Fiona is 8. And a Half. Which is Really Close to Ten.

Last week was Fiona's half birthday. She wanted to do something special. So I let the kids each eat their last Rolo from St. Patrick's Day - and that worked for her. Proof that one or two things are still relatively easy at eight. It's hard to believe she will be nine in September. And near impossible to believe that the next birthday will be double digits. I'm pretty sure this was yesterday.

We've been going through a bit of the winter blues the last couple months and it has been bumpy. Fingers crossed, I think we are pulling out of it a bit. Some of the bumps are new and some are just a continuation in our pursuit of life skills. It's hard to power through a school year when you have a delightful imagination and there are just so.many.rules and math lessons. This year, Fiona has a lovely teacher who gets her, but also expects her to learn the math lessons. It's a balance. It will be her whole life. And that's okay. We want to teach her to both be herself (because she's awesome) and to be respectful and productive. Don't we all need a refresher on that lesson occasionally?!?!

Bugs continues to love to read and is bouncing between Babysitters Club and biographies. We spent some time this weekend reading her new library book about famous artists. Little bro joined our art history session when we read about a few Italian artists named Leonardo (da Vinci), Michelangelo, and Raphael. Who knew famous artists were named after Ninja Turtles?!?! She also makes up the best games with her dolls or Barbies and I love hearing how her thoughts come out in her play.

She's been outside a ton the last week (hello, spring!) and her big muscle skills are hanging in there with her peers. She is a biking and scootering machine - just like the rest of the neighbor kids. She and Mike have worked really hard on adapting her technique and it's paying off big time.

Fiona is in week 2 of her drama class and comes home glowing from it. She was assigned her part tonight and will be the comedic relief as Boppy the Clown. They nailed her casting and she will be so great. She is in class with her friend Ellie and the two of them are also enrolled in a musical theater camp at the dinner theater this summer. She's so pumped and is ready to get to do "her thing" after several disappointments over the winter of classes being cancelled.

She doesn't like me taking her picture anymore and asked me this weekend if something made her look fat. We are hearing stories about "mean girl" behavior at school (she doesn't understand it). The bigger big kid issues are creeping into our world. We do our best to ensure she knows she can talk to us about anything. And assure her she's not fat (while desperately trying to instill positive body images). And force her to still take pictures because we love her smile. As long as we can see her sitting out on the driveway, drawing with chalk and giggling with her buddies, life is mostly good in an eight-year-old's world.