5

This past February, my beautiful girl turned 5. She finally turned 5. For Charlotte, it seemed that the day would never come. It seemed everyone in the world turned 5 before she did.

We decided to have a "drop off" party at our house on a Friday evening. My parents were in town and Judd and I decided that we should be able to handle 8-10 5 year old girls. We came up with some good old fashioned party games like bingo, "Pin the lips on the Hershey Kiss", and musical chairs. We had a great time with all of the girls. We had pizza and everyone made their own ice cream sundaes instead of cake. After the festivities, we turned on Tangled and they all sat on the couch and watched it until their parents came to pick them up. We think everyone had a good time, even though the birthday girl had a full out tantrum when she lost musical chairs.



She has grown up so much during the last year. She grew from an older toddler to a little girl. Her legs are so long. During her 5 year check we found out she grew 4 inches in a year! She rides her bike and scooter like a champ. She can do just about anything she wants on the playground. She is beginning to read and write on her own.



Sometimes we are riding in the car, or sitting at the table, and I look at her and she looks like the most beautiful thing in the world to me.



She has a servant's heart, and wears it on her sleeve. She didn't want to go to school for a whole week this past winter because one of her teachers had a cold and she couldn't stand to hear her cough. She cried and cried when one of her teachers tripped and fell in the classroom. She just can't stand to see those that she looks up to hurt.



She loved Mother's Day this past year and just wanted to serve me. On Friday evening we heard her out in the kitchen doing something, which is always a little scary. Then she came into the living room with a red solo cup (the only food vessels she can reach) filled with strawberries and whipped cream. She had a smile from ear to ear. I was curious to know how she had cut the stems off of the strawberries by herself - seeing as how she was forbidden to use a knife. I stuck my fork into the first strawberry buried in a mound of whipped cream. When I pulled it out, I realized she hadn't cut off the stems. The strawberries came stems in all. My mom, dad, Judd and I burst into laughter. Charlotte just looked at us, she had no idea why we were laughing. For fear she might think something was wrong, I quickly at the strawberry. She was so proud to have concocted this special dessert for me. She just wanted to do something for me on her own. I do think they were the sweetest berries I have ever tasted.



She is amazing. There are more days than not when I don't feel like I deserve her. I'm so very proud she's ours.