Five and Counting

Five seems to be a popular number around the Jones household lately. Dakota had her fifth birthday last weekend. It was such a fun party! Lots of family, lots of friends, lots (and lots) of sugar. Haha. Levi is a sweets addict. Multiple times I've had to pull him out of the frig because he was in there eating frosting out of the container....and off of the cake (not the birthday party one! No one get grossed out). I had made a practice cake before the party with my close friend, Rochelle. It turned out really good. And so did the party cake!

A lot of these fabrics were just scrap pieces from other projects, but my favorite was the one with the mustard yellow background. It's called "LovesmeLovesmenot" in Golden. It's by Anna Marie Horner off of her "Free Spirit" line. Love her!

Davey picked these pink roses for me the day before. Can you believe how perfect they matched her party! I was soooo happy!

I love this antique bowl. It's been in the family for at least three generations.

Koty and the beautful Williams girls...

And Sakura!

Kaden and his cousin Gavin (who is going to tower over Kaden. He's seven weeks younger than Kaden and already taller!)....

Loooooooooooove.....

And the best part of the whole party; my beautiful five year old Dakota...

I had a ton of fun planning this party for her. To tell the truth, her and I, we're a little outnumbered at this point. Testosterone has kind of dominated our house now. So any chance I get to do something super girly and frilly, I take!

Since Kaden was born, Dakota and I have gotten so much closer. Our relationship has changed a lot. I would definitely say on my behalf. I've always been thankful for all my kids, but since she became my only daughter, I really began to find a deep value in that. So often I look at her and can't believe how insanely grown, and beautiful she is. I've began to make so many more small efforts here and there to make special moments for her and I. I've enacted a "girl's night" once a week or so when her and I stay up after the boys and eat cookies and milk together. This is definitely a huge deal to her. And to me ♥

I kind of feel like her and I, we're all each other's got in this family as far as womanly bonds go. In my family growing up, I had my sister. And that was HUGE. We were best friends to the fullest extent. And we both had a really great relationship with my mom. So there were all sorts of fun and girly things going on all the time. That concept of womanhood and the female bond had a huge impact on my life. And I want that for Dakota too. Already, I've had such an awesome time with her just in the last four months since I've taken a little extra time for the two of us. It crosses my mind often, the idea that, "This could very well be my only daughter.....ever!" So I really want to get it right with her and give her that super close and meaningful mother/daughter relationship.

Also, speaking of my first born, she starts kindergarten in August!! What?! How did that happen? I have no idea. One minute, she's this little, pale, sleepy newborn freshly laid on my chest...and the next I'm introducing her to her new teacher? Well, her teacher for part of the time. The school we (finally!) choose for her is a charter school that is half time site school and half time home school. I went back and forth for months on which school to send her to. I actually put her on the waiting list for three different schools and she got into all three. I narrowed it down to two that I really liked, then had an extremely hard time deciding between the two. They absolutely could not be any more opposite in terms of their philosophy about learning and teaching. The school that we didn't choose was very, very regimented. The kids wear uniforms (which I actually love), they're taught to hold the door open for all adults (which is awesome), and the girls are always released before the boys; very focused on character, manners, and efficiency. They had two areas of study, biomedical and engineering. But that's it. It's either one or the other. Once the kids get to jr. high or high school they choose one of those. Which those are great fields to be in, definitely the future of our economy. But, that leaves a pretty narrow margin for a lot of people to fit into! On the other hand, the school we ended up choosing for her (and subsequently the rest of our kids), has an entirely different focus, one Davey and I agreed fits our families philosophy to a "t". Her school's main focus is on developing each child's passion. Whatever it may be. Grades K-6 are taught in the Montessori method. Each child is worked with individually throughout the day. There is no "teacher standing in front of the class" teaching everyone all at once. Literally, the teacher and her assistant walk around to each student and sits with him or her and helps that child with whatever they're work is at the moment. It's AWESOME. I was pretty much shocked (in a good way) when I did my class observation day. I couldn't believe how much individual attention each child got. And I actually found myself thinking a lot about our boys while I was there (well, Levi at the time, Kaden was still an unknown). I noticed that all the kids were allowed to sit (or stand) wherever they wanted while they learned. They could walk around if they felt like it. Some where sitting at their desks (mostly the girls), some were sitting on the ground (mostly the boys) and I thought this was great. Just from the few years I've had experience with having a boy, I've quickly learned that they need to move! It's just how they are wired! So this environment I think is going to really prosper Levi and Kaden just as much as Dakota. Not to mention that I get to stick my toes in the homeschool arena too!!!! This is a huge relief for me. The other school was a full site school 5 days a week and I knew I would always regret never even trying to homeschool my kids. This way, I teach them on Mondays and Tuesdays, and they go to class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Perfect! Enough to be a big part in my kids education, but not so much to be overwhelming. Because in reality, if Davey and I are going to have 4 kids, I really can not imagine taking on full time homeschooling with ALL FOUR, everyday. At least not yet. The coolest thing about the homeschooling aspect of her school is that I get to pick her curriculum (except math, that's given to us. Thank God!). But not only to I get to pick all her curriculum, it can be ANYTHING I want. I mean, any kind of media; computer work, a video, workbook, field trip, etc. The possibilities are endless. The best thing about this is that I can use Christian curriculum. That was something that was so important to us, and really hard to find a charter school set up that way.

