Penny is Five!

Penny, ready for school on the morning of her birthday.
(Ellie wanted to be in the picture too.)

Who can believe our little Penny is now FIVE YEARS OLD???  It just doesn't seem possible, but here we are!  We have quite the little character on our hands, and it just comes out more and more the older she gets.  In the last year she has grown up a lot!  So much in fact, that we decided to go ahead and send her on to kindergarten, even if she is on the young side.  We know that little brain of hers is always working and needs stimulation!  So far, after one week, it seems to be the right decision.  She loves her teacher and has already made a little friend that she comes home talking about everyday.  (She also informs us everyday that the boys get in trouble everyday.) Penny has many interests.  She LOVES princesses and anything pertaining to princesses. This includes dolls, figurines, dressing up, frilly dresses, shoes, jewelry, and hair accessories.  She can still be seen wearing her favorite purple crown from time to time, though the year long stint of wearing it every day is over. (It had to be!  She wore it so much it stretched out and is too big for her head now!) Her favorite colors are now pink and purple, when a year ago everything had to be just pink.   

Even though princess stuff is her main gig, she can still be found playing in a number of ways.  She has become wild about coloring, drawing, and painting.  She draws and colors at least one picture everyday.   She also plays A LOT with her baby sister.  They play with dolls, in the toy kitchen, and just about with anything they find.  They also like to "read" books together.  We've especially noticed how much more willing she is to play with Ellie, and how much Ellie really loves her sister.  Penny likes to play games, work puzzles (and she is really good at it), play on the iPad, and hang out with Cooper.  She likes being funny and is always trying to get Cooper to laugh.  The other night Cooper was "scared" and didn't want to go to sleep.  Penny to the rescue!  We told her she was allowed to tell Cooper three jokes but then they had to go to sleep.  She did and both slept fine all night.  She also LOVES to help Mama in the kitchen and becomes indignant if I try and bake anything without her.  

We are so excited to watch Penny grow and change!  She is such a funny, sweet and sassy thing, we can't even imagine what the coming year and first year in school will bring.  We are in for a ride,  we know that!

Penny asked to go to Build-A-Bear again for her birthday, so that is just what our family did.  She really enjoyed building her purple pony...until she realized that the princess dresses were for the bears and didn't fit the ponies.  As the lip started to quiver when we told her it was too late to change animals, Daddy saved the day!  He suggested she pick out a princess dress as well to take home and put on the bear she built last year.  Birthday saved! Whew!

Penny gives her pony a bath.

Cooper got to build a character too!  He chose Kevin the minion, which immediately began the minion talk out of Penny.

Afterward, we celebrated at home with a cake made by Mama and presents!

Now the hard part...sharing all the new princess stuff with her siblings!