Happy 11th Birthday!

 Happy happy birthday, my sweet S. 

I wish you all the joys of the world and a year filled with love, wonder, happiness, good health and above all Fun!

You are growing into such a kind, compassionate, strong, smart and indepenandat girl. One who is always looking out for others and who makes people laugh and fills a room with joy. 

You are loved by your teachers who are impressed with your acedemic brilliance and strong work ethic. They admire your commintment to learning and doing the best you can in school. Not only are you categorized as"gifted," but you are a straigh A student. 

Being a gifted child, you are all about following rules. You often comment on fairness/unfairness, and always view the world in black and white. You have an emotional intelligence far about your age and feel empathy a deeper level than most people. You like to stand up for the weak and misrepresented, and are a hugely concerned about the environment which I love about you. In fact, I sometimes tease you that with your ability to argue adeptly and your deep empathy, maybe you will grow up to be a huma rights or environmental lawyer!

You are smart and articulate and can converse easily with kids, as well as adults. Not to mention think critically and make your point. Randon strangers who meet you are impressed with how eloquent you are. I think you sometimes wish your friends were more serious and emotinally mature than they are, but you can still be silly and fun.

You have lots of friends, in school and outside of school. We had a lovely party on Sat and you had 10 of your favorite friends come over for pizza and cake and a couple had a sleepover too. I asurre you could have invited many more :-)

Your passion, of course, are horses!  

You talk about horses and riding ....um...pretty much all day !! ;-)  

You love the play stable that I got you for your bithday when you turned were 8, and which has now becoing a sprawling horse ranch with all the additional items, and the MANY horses, you have added over the years. You even asked Grammy for 4 horses and riders this year!!

You are atheltic and love your riding lessons. We go once a week and I love to see you transform when you are the stables. Its like you light up from within - it is your happy place!  You are so gentle and kind with your horses and treat each one with love and respect.   I see the other riders just tack/untack them with little to no intercation, but you are aways talking to them and petting them. You never fail to bring them treats like apple slices, carrots or mints - which they love. All the stable horses love you because they can see how deeply you care about them. 

You love riding and are looking forward to competing agin this year. The rain and cold have caused us to not go as regularly as we would like much to yor chagrin, but you did get a good stretch of 5 lessons and I could see how much your riding improved with the regularity.  And two weeks ago, Miss Josie allowed you to bareback on Breo - that was a dream!   Hopefully, once the rainly seesaon is over we can get back to regular weekly lessons.

You continue to love the outdoors and like to be outside at every opprtunity you get. We play badminton in the summer, and recently, we have been going biking every evening. You bike, I walk!

You love the new bike I got you for your birthday. We got it about a month ago as an early birthday gify. You have been riding it almost daily. Gives you great exercise and gets Mama some exercise too.

You love reading - horse themed books, of course. 

Last summer your really got into reading the Pegasus series books. During summer vacation there were days you would read 6-7 hours a day!  I was very impressed. In school this year,  you were able to reach your  annual AR goal of 120 points within 4 months!!!   Your teacher Mr. H was very impressed. 

We have had a fun celebration for your birthday. On Sat we went out for a family lunch at your fav restaurant. Your cousin drove from out of town to be there as well. You got great gifts - a nice bag to carry your riding gear, and a lead rope for your horse. I know you wanted things for the horse and not yourself - you are funny!  You also got cash with which you can buy a saddle pad and a halter.  That way you have your own nice stuff to use at the stables.

Saturday evening was the party at home. You were so amazing helping Mama get things ready and tidying up the house. We spent all evening on Friday decorating the house with lots of balloons and streamers. It looks amazing!  You had a 2 of your friends stay back for a sleepover after the party.  There was some drama with M having a scratchy arms and back ache so she called her Mom at 2am to come get her :-(    But A remained and you both had a nice breakfast the next moring and played with your horses.

Today - your birthday - we will celebreate your special day in school by purchasing ice cream for you entire class during lunch. I am sure they will all love that!

Then for dinner it will be you, me and Grammy going to our fav Maexican restaurant for dinner. And coming back home for cake.

I hope you had a lovely birthday. 

I love you to the moon and back!

Mama