Sydaleigh turns SIX

Whoa.

She's six.

The day came. (Fourteen days ago technically).

I couldn't stop it from coming. No matter how much I ask her...er, tell her....to stop growing and not get one more day older....she still does. Time continues to march forward despite my protests. Which, is how it's suppose to be. As much as I would love for her to stay little and fit perfectly wrapped around my chest when I pick her up in the morning...I want her to grow even more. And I have noticed that she doesn't even really fit around me like she used to. Somewhere in the past six years she grew, a lot, and when I look at her she's getting alarmingly close to my eyesight. (not that that is too hard). But sometimes, still, despite the never ending growth spurts...when I look at her I see the same face I saw at two. The roundness of her cheeks and chin. Her eyes. Her hair. Her tendency towards dramatic behavior. :~) That little girl is still in there at times. I see her. Not as often anymore. But she's still there.

We had two celebrations for Sydaleigh this year. The first we celebrated with just the family on her birthday, New Years Eve. And then last weekend we had a little party at the house with some of her school friends.

The morning of her birthday she told me she wanted to have her breakfast in bed, so I brought her up a tray with her favorite cereal, Life. She got to pick where we ate her birthday dinner that night, and of course, she picked Red Robin her favorite restaurant and then her favorite ice cream spot, Yoji, for dessert.

For her family birthday cake I found these great food coloring markers online and let her design her own cake. There is nothin' that girl likes more than to draw...so I made her a cake and let her go to town on it.

Unfortunately I originally frosted it with buttercream and put it in the fridge to slightly harden, thinking that would be totally fine...but the pens markers were not having that, and didn't write very well. The frosting kept getting all over the tips. So, I tried my hand at fondant. Except, by the time I had made the fondant with some help from the girls Sydaleigh had already written "princess" on the buttercream and she didn't want me to cover it up...so I placed the fondant around it. Which is why it looks slightly weird. :~)

I'm not so sure about the whole fondant thing yet. I need to work with it again before I become a follower. :~)

Hard at work creating her masterpiece. The final product had a ladies face, a birthday cake, a flower, a heart, a chair, a three striped rainbow and some other little doodles. I love this girls creativity.

We get the girls a new plant each year for them to water and take care of. It's suppose to grow and flourish throughout the year just like they are. (totally Isaak's idea....except we've never actually been able to keep one of their plants alive until their following birthday....but hey, we try, it's the idea of it all that counts. ) :~)

next was her friend party and we did a Rapunzel theme....again. Sydaleigh loves Rapunzel.  Not that I blame her...she's like one of the best Disney princesses, e-ver.

I baked princess and castle cut out cookies that the girls decorated.

we made foam Pascal party blowers and played "pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider". The verdict was out on whether my poster sized drawing actually resembled Flynn or not. Sydaleigh thought so though and that's all I cared about. :~)

blowing out her 6 year old candles on her Rapunzel tower cake.

I know it doesn't really look like a tower, but it's the best I could come up with. I stacked some doughnuts on top of each other, placed a cone on top and then draped some green frosting off of it to look like ivy. Again, the verdict was out on whether it actually resembled a tower....but Sydaleigh LOVED it...and that's all I cared about! She totally digs my attempts at making her birthday cakes.

and then I sent the girls home with personalized "Rapunzel Paints".

and she is officially six.

some random facts from this past year......

-still says "veecation" for vacation
-makes this funny little clicking sound at times when she sleeps
-rarely sleeps with her head on her pillow
-calls the tiny icicles on the Christmas tree "tiny carrots"
-calls her panties "icky wickies"
-likes to make up new words in general
-describes messy coloring as "scribble scrabbling"
-coloring outside the lines is "spilling"
-makes up big numbers to describe things....like "one hundred eighty tall" or it's "one million twenty big"
-very adventurous, likes fast rides, and loves to try new things
-learned how to cough out her phlegm this year...and a few weeks back when she had a cold she was in the bathroom spitting some phlegm into the sink....when I went into the bathroom a few minutes later the sink was clean and I asked her if she actually got up any spit, she thought for a moment, looking for the right words, and then told me that she "watered it" aka, turned the faucet on and washed it down the drain.
-blurted out within hearing range in the entrance way to Walmart that she saw "a giant", aka, an overweight individual riding a motorized scooter. (we ran away after that)
-last Christmas while in line at the Durahm Museum to see Jim Carry's The Christmas Carol tour, she blurted out within extremely close hearing range (as in standing right next to us) to look at "the REALLY big girl", aka, the overweight teenager with Down Syndrome....standing right next to us in line. We could not run away. I was mortified. "Oh Lord she did not just say that?!" So I very bravely looked the other way, stared at the wall, acted like I didn't hear her and pretended like she belonged to the family in front of me.
-strips down to her undies almost every day when she gets home from school
-loves to have her back, arm, neck, shoulder rubbed with nails
-says that we have "peach" colored skin, instead of white. Because according to her Crayola crayons our skin more closely matches peach, than white. And I can not argue with that reasoning.  I thought that was a very astute observation....so in this family, we are peach. :~)
-will still not eat potatoes
-favorite food is still macaroni (with shells)
-started Kindergarten this past year and loves school!
-extremely passionate about drawing and is an amazing little artist (we frequently find her pouring over her latest work)

-when she prays she starts by saying, "Hallelujah Jesus, thank you for this day, I lift up...."
-says that "God has the best magic"
-getting more and more aware of everything around her and wanting to know about everything around her
-very much likes to be the boss and enforce her first born status with Marvelly
-has a ton of facial expressions
-learning that even her facial expressions can affect people around her. She is told on a daily basis to make "nice faces" as I will catch her (or hear from Marvelly) how she's making mean/mad faces even though she's not actually saying anything mean.
-is a people pleaser
-she is wanting more control over areas of her life that we used to manage without her input...So this year I got a lot better at allowing Sydaleigh to do certain things for herself. She gets her own breakfast in the morning, decides how she wants her hair, what to wear, I let her make a pattern of our bedtime routine....I don't know. And just other little areas that need less of my control. 
-got into a very drawn out argument with me a few weeks back about her wardrobe choices. She thought her outfit matched, I politely disagreed. She took great offense to the fact that I didn't think her outfit matched. And she would not wear said outfit, until I relinquished my opinion about me thinking it didn't match. Nor would she wear anything else. It was an interesting discussion.
-very strong willed child
-argues a lot and is always trying to make a deal...we still say she would make a great lawyer. :~)
-creative out the wazoo (she likes to sound words out in her head and currently writes how words sound)

-learned to wrap presents really well this year
-her favorite toy is still "Dandy"
-she is sensitive to the needs and moods of others and is always asking how we are doing.
-does not like to wear anything in her hair except a head band. She likes it down. No pony tails. No braids. No clips. Just a head band.
-had her first cavity this year and had a silver cap placed over it. She was giving laughing gas which made her oh so easy in that chair! When we got home and she looked in her mouth and her new tooth she said, "Look Mom! A golden tooth!" She loved it. So her. She sat in front of the mirror for quite a while admiring her new treasure.
-is always telling us not to say "hate" because it's a "very strong word" and correcting us if she hears us say stupid because that's not nice to say.
-says she's going to fossle her teeth (for floss)
-she is funny and cooky yet serious, very sensitive, loves her friends and family but tells us she loves Jesus more, is learning so much and changing very subtly but noticeably for these mommy eyes. And we are so so incredibly blessed to have this treasure in our family. She's pretty darn great.

Praying God uses her in big ways this next year of her life. Bring on a great 6th year!