Lulu is 11!

Lulu,

We celebrated you all weekend long it seemed!
We had a birthday party on Saturday. You invited 5 friends to go ice skating. They came to our house, we opened presents, and then we headed over to the rink only to discover that it had closed! I'm so sorry I didn't plan that better. That was a mom fail for sure.
We ended up renting a movie from Redbox and watching it at home after cake and ice cream. You requested an owl cake:

You still had fun with your friends, but it was a little anticlimactic. And I owe you an ice skating session with some friends still. The birthday fun continues!
After your party you went out to eat with Gramma and Grandpa. What a fun tradition.

Sunday was the super bowl and you chose pretzel bites as your special treat. Dad chose homemade cheesecake and I chose spicy wings. We had a party downstairs, where we never eat, so that made it really special.
Monday was your actual birthday. I didn't take one photo on your birthday! I don't know how that happened. I lived in the moment I guess. Adam and I met you at lunch at your school. You took treats to share with your class. At home you opened a million gifts for us. Well, not a million, but I did get you more than I probably should have. You are so fun to shop for and so for months whenever I would see something I knew you'd like, I would get it and hide it in my closet. You loved every single gift. After you took treats to your Singer's Company class, we had bean and bacon soup per your request. I did remember to ask you the birthday questionnaire right on your actual birthday! So there's that going for me.
The next day I took a photo of you in your new outfit swinging with your new little snowy owl.

You are pretty funny about owls. I don't know where this love began, maybe it was after reading and watching Harry Potter. You have decided that snowy owls are your favorite animal. You love to read about them and if we ever see any merchandise owl related while we're out and about, you want to buy it!
You don't paint often, but neither do I! We should get our stuff out on the weekends and paint together. You live for the times where we get to do things together. You were so excited that I made arrangements for Fish to play with a friend so that I could attend your maturation program at school the other day. We were both happy that pretty much none of the info presented was a surprise to you or made you uncomfortable. I hope you know that you can always come to me with questions! What an exciting time you have ahead of you. I'm glad that you still have a little time left thought to just be my little girl.
You want to help with dinner often and love to make breakfasts completely on your own. You love to be creative, making up recipes.  Sometimes the soups and smoothies to turn out awesome, but you learn from your mistakes! When we had friends over the other day, you and Kate had a ball making cookies together. I'm glad that you have lots of friends. They make you happy and make you laugh. I hope you will always feel loved and important by choosing good friends.
You still like to sing and have enjoyed Singer's Company.
You are great at memorizing piano, although we haven't been too great at practicing. We have started up again now and I think we'll see you progress quickly.
While you are good at memorizing piano, you are not as good at memorizing math skills. You have finally memorized most of your times tables this year though and you are working so hard at math. Your teacher says that you are steadily progressing and doing your best. So that's awesome! Don't worry. My mom says it took me forever to learn my times tables too, but once you know them, you know them! I'm proud of you for trying so hard and improving in the area that isn't easy for you.
You have been going to bed without any anxiety for most of the year, so I'm proud of you for that too!
Lulu, you are a sweetheart. You love to make people happy. You believe what you learn in church and at home. You love to spend time with our family, especially on trips. You like to get on the computer and look up places we could stay in different countries. It's pretty fun to see you taking after me that way.
At 11 some of your other favorites are cousins, crab, parent-dates, Enya, reading, berries, swimming, movies, lemonade, bath bombs, and shopping.
Thanks for being willing to do your part in our family. You usually do your chores without complaint, eat your whole dinner, and happily play with your brothers. You have a kind soul and I love watching your mature and grow.
Lastly, here are some of my favorites from your birthday photo shoot.
Love you my pretty Lulu,
Mom

January's Phone Fav's

January was pretty great!

We had to get tires one day and they took forever to install them, but Fish, you were a good sport!

 TJ, I found this old gratitude page and I thought the three things you wrote in were creative:

 Birthday check up. You were a little nervous Hammer:

 Birthday party for Fish's friend!:

 It was crazy warm for January:

 And then, the sickness hit Fish and Mom. Fish, you took two naps one day, that's how I knew you were really sick:

 Hammer earned his wolf in Cub Scouts:

 Sunday game night!:

 Mom and Dad got to see a fun play with Gramma and Grandpa:

 Our besties finally came over to play! Lulu and Kate made yummy cookies for us:

The End!
Love you,
Mom