I asked her who taught her how to use them. She said in a very confident voice, “I learned on my own”.

I’m so proud.

Yesterday Niki brought home this award and I was beaming with pride.

I’ve been wanting to do more with Niki and I knew that she would love helping me with cooking and baking. Friday we kicked off with something simple and made blueberry muffins. We cheated and got the boxed one where you just add oil and eggs. Niki helped me pour in all the ingredients and stirred it up. She put the cupcake cups in the tin and let me pour the batter in. We watched it rise and couldn’t wait for it to finish. We both enjoyed two each while they were still warm.

For breakfast today I asked Niki to help me make green eggs and Spam. We collected everything we needed and started the preparations. She took the eggs out of the carton, but she dropped one on the floor. She was a little sad, but the hubs and I assured her that everyone drops eggs eventually.

Next she cracked the eggs and put them in the bowl. Three eggs and only one little piece of shell fell in the bowl. If you asked me, she did an awesome job for her first time. After fishing out the shell, I added a little salt and pepper, then pushed the bowl back over to Niki. She added just one little drop of blue food coloring and whisked away.

As she beat the eggs to a bloody green pulp, I chopped up some spam. Once we were both finished with our preparations, we were ready to start cooking.

I set the pan on the stove and turned it on. Handed Niki the spoon and tossed in the spam. With a little of my help, she browned the spam nicely. Next she poured in the egg mixture. She then asked me to finish up the cooking. When it was all done and on the plate, she insisted on taking a bunch of pictures of it. The one posted up top was one of hers.

It may look a bit gross to everyone, but trust me, it was good. Niki, Maeby and I ate it all up with nothing leftover.

For all the pictures click here.

It could quite possibly be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and all I could do was watch them and smile.

We got her an iPod nano for her sixth birthday. It only cost us $18 new so it’s not like we dished out loads of cash. Go ahead and say what you want. She’s not that spoiled.

My girl is all grown up and even more beautiful than she was on her first day of school.

Niki, you are officially a 1st grader now. You go girl!

Then she sat down and watched Talking Hands, a dvd we picked up at Babies R Us while shopping for a baby shower gift. She loves this dvd and watches it over and over again.

Anyway, just a few minutes ago she said to me:

“Mommy. I’m going to go upstairs and take a nap. Wake me up when it’s time to go get Daddy, okay? Wake me up. Don’t forget.”

She’s up there now quietly playing and will be asleep in just a few more minutes. She’s awesome and I still can’t believe she’s turning six in a little over a month.

This is our first family game system and I feel like it’s the perfect choice. Some of the games get us up and moving. We’re already sore from all the play.

After only a few games, Niki is beating me at bowling. I’m so proud.

“They eat clams, crabs and Pop Tarts.”

*picture stolen from the hubs.