The Birthday Girl

My girl turned nine. Where did the time go?


She made a paper chain to countdown the days to the big day. We celebrated all weekend.

She asked for rollerblades and couldn't wait to get them on. Cousin Tyler gave her some great tips. She is getting pretty good on them.

She also loves to go shopping at Justice for a birthday outfit (or two.) I am not a huge fan, so I bite my tongue and we go and she picks out what my sister Camille has aptly named "Punky Brewster" outfits. This year the shopping trip wasn't too bad. She picked out some cute things.

One of her favorite gifts was her cat pillow pet. She is also enjoying new art supplies, earrings, knitting stuff and pool toys.


I just love the person that she is becoming, so I can't be too sad that she is growing up.


Here are a few things about my girl, also known as Bev, BevyGwen, BG, Pinkie Pie:


She is creative. Everyday she makes something. She is such a talented little artist. She draws, writes, paints, does cross-stitch, knits (thanks Grandma,) crochets, sews and scrapbooks.

She still loves to help--cook, fold laundry, plant and weed the garden.

She is nurturing and loving to the babies (also known as Christian and Jessi.) She plays school with them, she plays church with them, she does projects with them and reads to them. She loves them and plays with them (and only occasionally yells at them.)

She takes good care of her older brother--you know, only when he really needs it.

She is spunky and at times can be a bit fiesty. (I wonder where she got that from?) We have no shortage of sass around here.

She is smart. She is a wiz at reading.

I love that she can be girly girl one minute and then filthy from playing in the field the next.

I love her freckles and her wild hair.

I love that she is not a follower. She is her own person. (Please stay that way!)

I love her love notes to us, and her poems and her stories.

I love that she feels safe to ask me anything--even though answering her questions is not always easy.

I love the presence she is in our home. I miss her when she is not here. The babies miss her when she is not here. Andrew doesn't necessarily pull his attention away from his DS or Wii to notice when she is not here, but I'm sure he misses her too.

She is a lot like me. We both make messes and piles. We both hate the mornings. (Mike gets a kick out of the two of us hissing at each other as I am helping her get ready for school.) We both like to dabble in lots of projects and activities. We both struggle with math, or as I like to positively frame it, we both have strengths outside the math realm. We both are passionate about our causes--animals, the earth, crafts.

I love her to bits.

Birthdays always remind me to really enjoy these kids while I have them under my control, I mean while I have them under my roof.