Happy Birthday, Lizzy!

Now to catch up on this poor neglected blog of mine...

Elizabeth had a birthday!  It's hard to believe she is 11.  This is her last year of elementary school and last year in Primary.  It is so weird.  Where is the time going?

I absolutely loved her birthday list this year:

So typically Lizzy--low maintenance and un-materialistic, practical and thoughtful.  I loved that she wanted to learn more about what slavery was like.  That book was a challenge.  I found one that was really good but with some pretty disturbing content for someone her age (obviously--slavery...) but she is beyond her years in a lot of things and handled it well.  It was called Copper Sun by Sharon Draper.

Natalie and our neighbor friends (Hailey and Anna) were nice enough to arrange an indoor picnic in the loft on the day of her birthday.  I thought it was cute:

Elizabeth also helped decorate her cake.  She chose a picture, I frosted the outline and then she filled it in with color:

I thought it turned out really good!  She loves decorating cakes, even though she doesn't really like cake that much. :)

It was a fun day with snow, her birthday dinner of "bread bowl" soup,  presents and cake and ice cream.  Here she is opening presents:

She got a lot of clothes and some of the things she had asked for.  She was so sweet and decided she wanted to give away 11 gifts on her birthday, like she'd seen someone do online, so she spent all this time making gifts before her birthday and then she delivered them.  She is always so thoughtful and kind.

Elizabeth has had a great year.  She seems to love 5th grade, even though she isn't always impressed with the behavior of some kids in her class.  She is getting older but she's got a good head on her shoulders and I am so thankful for that.  One of things I especially love about Elizabeth is that she is just herself and doesn't try to pretend to be someone she's not.  She is brave that way.  She is still doing phenomenally well in school, and sometimes stresses when she has trouble with an assignment or forgets to turn something in.  She is very conscientious about her school-work.  

She still loves climbing and being outside.  She still spends most of her free time reading.  She loves a challenge and has even read some Shakespeare plays!  She also starting reading poetry and seemed to enjoy that.  Keeping her in books is definitely a challenge.

She loves playing the piano and is getting better and better.  She loves music, especially The Piano Guys.  Her favorite song by them is Moonlight.

She is a great big sister and a great friend.  She is so good and at seeing when I'm stressed and stepping in to help with Eli.  She is really good with him, although sometimes errs on the side of giving him whatever he wants so he'll be quiet. :)  She has started babysitting Natalie and Nate, and even Eli for shorter lengths.  We're hoping our babysitter-free days and not far in the future! 

Lizzy is loving, responsible, hard-working, honest and good.  We sure love having her in our family!