Venily is 5 years old!

Venily turned 5 years old on October 13th!  It's weird because I've felt like she's been 5 for a long time, lol.  Wow has she grown up so much in the last year though!  She's so much more mature and reasonable than she was a year ago!  She handles her problems a lot better now and doesn't melt down very often any more.

Happy 5th birthday to my big girl!!!!  I love her so very much!!! :)

ON HER BIRTHDAY:On her birthday we had 5-shaped pancakes (of course!).  We then went to the girls' friend Kylee's house for her birthday party, lol.  She had a pony there for pony rides, so that was fun.  Then after eating cake and ice cream we went home and made more cake and sang Happy Birthday yet again and had more cake and ice cream (oh and the next day we had ANOTHER birthday party to go to as well, lol!). 

To celebrate Venily's birthday we went to the Bear Den Petting Zoo the following weekend!

How is my 5 year old doing?

Measurements:

Venily's measurements at 3 years:

HEIGHT: 39 inches (85%) (Haven was 41in- off charts)

WEIGHT: 32 pounds (62%) (Haven was 35lbs- 82%)

Venily's measurements at 4 years:

HEIGHT: 42 inches (92%)

WEIGHT: 35 pounds (62%)

Venily's measurements at 5 years:

HEIGHT: 45 inches (90%)

WEIGHT: 40 pounds (52%)

BMI: 16%

Sizes:

Clothes- 6/6x
Underwear- 4T
Shoes- 12's mostly, some 11's

Sleep:

Wakes up: 6:30am
Goes to bed: 8:00pm

*Continues to hoard things in her bed, lol.  I think every year it gets worse and worse!  She is on the top bunk and has so many things that HAVE to be in her bed that there is barely enough room for her to sleep! 

Eating:

Venily continues to eat pretty well for her age. She likes a wide variety of foods, but doesn't eat nearly as much as her sister, lol.  She eats breakfast at home every day and then breakfast at school, and then lunch and then snack.  She eats hot lunch about 2x a week and cold lunch the rest of the time.  She is very aware now that she is a vegetarian and doesn't eat meat and what things are meat, etc.  She has no desire to eat meat as of right now.  I guess we'll cross that bridge if/when we get there!

Playing:

Still loves dress up and pretend play the most (veterinarian, house, school, doctor, etc).  Luckily our LARGE selection of costumes and dress up clothes continues to be put to good use! :)  And we got 4 more on clearance after Halloween! (2 will be used as Xmas gifts!)

Books:

She loves books!  I still read to her about 20 minutes each and every night before bed.  I haven't been good about having her read to me though.  We go through stages where she is reading all the time and then times when she's not.  She still does fantastic at Bob books and can sound out tons of words and knows lots and lots of sight words as well.  Having her read each night is now going to be a focus for us, her teacher told me that she wants to have her reading more!

School and learning:

I have been so fortunate this year to be able to spend a lot of time in the class with Venily.  She hasn't reached the stage yet where she's embarrassed of me, but instead LOVES when I come to school.  I have subbed her class a number of times now, volunteer weekly in her class, and get to see how she does in school.  I recently had parent/teacher conferences and will post more on that as well! She's doing awesome though (academically and socially) and her teacher didn't even know that she was an early admit until it was her birthday and she was just turning 5! :)

Other:

We continue to have clothing battles.  Last year I let her wear whatever she wanted and she looked ridiculous 99% of the time.  Well, now that she's getting a little older I wanted to try to "help" her out a little, lol.  We now have a system where I get to pick out her clothes every other day.  It is a battle to get her to wear the things I pick out.  And she still HATES jeans! :( She also prefers short sleeves to long sleeves, even when it's cold out!

Interview with Venily on her birthday: