Happy 4th Birthday Bea!(August 23rd)

These are the photos the two guys were taking when they first saw us in the piazza in Florence

This is very late, so sorry my sweet Bea!  This year you had a very special Birthday because we were in Italy. 

We bought some paintings from this man.  You gave him a cherry and he painted you a special picture just because you were so kind to him.

 Bea, you are an extraordinary little girl.  You have grown up a lot this year.  You have turned from a little girl into a big girl and I can't wait until you get bigger because you have such an instinct for mothering and cleaning that I will appreciate more and more the older you get!  You went from Babykiller last year to my sweet little helper.  You and Clementine are playing so well together and you and Henry are also able to connect more now that you are a little older.  You still fight here and there, but I catch you having more fun together than ever before and it makes my heart so happy.  Of course you love your baby Violette more than anyone and you spend so much time playing with her and thinking about what to do to help her every day.  Even though you make giant messes wherever you go, you don't mind cleaning up when asked and I still frequently find you in the bathroom or kitchen up at the sink, "cleaning" with water dripping everywhere and all my kitchen rags used and the towels all over the ground.  I look forward to the day I can utilize that desire to clean bathrooms and be confident the bathrooms will actually get clean.

Bea, your favorite activity right now is ballet.  You live for ballet class every week and you ask me why you can't go to ballet every day just like Angelina Ballerina.  If you're not at ballet class, you're dressing up like a ballerina, dancing ballet and singing about how much you love Ballet.  Your songs go a little something like this, "I love ballet, I love to dance and run around like fairies, but I have to wear my tap shoes sometimes even though I just want to wear my ballet shoes.  Ballet is so pretty and I can be a ballerina princess if I want to." You sing this an octave above most normal songs and you do all your ballet moves while you sings.  I have to say, you are getting much better at ballet and your movements are getting a lot more graceful, you're bending your body and using your limbs to do beautiful extensions.  I think you could be a ballerina someday if you really wanted to.

No matter what you're doing, your singing about it.  If it's not ballet, it's babies, or Henry or your family.  Just yesterday I got after you for not listening and you made up a song about how you got in trouble and that you didn't want to be in time out.  You even said I didn't love you anymore, which is usually what you say every time I send you to time out.  Just so you know.  I LOVE YOU GIRL! Clementine always copies you and constantly dances and sings about loving ballet, even though she hasn't done ballet in her life. 

You do love your Popsicles!

Bea, if you're not dressed in your ballet costumes you always have the same few outfits on.  Sometimes you wear the same blue dress until it's brown and you love your purple skirt so much that it has holes in it and paint stains on it, but you don't care.  You still wear it every day.  You used to change your clothes 5 times per day, but now you've changed and now wear the same thing for 5 days straight.  You really hate to have your hair blow dried and curled and I have to threaten you with a short bob just to get you to stand and get your hair dried and curled.  You always have dirt all over your face so in the end, you really look like an old fashioned farm girl in a dress covered in dirt.

Climbing the clostrophobic steps of the tower of Sienna. Over 300 steps in all

Bea, you really love animals! You aren't afraid to pick up chickens, touch the toads in our pond, collect cool bugs like the giant moth and mammoth slug we found in our yard.  You, however, don't have a problem killing bugs and now that I think about it, I haven't heard that toad in a long time.  Poor guy!  You have scared off almost all the cats so they won't come close to you anymore but our neighbor's dog still loves you.  I'm so glad that even though you are definitely girly, you know that there's a time to be pretty, but there's also a time to get dirty and we love it!

Swimming like a fish in the Italian Emerald Coast waters

 This year, all you have talked about at home is going camping.  Just about every morning you pack up every bag you can find with toys, clothes, stuffed animals and food and cart it around the house saying you want to go camping.  You even got a sleeping bag to complete your preparations from Grandpa and Grandma for your Birthday! This drives me crazy because there's nothing that takes longer for me to do than sort through everything you've collected from around the house and put it back where it belongs.  The playroom is 100% disorganized and no one can find any parts to any of the toys because of your camping adventures.  I just can't keep that place organized anymore! Now, since we have a giant apple tree, you go out there and cart hundreds of pounds of wormy apples into the house, eat one bite and throw them under the couch, under your bed and you hide them in your room...and then take them camping with you.

Playing with a friend you found in Ravenna.  You two were fast friends!

You also love playing with water.  When your hair is really bothering you because it has turned into a rats nest, you compensate by dunking your nappy head in a sink, which you always leave running, and slick your hair back and put a head band on.  I'm actually so happy you like head bands so much because your hair won't break off as easily with head bands as opposed to hair ties.

Bea posing as a Roman statue in the ancient city of Pompeii

This year I have loved watching you develop into a big girl, becoming so capable and so independent with such a great big personality.  You gather your sisters up like a hen gathers her chickens and I can tell you will be a loving mother someday.  You love Jesus and always remind me if we forget to read our scriptures.  You have never complained about going to church and you still love it when I sing you, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and "Away in a Manger" every night before you go to bed.   One of the funniest things you do is say the same prayer every meal and night, which goes something like this..."Dear Heavenly Father, thank-you for this day, thank-you that we don't do the things we don't supposed to to and that our mommies and daddies don't ask us to do and don't do the things we don't supposed to do.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." And you know what? I think after saying it hundreds of times, it's actually working!

Bea, the thing I love most about you is that you are so thoughtful and loving.  You are constantly creating things for me and telling me that you love me.  You kiss everyone when they get hurt and give such big hugs.  I love the feeling I get when you completely wrap your little arms and legs around my body and squeeze me tight.  Then you usually give repeated kisses and hugs to my head over and over again.  When you do that, you melt my heart.  I love you my dear sweet girl and I hope you have a wonderful year here on the farm.  Thank you for being such a lovely part of our family, our sweet little Bea.