Megan Turns 9!!

I'm a little amazed that we have a 9 year old.  It's her last year of single digits!  Unfortunately, for her birthday she was sick.  But on the plus side, she got to stay home from school and improved so she still had a great birthday.  It was about 40 degrees here which was a big improvement from what it has been so it felt practically like spring.

We're not doing friend parties this year, just our usual family party.  But we hung streamers and blew up balloons (including the kind you make swords and animals from -- the kids loved that) and it was very festive at home!  Megan chose a salad bar for her birthday dinner and we made a strawberry cake with a homemade vanilla whipped cream icing that turned out really good!  She did the decorating by drawing an owl and lots of sprinkles.  Drawing with icing is a lot harder than it looks!  She loved her presents: legos, books, horses from Grandma Whittacre and tea and peg people to paint from Grandma Gasser.  Even her primary teacher brought her a present!

I tried to get pictures of her smiling -- always a difficult task!

William was really good about NOT blowing out the candles or trying to open her presents!  But he is still struggling with understanding when birthdays come.  We've explained the order of operations for birthdays here -- me, Megan, Aaron, Abby, Daddy, William -- but now he just thinks that since Megan had her birthday that Abby is the next day, etc.

She has been so excited to get packages in the mail!  

Blurry but one of her favorite presents -- she loves this series of books about Warrior cats!

IF this video can be viewed it's great.  Not only did Megan let me video her, it's got great commentary by Abby throughout.  

So at nine years old, Megan is in the third grade and Mrs. Braatz is her teacher.  She also does Gifted and Talented sessions and continues to excel in school, particularly math and language arts.  We've run into a problem with her reading -- her teacher requires that they read within their lexile but it's high enough that a lot of the books within her lexile are too mature for her in content.  So loves the Warrior Cats series and is also reading another animal series about wolves I think.  She's read the first Harry Potter and is working on the second.  She likes them but I don't think she really adores the magical, fantasy genre.  She really continues to like animals and adventure.  I don't think that her art teacher and class push her as much as Mrs. Sutherland did, but she still draws and creates and writes stories as well.  She has really become interested in all things crafty and has tried her hand at loom knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, etc. 

I love watching Megan's personality develop.  She is getting a lot better at speaking in front of people but needs warning and preparation.  She has a great sense of humor but you have to be among the privileged few to see it I think.  She is also very concerned with things being done according to the rules and order of operations which has proved a little difficult when I'm trying to help her with her math but don't understand how she's learning it!  Common core!  She and Abby have been getting very close this year -- we don't have friends to play with close by.  They are all excited to go to England this summer but what she really wants to do is go to France and eat crepes and macaroons!