Happy Birthday Little Miss!

I was going through Little Miss' clothes the other day and I noticed several were too small for her.  I looked at the tags.  They said 4T.  I thought, "Hmm, that's weird, my kids tend to be small, that's kind of strange that a 4T doesn't fit her anymore."  Then I realized, "Wait, she's going to be six in a couple of weeks - of course a 4T doesn't fit her!"

Well, the time has come.  My baby girl is six years old.  What an amazing little girl she has become!  She is so good!  So kind!  So Tenderhearted!

Something that astonishes me about Little Miss is her perseverance.  She likes a challenge and she'll keep at it until she triumphs!  That is how she learned to read.  I have a book called "100 Easy Lessons to Teach your Child to Read".  I asked her if she wanted to learn and we started Lesson 1.  After that, she wouldn't let me forget her lessons.  Sometimes, she'd get frustrated with herself and I'd tell her to take a break and we could try again later, but she wouldn't hear of it.

Lately, she has decided to read the Harry Potter books.  I tried to get her to read something a little easier.  She struggled with words and I, again, told her her to take a break and go back to it later, but she insisted on reading it.  She does read easier books once in a while, but she is now on the second Harry Potter book and she keeps plugging away.

With her persevering nature, she loves to work on puzzles.  I've seen her her work on them for hours.

She also loves making projects that take a lot of time and patience like jewelry, melting beads, and aqua dots.  She made all these in one sitting:

She has decided to teach herself to draw.  She avoided it for a long time because her sister was so good at it, and she couldn't do it as well, but she's becoming a good artist as she keeps on persevering.  Here are some of her late drawings.

Her letter to Santa:

While I'm at it, here's the Bud's and Spice's letters as well:

Bud:

(The top said: Dear Santa, I want a gecko please.  and if you can't git me that please git me a race track)

Spice:

Little Miss also has an amazing memory.  The other day we were getting ready to play "Memory" and even the older kids said, "Little Miss will probably win because she is really good at memory games!"  In the mornings, when I ask the kids what it was that we read about in Story of the World last time, she is always the first to answer and remember the details of what we read - even if it has been a while.

She is so filled with goodness that she seems to sense the beauty around her more deeply.  A while ago, we were walking around the neighborhood and I pointed out a beautiful flower.  She responded, "That flower makes me think of how much Heavenly Father loves us because He made us such a beautiful flower." She sees the world in such a simple and beautiful way.

Her most admirable quality, I think, is her compassion toward others.  I've seen her shed tears when someone in the family was sad about something even though it had nothing to do with her.  She tries her best to make Bazinks happy, even though he can be very hard to please at times.  It makes her happy to share her things.  One drawback to this willingness to give and to love is that she doesn't quite understand why others are not as giving and loving sometimes.  This can hurt her tender feelings.  I hope she learns to understand other's limitations and to not take them personally.

On her birthday morning we "woke her up" (in reality she was getting really tired of waiting for us!) with a birthday song and presents:

Here is what her cards said:
From Bazinks:

(it's a picture of him with Little Miss)

From Bud:

It read: Happy Birthday!  I love you so much and more

From Spice:

It read: Happy Birthday!  I realy hope you have a great birthday!  I love you so so so so so much and way way more!  You are the best sister in the world.

From me:

Happy 6th birthday!  I can't believe it's been six years since I got to hold you in my arms for the first time.  You have become such a good, kind, smart and loving little girl!  You make the people around you so happy with your sweet laugh and smile!  You are so kind and always willing to share your things to make others happy!  You are so soft and cuddly!  I wish I could hug and cuddle you all day!  I hope you have a great day and always remember that I love you till time never ends!

Little Miss likes to tell me that she loves me "'till time never ends".  I'm not sure where she came up with it, but I love it.

From Rock:

Love you ____ - Have a great day!  You are awesome!  Love, Dad

We ate M&M pancakes for breakfast and then she played with her new toys.

In the afternoon, we had her party.

Due to the fanaticism there is in our household about Harry Potter, Little Miss decided she wanted to have a Harry Potter party.  It was a lot of fun.

First, the kids got sorted into their houses (surprisingly, everyone got placed in Gryffindor.)

Then they all got their school supplies - a notebook, a pen and a wand (a paintbrush).

We had a big Hogwarts Feast.

They then got to go to their first class - Defense Against the Dark Arts - taught by Harry Potter (Bud) himself.  He had them write down some spells (if they could write) and then they paired up and practiced them on each other.  Bud really has those spells down!

They then went to Potions class.  They got to mix dragon tears, mixed unicorn hair, dragon blood, and other such things into their frosting to decorate their cupcakes.  I told them to be careful with their mixture since even the sprinkles had special properties.  I then had to tell them the different properties each color of sprinkles had - red made you fall in love, orange made you happy, green gave you good luck, yellow made you sleepy, etc.  They were careful to choose the right combination.

After that, they needed to find they key to open their safe at Gringott's bank.  We had a scavenger hunt - the clues were taped to each of the movies.  When they found all six movies, they found the key.  We opened the safe and they each got 7 galleons to go spend at Hogsmead.

We then decorated our shopping bags to get ready to shop at Hogsmead.

Spice thought of great names for the different candy available at Hogsmead.   She was also the one in charge of working the register.

After that, Little Miss opened her presents and we ate our cupcakes.

I think she had a great time.  I love my Little Miss "till time never ends" and back!