Happy Birthday Lauren!

It’s hard to believe you’re now nine years old. We’ve had a wonderful year and it’s been amazing watching you grow into the lady I know you’ll one day become.

In the last year, you’ve gone from a hesitant second grader to a confident third grader who’s no longer afraid to answer questions in class. Your newfound confidence allowed you to join the church choir and make beautiful music. Beauty is a word that comes to mind in so much of what you do. You were the first in the family to realize that all snowflakes are different. You spent an hour during a recent snowfall catching snowflakes on your gloves and running over to us to make sure we didn’t miss one single perfect design.

You see beauty in imperfect people too. You’re quick to forgive your friends when they’ve said something to hurt your feelings. You’re the first to forgive a bad attitude on “a bad day.” You always see the best in everyone else even if you can’t always see it in yourself.

You’ve recently started scrapbooking. You want to take pictures of all your friends and family and display them in a beautiful way. In this case, beauty is defined by lots of glitter and stickers. You hate to scrapbook alone and always ask me to join you. At first I thought I was just to be the designated glitter holder. But my role is much greater. I sit and listen to you talk in a caring way about all your loved ones including your cat. I get to hear details like how so and so got in trouble in the classroom and how a boy thinks he’s your boyfriend but how you don’t want a boyfriend. I feel privileged that you’re letting me into this most private part of your life and hope that you’ll continue to trust me as you grow older.

Happy Birthday, Lauren. I can’t wait to see how you’ll grow in the coming year.


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We sing really off key in our family.  We say we do it on purpose, but given our lack of talent, that might just be an excuse. Lauren wasn't taking any chances when the singing started.

 
 
Lauren wanted an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  There isn't a DQ open in February anywhere within 50 miles of here.  So thanks to someone who posted the recipe on the internet, we were able to make our own.  Lauren decorated one cake --
 
 

 
 
And I decorated the other.

 
 
And here's one for the scrapbook.
 

Marketing Genius?

I saw this sign in the window of a local video store. What I didn’t see were customers lining up outside eager to take them up on their offer. Had they asked me (or any other parent for that matter), we could have told them the plan to give away kids was doomed. Doomed, I say. We’ve all tried it. No one will take them.