Lourdes One Heck of a 7 Year Old

Lourdes- Man is she a smart gal. She is inquisitive and understands on a level far beyond her years. Since the beginning of first grade she's been reading chapter books. I'm not talking short like 50 pagers, this gal is reading 200 page chapter books and usually within a day or two she's on to the next one. She and I are currently reading Little Women together. It's so fun to experience these books with her. There are some words and phrases that are above her but we talk them out and she gets it. It's a lot for her to "listen" to a book nowadays, she wants to be the one reading. Next up for us is the Harry Potter series!

She's still a bit cooky, but that makes her a lot of fun and very interesting. To just listen to her thought process takes you to a whole different world of understanding her. She remains just like me with her awkwardness and lack of grace. But boy does she try. I love her picture poses! Oh gosh, who know limbs and fingers could get so angly and oddly position for a picture. 

Lourdes is learning the ropes of friendship. She's struggling with the idea that not everyone deserves to be given your friendship. Some "friends" have been taking advantage of her for her toys and then pushing her aside and alienating her. It's tough, there's a lot of discussions we have. She has a huge heart, she wants to share that with everyone. I have tried to let her learn these lessons on her own, come to her understanding that these girls aren't nice to her and aren't worth playing with. But she's convinced next time, they'll be nice. If she lets them play with her toys, they'll like her. It's heartbreaking and I had to step in we had a big heart to heart. She was very grown about it. But it was heartbreaking to see her be hurt, and she was heartbroken to realize these girls would not be her friends no matter what she did. On the other hand, she has begun some really lovely friendships and those we are working to foster.

All in all, she is one special seven year old gal and I am over the moon to call her my daughter.

Lourdes' Birthday Party

Lourdes' birthday has been a 2 week celebration this year. The Friday before her birthday she brought in cupcakes I made for her class. Miss Lakshmi made her a beautiful crown, which she proceeded to wear for the following 2 weeks. Actually she'd still be wearing it if it weren't sitting next to me needing to be taped back together after Fiona got her little mits on it!

On her birthday we had planned to have cake and sing just the four of us, but that's a lot of cake for us to eat. Lourdes had the lovely idea of inviting our neighbors over, they have 9 year old twin boys and the four of these kids play so nicely together, even though they have a huge age difference. I think the boys like 'teaching' the girls things and feeling older and more responsible. It's cute to watch. It was great to have neighbors over in the house, our first time having neighbors over! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the cake I made, it was RIDICULOUS! It's called a chocolate blackout cake, and I got the recipe after seeing it made on America's Test Kitchen. Lourdes wanted a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, so I adapted the recipe to include the raspberry filling. The best part of the cake is that the flavor is so nice, the frosting is a chocolate pudding and then a layer of cake is crumbled (the girl's job) and then spread around the pudding. Oh my god, it was SOOOO GOOD! So this pic of the girls crumbling is the only picture I have of this lovely cake.

For the actual party, Lourdes went back and forth on what type she'd like. My only requirement was that it was not at our house. We finally made the decision to have a bowling party with friends that we get together with on a regular basis. Unfortunately we couldn't have the party on her actual birthday because the alley was booked, but the following weekend we had the big event. Nahnah and Pahpah came down from NY for it, and brought the girls doll house they had gotten them for Christmas. I'll have to take a picture of it so you can see why it would not fit in our car (even if the car was empty). The cake for this party was the same chocolate black out cake, but without the pudding and crumbled cake frosting...I went store bought this time, but did do the raspberry filling again, it was a great suggestion from my gal (maybe she'll be a baker too!)

The party morning we knew it was supposed to snow about 4-6 inches, and we were hoping it would hold off until at least noon so we could have the party with all of her friends. The snow however, had other plans, it started around 10am and was pretty heavy. But luckily all of our friends were able to make it and we had a great time. There is an album of the party to the left of the blog.

Happy Birthday Lourdes

My how you've grown

Newborn Lourdes Joli

One Year Old

Two Years Old

Three Years Old

Four Years OldFive Years Old

Birthday Slideshow

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Fourth Birthday Lourdes!

Luli is a big girl and she has a lot of changes she has instituted in our daily lives to confirm this. Two of the big ones are eating with an adult salad fork instead of a kids fork, and drinking from a regular glass cup rather than a kids cup. As she reminds us, she's a big girl now and too old for these kid things!

It's been a lot of celebrating over the past week and I have to say everything went really well and smoothly. We had a lot of fun and are now looking forward to a bit of downtime.

Thursday afternoon Nahnah and Pahpah arrived for the festivities, and were the girls ever glad to see them! Greeting with big screams and hugs. Friday morning Luli got up and ran in our room. She cuddled in bed with me and whispered, "Mommy am I big now?" and of course I answered "yes." Off to school she went with her cupcakes and excitement, she got to wear a crown all day and because it was so nice out they got to play outside on the playground. Saturday was the big party and with 19 kids, and 27ish adults it was a big hit! Two Loudoun County Officers came over to wish Luli a happy birthday and show the kids their cruisers. It was really exciting (and there was snow, so exciting overall). We played lots of games, but I'm most proud of my "pin the badge on the officer" (thank you Katie for the idea!). I love the picture of the pin the badge also because you can see where Fiona put her badge, and this is funny BECAUSE... she had her eyes open!

Sunday Nahnah, Luli and I went to Ikea and it was a lot of fun to have a special big girl outing. And dinner was at Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom's house. We had a great time and Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom played with the girls non-stop. I imagine Uncle Tom's neck is a wee bit sore today after all the running around the house he did with each girl on his neck. But he was rewarded with lots of cuddle time as the girls wound down and got sleepy.

All of the birthday pictures are in the picasa album to the left. Enjoy!