Happy 9th!

May is such a fun month...

between the beautiful weather, finishing schoolwork for the year, strawberries in season to pick, all the new flowers and birthdays...

there's a whole lot of celebrating going on;)

We celebrated Anna's birthday over the Memorial Day weekend with a trip to Grammies, a joint cookout party with Hannah Grace and lots of swmimming;)

Every year I am amazed at how grown up my Anna looks. How each day she seems to carry herself more and more like a little lady. And how together she keeps us... she is the typical first born:)

This year Anna completed her 4th year of home schooling. I'll be honest that it was a tough year for us... not the material or concepts (she's a quick learner) but the new amount of work and responsibilities a 4th year student begins to experience. We worked together and did what was necessary to get through without too much emotion.




As I look back through this last year, I am thankful for the start of friendships Anna has started to make through our church. Anna easily blended into her Sunday school, Children's church and GA classes this year and it has been sweet to see her building relationships with a couple other girls in the group;)  Wednesdays and Sundays our kids are always rushing us out of the house to get to their classes on time.... what a blessing to have classes for them with friends and sweet Christ-loving teachers.

Another fun "growing up" part of Anna's year has been her "research" :) This girl can find the answer to anything armed with her Kindle! In the story about Mr Darcy, I shared how much time she took in reading about pet rabbits (actually she wanted a Guinea pig first) online, library books, visiting pet stores and asking people who owned some.

I chuckle about another of her birthday purchases. She wanted some sandals and she knew exactly what style she was looking for. She receieved a gift card from her Grandma and Grandaddy from Belks and she started her research there:) She actually found a pair she really liked and asked if we could go to out local Belks. Since it's a SMALL Belks I reminded her that our Belks may not have that exactly sandal in her size. Her response to me was "I checked our Belks and it said that they have my sandal in my size"! Too funny:)

Here are some more pictures celebrating Anna's birthday this year!!

And now her 9th birthday stats and favorites;)

Anna is 52 inches tall and weighs 68 lbs.

Her favorites:

• Color : Purple, Green
• Food : Pork BBQ
• Treat: Energy Balls & Chocolate Break-up,
• Subject : Science
• Animal: Rabbits
• Do inside: Play with Mr Darcy
• Do Outside: Ride her scooter under the carport
• Toys: Kindle
• Song to Sing: Brown Eyed Girls
• Restaurant: Sonic (for slushies)
• Book: Cam Jansen books, Island of the Blue Dolphins
• Movie: Pride & Prejudice
• TV Show:  The Voice

Goals for her 9th year:
Play the piano and horse riding lessons!! Piano should start this month

When you ask her what she wants to be when she "grows up" she'll respond "take care of old horses when they are done racing and retire"!

And what is the coolest thing about being 9?? She responded, "I can ask Dad for a pocketknife!" Not sure if Dad (or Mom) are excited about fulfilling that request yet!

Another real question is when is she going to be taller than her Momma:) 
Or big enough to raid her Momma's closet:)

Happy 9th Anna!!

We look forward to another fantastic year as we see you grow more and more

 into a godly and sweet young lady!