Last of the Single Digits

Happy 9th birthday to my sweetest baby girl!

Rhetta is a sweet, outgoing, happy young lady. She made the honor roll at school, was awarded Terrific Kid for the third time, scored super high on her evals (155 in reading, math and writing - avg. 85-115), reads at the same level as a 15 year old, dislikes practicing math, draws comics, creates elaborate narrative stories, will not go out in the cold unless absolutely necessary, still likes to cuddle, brushes her own hair, wants you to knock first before entering her room, is a proud Brownie in the Girl Scouts, loves her family and schoolmates and teachers, and wants to be a nurse when she goes to college.

Cakes and Kids

I had a lot of fun putting their cakes together this year. Rhetta requested fairies again. I found the cupcake tower at a yard sale. It's springy and bouncy and jiggles if you look at it wrong but it turned out sturdy enough. I used Disney Fairies figurines, dollar store lollipops and Nerds candies. The boy asked for a Mighty Machines cake (Oh no! Has he gotten over Thomas the Tank Engine already?) so I looked on Pinterest and found this idea. I found the very same Cat backhoe and other machines and created an excavation scene in the brownies. Too fun! and with many cheers and much applause from the birthday children.

Finally Five

Willon turned five years old today! I say finally because he was the absolute most amazing 4 year old with his advanced vocabulary and his outgoing personality and a reading level exceeding even his sister's at this age, well, every time someone asked me how old he was, and people asked many times daily in awe of his abilities, I would say "still 4". For the last month or so however he started answering for himself, "I'm going to be 5 on January 19th. 5 years old! That's right. I'm going to be 5. Yup. 5. Mmm-hmm... 5.years.old. Yup."

Hand Drums

Rhetta has been taking music lessons thanks to a generous scholarship from the Cocker Kids' Foundation and matching funds from her grandparents. She meets with our good friend, music teacher David Hauze, for a laid back approach to music education and appreciation. She gets to learn theory while experimenting with different instruments including but not limited to the electric bass guitar, harp, keyboard, violin, cello, and most recently the hand drums.

Here is Rhetta's first foray into hand drum rhythm and tempo.