Double Digits!

Nadia is ten years old today! I have technically been a mom for 13 years as my first pregnancy was in 2005, but I didn't really feel like I was a mom until I was pregnant with Nadia. I am eternally grateful for the privilege of being Nadia's mom. She has been such a delight the past ten years!!! I looked back at the post I wrote six months ago about her, and most of the descriptions about her are still accurate. I will highlight below a few ways our precious girl has changed over the past six months.

1. She got her ears pierced! She lost one of her starters on the first night of our vacation and has been wearing a pair her Grandma loaned her since that point. In the near future I'm going to let her start wearing some other post earrings. She got some from Grandma and from me her birthday.

2. She did have a lead role in the musical at church in May. The Alliance church where she has participated in the summer musical the past six years isn't doing one this summer, but she will be in a two week (3 hrs a day) theater camp in August. She would have LOVED to try out for Mary Poppins (being presented in our area in September), but I knew she was involved in too many other things to be able to make the rehearsals.

3. She did play on a basketball team through March, but then for the first time in six years she took a break from a team sport this spring. She was in a 90 minute homeschool gym class on Fridays and also took gymnastics for 16 weeks. She made a lot of progress with her

headstand and is working on refining her cartwheel.

4. Lately she has been playing Legos with Ian a lot more than she had for awhile. He is thrilled!

5. Her favorite TV show the past several months has been Odd Squad (a PBS show they watch via Amazon Prime). Hence I selected Odd Squad as the theme for her (early) surprise 10th birthday party! Considering she says math is her least favorite subject in school, I think it's a hoot that her favorite tv show is a math show!

6. She likes a variety of Christian artists that she listens to on the radio, but her most favorite lately has been Plumb.

7. She reads a variety of books, but her favorite these days are Wonder and Auggie and Me.  Lately she has been reading books from a list that of books that are of a similar theme of Wonder such as Out of my Mind.  Even though she spends most of her time reading chapter books, she hasn't outgrown picture books yet. Berenstain

Bear books are still some of her favorites, for example.

This birthday celebration has been really spread out this year as she had her surprise birthday party last month and received gifts from two friends then. She received gifts from Grandpa, Gubba, and Aunt Yvonne ten days ago when we were in Maryland. We went to see a show at Sight and Sound eleven days ago, and that had been a birthday tradition for her from 2012-2016. Pop Pop and Grandma gave her birthday gifts after the show as we ate dinner in Lancaster.

I still wanted her actual birthday weekend to be special. Yesterday morning on our way to pick Ian up from camp, we stopped and got 6 donuts (two for her and one for the rest of us). Earlier in the week I had bought string cheese and blueberries (two of her favorite foods that I don't buy very often). Normally I pack our lunches when we are going on a road trip, but I told her since it was her birthday weekend we wouldn't pack our lunch. After getting Ian we drove to

Rochester, NY. On the way there we listened to part of the 6th Incorrigible children of Ashton place book, got lunch at Subway, and the kids also watched a Minion movie on the dvd player. We spent 3 hours at the Rochester science museum. We got in free. They had two simulator rides. We all did the free one. I paid $2 total for Nadia and Ian to both ride the one about sea turtles. We skipped the planetarium shows since they cost extra. Nadia and Ian went in a faraday cage that was part of an electricity show with Tesla coils.

We got a large pizza for dinner (and the man gave us fried dough for free while we waited for the pizza), and then we went to the Strong National Museum of Play. We had about 2 1/2 hours to spend there, which was definitely not enough time. Usually I only take the kids to a children's museum if they are a member of ASTC, which means we get in free (such as the ones in Boston and Pittsburgh) OR if it's a special night where it only costs $2 each to get in (such as Port Discovery in Baltimore or Please Touch in Philadelphia). This was the first time ever that I

paid full price for our tickets at a children's museum. If either of the children's museums we are members of were part of ACM, then we would have gotten a 50% discount, but they aren't. This children's museum was AMAZING. It's very large (282,000 sq ft) although the one in Indianapolis (which is the biggest) is almost twice as big. Nadia said this one is now her most favorite, and she already was asking when we plan to return. Today we are headed to a historical site that has been dubbed the "Williamsburg" of New York. We spent the night at an Econo Lodge and had a free breakfast there. We plan to drive home this evening. Nadia was able to open her birthday presents from us this morning. I got her six pairs of earrings, sixteen Brinkman adventure cd's (stories), and three Matthew West cd's (music). I hope our beloved ten year old is having an awesome birthday weekend!