Happy 11th Birthday to Our Olivia Cate!

Olivia,

Today you are eleven… just two more years and you’ll officially be a teenager.  Day by day, we’re seeing your littleness slip away as you grow, and your interests change – you’re slowly starting to trade in your child toys for more mature things like scented body lotions and lip glosses, diaries, and Taylor Swift posters.  You do still adore your stuffed animal collection and various little toy trinkets, though, and I pray that you hold onto that love for just a little bit longer.  ;o)

This past year, you completed your fourth-grade year at school, and you’re cruising through fifth grade now.  You had a few hiccups in fourth grade, and there have also been a few in fifth, but overall, you are thriving at school, making good grades, still participating in the Challenge Program (Gifted Program), and being social with your friends.

Two of your closest friends moved away last year (Cami and Savannah), but your relationship with Maren has grown stronger, you are still loving your Aubrey, and you made a brand-new friend this year in Caroline.  After a bit of girl drama in fourth grade, we are grateful that the drama has been very minimal this year as you have found your people.  I know it comes with the territory when you get a bunch of young, hormonal girls together, but it’s never easy to navigate.  We’re happy we haven’t had to deal with it much this year.

In addition to your school friends, you still enjoy hanging out with Mack, Buckley, and Noah (my friends' kids) even though you’re the only girl in the group, and Jacob is still your bestest friend.  You have also kept in touch with Evelyn (your friend who you met at the beach two years ago) via mail and I love your pen pal friendship.  You were able to reunite last year at the beach, and you will be seeing each other again for the third time in June when we head back to our favorite place… 30A!  

Your favorite ways to spend your time these days are by doing any and every kind of craft – drawing, painting, making bracelets, making potholders with your loom, sculpting, building furniture for your stuffies (and various other things) out of old boxes, knitting, cross-stitching (you just got your first kit), making other jewelry, making slime – you seriously do it ALL.  You are one of the most creative people I have ever met, and I love your creative spirit.

In addition to that, you also LOVE to write.  You mostly write song lyrics, and you’ve declared that you have already written four entire albums.  All you have to do now is put them to music.  And speaking of music, it’s one of your most favorite things ever.  You listen to it nonstop, and your artists of choice right now are Taylor Swift (AAF) and the Wicked soundtrack.  We have probably heard Defying Gravity 84 times this week alone.  ;o)  You still hate to read, though.  Haha.

This past year, you traded in your voice lessons for guitar lessons, and we couldn’t be more excited for you.  You never allowed me to sit in on your voice lessons (you didn’t want me to hear you sing even though I hear you sing nonstop around the house – haha), but you are loving having me sit in on your guitar lessons.  Watching you learn something this difficult has been so rewarding for me as it has for you.  Your determination has been so amazing to watch, and I pray that you continue with this as I think it has been really good for you.  You have a fantastic guitar teacher who makes learning fun, and that truly makes all the difference.

You started your SEVENTH year of dance lessons in the fall (insane!) and you are now taking SEVEN dance classes – ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre, and hip hop plus you added pre-pointe this year.  Wow.  Your little body is solid as a rock from all of the strength and conditioning that you do for those classes (five hours and fifteen minutes per week!), and you dance with grace and skill.  Your recital is going to be insane this year since you’ll be in seven different routines, and I can’t wait to see you shine on stage in your dance studio’s production of The Little Mermaid!  EEEEK!!  You and I are both so excited about the theme this year!!    

A few of your loves right now – Taylor Swift, PB&J (yep, you got your taste back for it this year after taking a little break last year), slime, Cheez-Its, friendship bracelets, Cheetos, makeup, cheese dip at any Mexican restaurant, drawing faces – especially eyes and lips, ice cream, mac n cheese, water, Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits, scented markers, Mochis (those little squishy characters), gum, Culver’s chicken fingers, your Rainbow loom, Sheepie, Taylor Swift, Wicked, taking pictures with your digital camera that you got for Christmas, cheese pizza specifically from Papa John’s, watching any kind of crafty YouTube videos, dirt cake, making your own videos of yourself drawing or crafting (you love to do time-lapse videos of that), playing guitar, playing with Jacob, sleepovers, dance, and spending any kind of time with your friends.

You’re still super messy – hahahaha – and I don’t think that will change any time soon, but what can ya do?  I have (mostly) given up on keeping your room in any remote kind of order.  You can always see everywhere that you have been in the house because you leave a trail everywhere you go.

You and your bestie, Jacob, still spend pretty much all of your time together when you’re home, and even when you are doing something separately, you’re calling each other from different rooms saying, “Hey, come check this out!”  You do bicker, as brothers and sisters do, but it’s still so rare.  Y’all were truly made for each other.  Daddy and I love how close the two of you are, and I pray every single day that your friendship stays this solid throughout your entire lives.

I love that you still hug me, hold my hand, kiss me, and want to be stuck to me like glue when Jacob isn’t around.  I love that you’re respectful of me in front of your friends and that you’re not embarrassed to hug or kiss me goodbye in front of them.  I love that you talk my ear off constantly telling me everything that’s going on in the parts of your world that are separate from mine.  I love that you’re always excited to see me when I pick you up from school.  I love that you are so full of joy and that you bring the party with you everywhere you go.  My little bestie.

Happy eleventh birthday, Olivia Cate!  We cannot wait to celebrate you tonight with Culver’s cheeseburgers and chicken fingers and frozen custard ice cream… but first, DANCE!

Love,

Mommy