Happy Birthday Ellie!

Dear Ellie,

Happy 6th Birthday sweet girl!

It is so hard to believe that you are 6 years old and about to start first grade! This has been a year of many firsts for you. You started elementary school, started taking golf lessons, started piano lessons,  you learned to ready, and you decided that being the oldest child is not so much fun (you have to do WAY too much!).

I love your sweet personality. You tend to just go along with whatever is going on. You rarely get too upset or too excited. (As a side note, we refer to you as "eyeore" as when you're disappointed you will look at us with your big eyes, yoru shoulders will droop, and you'll say "it's okay". Honestly, it gets you what you want almost every time...especially if there's a grandparent involved!) Your even keel personality makes your "excited" moments SO much fun! I LOVE when we find something that truly excites you. You love celebrations and you love traditions. You get really excited about things such as Christmas Eve (when we have treats and watch a movie) and your birthday. You spent all year planning what we would do today and it made me so happy to hear you say multiple times that this was "the best birthday EVER"! (Which is what you say every year and I love it!) I am so glad that your 6th birthday lived up to all of your expectations.

Ellie, I love the joy you find in the simple things in life. You definitely get excited about things such as new toys but you find true joy in people and experiences. You love getting to spend time with family. You don't have hoards of friends but the friends you have you love dearly and they mean the world to you and I know you are such a good friend.

I love how comfortable you are with yourself. You are, and always have been, so content to just BE. You love to play with friends or with your sisters but you are also very happy to play by yourself and sometimes  you will just separate yourself from everyone else and go spend some time alone. You are definitely my introvert!

I have always assumed that you were a follower. You have always just gone along with what Emmie wanted you to do and been happy to follow along. I  have been fascinated watching you in school this year as you have been a leader in your class. I can't wait to see these leadership skills develop as you get older!

You are also my logical and perceptive child. You have always been my child that notices the little details in life that other people so often overlook. I love seeing life through your perspective. You are SO smart. It is very hard to pull things over on you. You are quick to "put the pieces" together. I have always been amazed by your law-gi-cal mind. 

You had such a great year in kindergarten this year. I wasn't sure how you would feel about kindergarten since you pretty much learned everything along with Emmie last year and you tend to be my lazier child. I was a bit worried that you would be bored since you knew most of the material already. However, you LOVED every minute of school. You loved your teacher and your friends. We discovered that you have a love for art and you looked forward to art class each week. We were pretty impressed with some of the stuff you brought home! You did very well in math and your teacher always commented on how well you grasped the concepts being taught. This spring you started reading on your own and you are now reading chapter books! You LOVE to read. You always come out to the car with a book in your hand and it makes me smile and reminds me of myself. I am SO happy that you love books! I have also loved seeing how different your tastes are as compared to Emmie. The books you gravitate towards are often books that I got for Emmie and she never picked up. I love that you are your OWN person. This year we saw your writing improve leaps and bounds. You always struggled with writing and at the beginning of the year I would have to sit with you and help you with every single letter. At the end of the year your teacher told me how much you love to write. She said that she would ask everyone to write a sentence or two and you would write a paragraph! It made me so proud to know that not only had you improved but you had mastered an area that was difficult for you!

Ellie you make me laugh every day. I just never know what is going to come out of your mouth. You definitely don't have a filter! Whatever you are thinking just pops right out. My favorite is when you pop out a big word. You LOVE words and you love learning new words and the bigger the better!

Ellie I am so thankful every day for you. I often think of those first few months of your life that were SO hard. I think of how we struggled to get you to eat and sleep and just how grumpy you were. I never dreamed that you would have turned into such a laid back, happy kid.

I am so looking forward to what this year brings. You're starting first grade, going to Disney World, and many more fun adventures!

I love you Ellie Belly!

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