Happy Birthday Monkey1!!!!

Yesterday Monkey1 turned a whole decade old!!!!

She got a bright pink iPod for her birthday from us [which Monkey4 was already trying to snatch!]:



She also bought an American Girl book with the money her great grandma sent her:



She got to pick dinner, and she chose Chinese Food - YUM!



Here she is with the cake she picked:



Her birthday ended up being spread over two days actually. The day before her birthday we did her "birthday dinner" because she had choir at dinner time on her actual birthday. She also chose to open her iPod a day early and her dad got it all set up for her. [You know your baby ain't a baby any more the year that she wants nothing but an iPod for her birthday...*sob*].

On her actual birthday, she got to spend some time with several of her homeschool friends while her little sisters took ballet and then she went to choir that evening [her favorite activity], so it really worked out to be a wonderful day too.

We ended the day looking at her baby photo album...it was really neat to go back and look at all the pictures of her as a tiny baby and tell the story of her birth again.

I'm really proud of my big girl! She was the "original" monkey. We seriously only planned to have one kid. She was just so darn cute and smart and fascinating, we kept thinking "wouldn't it be neat to have just one more?" and then that one would come along and be so cute and smart and fascinating in a completely new and different way and we "just one more'd" ourselves into 6 kids somehow! [With absolutely NO regrets!] LOL!

Monkey1 is the most social introvert I know. People who know her will think I'm crazy for saying that, because she is very outgoing and friendly and makes friends very easily. But she also needs a whole lot of alone time too - when we leave a big gathering or an event where she's been around people for hours, she immediately escapes to the backyard alone for a good long time to think and process and create.

She spends hours and hours writing stories and screen plays. She's constantly researching for her newest "story" - I'm always blown away by what she learns in the course of her writing. She's also quite the artist - her newest art form is "Shoujo", or Japanese style comics. She's actually quite good at it. I could totally see her being the first world famous female comic book writer!

Monkey1 is very kind to other people and tries very hard to help others and make them happy. I'm proud of how great she is at being a friend and putting others first. That was one of our big goals in raising her of course, but it is neat to see it actually happen.

She is an obsessive reader and knows a lot about just about everything. I am often surprised these days when she comes to tell me some fact she learned about some historical event or some scientific discovery. At some point I ceased being the only teacher in our house and she snuck into that role as well! It is incredible to see her learning and to realize the real breadth of her knowledge. She's constantly learning - she's one of those kids you couldn't STOP from learning even if you wanted to.

This year she has started learning to cook, along with learning the violin. This was the year she had two big solos in the Church choir and really came to understand that her voice is a gift from God and should be used for His glory. This year she has grown so much in maturity that often she seems like a little adult [and sometimes she seems like a sullen 15 year old...but that's a different post. LOL!].

All in all, she is an amazing, enjoyable, completely lovable young lady who I am so proud to call my daughter!

Happy Birthday Monkey1 - you are AWESOME Baby Girl!!!!!

.......

And here is a pic of Gemma "Monkey6!", so you can see she's *growing*! WOOHOO!!!