Living the Dream

Our Xia Xia turns 6

 

Our little girl doesn't seem so little any more.  She turned 6 in October and had lots of fun celebrating.

First, there was family dinner at "China Palace"  which is a place where we met with all of our college friends right BEFORE we were going to go to China.  So it was fun to celebrate our big girl there.

The next day at school, Grace's teacher did a little "sun ceremony" , which at first I thought would be goofy, but actually it was cool.  Grace got to hold the planet earth, and travel around the "sun" for as many years as she has been alive on the earth.  The teacher then read "milestones" from each year of Grace's life.  It was really cool.

The teacher had me write it-so I could include whatever I wanted.  Also, Nate and Eden were able to come and see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                      That evening, Nate, Eden and Grace got to go to a Jars of Clay/Brandon Heath concert with Dad!  It was Grace's first-ever concert and she declared it "awesome".  Amazingly, she stayed up for the whole thing and got to meet Brandon Heath  and Jars of Clay afterwards.  Of course, she told them it was her birthday, and they gave her a nice autograph.  What a great day for our girl!                                                                                                                                            

Big Pop Pop's 70th.

We are so grateful for Pop Pop and that we got to surprise him on his 70th birthday!  He had no idea-he thought we were coming the next weekend.  We and about 40 of his friends and family had a nice dinner for him.  So great to be able to celebrate this milestone.

 

Everyone had a great time with the gag gifts!

Cross Country Girl

Even though Eden is not our fastest kid, nor did she E-V-E-R say that she liked to run, she insised upon doing cross country as her fall sport.  Even though she often finished towards the bottom, she always finished.  She went to every practice, and cheered the faster runners on with enthusiasm.  We even heard her say, "I don't like this running very much , but I made a commitment, so I have to go."  Love that.  Also enjoy being in one of those "Parenting with Love and Logic" situations-where you just nod your head and agree-no "I told you so"  allowed. 

I appreciated the life lessons that she learned and her enthusiasm for the team.  Every race, one girl from PUCS was the winner-and Eden continually talked about how exciting that was :)

 

Thanks for letting us see you grow in character, E!