Kaiya is 8

Today is Kaiya's birthday- she is a big 8 year old now. She is one amazing girl (what can I say, she takes after me...) and we love her so, so much. Seriously, I am in awe- this girl handles school work, dance class, gymnastics (3 days/week), piano lessons, and swim lessons with ease- and she still has time to play with her sisters & friends. I figure this is my one day to shamelessly brag about her:

8 things to brag about for my big 8 year old...
1) She's memorized her times tables up to 12...she has division memorized also!
2) She recently wrote a mini-book on how to pray.
3) She's starting Level 7 in swimming next term and can swim all 4 strokes.
4) She loves carrots, cucumbers, and even raw spinach for snacks...and with Brian out of town I totally thought she'd be up for pizza delivery for her b-day dinner (b/c all kids love pizza- especially her). But no, she turned it down saying she would prefer me to make curry and rice...and then stuffed herself w/so much curry that she was too full to finish her birthday cake!
5) She always remembers to kiss us before leaving for school.
6) She give great FHE lessons.
7) She learnt how to use Microsoft Power Point last semester and just finished a power point presentation on Sacagawea for school.
8) Where most kids her age have ipods, Nintendo DS/video games, & receive an allowance...Kaiya has NEVER asked for those things. In fact, she's never really asked us for anything- she is so content. It's nice that she hasn't been sucked into "needing" what her peers have.

Anyways, all of that aside...I think Brian and I can both say it's been the best 8 years of our lives. Having Kaiya in our home brings so much joy and we are so, so happy to have her. We love you Kaiya!

The candles are lit & I'm pretty much the only one singing "Happy Birthday" b/c Mina doesn't know the words, Brian is in Singapore this week, and Emi's talking to anyone that will listen that it's her b-day next week.

Kinda cool that I managed to capture the smoke from the candles...


Kaiya trying to keep Mina away from the cake.

Ahh, it was such a good day. I hope everyone else had a great April 18th.