Thursday photo #262

Birthday weeks are always fun in our house. This year has been particularly exciting, since the girls decided they didn’t want a party. So instead there was cake, shopping and sushi. Definitely a winning combination for a birthday weekend.

Milestone birthdays

When I think of milestone birthdays, five doesn’t spring to mind. One, ten, thirteen, sixteen and eighteen are the big ones for children. These days, four is more relevant than five as most kids start school at four. For Lia though, being five is a milestone. She remembers Libby being five and Libby is BIG in Lia’s eyes. She’s no longer one of the littlest in the school, because there are all those four year olds who are younger than her. Better still, she’s in the final term before she goes into year one. Now that she’s five, Lia is a big girl.

I wrote last week about the fact that the girls didn’t want birthday parties. So instead, we went horse riding as a family the day before her birthday. On the day, I made a cake and she blew out the candles with family singing happy birthday and Libby accompanying us on the piano. The following day, we went shopping in Cheltenham. She chose what she wanted to spend her money on and we went to Yo! Sushi. This may seem like an odd choice for a little one, but I asked the girls why they love it there so much. Their answer was that they don’t have to wait for food. They love the fact that things are going around the conveyor belt and they can grab what they want, when they want it. It’s logical really, I’d always wondered why they were so fond of Japanese food.

Tests and exams

This has been a big week for Libby, despite not being the centre of attention due to Lia’s birthday. Her class sit their year two SATS this month, and she had her maths SAT on Monday. We weren’t sure whether she’d know it was the real thing, as the teacher had said that if they were nervous they’d be told it was a practice. As it turns out, Libby was far from nervous and the teacher told her it was the real test. There are no time limits on SATS and to her credit, Libby sat there at the desk until she’d finished. This meant missing her break time, but she was determined to get the questions right. From what we’ve heard, it went better than anticipated considering we’ve always worried that she wasn’t great at maths.

The following day, it was time for her ballet exam. As with the SATS, she was unusually keen to take an exam. In fact, the only reason she started doing ballet was because she wanted to take exams. We don’t know how it went yet, but she enjoyed every minute of it. Tests and exams may not be a normal source of enjoyment for children, but she’s happy so who am I to argue?

Thursday photo #262

The girls were delighted when a huge parcel arrived for them this week. We reviewed the Just4Kidz children’s sofa and I took some photos of the girls on it when it first arrived. They were so happy and hyper that it was impossible to get a serious photo, but I do love this one of them being silly together.