KAYDENCE'S BIRTHDAY WEEK

Scarlett's allergist said we could keep the pets we have but can't have any more (see last post).  Kaydence had wanted a pet rat for her birthday like Brooklyn, but with that news, she decided to get her ears pierced instead.  Grandma Gretchen, Brooke, Kaydence and I all went for an evening out to the mall, ToysRUs and Culvers.  Kaydence was anxious but did well.  We picked a place specifically that could pierce both ears at the same time.  She picked to go look at the puppies in the mall to cheer herself up afterwards.  Obviously, she was perfectly fine, and we haven't had problems with them since.

Mr. James had the week of Kaydence's birthday off of work, so we did a stay-cation and did a bunch of different activities throughout the week.  We started with the zoo that recently opened a new arctic area.  The girls were a little nervous to turn around for a picture with the bear so close to the glass but thought he was the coolest thing ever!

Wait for it...

The girl said she wanted a rainbow cake.  I delivered :)

Legoland Discovery Center in Chicago was another adventure of the week.

No matter how you feel about the man, Parker posed like this without any prompting.  I wish the picture turned out better, because it was one of the more adorable things I've seen in awhile.  It's like she knew he was important.

We exhausted Parker.

Scarlett loves loves to build things lately, so she was pretty thrilled.

So little Miss K is 5 now!  She was very unhappy to learn that she wasn't born until the evening, so she wasn't technically 5 until after she went to bed on her birthday.  I told her it didn't matter and that she was 5 to all of us, but she's a "details" girl.  She'll let it go in about 10 years or so ;).  I'm not the biggest fan of this age group.  The struggle of teaching a child that they aren't the center of the universe seems to come about now.  It's a hard lesson to learn.  Kaydence is still such a unique little bugger.  She makes me laugh (when she's not whining about something being unfair that actually is, in fact, rationally fair).  She's the child that's always off doing something odd.  Yesterday, I couldn't find her while we were picking mulberries for jam.  She was running around trying to catch chipmunks with her butterfly net.  Which was an actual possibility with all the dumb baby chipmunks we've had around here.  She's a real animal lover, and a great home to any untraditional stuffed animal.  She's as smart as a whip, and has been teaching herself to read after just a few lessons with me.  She's been a blessing in that regard, since I've been just a little preoccupied the last couple of years :).  Emotionally, Kaydence is quite in-tune.  She cries in sad parts of movies or fans her eyes and says they are watering when she's telling a sad story.  One of my favorite statements uttered from her mouth lately was when Brooke was upset about one thing or another.  Bella asked Kaydence what was wrong with Brooke, and Kaydence replied, "I don't know, Brooklyn is complicated!"  Haha, this girl gets it.  We sure LOVE her, even if we have to tell her to stop sucking her thumb 30 times a day :).  Onward to kindergarten!