Lydia Elise: 10.5-11

This lovely girl is 11 and somehow that feels too old AND feels the perfect age all at the same time. A few lasts (last year in primary) but a lot of firsts (first time sitting in the front seat). Lydia is creative, stubborn, intelligent, kind, and determined. We love her so incredibly much. Happy 11 years Lydia.

Stats: 14/16 clothes. She just told me that her size 3 shoes are too small for her. Still has 11 baby teeth, ha.

Here are some things Lydia has been up to over the past six months:

-Lydia loves to create. She has big ideas and then is determined to make them happen. She is the kindest gift giver, she thinks about something that she could make for someone's birthday/Christmas and then spends all of her time and energy making that idea come to life.

-Lydia has been practicing and increasing in piano skill and confidence. She performed in the annual Christmas recital and did a beautiful job. I love to hear her play and she is passing me in current piano skill. (I've started to practice her books so that I can keep up with her.)

She loves her piano teacher, Sister Lewis, and has a great little group of friends who all take piano from her. I love that she can just walk down the street to go to piano lessons and she loves that she gets to pick prizes and hang out with Stephanie for a half hour each week. Stephanie once told me "I won't make your child a concert pianist, but I will make them LOVE piano." And I love that. 

-We went on a lot of snow adventures this winter. Easily the most time that we have ever spent in the mountains. The 3-11 age range (no baby) makes for much more enjoyable winter explorations. We went sledding and hiking and playing in the snow and it was wonderful. 

Lydia has been working on matching pairs of pajama pants for her and Lucy during our little sewing class. 

Lydia loves to stay inside and read a book, but she is the first to jump at doing something fun outside. Raking leaves turns into hours of fun. 

She made an incredibly detailed gingerbread house at her Tuesday Coop. I was so impressed! Her teacher told me that she stayed in from part of their break time because she was so invested in crafting the most amazing house she could. Her favorite part was melting candy to create stained glass windows. 

Kicking off Christmas!   -   She was an angel in our wards "living nativity" for the Ward Christmas party. 

We went to the Children's Museum for our Christmas Kickoff Day. I love this picture because Lydia is right in the center, which perfectly describes our family - Lydia is the heart of our family and we all adore her. 

We had a "Christmas around the World" party and she researched and prepared a treat from Australia. 

This is a picture of the gift that Lydia gave to me for Christmas: 

A beautiful hand-written "Christmas Cookbook". She had gone through all of our family's favorite recipes and altered them to have Christmas titles, then carefully wrote out each recipe, compiling them into a Christmas-themed cookbook. I was genuinely surprised, even though I knew that she had been working on something big for me. It made me cry and I am just so grateful to have such a thoughtful girl for a daughter. 

We had a great Christmas. I let the kids pick a couple of things they wanted to do over the holiday break. Donuts were one thing, Ice Skating was another. Both were a blast. 

Christmas break also included time with family and more snow adventures. As the leader of the now-nine person cousin crew, Lydia sometimes gets left out (it's hard to be the oldest), but most often she is rallying the crew to do some incredible creative and fun thing. 

She uses that same creative influence on us at home, too. She wanted to make a cardboard house - which turned into each child making a cardboard house, which turned into a cardboard village in our front room. The kids loved it, especially her, and I love how much time and attention went into crafting her perfect cardboard house. Then another day I told the kids that they could play with playdoh and came down to find this - a full playdoh zoo. Directed by Lydia by made by all. It was incredible. 

Lydia's Science Project this year was "Delicious Daring Donuts". She explored how different cooking methods affected the outcome of donuts. This was the first year that she insisted on doing her science poster all by herself. Her science projects have always been her own incredibly creative ideas, but she did everything almost completely independently. But that's not all, no. She added her own touch the the science project by also crafting a working "Donut Frosting Machine" that allowed her to attach a donut, and then move through a procession of frosting, donuts, and a fan to quicken the drying time. It was fantastically creative and she loved it. 

Lydia was our March Madness Bracket Winner this year. She was the winner anyway, but would have been the BIG winner because she picked San Diego State to go to the Championship round. David talked her into only taking them to either the 8 or 4 because he didn't want her to be disappointed if they got out of the first round. But they went all the way to the championship this year and we were all incredibly impressed with her picking abilities. 

Although homeschool can put a damper on friendships, Lydia has a good little group of friends and I am so grateful for that for her. She gave Lily and Iris a "lunch date" for their birthday and we had a good time taking them to the Pizza Pie Cafe. 

She is also really good friends with our neighbor across the street, Audrey. And I can't forget to include Camille here, because #cousinsmakethebestfriends.

She is super loved by all.

We did a lot of fun school events this spring. Valentine's parties, Harry-Potter themed Book Battles, BizTown Group Simulations,  Mom teaching sewing classes @ Mentor Coop, and preparing for and participating in the Hope of America Performance, as well as our own Great American Award ceremony. 

Plus, fun field trips. 

I'm going to include what I wrote in my instagram post about this day for Lydia: 

Lydia’s RISE test today. For whatever reason, I have major sentimental feelings about this day each year. It’s a mile marker that reminds me how big Lydia is getting and fills my heart with pride with how much she has learned over the past year. I don’t put too much stock in these standardized tests, and basically just teach what we want to learn and do a 2 day refresh on how to take a test beforehand, then let the score land where it may. But I think it’s a good experience for her and I’m grateful for the educational support we have through our affiliated programs.
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I love her homemade bag bursting with books and crochet supplies and a little handwritten note filled with luck and love. I love her oversized cardigan and her two French braids.
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And I love that I get to spend my days with her instead of having her gone for this many hours every day.

Remember her creative mind? Here is more evidence. A complex set of towers and my personal favorite - a pancake making machine crafted out of craft sticks, rubber bands, hot glue, and an old water bottle. 

We went to Saint George for a weekend and it may have been Lydias favorite weekend of the year. She loved it down there so much. She loves to climb and explore. 

More "climbing and exploring" at a local hike called Jungle Trail. 

We spent a lot of time preparing for the Saratoga Springs open house and got to go together as a family. (Spoiler, after Lydia turned 11, she was able to volunteer twice at the open house as a welcoming usher. She opened doors for people, welcomed them, and/or put on shoe covers. It was a great experience for her!)  

A Mom & Lydia date. We went and got gelato at Harmons and read our books in the over loft. I love spending time with her and this is what she wanted to do, so I was all for it. We share a lot of things, this Lydia and I. We are both stubborn, have tender emotions, have kind hearts, love to read, think we are funny, don't like being told what to do, don't like breaking the rules, like to eat late night snacks, have strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and like donuts - just to name a few. 

Two of our/her favorite things - reading Harry Potter together at night and watching general conference. 

She is a part of two coops. On Monday she takes three different classes (her favorite is her crochet class, by far), and on Tuesday she attends a drop-off mentor coop. I know that sometimes she gets overwhelmed by how many thing she has going on (including school-work, coops, and extra curriculars like sports adn piano). But she is learning and growing beautifully. 

This lifestyle may be a different one than mainstream-public school but I look back on these pictures of Lydia over the past six months and all I can think is - what a wonderful childhood. I am so proud of all that Lydia is learning, creating, and becoming. I love that I get to spend my days with her and that we can learn and grow together. We absolutely adore you Lydia! 

Happy 11 years!