My 9-year-old

Believe it or not, Karissa is now 9. I don't think I've totally come to accept it myself, since she still wears some size 6 pants. It also means that we've been in Michigan for 9 1/2 years! Having a birthday right between Christmas and New Years has it's ups and downs, but we've come to include it as one of our "holiday" traditions.

She enjoyed helping me make her breakfast pancakes (hers was a huge chocolate chip one), opening presents first thing in the morning, and playing with her siblings with her new gifts from Christmas and her birthday. Since Karissa loves to read, I took them all to the library to pick out some books and videos. While Jason worked on the basement, the boys entertained themselves while the girls and I went to get Karissa's ears pierced, something I didn't think she was ready for last year, but I think she is now.

She got a lavender scented warming buddy that she loves to sleep with.

Before piercing

After piercing!

While I helped Jason in the basement, the kids watched Cinderella (the new one), that we got from the library and Erik graciously let them watch as opposed to Wild Kratts.

We had coupons for Dave and Busters, an arcade/restaurant that we thought would be fun as an early New Year's activity and birthday bash, so decided to try it out. Well, Wednesdays are half off day, which was good, but we couldn't use our coupons and I think all of Detroit was there, it was pretty busy! The kids had a great time, even though they aren't really experienced at arcade games, though Austin would love to be, I'm sure! The food was good, but it took a long time to get it! We'll see if we end up using the coupons later.

Watching Austin play a video game.

Birthday cake and the our traditional birthday song by the Beatles were our final celebrations when we got home, then Karissa got some quiet time with her new Legos, crafts, and books before going to bed.

Karissa has really enjoyed being in the TAG program this year. She gets to ride the bus home with her BFF Olivia every day. She doesn't have a ton of homework, but she is a perfectionist, so it takes her longer to get her work done than it should. She also gets distracted by wanting to make a craft or write a story before completing her work. Sometimes, she will wake up first thing on a Saturday morning, turn on the computer, and start writing a book. She has a series she's working on right now called Ice Cream and Oatmeal. You'll have to look for it one day at the bookstore when it's published! And the crafts... she will take any scraps and make something out if it. She thrives on that! When she's not making a craft, she's playing a make-believe game with Austin or dolls or Shopkins with Victoria. She also enjoys reading. When she finds a chapter book she likes, she'll read the whole thing before I knew what happened! She still plays the piano and is going to be involved in a sewing class and a tennis class soon. Both are short-lived and I'm not sure when the sewing class is yet. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with the tennis class I just signed her up for!

Crazy fun!!

She is still very cuddly and sweet, but if you catch her when she's tired, look out! She's always the first to help someone when they're hurt or sad and has lots of patience with little ones. She will be a very good baby-sitter one day!

I look forward to our traditional mid-January birthday party coming up!