Julia's Sweet Sixth Birthday

Pink and powerful. Careful, creative, caring. Smart, silly, sharp, studious. This is you, Julia. This is Six years old.

You want to be a make-up saloner and an archaeologist when you grow up.

You LOVE your friends and go bonkers for the. Especially your besties Penelope, Ella G, Zoey, and Penny.

You LOVE to draw, and write, and create. You are very project-minded and once you get your mind set on something, you do it. That includes making an iPad, setting up a lemonade stand, opening up your room as a makeup salon, putting on a show. Julia finds a way.

You are pretty fearless. Except sometimes for the dark and mom's tuna casserole and black holes. But, I digress. You are strong and confident in your abilities. Heck, you saw a skateboard park at a birthday party and you decided you were going to do it. And you did. Same thing for leaping off a platform to grab a cargo net. Tried until you got it. This year you taught yourself to go all the way across the monkey bars. Nailed it. Wanted to do ballet? Nailing it. Wanted to learn to dive? Nailed it. This is you. 

You LOVE cheese. And processed foods. It's sometimes a bit of work for you to eat fresh fruit; though you do like fresh veggies and nuts when the time is right. You recently, for the first time, found some rice that you like (me and mama's stir-fry with bacon and peanut sauce (sounds disgusting, I know...but trust me).

You LOVE your family. Don't get me wrong. You and Aidan bicker, but your love is so pure and true and sweet for eachother that it makes me want to vomit sometimes. So sweet. You share the love with all in your orbit: me, mama, Preston, Toby, your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Any cat anywhere any time.

You are SILLY and FUNNY and LOVE to make people laugh. Sometimes this leads to some potty humor (my bad), but the intent is there. You want to have good days, and know that you can control the mood in a room. 

You are THOUGHTFUL and a deep thinker. You consider deep thoughts and take them to heart...you think about life and death (RIP Blueberry the Betta fish) and the planets and the future. You consider other people's feelings. You fret over why your teeth haven't started to come out yet and why you can't fool the tooth fairy.

You are some kind of awesome, young lady. And you deserve to be celebrated. So celebrate we did!

First, you and Mama had a birthday party together with Yaya, Baba, Joe, and Sham...

Then we had your last (sniff sniff sniff) Pre-school celebration of life at school!

The day-of was marked with decorations and celebrations at home!

You made this note for yourself!

Then you had a girls-only pop star fashion makeover dress up awesome birthday party!

And finally a delightful dinner out with Mimi and Pops!

I can't believe you're six. You're an old soul, and a fun person, and your mom and I are so thrilled for you as we watch you and guide you and learn from you as you are growing before our eyes into an amazing young woman.

School Picture Day

I love school pictures. They're little windows into who you were at the beginning of each school year. A great little way to see how much you've grown from year to year.

Sometimes they're cute-bad; sometimes they're cute-amazing; but they're always phenomenal! A wonderful way to begin a school year and take your loving smiles with us into the future.

Aidan, here you are in all your handsome, monochormatic glory. Sporting a spiky bracelet we got you in Australia and a fresh hair cut, your impish smile, and caring eyes really come through.

 And of course, the class photo!

Miss Julia, you have grown up at White Rock Montessori, even before you were officially a student there! Your photos highlight your awesome fashion sense- including your new pixie hair cut; you're wearing a locket we bought for you at Comicon! You are fun, mature, silly, and amazing!

Class Photo!

I love that our photographer also takes pictures of siblings together, because even though you two may be in different classes, you are very much a duo, and I love capturing that love on film!

We are so lucky to have the opportunity to come do FAMILY school pictures with you!

And, I also spotted a few BONUS pictures of you with your pals, Aidan! How cool is that?

Yay Picture Day!

DANCE PARTY!

I don't recall exactly how it happened, but one day between dinner and bed-time, I thought to give something a try.

I fired up Youtube on our TV.

Pulled up a video of the song and routine from one of those dancing video games (Just Dance) and the two of you- and the two of us- were hooked!

We danced to YMCA that night.

And we've been doing dance parties pretty much every night ever since.

What the fox say?
Ghostbusters
I want you back by "baby" Michael Jackson
Moana
In the hall of the pixel king
I was made for loving you by KISS
Happy by Pharell Williams
Despicable Me
Mama Mia by Abba

...and the list goes on and on... we've been sweating and grooving through the end of summer through early fall together. Learning to dance together. Not step on each others toes. Have fun and stretch and leap and look silly without caring what anyone else thinks.

You two can surely bust a move!

Julia- here's your current favorite song to dance to: Starships by Nikki Minaj:

Aidan- You've been digging one Uncle Joe showed you: Animals:

R.I.P. Blueberry

Blueberry the Betta fish has died.

We hardly knew ye. 

Aidan, Julia, you are such sensitive, loving, thoughtful children that you worked together to give Blueberry a fitting send off into what lies beyond.

Aidan, you and I constructed a casket for him out of cardboard.

Julia, you lead us in some lovely music in his honor.

We all made gravestones for him. 

We found a lovely spot by the fence, the three of us dug a hole, and we buried him.

Julia, you gathered flowers while Aidan said some kind words about Blueberry.

We shared a laugh when Julia realized she had spelled his name as "Blue-bobby" on his gravestone.

Then the two of you went door to door to alert the neighbors that Blueberry had passed on to the other side. None were home, but the support was palpable.

We can never replace life, Blueberry, and that we truly understand. We hope you are honored that Aidan's new Betta fish's name includes an homage to you.

We will miss you Blueberry. Rest in peace.

Now we welcome Blueberry The Second.