We celebrated Gwen's birthday by taking her to see Annie and having a family dinner and party. We were lucky enough to have grandma and grandpa Hills join us. They decided last minute to come down for another reason, but it just made Gwen's party all the more festive! While we don't do extravagant, there are a few things we do to make the time special. We always have a special breakfast that has to include some type of berry and whipped cream. Gwen requested Crepes, raspberries and whipped cream. Then we have a family outing of some sort. We finish the day off with the birthday child's favorite meal. Gwen's was grilled cheese and tomato soup. Her dessert was lemon-raspberry cheesecake (inspired by The Cheesecake Factory). We had ordered a slice last May for a mommy-daughter date while Zach had the boys at the Fathers-and-Sons outing. She remembered how much she liked it all those months ago and requested it. Since there was no way I was going to pay for an entire cheesecake from there, I found a copycat recipe online. Unfortunately, I didn't have a spring-form pan to make it in, so I used a casserole dish. It still worked and the results were actually pretty good!
Gwen is very much a girlie-girl and is starting to get more into arts and crafts so this year, her birthday presents almost all came from Hobby Lobby. She received a bracelet making kit and a jewelry box that she could paint-decorate. She also loves blankets so I made her a large fleece one. These gifts have kept her busy for a while.
Some details about 6-year-old Gwen:
- She still loves Barbies, stuffed animals and reading.
- She loves to write and is incredibly good at it. She spells most words correctly because she takes the time to figure out how to spell and just remembers on other words. She also has very neat handwriting--something I never did.
- She is an incredible reader. She is easily the top of her class in both Reading and Writing. Her school uses a program called Accelerated Reader. This includes reading a book- pretty much any book out there, and taking a comprehension test on it. Kindergartners usually begin the program in January (once they can read a beginning book) and don't typically finish a level that year. She started in October (once her teacher got around to testing her) and has already passed off two levels. Her teacher informed me she has never had a student pass off the third level, and doesn't even have all the books Gwen might need so I supplement with books from the library. Gwen is already well on her way to passing off the third level. She recently read a mid-4th grade level chapter book, took the AR comprehension test and earned a 100% score.
- She is becoming interested in Art. My bedroom is covered with pictures and notes she has made for myself and Zach. It's very sweet! Just last night, while looking at all our sweet notes, Zach said "What would our family be like without a sweet daughter?" I don't even know. Particularly as I prepare for our 4th boy and realize we probably will be completing our family with this child, I think about how grateful I am that I got my one girl.
- She's still headstrong in many ways. She's kind-of passive aggressive about it, though. If I ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she just pretends like she didn't hear me. She has her own way of doing things and sometimes I have to remind myself that perhaps that battle isn't worth fighting because her way of doing things is still good and gets the job done.
- She loves school and is such a good girl. I love volunteering in her class because I get to see how sweet she is in that environment. If I were her teacher, I'm certain I would be in love with her-- she's just the perfect student. School definitely suits her. I hope it always will, and that she will always have her love of learning.
- We are so lucky to have our beautiful, smart, sweet Gwen!
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