Happy Half Birthday, Lily! You are 6 1/2

Hi Lou,

I've been feeling terrible that I didn't get around to writing your bday post for 6 so I'm going to write you a Happy Birthday post because you are officially 6 1/2!


You started Kindergarten this year and I'm not going to lie...it didn't go so well for the first half of the year.  You had Mrs. Francis who you already knew since Brenna had her and you would see her around town or at school and even give her hugs but to my surprise, you did not just breeze right into Kindergarten.  We had a rough start.  You were really nervous the first day of school and we had a plan that Brenna would walk you in to the school and bring you to Mrs. Francis.  Well the first day was chaotic and all the kids I think scared you and at the very last minute of you walking through the doors together hand-in-hand, a teacher stopped you and said "oh you're in kindergarten, so you should go through that door (pointing to another door)," so you and Brenna had to have sort of an abrupt separation and you pretty much cried through the entire first week of school all day.  Mrs. Francis was so sweet and concerned and I knew you would get the hang of it but Elementary School was a big change for you.  Much bigger than CEC.  You told me you didn't like that you didn't know all the teachers and that Brenna was in an entirely different building than you.  And if there was a substitute, well just forget it, you were not having any part of going to school that day.

It took a while, but you eventually started to enjoy school.  You came home one day with the funniest story.  You said that today a couple kids got into trouble for arm wrestling in the cafeteria and I said "Oh, well that doesn't sound like a good idea. You weren't arm wrestling were you?"  And you said with a little smile "Well yea, but I didn't get in trouble."  And I said, "Well I don't think you should be arm wrestling, that's against the rules and next time you could get in trouble too."  And you said to me with the most serious face, "But I won."  LOL  I'm not surprised at all that you won.

 You had a great time at the Daddy Daughter Dance.

You started speech at school to sharpen up on your R's and you also got your first pair of glasses and I noticed that you started to be more content after that.  I was surprised at how much better you could see with your glasses.  You liked to wear them cause you could see so much clearer.

This year you have enjoyed gymnastics.  You don't do as many endless cartwheels as you used to do...that has been replaced by back-bends and then back walk-overs.

You also do a combo tap/ballet class at Performing Arts Academy and you really enjoy that with your best friend, Brookie.

You and Brookie also played t-ball for the second season with your dads as the coach.  On the first day of practice someone noticed a raccoon hanging out in the tree and your team all yelled "RACCOON!!!!" over and over again so your team became the Blue Raccoons!  You are a good little tball player and Daddy is looking forward to coaching you next year when you move up to the coach pitch position.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19c2QQXXXqGlDhTyywla0Hejma8xhCqsJ

You are a very picky eater.  You don't like to try new foods.  Your diet basically consists of plain pasta, rice and beans, turkey rollups, and black bean and cheese tacos.

You don't like to do homework but you are very smart.  Mrs. Francis says you are extremely well-behaved in class and are very detail-oriented.  Brenna can't ever remember what day she has her fine arts rotation but you always know and Mrs. Francis says you remind her what day it is when she can't remember.

Here you are reading one of your favorite book series, Elephant and Piggie, by Mo Willems.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/121K3LMGPWzX6Owv7Y8Zo3OLM51cTsRJv/view?usp=sharing

And another of you reading to Brenna:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ey8wz5S363SXU0rznFQpnBlkJYY_wNky

You were super eager and excited to lose your first tooth.

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1raZrZ_Da5hhFdRnWSf9HEKuRcujEFKkH

You are loving our new pool!

One of the things I LOVE most about you is how witty you are.  You are hilarious.  You understand sarcasm and many times you'll finish a joke or say something at the exact right time that is intentionally hilarious to lighten the mood.

We faced our biggest family challenge ever this year with the loss of our dear friend, Carley.  We miss her terribly and I hope you'll always remember her sweet gentile nature and how much we loved her and she loved you.  She wasn't just Brenna's friend, she was yours too.  You will sometimes draw pictures and put her name on them and you told your teacher all about the tree we planted for her.  I'm sad that you had to face such sadness at such a young age but we'll never forget her and I bet this will make you into an even kinder and more empathetic person as you grow up. Carley was one of your favorite friends and first words to say.

Brenna is still your favorite person and also the person you love to pester and fight with the most.  But you LOVE her and she LOVES you.  All of Brenna's friends at school seem to like you a lot too and you get picked up and hugged quite a bit.  I love you, Lou!  I'm sorry I got a year behind on my updates for you.  I hope you'll keep being your sweet and silly self cause you make all of us so happy!  xoxoxo

Happy 9th Bday, Brenna!

