Katie Girl Turns 8!

On March 5th our sweet Katie girl turned 8 years old!  She is getting so grown up!  

Katie's birthday usually ends up falling on a dress up week for school, since it is the same week as Dr. Suess's birthday.  Her birthday was pajama day, so to start off the day she got to open a new pair of pajamas to wear to school!  She told me she KNEW she was going to get new pajamas, even thought I tried to be pretty evasive about it.  I guess I am getting too predictable!

Eight has been a year we've been looking forward to for a long time, for a lot of reasons!  One of those reasons is that 8 is the year I told Katie she could get her ears pierced.  She has been looking forward to it for years!   As it got closer, she did start to show some nervousness but overall she was very brave.  Her birthday was a Friday so right after school, I picked her up and took her to a place called Shear Madness.  I had booked her an appointment there for both ear piercing and a manicure.  

Ear piercing was first.  She got to pick out a pair of earrings- she picked a cute flower pair- and then they marked her ears and got the piercing guns out.  She was pretty stoic when the punched the holes, but afterwards she told me it hurt worse than getting a shot.  I guess she just wanted to put on a brave face!  After the ear piercing she got to have her first professional manicure.  She enjoyed it but I also think she thought it was a bit long, haha.  She also didn't seem to get why she had to stick her hands in soapy water and thought that was kind of weird.  

On the way home we picked up Taco Bell, at Katie's request, for dinner.  She wanted donuts instead of birthday cake so for dessert we had Krispy Kreme donuts and strawberry icecream (her favorite).  Jon got suckered into purchased a new movie on Disney Plus for the kids to watch that night, Raya and the Last Dragon, since Katie asked nicely and it was her birthday.  After the movie, the kids had a sleepover together!

The next day, Saturday, we had a small little party for Katie.  With Covid, things are slowly getting back to normal but they are still a bit weird.  We limited the number of people we invited over and asked them all to wear masks just so everyone could feel comfortable.   Everyone feels so differently about it right now.  Some people are completely over masks, others are strict mask-wearers, and others-like us-fall somewhere in the middle.  Katie had six girls come over, a couple from school, a couple from the ward, and a couple from our street.  We had a crafting accessories party and they made their own shrinky dink key chains, pendant necklaces, and coloring some little handbags with fabric markers.  They seemed to have a good time, despite the masks!  Instead of eating at the house, we sent home donuts with each of the girls, along with other snacks, treats, and party favors.  Overall, it went pretty well for a Covid party, though the mess to clean up afterwards was no joke!  

We love Katie so much!  She is showing more and more maturity and responsibility all of the time.  She is so helpful with her sister Madi, who she shares a room with.  She often is helping her get dressed, brush her teeth, say her prayers, etc.  She also reads stories to both Madi and Zach every night before bed.  She has the best hand-writing of any 2nd grader I've known and is always going the extra mile with her school work.  She wants to do it all right and perfectly.  She is actually a bit of a perfectionist in everything and it can lead to some serious meltdowns when things don't go quite right.  We are working on that and trying to help her focus on doing her best, not doing it perfectly.  She told me she tries to remember to say to herself, "It doesn't need to be perfect.  It will be ok."  She is a great reader and loves to dance, roller-blade, play with friends, color, do crafts, and lots more.    

Katie's Favorites, Etc.

Favorite Dinner:  Sloppy Joes

Favorite Dessert/Treat:  Skittles, Cookies and Cream Candybars, Donuts

Least Favorite Food: Anything spicy, broccoli, seafood (although she has only ever tasted tuna so I'm not sure she even knows, haha)

Favorite Color:  Light Pink, light blue, light purple, yellow, and orange

Favorite Sport/Activity:  Dance

Favorite Book:  Star Friends

Favorite Movie/Show:  Raya and the Last Dragon, Descendants, and horse movie, Teen Titans Go

Favorite Boy ;) : Apparently some William character in her class.  He is really cute and she is going to marry him someday...

When she grows up she wants to be:  When she is a teenager she wants to be a dancer teacher or assistant dance teacher and when she's a grown up she wants to be a school teacher.