I'm really excited! This is going to be a whole new schedule and way of life for all of us. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of one on one time with Levi and Kaden during Dakota's school days, and a lot of one on one time with Dakota on her homechool days. I'm going to be dropping Levi off at my mom's during her homeschooling. What? You think I could teach her with a 2 year old boy running around?! Ha. If only I were that capable. One can only dream. But actually, Levi I think is finally come out of his terrible two's stage. I mean, it was terrible. To the max. He was completely nuts. I would say for about 8 months straight, he was in time out on an average of about 10 times a day. Almost constant. I'm thinking if this is normal behavior for a 2 year old boy, I may just be hiring a fill-in mom when Kaden turns 2. Dude.....insane. Dakota was nothing like that at 2. I laugh now because I thought she was such a challenging 2 year old. Ha! Silly little woman I was! If only I had known what terrors lay ahead of me. But anyway, that was then, and now....he is really coming back around to who he really is. My super loving, happy, extremely funny man. I sure do love him to pieces, and am glad to see him being himself again :) But that doesn't mean I'm ready to homeschool Koty with him around. He still is a toddler boy afterall. One word.....energetic!

So anyway, beside Dakota's birthday party and finally settling on a school for her, we've just been enjoying our summer days around her. The day after her party, was so nice. We hung out at home and in the evening the kids went in the pool and we bar-b-que'ed some steak. One of the nicest days we've had in a long time.

Oh, and then during dinner, Kaden had his first taste of solid food. Steamed red potato....

He liked it so much his hair stood straight up! Hahaha.

And his daddy sure does love him...

And is that not the most attractive picture of Davey? Kissing our baby. Hm. No wonder I keep having babies with him!!

They've developed a really special bond. My heart beats a little faster when I see Davey with Kaden :) Neither of them are without a smile on their faces when they are together.

The very next day, he rolled over for the first time. Back to tummy. No. No. I have already decided he is not allowed to grow up this quick.

I got some pics of my bougainvillea that day too. They're doing really well!

And the newest members of the Jones' household...

Which are totally dieing now! I don't get it; I feed them, I water them, I keep them out of direct sunlight. Well, actually to be honest, I'm probably overwatering them. I have a tendency to get a little compulsive sometimes. Breath. Take a chill pill. And put the hose down.

Besides bar-b-que'ing, hanging by the kiddy pool and gardening, we also did a little bit of this...

And a little bit of this...

And a whoooole lotta' this....

Hey, I said he was growing out of the terrible two's. He can never outgrow his Y chromosome ;)

Ooh ooh, how could I almost forget?! Guess what he's wearing in those pics....underwear! Yep, potty trainging mission accomplished! SO glad. I was so not ok with having an almost 3 year old running around in diapers anymore.

Now if only I could get him to stop calling them his "big boy panties".