Happy 9th Birthday, Brenna!

I'm feeling good about this birthday.   You grew up a lot this year and seem to be much more independent than ever before.

You had a great year in Mrs. Wilson's 2nd Grade class.  Math became one of your favorite subjects and you continue to do very well in school.  This was definitely the year of Harry Potter!  You are on book #6 and I can't believe  you are still going. One funny (ish) thing that happened this year was that a boy in your class kept giving you book spoilers and omg, did that infuriate you!!!  This is the year where boys either really irritated you or gave you googly eyes depending on the boy.  I told you to stop talking about it with him but that didn't work.  One day you came home in tears begging me to email his mom because "He did it again and this time he tricked me!  He asked me who my favorite character was and I said "Hermoine" and then I asked him who his favorite character was and he said ____ but he dies in the next book!"   Oh boy, I heard about that one for a long time around here...

You still love musical theater and got to participate in 2 shows this year.  The first one was Wizard of Oz where you played the Coroner munchkin.  "As Coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her.  And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!" 

You followed that up with Grease where you were in the ensemble, specifically one of the cute little beauty school drop out angels. I really love watching you perform.  It's one of my most favorite things.

 

 And you did a beautiful job at your voice recital this year singing one of my most favorite songs ever, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

You and I still butt heads from time to time and there's no one that challenges my patience more than you but overall you have really grown up and matured this year.  Bedtime is still a challenge because you just can't get your brain to shut down.  You're always thinking about what's next....

 And here's you hamming around on the first day of 3rd Grade.  Lily had a rough first few days because she missed you and you were very patient with her and did your best to comfort her. You are her most favorite person in the whole world.  I think that's why she had a hard time the first few days of school...she somehow thought you all would be together or see each other more. 

I love you. Brenna.  I love your little big brain and how it is constantly working and trying to get bigger and better.  I love your heart how you genuinely hurt if you see someone else hurting.  I love how you challenge yourself to try new things and go for what you want.  I'll always be your biggest fan!  xoxo  mom

And for kicks, a few more of my favorite of your performances from this year.  :-)

Happy 8th Birthday, Brenna!

Happy 8th Birthday, Brenna!  Another year has come and gone and I love looking back and seeing all you have done and accomplished.  This is the year that you fell in love with performing arts.  You traded in diving for singing/dancing/acting and you haven't looked back since.  You LOVE it.  

But we'll start with school.  You had a great 1st grade year.  You loved your teacher Mrs. Cyrek and you had a great group of friends in your class. 

Here's your First Grade School picture right when you turned 7 and the next picture is just before you turned 8.

 

A really cool school accomplishment this year was that your design won the Race for the Cure T-shirt design contest.  We went down to the big Race for the Cure event in West Palm and you and your art teacher, Mrs. West were presented with an award.  Your design said "Hope you are Ofishally Cured" with a drawing of a fish.

 

This year was really all about Annie Jr.  We started ballet at Performing Arts Academy and there was a poster announcing auditions for Annie Jr.  It said ages 8 and up but you really wanted to do it.  I asked Ms. Elizabeth if the age limit was strictly enforced and she told us it would be a very big commitment but if you wanted to audition you could.  You loved Annie the movie and recently, you had gotten a kids meal toy that played "Maybe" and it came with the lyrics.  You practiced that song over and over again and when it came time to audition you were really really nervous.  You fought back tears because you didn't know anyone and many of the kids seemed a lot older.  But you sang and you danced and you got the part of Molly, the littlest orphan.  You rehearsed every Saturday for 4 hours and loved every second of it. 

  

Annie Jr. gave you the confidence to sing "Tomorrow" in your 1st Grade talent show at school.  You were so great!



You love gymnastics and while last summer was the year of the cartwheel and this summer was the year of the back walk over.  I think you and Lily spend more time upside down that right side up. 

You and Lily are best friends one moment and enemies the next.

 You still love and cherish time with Molly.  This year when upset over a disagreement with a friend, I said, "well Brenna there is no such thing as a perfect friend." And your response was, "Yes there is, there's Molly."

 

Your summertime was filled with lots of fun performing arts camps and you also played the Evil Queen's cat in Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, the musical.

I love you, Brenna.  You continue to exhaust me with your emotional intensity.  And you continue to amaze me with your talents and achievements.  Hope this 8th year is your best yet!