Ella’s Birthday

Ella turned 9 on March 21st, which is crazy-town to me.  She’s becoming quite the young lady.  I’m not sure what the technical range of “tween-age” is (be-“tween” little kid and teenager), but Ella’s definitely starting to show some of that tweenage angst and sass—still in a cute way, though.  A world of new activities are opening up to us as she grows up—I see us becoming tennis and shopping buddies over this next year, not to mention the responsibilities around the house she’s able to take on—which is definitely the silver lining to the knowledge that our sweet little girl has gotten one step closer to growing up and moving out of our everyday lives.  But, back to the present—my mind tends to count the summers we have left with them at home whenever I think about birthdays—Ella is 9.  She’s sweet, confident, artistic, cuddly, very athletic, and nice (that was Jack’s input to the list).  Ella loves to read, loves listening to audiobooks even more, and spends a lot of time drawing in her sketchbook.  She’s very crafty, but definitely forgets to go back to projects (cross-stitching, rainbow loom, friendship bracelets, etc.) if she isn’t prompted about them.  She readily gets along well with other kids, makes friends easily, but has stayed loyal to her best friends (Julianna and Baden).  Ella has done extremely well in school—all-A honor roll, math acceleration, and always in a good relationship with her teacher.  Ella is a joy.  We’re so proud of her and love her to pieces.  9!


{ella and her BFF julianna—at her school lunch birthday celebration.}

{ella wanted to pass out school cupcakes to her classmates again this year.}

{ella has been friends with this kid, tim, since kindergarten.  he’s so sweet and funny, and especially nice to ella.}

{the at-home celebration, after a dinner at brixx.}







{and, the iphone pics because i guess i never took a picture with my big camera of the shirt she wore all day with a big ‘9’ on it.}

{she got a kindle fire for her birthday, along with a new bike around that time and a room update (more on that later because, well, we didn’t finish it until july.}