Some things go by so quickly that it really makes you pause in amazement.

How, for instance, is it possible that Brooklyn Reese has already been here 7 years? How is it possible that she could already be 7? I have been a mother for 7 years. 

I can't begin to tell you what a delight my Brooklyn is to me.  She makes me laugh on a regular basis. She's insightful, energetic, has a non-stop imagination that dictates the play around this house.  She is beautiful and long-legged and lean and eats next to nothing. She is wonderful with her two younger brothers and a fabulous helper to me and her Daddy.  She's extremely dramatic and turns every little thing into a production.

She is the most awful sick person imaginable. You'd think she has the plague when she gets a slight fever. The moaning and wailing...it's Oscar-worthy.  But that's just part of who she is! She sings constantly - putting music to her Bible verses, and sometimes just normal conversation.

She loves to read and draw. Boy, does she ever like to draw.  She draws constantly, on everything and anything.  Sometimes, I have to motivate her to finish a math problem by telling her she can draw faces or clothes on all the images on the page. She doesn't just draw pictures - she draws stories. She recently drew a picture of a pirate dangling a puppy over the side of a boat just above the fierce jaws of a crocodile. There's a whole other scene unfolding on the other side of the page that tells the rest of the story.  The pirate had a patch over his eye and the eyebrow above the patched eye was quirked wickedly. I'm keeping it for posterity. It was a great picture.

She is upbeat constantly. She's persistent. She's loving and affectionate and sweet.  She loves dogs and cats and says she wants to be a vet when she grows up. She's very smart and isn't all that crazy about addition, although when she puts her mind to it, she breezes through it.

She reads aloud with the professional quality of a book on tape! She does voices and the inflections are always correct. It's truly amazing how well she reads for just a 7 year old. 

I love this daughter of mine. Can you tell? 

For her 7th birthday, we stuck to our family tradition which is to forego a traditional group birthday party and turn the whole birthday into an All-Day Family Party.

Her birthday was on Monday, February 18th and Kyle took off from work to spend the day with us. We had breakfast and then one of her best friends, Hollis, came over and we took them to the Climbing Center for the afternoon.  Having never been climbing before, I really didn't know what she'd think.  I actually thought she might have been a little scared of the heights. Boy, I misjudged her.  She has all the fearlessness of her mom and dad combined. And she's part monkey.  We're considering letting her participate on a JV climbing team, she was so good at it!

After we wore her and Hollis out, we took them to get smoothies (B's request).  She then picked her dinner of choice (spaghetti) and dessert (PW's Knock-You-Naked Brownies) and closed out her birthday with presents and a full belly.

It was a great way to turn 7. 

   

  

 Happy Birthday!