Happy Birthday Spice!

Spice is a girl of many talents!
Among them are:
ART:
Spice once said to me, "Mom, it's really weird, but I feel like I can't walk by a sharpened pencil and not pick it up to draw with it!"
She drew this picture of Little Miss shelling peas as a final project for her art class last spring.

Her oil pastels teacher was really impressed with this drawing of a lemon:

She spends most time drawing "cartoon" type pictures for her stories or of characters she makes up (like fairies, little girls, different animals, etc).

DESIGN:
She has asked me to teach her how to sew, but since I don't know too much about it myself, I've put it off. I did teach her a basic hand stitch once though, and she took off from there - designing clothes and accessories for her dolls. She makes them from old pants or shirts we were going to get rid of. Apparently old pant legs are just the right size for 18" doll dresses! Here's some of the outfits she has created (she made everything they're wearing):


She made the monkey shirt out of a sock. Notice the hand-stitched flower on the skirt :-)

She also designs jewelry:


WRITING:
She loves to write stories, funny sayings, poems, cards, and in her journal and her diary. Bud thinks her books sound like something you'd read from the library. She describes things so well that you can see them in your mind.
Here's one of her poems called "My Made-up Friend"

By the golden sunset where the rainbows end
There lies a person a very good friend.
She is a pleasher (pleasure)sight
and no she does not bite.
She has jewels galore
A billion or more!
She has hair that's the coler of gold
and she is very very bold
She has wings that are the coler of rainbow in the sun
and I'm glad to say she likes to have fun
She only comes when the sunset is up.
I never asked her what was her name.
Well, we were playing such a very fun game.
Her name might be Ashly or Mary or Glistery
I guess her name shall forever be a mistery.
She is a very good friend I should say.
I wish I could see her every day.

I love her all her poems and stories. When she asked me if she could have a notebook just so she could write her made-up poems and songs, I tried to contain the excitement in my voice as I said, casually, "Oh, sure."

She is also an avid reader. Some of her favorite books so far are: the Harry Potter series, A Little Princess, and the American Girl book series.

Yes, she is a girl of many talents, but the best thing about her is her kind, good, honest heart. Here are some examples:

Me: "Spice, could you please get Basinks dressed for me?"
Spice: "Come on, Basinks, let's go get you dressed."
Bazinks: "No! I don't want to get dressed! I want to stay in my jammies!"
Spice: "Let's get you dressed so we can fight bad guys! We have to hurry or they're going to get us!"
Bazinks, "Okay!!"
(She doesn't get these great ideas from me - I'm not nearly as creative.)

At dinner:
Bazinks: "I don't wike sawad! I'm not going to eat my sawad."
Spice: "Okay! It's sooo yummy, I'm going to eat it!" (reaches for his plate)
Bazinks: "No! I eat it!" (Laughing to get it before she does).

She helps a ton with Ray - getting him dressed, keeping him happy when I'm trying to get things done, making him laugh, walking around with him when he's fussy. He smiles whenever he sees her.

The other day she was in a grumpy mood and she made some snappy remarks to me and her sister. I told her to leave the kitchen (we were making cookies so she did not like this at all). She went to her room. She came out a little later and apologized to us. She said she knew she had a bad feeling in her heart and so she went to her room to read some scriptures so she could have the Spirit with her again. She felt peaceful and wanted to be better now. I wish I'd think to do that more often!

Here's some pics of her birthday:
She got rollerblades:

We took a couple of her friends to a bouncy place:






Her cake:

She is an amazing little girl. I thank Heavenly Father every day for the privilege I have of knowing her and of being her mom. I love you Spice!