Sophie: Age 5

Sophie and her best friend "Little Fuzzy"

 I feel like I just wrote the post about Sophie's 4th birthday. She's so grown up. She's always acted mature for her age, so turning five wasn't a total shock since she acts like she's 14 all the time.

Sophie had the idea of filling a bucket with sand and putting the umbrella from her sand table in it. Then they grabbed boxes from inside the house to use as beach chairs. Maybe we should get some real ones...?

Sophie's fun. She has great ideas and loves being in charge. (Luckily Ivy doesn't mind being bossed around a bit.) She's also very tender-hearted and gets her feelings hurt easily, but I think it's that sensitivity that allows her to be nurturing. She's very watchful over her little sister, and although they argue and fight sometimes, she's very protective of her -- especially when we're not at home. 

She's very girly and loves all things sparkly, pink, & frilly. She likes to read books, dance, listen to music, and often sings to herself (on key with pretty good vibrato, too.) Sometimes I think she's going to be my musical theater child, but then I remember how shy she can be when other people are around.

Drawing and coloring are also things she does often. The pictures she draws are sometimes people/family oriented with lots of flowers & butterflies. And sometimes she'll just draw an entire page full of circles in straight lines which brings me to her next interesting trait....

Sophie is all about symmetry and patterns. When she plays, her princesses/ponies/rocks/whatevers are often lined up or arranged in some pattern. (I can relate to that. Symmetry and patterns make me happy, too.)

Sophie's very curious. When she's interested in something she'll ask a million questions about and want to find a "movie on the computer" (aka YouTube) about it. (Lately it's been about sea animals... dolphins, whales, sharks, etc.) She's also very observant and has a good memory. She'll pick up on and remember very small details about places or events and bring them up at random times.

Lately she (both girls actually) has been supplementing her princess fetish with a bit of Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony. For her birthday cake this year she wanted the same cake as her 2nd birthday (this Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting), but wanted blueberries instead of strawberries. I sat down with her a month ago, she told me exactly how she wanted her cake to look and I drew it for her.

She wanted a Rainbow Dash cake. That hairy thing is Rainbow Dash herself. Don't those clouds and grass look so realistic? Sometimes I amaze myself.

Birthday cakes are a big deal around here. The girls talk about them all year long, and have them planned out for the next three years. (They always change their mind about a month from their birthdays, so I don't have to rely on my memory.)

We played it pretty low key this year. We gave her a choice between a party with friends or dinner and shopping with mom & dad. She chose dinner and shopping (much to my relief -- I'm not up to throwing a party for a dozen kids).

We're so proud of how much she's grown and learned the past year and can't wait to see how she likes Kindergarten this fall!

Oh, and did I mention she's grown FIVE inches since September? That kills me.