We had a great time celebrating Willow's 10th birthday! It's hard to believe she's a decade old! She was sooooo excited about being "double digits."
Willow got a camera from Gramps and Gramma:
The other side of this pillowcase says "One more chapter..."
And she got this awesome pop-up Harry Potter book!
Just like when she turned 3, we made her help with her birthday cake ;) Just kidding. She wanted to help make her Harry Potter cake pops that you'd bite into to find which house of Harry Potter you were in.
The cake pops were covered with white icing so you could bite in to reveal which house you were in:
"Hedwig" balloons:
We had Willow's party at a local indoor pool. We had the party room for an hour then swimming for an hour. It worked out great!
The entrance to the party room:
The table had Harry Potter "Would you rather..." cards with Hedwig balloons that the girls got to take home.
Willow picked out an Oreo Blast blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. We had them write "happy birthday" like Hagrid did on a cake for Harry Potter. Thankfully the cake was just soft enough to cut but not too soft to be a melted mess!
Willow got sweet, thoughtful gifts from her friends. We couldn't help but laugh as she opened one gift card for Barnes&Noble after another. She ended up with 5! We'll have to space those out throughout the year!
Sweet girls!!!
The girls each got a Hedwig stuffed animal too!
Poor Jason ended up getting roped into helping me set up the party while family was at Owen's baseball game. Then he ended up being the
life of the party in the pool! Thank you Jason!!
We went to Panera for dinner after the party and Cadence had everyone enthralled with her Solitaire explanation =)
Chris helped Willow screw the sign into the fence so we can enjoy it longer!
1. Favorite color: blue
2. Favorite toy: books
3. Favorite fruit: cantalope, honeydew
4. Favorite TV show: America Ninja Warrior Jr
5. Favorite thing to eat at lunch: Farmburguesa
6. Favorite outfit to wear: dress
7. Favorite game to play: trampoline
8. Favorite snack: cheese & crackers
9. Favorite animal: butterfly
10. Favorite song: "High Hopes"
11. Favorite book: all
12. Best friend: Layla
13. Favorite cereal: Rice Krispies
14. Favorite thing to do outside: trampoline
15. Favorite drink: Sierra Mist
16. Favorite holiday: Easter
17 What do you take to bed at night: blankie, bear, water, Lambie
18. Favorite thing to eat for breakfast: bagel with butter
19. What did you have for dinner on your birthday? Farmburguesa
20. What job do you want to have when you're older? librarian
Willow lives and breathes books! She reads one when she wakes up on weekend mornings. She reads one while she eats breakfast. She reads one at lunch on weekends. On school days, her 20 minutes of reading homework often turns into an hour. She gets excited to stay up later (8:30) on non-school-nights to read. She often checks out a library book at school and reads it before she's left school for the day. She doesn't limit herself to books that have an RQ test at school, but the points she earns each quarter has pretty much given her the stakehold on the large bar of chocolate given out each quarter to the student who has earned the most points by grade level. Sporting activities often cause us to have a late bedtime, but on non-activity nights we head upstairs to get ready for bed at 7:00 then read together until 8:00. Willow and I recently finished Where the Red Fern Grows (sniff sniff) and Chris has read the 100 Cupboards series, Artemis Fowl, and The Golden Compass with her recently. On her own, she's been reading Keeper of the Lost Cities, Ever After High, Books from Elsewhere, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Willow has enjoyed playing soccer, basketball, and softball this year, while continuing with gymnastics. She enjoys them all but hasn't found that one thing she's willing to put in extra effort to become great at. She also enjoys art activities, playing outside, rock climbing, playing card/board games, listening to music, coloring, and playing with her stuffed animals/Barbies. A girl from her class moved into the culdisac behind us so she's enjoyed having a neighbor to play with on occasion.
Willow is a pretty easy-to-please eater. She's "happy enough" with most meals and doesn't complain about the ones she doesn't like. Her favorite dinners are tacos, alfredo, tortellini salad, breakfast-for-dinner, and pizza. For lunch she likes peanut butter sandwiches or salami with cheese and crackers. Her breakfast favorites are bagels with butter or cereal (Rice Krispies or Peanut Butter Cheerios).
Willow has done great in school this year, earning A Honor Roll all 4 quarters. She doesn't complain about doing her homework, which has increased in volume this year a bit. She's enjoyed her teacher, Mrs. Poyner, who has done a great job of challenging her academically. She's especially enjoyed the books they've read and STEM projects they've worked on. Her teacher does a great job of having the students work in collaborative groups. Willow has enjoyed being her class's SCA representative. Being on SCA has given her some great opportunities such as singing at nursing homes around the holidays and being a part of the Veteran's Day assembly and Earth Day assembly. Willow mentions playing with a variety of classmates - not necessarily latching on to one or two BFFs yet. She and Owen can play really well together 90% of the time. The tricky part is identifying when to be "done" before anger/frustration escalates. It's sweet to see them run off to Willow's room together though or laugh in the trampoline as they create a new game.
10-yr stats (June appointment):
Height: 4'10" (89%ile)
Weight: 77 lbs (58%ile)
BMI: 16 (35%ile)
