Happy Birthday Maisie!

A few days ago Maisie celebrated her 7th birthday. Seven is such a big number, and she seems like such a big kid these days. Her interests have subtly shifted from princesses and Barbies to novels and Lego's. Speaking of which, Maisie really wanted some Harry Potter Lego's for her birthday. After spending hours and hours searching and bidding on Ebay, I went to Target and probably paid less.

She also very much wanted a Hermione action figure which, maddeningly enough, are very hard to find. She's one of the three main Harry Potter characters, so you'd think it would be easy... but no. I did end up getting that from Ebay, and it was shipped from England. How authentic :).

Oh well, she was quite excited by it, and that's all that matters. She also got the last two books in the Leven Thumps series from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers.

One thing I was excited about was the cake. I found a lady who will print edible frosting sheets with all kinds of images, and you can add your own short message to it.

I love that our message is written in the same "lightning" font that Harry Potter is written in. So fun. Maisie was quite impressed, and it was hard not to take credit for it myself.

Unfortunately, one of her presents didn't arrive in time for her birthday, as it was being shipped from China. I guess it extends the anticipation a little longer. She also got several other presents and cards from friends and family, and felt very well loved on her special day. We had a fun time celebrating with her, and can't wait to see who'll she become this next year. Love you, Maisie!

Uh... What?

So I know every kid goes through that stage where all they do is ask you "Why?" or "How come?", but Dany seems to have taken question-asking into the bizarre. Here are a few gems we've heard over the past few days.

"Mom, what if a skeleton drank a whole bunch of rootbeer and it fell out of his stomach?"
"What if you ate yourself?"
And today's super fun one. "What if thunder jumped into a big pile of yogurt?"

The thing is, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to answer these questions. I think I'd almost prefer the other way, because at least the questions would be informational rather than just plain asinine. Luckily for me, she doesn't seem to expect a real answer.

Our Dany, she likes to think outside the box...

Maisie Wins Big!

So Maisie loves to write stories. Every few weeks or so, she comes to us with a new story she's written. The topics are wide-ranging, usually with some fanciful elements, but always quite creative. So when she brought some information home about the school Reflections contest, I suggested she enter it. It took a little coaxing, (Maisie wasn't feeling too confident), but after awhile, she agreed to write one.

The resulting story was titled, "The Apple Flower Sisters." The idea blossomed in her head, no pun intended, when she took a spare carnation from a flower arrangement I was working on, and stuck it in the bottom of an apple. The story is about three sisters, Ruby, Gala, and Emerald (for Granny Smith apples, of course!) who are getting ready for the Lily Festival. Ruby has to give a speech at the festival, and is very nervous about it. Her sisters suggest she practice it for them first, and it helps build her confidence. That evening, she delivers her speech perfectly for the Queen, who then gives her the title of "Ruby the Brave".

We found out today by phone call that Maisie's story had won in her division for both her school and the Region. Her entry will now be moving on to the state level! Needless to say, we were very excited for her. The chairman of the reflections committee asked if Maisie would read her story at a little open house this evening, and when I broke the news after school, there was some definite mixed feelings. I could see her stressing out about it, and so I paralleled this experience with her character Ruby, and we had her practice her story beforehand, to get comfortable reading it out loud.

If I were a Queen, I would have bestowed her the title "Maisie the Brave", after she got up in front of a large crowd and read her story flawlessly. Such a little stud. Since we're terrible parents we forgot our camera, and had to make due with my not-so-great camera phone.

She was very excited about her blue ribbon for the win, but I think Teag and I were very proud of her both for her creativity and her willingness to put aside her fear. Congratulations Maisie, we love you!