Here is the fearsome Pirate Amelia.

Here she is as a cat.

Sporting her new sunglasses with her best pal Daniel.  He will be lonely when she goes off to kindergarten.  Amelia wears an average of 3 outfits a day, to go with whatever she is pretending to be.  This does not include dress up clothes.

Just recently she has been putting what she calls “touch ups” or “finishing touches” in her hair.  I do the pony tails and then she does the rest.

Here she is with one of her other best pals, Kathryn.

And her other best pal, cousin Joshua.

Amelia really wanted a rainbow soccer ball cake.  I did my best and hopefully this won’t end up on Cake Wrecks.

She got a pair of goggles from the dollar store for her birthday, and wore them all day.  She also got some gum – we have a rule of no gum until 5 years old.  She chewed gum pretty much the whole day.  It was so fun to see her chomping on the gum, wearing those goggles.

We have seen this kind of snake several times in our backyard!  I looked it up, just a garter snake.

Daniel also found a completely different kind of snake once.  It was much smaller, coiled around, greenish with spots.  Rattle snakes are common around here so when I looked some up I got scared about that.  I am about 75% sure it was one.  Luckily it just slithered into the bush after Daniel called me to come see.

We see these little lizards all the time.

One afternoon Darryl was using the hose to water some bushes and things that weren’t getting watered properly from the sprinklers.  I am positive I saw something scurry against the fence.  It was furry.  I was scared.  Pretty sure it was either mouse or rat.  Ew!!

I have also seen rabbits ( called them jack rabbits because that seemed more wild) in the open field on the way to/from Kathryn’s school.

We have found little frogs on our door a few times at night.

The temple grounds are home to lots of wild turkeys.  I love to see them – probably because I am safe in my van!  There are also deer and I usually stop the car and just watch for awhile.  I never get tired of that!

And I caught a picture of these wild ones climbing a tree!

Kathryn loves doing the monkey bars at school and has come home with several blisters.  Even had to go to the nurse’s office for a popped blister.  She has learned some hula hoop tricks from kids at school.  Today she performed in the first grade play.

Last week Kathryn started piano lessons.  I am so super duper excited about this for her.  She loves it so far, and she and I have even been able to play a duet already.

What has always and continues to amaze me about Kathryn is her art abilities.  This she most certainly did not get from me.  From her dad and Grandma Melanchuk.  She is always working on something, and I do get frustrated with the messes she leaves sometimes.  But she always has a masterpiece in mind.

Here is a zebra inspired by their Africa segment at school.  She came home from school the other day so excited that she learned so many things about zebras that she didn’t know before.  I love that she loves learning!

That was from looking at her My Little Ponies.

Inspired by a robin we would see at our window several times a day.