Lena is FIVE!

Five...wow! That's a whole hand! 

It's become a total cliché, but this past year has been a weird one that no one could have expected. But Lena has taken it like a champ. She's grown up a lot--as kids do at this age--largely in part to all the hanging out she's done with the "big kids." 

Early on in the pandemic, it was pretty much just the "Elsa and Lena Show," so there was a lot of keeping up with Big Sis to do. Now that school is back in session, Lena has firmly entrenched herself in the school pod crew and can hold her own pretty well with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. 

That said, we are so grateful that Lena has had the opportunity to return to school for Junior Kindergarten. She started the year going three days a week (and having playdates with another younger sibling from the pod on the other two days) but now is in school every day in preparation for kindergarten next year. How did that happen?!?

Lena continues to be our impulsive spitfire. Honestly, sometimes I'm a little jealous of her ability to act quickly and confidently...even if it does get her in trouble occasionally. Her big feelings persist, and I'm starting to wonder if they're more a function of her personality than her age. She loves big...but she also pouts big, too.

I have a soft spot for the middle child as I'm one myself, but it's safe to say that Lena is in no danger of being overlooked. She loves to laugh and has pretty good comedic timing. She also continues to impress us with her athletic prowess. She is a master skipper--thanks, ballet!--and this fall, she pretty much taught herself how to ride a bike without training wheels.

January 19th landed on a Tuesday this year, so Lena quickly figured out that she could claim both the weekend prior and the weekend after as her "birthday weekend." The first weekend was a three-day one, so there was plenty of time to play outside, especially during a surprise playdate at the park with a friend from school. Then on Monday, after spending the Martin Luther King holiday clearing out the gardens at the elementary school, Lena and I had time to bake her requested yellow cake with pink frosting.

Baker's Assistant Extraordinaire

The morning of her birthday was spent enjoying a special handmade--and matching--necklace from Elsa while eating the requisite scrambled egg breakfast. She was able to celebrate with her friends at school and then Erik and I took her on a date (another request) for fancy macarons and milk. When we got home, the big kids were at the park, so we partied with them, too.

Lena also requested duck for her birthday dinner--these kids have expensive taste!--so we picked up Chinese take-out. We had just enough time to open gifts from family and squeeze in the sheep photo shoot before having a Zoom party with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thank you, family!

Still smiling after a crazy year

The birthday high carried over into the next weekend as Lena greeted visitors in the front yard for a birthday parade. It was so fun to see so many friends, including some from school. Lena was especially excited to see her teacher. We lucked out on the weather, so we took the parade to the park. It was quite the fitting way to end the celebration.

This girl finds joy wherever she goes and in whatever she does. We certainly found joy in celebrating her. Happy 5th Birthday, Lena!

Safari in Our Own Backyard

Staying home for the holidays this year was both easy and hard. Easy because by now we're quite used to not being able to travel but hard because we are very much missing our families in Washington and the Midwest. So, to make the best of it, we decided to take advantage of some of the safe (read: outdoor) activities near here. One of those activities took us to the Tennessee Safari Park, a drive-through zoo, about 90 minutes away.

There is a giant billboard in Memphis advertising the Safari Park, and I'd heard anecdotally that it was a fun place to visit, especially with kids, so we packed up the car, ready for a day of adventure. We were expecting a good time...but Tennessee Safari Park far exceeded our expectations.

We chose to do the walk-through portion of the zoo first since we'd been sitting in the car for so long. First up was the budgie house, where we tried--successfully--to get the birds to land on our popsicle sticks of food. We've done this before at other zoos, and I'm always impressed at how still everyone can be when the birds are eating.

After the parakeets, we looked at some monkeys, checked out the pygmy goats, and fed the giraffe. I think the girls bonded with the giraffe due to their mutual love of carrot sticks.

Before setting out on in the car to feed more animals, we paused at the car to feed ourselves. Despite the many, many different types of animals at the park, I think the weirdest one we saw was in the parking lot. There was a mouse hanging from the passenger door of the truck next to us!

We thought it was fake, so of course we had to investigate

After lunch, we proceeded through the 5.5-mile path ready to get up close and personal with some animals. We knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we were still surprised by how up close and personal we got.

These exotic animals--camels, ostriches, zebras, and more--know that cars=food, so they are not shy about poking their heads through the window to get at that food bucket. So many shrieks and giggles from our crew. 

The biggest laughs were a result of the llamas who trotted alongside our car as we drove, confident we would eventually stop and give them some food (which we did). We were less enamored by the emus, however, especially when one of them stole an entire bucket of feed!

Regardless, we had a great time and a very tired bunch of kiddos on the way back to Memphis. Even though we didn't get to spend Christmas break the way we would have wanted, we're still grateful for the adventures we had here at home.