Carly Turned 10!

Carly’s tenth birthday was on Tuesday.  We woke up that morning to the fire alarms blaring through the house “FIRE!” “FIRE!” “FIRE!”  Justin went into work a little late that morning and had prepared biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  Apparently the sausage he cooked up early for Abigail was a little well done and our fire alarms are ultra sensitive.  A memorable way to start the day for sure.  

Carly had her arms full that morning as she walked to the bus with her science fair project and a container full of Cadbury egg cookies to share with her class (our family will forever be grateful to Chrystie for introducing them to us years ago).  Carly decided she wanted to attend activity days after school (her last with the younger group) so instead of having a family get together at the house we decided to keep it simple and easy and meet up with Justin’s parents at Red Robin right after her activity.

After dinner we came home to enjoy her birthday cake.  Carly requested a minion cake and it was one of the easiest birthday cakes I’ve made – no shaped pan or excessive piping required.  When I finished frosting the cake I sent Justin a picture and asked if I should change the minions mouth from a smirk to a smile.  

Justin, of course, said I should change it to a full on smile.  Adding a smile and a mouth full of teeth wasn’t as easy as it would seem; I immediately regretted making the change and thought our minion turned to the creepy side, but I didn’t want to end up making a bigger mess so I left it.  Carly doesn’t have much of a filter so I knew she’d be honest when she saw it – thankfully she was pleased.

Carly at 10…

Carly is affectionate.  She initiates hugs and kisses (with Justin and me, not as much with her siblings – except, of course, Drew)

She continues to be the most willing to help with Drew and when the girls are babysitting Carly will usually take on the most responsibility with Drew.

Carly likes to get her hair done and cares about fashion.  She’s not necessarily picky and doesn’t care about name brands, but you can tell she puts some thought into what she wears.

I recently discovered she’s a fantastic hand massager.  There have been a few Sundays during sacrament meeting that I’ve bribed her into rubbing my hands by paying her $0.25 for every 5 minutes.

Still loves to play the piano and will sit down to practice several times a day.  She likes the volume up loud though so I feel like I’m constantly getting after her to turn it down.

Carly is very responsible and gets her homework done independently.  We’ve gotten several notes from her teacher this year that Carly is above and beyond in her math skills and continues to master each concept her teacher challenges her with.  She continues to look forward to Tuesdays when she gets to participate in the highly capable program at school.

Our ward probably has a dozen girls her age; however, Carly seems to narrow in and really only befriend of few.  She’s not unfriendly to the other girls, but there’s only a few she has really clicked with.  She’s got the type of personality that she’d happily be alone rather than to hang out with someone she wasn’t really interested in.

Carly is also quite selective with what she reads.  If she finds something she loves – currently the Harry Potter series – she will often read for hours.  However, we have shelves and shelves of books that she doesn’t have any interest in giving a chance.

We encourage the kids to pack healthy lunches.  Carly really takes time packing her lunches and usually does a great job making healthy choices.  She’s gone through phases where she’ll take peppers for a whole week, she also takes carrots, cucumbers, oranges and apples.  Carly is our least picky eater (thankfully we don’t have any real ‘picky eaters’) the only things we could think of that she doesn’t like to eat is tortellini and asparagus.

Carly doesn’t keep the cleanest room, which annoys her slightly less messy older sister.  Although she makes her bed most mornings.

Welcome to the double digits Carly – We LOVE you!