Lily Turns 9!

I cannot believe it.  Lily has turned 9 years old.  The last year of single digits.  Time slow down!!!

I always like to ask some of her favorites each birthday, so here is this year's list:

Color - Lavender

Movie - Tie between Hotel Transylvania 2 and Bears

TV Show - PJ Masks

Book - Grace Stirs Up Success (an American Girl book)

Drink - Dr Pepper

Memory from last year - Seeing the Henderson family in London

Wants To Be When She Grows Up - Own a school with her friends Avery and Nate

Best friend - Avery Hobson

Bible Verse - 1 Timothy 4:12

School Subject - Latin

Food - Macaroni and Cheese

Activity - Tie between reading and playing Legos

Place to Go - AMC Theater

Game to Play - Blah (apparently that's a game she and Avery made up)

Restaurant - Crafty Hog

Animal - Bat

Most Thankful for - Jesus saved us

Goal for the year - Meet as many new friends as possible

We were actually in London on her birthday, so that was a pretty fun celebration.  We asked what she wanted to do to celebrate, and she decided on riding the London Eye and seeing the Crown Jewels so that was what we did.  Not a bad way to celebrate, right?

We went to the doctor a few days after we returned from our trip for her annual check-up.  Other than realizing she had bronchitis, she is a very healthy girl.  She is growing right on track with where's she been in the past.  She's now 50 inches tall (15th percentile) and 61.5 pounds (41st percentile).  She is doing great!

I can't even find the words to say how much I love this girl.  She amazes me every single day.  She is so smart and loves academic endeavors.  She is finding 3rd grade pretty awesome.  Latin is her favorite subject and it seems to come so naturally to her.  She also enjoys math (she goes up to 4th grade for this), science, history, Bible and spelling.  

She loves arts and crafts too.  We gave her a scrapbook kit for her birthday because she wants to start that hobby.  She did an art camp over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it.  She has ventured down a new artistic path recently by trying acting.  She has said for awhile that she wants to be a Broadway actress one day.  She saw our cousin, Francie, in a play this summer and wanted to give it a try herself.  She is having a blast being "Bonnie the Bat" in "Goldilocks and the Curse of the Porridge."  As Bonnie, she is part of the Creepy Critter Brigade which is made up of bats and spiders.  She's had so much fun!  Here's a picture from after a performance.

She's done so well!  What made this even more fun is getting to perform with Molly (my niece) and Francie (our cousin).  They play two of three pigs who run the village restaurant.  It's been fun to have lots of family on hand to support the three girls!

She loves to read.  I can't count the number of books in her room.  She usually is skipping between 3 or 4 different books on any given day.  In addition to the American Girl books, she loves the Whatever After series.  She anxiously awaits the release of each one!  Building and then playing with Legos is always a fun time for her.  She considers herself to be an expert at them.  She's great at following the directions to build them, and they turn out nice that way, but I really love when she uses her imagination to build something.  She often comes up with elaborate sets and stories with them; it may be a zoo, a city or a fairyland, but it's always interesting.  I love when she has whole days to just sit around and construct these.

She learned to ride a bike over the summer which was a major accomplishment that we were all very proud of.  She enjoys riding that or her scooter.  She also loves jumping on our trampoline and performing shows on it.  When she's outside though, she's just as happy to sit in the sun on the deck and read as she to go on a nature hunt and see what insects she can find.  She's fascinated by nature.  Her big school project this year was "the bug project."  Over the summer and into early fall, she had to collect at least 25 different insects, identify them by their scientific and common names, list where she found them and then creatively display them.  She did an awesome job with this (with just a little help from Ryan; I despise bugs so I had nothing to do with it)!

I love simply talking with Lily.  She has lots of interesting observations on the world around us, she asks great questions and she's pretty insightful.  She enjoys hanging around our home and just being together.  Family movie nights are always a hit with her.  She still loves to cuddle up in a chair or on the sofa with us.  She prefers to keep a few close friends around than have a big group together.  She is fiercely loyal to family and friends.  She always seeks to do the right thing in a situation, even if it's not the popular choice.  She's an amazing kid, and I'm so thankful she's mine.