Ellie is 6!

Our Ellie turned 6 this month.  She didn’t let us forget it, but I forgot to post a Happy Birthday to her.  I can’t really believe she is 6.  Somehow 6 feels older than 5 exponentially.  I don’t know if it is because you have to use two hands to show the age, or that they are in kindergarten, or what.  But she doesn’t seem little anymore.  She is taller than Madison (much to Madison’s dismay).  She had her first big girl haircut that made it look thicker and more like a style than just growing hair.  She is starting to read!  Yes, words on a page.  Of a chapter book.  It is amazing to me.  It also requires more patience when reading a book at night because she wants to be the one reading! 

Ellie is a fireball.  I once found a quote for a calendar I was making that perfectly described her, “She is delightfully chaotic; a beautiful mess.  Loving her is a splendid adventure.”  She has opinions about things.  She is laid back and rolls with most situations.  She gets excited about things, like super excited.  She laughs easily and wants you to join in on the fun.  She talks incessantly about everything.  She shares willingly, opening her life to you.  She leaves a trail of stuff as a wake of all her fun… and forces others to pick their way around it. 

Ellie is a God spotter, sharing stories of seeing the hands and feet of Jesus at work.  She is a singer, a dancer, and  a performer.  She is a mother to classmates and all her babies here at home; she just wants everyone to be cared for and taken care of.  She is a snuggler with no issues with infringing on personal space.  She can be a close talker, but one that you are willing to welcome into your circle.  She is a homebody, who wants to go on new adventures, but is just so comfortable in her pjs it is hard to do it.  She is sports girl – found passing the volleyball against the front door, kicking the soccer ball in the house, or doing workout videos with me or on GoNoodle. 

We hope you keep your caring spirit, Ellie.  And we hope you never lose sight of finding God in the ordinary moments of life.  He will walk with you throughout life.  Keep your eyes on him.  May you continue to love reading, learning, befriending others, serving, laughing, and sharing, and snuggling.  You are a unique creation of God.  We pray you will one day (officially) accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior. 

 

For Ellie’s birthday, she wanted to go out to eat.  We chose Rockne’s again, just because she had a free birthday meal; we’ll have to switch that up next year!  She wanted to also go ice skating.  Originally, we were going to go swimming with family before their birthday party and that would have been her fun activity.  While this sounded fun to her, she was intent on ice skating.  Lucky for her, the swimming was derailed by the snow/ice storm, so we went ice skating on Sunday.  She had fun, but after about 30 minutes, she asked if we could be done and go home.  I thought, really? we just got here!  We kept her on the ice (after getting a bigger, more comfortable pair of skates) for another 30 minutes.  When I asked her what she pictured ice skating to be like, she said, “I didn’t think you would stand up so much.”  And I thought, “Is there another way to skate?”  I think she was wore out from shoveling snow and partying the day before.  She decided next year, she might rather go swimming…