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My dearest Susie, this past year I’ve been struck with how much your sweet spirit is a blessing to all who know you. You are growing into such a lovely young lady, with your shining blue eyes and still-blonde hair. You are a fish in the water and love to swim, jump and play in any pool or lake around. You excelled in first grade in every way, and I’m so proud of your reading ability and comprehension (you read more books than I thought was humanly possible!). You are going to have a blast next year in school! You have exquisite handwriting, create imaginative pictures, and display impressive perseverance at tasks that don’t come easy at first. You are amazingly resourceful and dedicated, always completing any task you put your mind to. You are easily inspired and have an infectious enthusiasm that enables you to recruit everyone around you to work harder and dream bigger. You are unfailingly kind, joyful and generous with your siblings, parents and everyone you meet. You don’t like conflict, so you are a natural peacemaker. You have a love for the Bible and you get excited every time we read it or sing hymns – you have quite the animated singing voice! You and Becky are an amazing team together, you love to teach Danny, and you and Jimmy are like two little firecrackers, feeding off of each other’s goofy energy and sparking more and more giggles. You have an uncanny ability to focus on one passion at a time – right now it’s wolves, and I grin every time I think of how much joy you get from thinking about, talking about, reading about, drawing, and playing wolves. You are my little vivacious sweetie, and I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is to be around you!
My dearest Becky, this past year I’ve seen you grow physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally in wonderful ways. You are one “long drink of water” as my Grandpa would have said, and I’m constantly shocked when I look down and see you’ve outgrown yet another pair of pants. You grow more and more lovely every day, with your soft brown eyes and wavy brown hair. Your mind processes information at warp speed, and I love to hear your logical thought processes, your probing insights, and your theological theories. You process mathematical concepts with an ability far beyond your years, and I’m spellbound watching the gears turn in your head as you figure out how to solve new and difficult equations. You did exceptionally well in first grade, and I’m excited to see you flourish in second! You make and keep friends easily and you love nothing more than being giggly and silly with your friends. You continue to write and tell incredibly imaginative stories. You shower attention on your brother Danny and you tend to him and his needs like a little mother (I so appreciate all your help with him!). You and Jimmy love to compete and roughhouse together, and you and Susie are the best of friends and still love to spend day after day, night after night, in each other’s company. You have so much more self-control, maturity and humility than even a year ago. You still love to win, but you are learning to lose with grace – that’s such a huge lesson to learn so young! Every time I turn around, you have mastered a new concept, ridden a new rollercoaster, read a new book, made a new friend, written a new story, colored a new picture, created a new fantasy land, developed a new skill…you amaze me! We were blessed with Jim’s cousin Amy and her daughter Megan joining us for a long weekend while our Arizona cousins were here. We seized on the addition of all the extra helping hands (plus another good friend Allison) and took a day trip into New York City. We took the train into Grand Central Station (I felt sorry for the people on the train around us, but we sure enjoyed ourselves!):
And we braved the Subway like pros: We visited Ground Zero, which was a first for many of us. We didn’t see the memorial, but we visited the church where the first responders rested and recovered: The kids (especially Jimmy) were so fascinated by the 9/11 history that we splurged on souvenir handbooks for them all: Then we headed back to Times Square and finished off our whirlwind trip with a trip to the Toys R Us and the M&M Store: What a fun, full day we had! (Inside joke for Bubba, Amy, Alli and Allison – did you know that ever since our NYC trip, Danny has been periodically yelling, “Stop the train! Stop the train!” I’ve been so busy with fun summer activities that I still haven’t gotten around to finishing going through all of our pictures from the two weeks our Arizona cousins were visiting…I’m going through them now and it’s making me miss Jon, Kate and Alli even more! Over the next few days I’ll try to post the highlights, although it’s tough to choose because every moment was a highlight for us! Okay, this post is over a month late, but these pictures are so cute I just had to share! Here are the girls on their last day of first grade. I’m so proud of them and all their hard work all year long! For comparison, here’s their picture on the first day last fall: And here they are on their last day (as soon as the weather warmed up this spring, they used their bikes and scooters to get to the bus stop – note that there are no training wheels anywhere to be seen!):
And I can’t leave out their bus-stop waiting companions! And last but not least, their amazing bus driver, Ms. Jackie. Her faithful smile and motherly heart made putting my girls on the bus every day so much easier. I’m so thankful for her!
Nothing makes this girl happier than a tall glass of pink lemonade! This photo was taken at a girls’ breakfast when my in-laws’ kindly had the boys sleep over so we could have a relaxing morning. It was nice for us all! So Susie’s big grin is probably part excitement at the beverage and part excitement at being temporarily brother-free! |
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