most of the time we make her wear the floatie, there are times when she flat out refuses.  We've let her sort of jump in {while we are in the pool} hoping that she realizes she can't float without it, but it doesn't phase her.  She loves to swim back and forth between me and David and she holds her breath under water, keeps her eyes open and kicks until she gets to one of us.  I'm sick to my stomach and swelling with pride all at the same time.

Before you start thinking that she is completely perfect, I will let you know that she's not quite achieved that status yet.  She can be a little stinker...she likes to mix Magnum's food with his water, she pretty much refuses to sit in her high chair anymore {or let me feed her, for that matter} and she is capable of throwing itty bitty tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  But, honestly, those tantrums are few and far between.

We love our little Sydney girl and we are truly blessed beyond measure to have her as the baby of our family.  What a bright future we hold getting to watch her grow up.  May we always be the recipients of her never ending hugs and kisses.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sydney!

And, now, if you aren't sick of seeing pictures of this beautiful girl, here's a little video slideshow of pictures of her from the last year.  {Still want more?  Here's her first birthday slideshow.}

Sydney's 2nd Birthday from Amanda Michelson on Vimeo.