5 years old going on 25

At her My Little Pony dress-up tea party

Happy Birthday Bea!  I am so thrilled that you are 5 years old!

Where do I start? It's been so fun this summer watching you in your various activities.  I am really not ready for school to start up again!  You took swimming lessons this summer and passed your level the first time and graduated up to the big kid levels where you have to swim for an hour.  You're the smallest one in your class and they won't put you up another level because you're so little, but you love to swim and I'm excited to put you on swim team next year with Henry! You also took tennis lessons again every day this whole summer, but I'm not sure if I saw you hit the ball even once.  I just have this memory of watching(on TV) a 5 year old John McEnroe hitting incredible spin around volleys at your age and you're not quite there yet. lol.  You love going to tennis all decked out in your sunglasses, rings, necklaces, headband, skirt, and silver shoes. Everyone loves your accessories.  If you actually learned how to play, you could bring a whole new style to the sport!

You and your sisters watching the pinata.  You look like angels!

Bea, you are a little mom.  Your baby killer days are officially over and you are such a nurturing and loving sister with a love for all things smaller than you. Even in just this past month you've stopped torturing your rats and whenever you hold them, they don't squeak out in pain anymore.  Yay!  I think you spend more than half of your waking hours pretending you're a mom.  Clementine is usually your sister and Violette is your baby.  Sometimes your pet hairless rats, Pinkie Pie and Muffin Cakes are your babies and your little sisters are your dogs.  You just love pretend play.  You call everyone "sweetie" and you cook and clean and put them down for naps. Your sisters love playing along too. 

Blowing out her candles.  It was picture perfect!

I've been waiting for so long to have a helper who likes to help me and is capable of helping me and that's you! You love to help around the house and can't wait to grow up to be a mommy someday.  Ever since you were little you would ask if you could clean anything for me, but in the end, I would just have to re-do what you "cleaned" but now you're actually great at cleaning and you are old enough to do it right! Heaven knows Henry isn't inspired to help me, so I really appreciate all you do around the house. The best thing you do for me is you wipe Violette's hands and face and get her out of her seat for me without even being asked.  You don't know how much that helps me, but it really does and I appreciate it. You are so perceptive and understand what needs to be done and you're so good at doing it without needing direction. 

Saylor, Chloe, Emma, Ava, Molly, Ksenia, Clementine, Emma, Manuela, Olivia, Bea and Violette...and Pinkie Pie

One thing that has been difficult in the past that is becoming a blessing is your independent spirit.  You love doing everything by yourself and you almost never ask if you can do things like put my make-up on, paint your nails, get food out for a meal or change into a crazy outfit.  In the past, it usually resulted in disastrous results, but now you're so much more capable that I don't expect a disaster every time...only sometimes.  I really love how independent you are and I know you'll be so capable and self motivated when you grow up and that makes me excited.

Boogie boarding at the beach in San Diego

Bea, you love ballet so much.  You are so flexible and can almost do the full splits.  You pride yourself on how high you can get your leg while doing an arabesque and your sisters always copy you, which is adorable.  You move with such grace and I can definitely see you as a dancer someday, something I have never been, so that's uncharted and exciting territory for me.

Every flower we found, we added to your hair as we walked around Old Town San Diego

You are close to riding a bike without training wheels and you love being outside.  You love camping and ask when we're going camping almost every week.  Recently you keep asking when we're going skiing again.  You're a great skier and can almost keep up with your brother.  I'm excited to see how you'll improve this year.

These things are so strange.  lol. 

 This year you'll do one more year of preschool because I want you to be more ready for Chinese immersion and not struggle with learning the English stuff while you're trying to learn Chinese.  You still need to work on a few things before you're ready for Kindergarten, so this year you and Clementine will be in the same class, which will be so fun for you both.  

You pretty much wear this shirt every day. Front ways, backwards, then inside out front and back until it's dirty on all sides

One thing I love about you is that you're a pretty adventurous eater.  You love wasabi covered anything, seaweed, and you just recently started loving mustard and pepper.  You'll try just about anything and you are the one who comes up to me when I'm eating an arugula salad with gourmet toppings and will eat it all out from under me.  Thanks for keeping me skinny! You love lettuce, tomatoes, artichokes, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and all other common veggies. 

We love you and all our accessories Bea!

One funny thing about you is that you love being beautifully dressed with lots of accessories, but you're constantly covered in dirt or food that has fallen on your clothes.  Your face and clothes are always a mess, so you change your clothes many times per day.  I'm trying to teach you how to be cleaner, but you're like a little "rag-a-muffin" as my grandmother would put it.  Your hair is growing out and you won't let me blow dry it or anything, so it's usually a snarly mess too.  I usually put it back in a messy pony tail and every once in a while I will do braids, but you're always in tears by the end because it hurts your head so much.  You love gathering the eggs from our chickens and are becoming quite a little farm girl.  

Kids at at the zoo.  They love each other so much!

 The most wonderful thing about you is that you have a charm that draws people to you.  Younger girls and older girls alike just love you.  You have a way of making people feel special and loved and our babysitters and neighbors are in love with your personality.  You hug people with both arms and legs and tell everyone how much you love them.  You drag older girls around the house, and for some reason, they love it and come back to play with you all the time.