Eight is Great!

Dear Hazel,

Happy Birthday! Somehow the sweet little, dark haired baby that first made me a mother is already eight years old. Eight! You're growing in to such a wonderful girl both inside and out! 

Hazel, you are a joy to have in our family. You have a strong sense of right and wrong, and you often do your very best to make right choices. You are a great big sister and a big help in our home. You still have lots of strong opinions and no fear of speaking your mind. Sometimes this makes getting along with your siblings hard, but you're learning more and more how to lead instead of direct them. 

When you grow up, you want to be a teacher. You will be an excellent teacher! You love learning and are constantly reading. I'm not sure how many chapter books you've read so far this summer, but 25 or more is not an unreasonable guess. You've always been a sponge for knowledge!

Sports and physical activities aren't exactly your favorite. You like to be active, but in a fun, playing way, not an organized event way. You much prefer music and acting type activities. For part of your birthday, we got you a recorder, and you're having fun learning to play. It's harder than you expected, but I'm glad to see you pushing on and putting your best in to it.

Some of your favorite things right now include: reading (of course), helping cook, spending time with friends, playing outside, checkers, the new Beauty and the Beast movie, board games, and reading old blog posts. I honestly don't know what your favorite food is because you eat pretty much anything. And, believe it or not, your feet are already almost the same size as mine!!

You requested pies for your birthday instead of cake. Since we had lots of family in town for your baptism, you got to chose three pies. Lemon meringue, chocolate, and ice cream were your choices! 

One of the things you've been looking forward to was starting Activity Days at church once you turned eight. You were lucky enough to go to two activities in Boone before we moved, and our first full week here in Kentucky you were able to go swimming! 

I'm so glad you were able to go meet these sweet girls your age because this move has been really, really hard for you. For several days as we were packing up the truck in Iowa your tears flowed readily and often. It was so hard for you to think about moving out of the home we loved so much and leaving your friends. In fact, you're currently planning to move back when you're grown and buy our house again. Once we arrived here, it's been a bit easier. You still don't really like talking about Iowa because it makes you sad. I think part of what's been hard is you have more time on your hands here. We don't have full schedules with play dates and other things like we did in Iowa, so it gives you lots of time to think. You like Kentucky and have had some really fun days. I'm guessing once school starts and you make a few more friends it will feel more like home.

The other big, exciting things you've been looking forward to was getting your ears pierced. You've been waiting for this over a year. You were a bit nervous, but never looked back. I think you look so elegant and grown up with your pierced ears. You love them!

 Thanks for being such an awesome little girl! We love you (past Pluto like Gram says). Happy Birthday Hazel!

Love,
Mom