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| She’s nine! Half child, half adult, as she’d like you to know. |
It seems like only yesterday, we were reroofing our house in Iowa, in the hot August weather, and I thought that the nausea was due to dehydration and my sometimes unreasonable discomfort with heights. Turns out, our two years of trying to have a baby had come to an end–I was pregnant! Fast forward to the following spring and Evelyn
finally joined our family after 42 (
yes, 2 weeks overdue!) long weeks of waiting. We were in love with her at first sight.
It is always amazing to me how having children has changed the perspective of our lives. We measure everything by how many kids we had and how old they were.Evelyn’s been with us from the start, through college, work, internships, moves, different homes, and multiple states. Now that Evelyn is nine, she’s constantly reminding me that she’s halfway to being an adult. I can hardly wait to see what the next half of her childhood brings her as she continues to spread her wings, discover her talents, and lead her siblings.
Lucky duck Evelyn’s birthday always falls at the end of the school year and at their new school, that also meant field day. So, I packed up the younger kids, helped with a few water relay races, and enjoyed watching everyone have fun.
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| Henry’s dream come true! |
Once the games were done, we found a spot on the hill and got ready to watch the classes duke it out in a friendly game of tug of war.
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| Thank goodness for some shade! |
True to Claire’s nature, she giggled the entire time she was tugging. EVERYTHING is fun to her and she shows it by hysterically laughing. All the time. It’s incredibly contagious.
Once Evelyn stood up to the rope, it was pretty apparent that they were outnumbered. True to Evelyn’s form, she dug in her heels and pulled with all her might, never giving up, even as her classmates were being drug through the mud in front of her. She has the heart of a champion and is learning to graciously lose, and to enjoy the challenge, regardless of the outcome.
Everyone got to skip the bus ride home and since she had some time to kill before Jack got home–which meant we could get along with the birthday festivities–she sat on the deck, watching, and patiently waiting.
We ate her choice of dinner–steak, steamed cabbage, deviled eggs, lemonade, and apples–then on to the part she’d been waiting for since she began her birthday countdown…GIFTS!
Too bad Kate couldn’t contain herself (again) and happened to slip what some of her gifts were.
I’m never wrapping presents in front of Kate ever again.
She was showered with new outfits, dresses, sandals, a buildable robot, and her very own hair care products.
She’ll be able to take care of her curly hair for real!
Or, at least, we’ll try. As a girl with stick straight hair, caring for curly hair evades me.
And, with each passing year, everyone’s cake requests become more and more extravagant. Evelyn perused Pinterest, only to decide she wanted a lifelike piglet cake. Uh, she got a scared-looking, comical, sunburned pig in the mud. Thankfully, she still thought it was cute.
Evelyn is the definition of a conundrum. One minute, she’ll cheer and shout and jump as she’s participating in a game and the next, she has her hand over her mouth so she doesn’t seem too over-eager.
She has a wild sense of humor and is always up for fun. Robotics, dinosaurs, pigs, chickens, sewing, long hair, and math are some of her passions.
She cherishes her role as big sister and loves making her siblings laugh, teaching them the ropes, and watching out for them.
Seriously, watch her put a baby on her hip and get them to calm down.
We love our sweet, happy, intelligent, tough, resilient, faithful, intuitive, curious, responsible, respectful, hard-working, beautiful girl!
Happy birthday, Evelyn!
