Fortunately for Sarah . . .

I wanted to do a little entry for each of the girls to highlight cute things about them lately. I've been so busy writing about football, snow and Christmas that I haven't had a chance to write more specific things about the girls.

Sarah started reading the "Series of Unfortunate Events" over Christmas break and got to #6 before school started! She is HOOKED! She is gaining a larger vocabulary and surprising me with words she has learned from those books. (Some I haven't even heard of before.) It will be a sad day when she finishes #13. We'll have to find another intriguing series for her.

Sarah is also doing very well in math. She is in the highest math group at school and I have been amazed at how quickly they have whizzed through concepts. One stressful time was in November, when Sarah was learning multiplication facts. I remember learning these in 3rd grade, not 2nd. I also remember spending a whole week learning my 6's or my 9's. In Sarah's class they started times tables and by the third day she was coming home with sheets that covered multiplication facts up to 9's! Some of the kids in her class learned them already on their own so she was VERY stressed out about not knowing them as well. The perfectionist and competitive sides of her struggled in class when the teacher would hold up cards and two boys would always shout out the answers first. I talked with the teacher about it and we practiced a lot at home with Sarah. After two weeks, she knew every multiplication fact by heart. I can't believe how quickly she went from only knowing a handful to every single one! Their class is now multiplying things like 784 x 9. At this rate, what will they teach these kids in 6th grade? Calculus?? Howie* would be estatic!

Sarah is LOVING her new room all to herself. She loves reading by her lamp, getting her "desk" all organized (we moved in a little folding table) and having a place to go where she can be alone to do homework or play with her SpongeBob Legos. I will have to get a picture of her hilarious Rules she has posted on her door.

At Sarah's New Year's class party yesterday (to make up for missing the Christmas party because of the snowstorm) Sarah raised her hand when it was time for the show-and-tell at the end of school. I didn't remember her putting anything in her backpack. When it was her turn, she took Angela's hand (who came with me to help at the party) and led her to the front. Angela was her show and tell! It was pretty cute.

Speaking of school, Sarah's teacher Mrs. B. cannot say enough nice things about Sarah. She always tells me what a good parent I must be, but I seriously don't think I am that fantastic. Sarah is just a good girl at heart, always has been. She reminds me so much of how I was in school. I loved my teachers and loved being praised by them - sometimes other kids called me the teacher's pet. (o: I always wanted to do a good job - just like Sarah. She is really thriving in Mrs. B's class this year. I am proud of the young lady she is becoming. I am noticing her coming out of her shell more and more lately - Sarah's confidence is growing as she has conquered multiplication, discovered a talent in piano and has made so many new friends at a brand new school this year.

Sarah loves to invent and think of ideas for inventions and stories. She had one of her oldest and best friends, Paige, over for a playdate this week. They are two peas in a pod and took a bunch of recycled things up to Sarah's room to "invent" something. Unfortunately, several minutes later Sarah came running down to get the DustBuster. Luckily, I stopped her and found out one of the glass baby food jars broke. So Sarah and Paige spent the rest of the playdate on Sarah's bed while I cleaned up the minefield of glass fragments. I didn't mind though - next time I'll just make sure their inventing doesn't include any glass objects!

Sarah also has a best friend at school. Monica. She was invited to Monica's house two Sundays ago for a surprise birthday party. I was heart-broken because in our religion there are several things we try not to do on Sunday. They include things like shopping, eating out, watching movies or going to non-church or family events like birthday parties. Now we aren't always perfect - we sometimes give in and watch a movie or TV show together as a family. (we try to pick more uplifting shows than our usual SpongeBob episodes, however. Little House on the Prairie is a favorite) And there are some situations I would be fine with doing on Sunday - like going to a small birthday or other gathering with the whole family. The idea is we try to focus on things that help us #1 worship Christ and #2 be with our family that day. Anyway, I felt so torn, but I felt it was important to stick with the standards we have set and taught our kids. As I explained this to Eva, who is one of the sweetest people I know and has ALWAYS been so supportive of us - even coming to Sarah's baptism with Monica on a day when it was very inconvenient. I hope that she could tell how sorry I was.

I explained the situation to Sarah also. While she thought it would be so fun to be there to surprise Monica, she hardly bat an eye and agreed that doing something special with her on another day was the best choice. I was proud of her. We ended up going with Monica's family to Out of This World, a huge indoor playland, last night and we had a blast! Sarah and Monica counted the days until they got to go. They played for nearly 4 hours, minus just a few minutes to eat their pizza. And I had a great time getting to hang out with Eva. The siblings all got to run around and play too. Even Howie*, Mark and Michelle joined us later. It was such a great night and I think Sarah and Monica got some good girl bonding!

One funny side note. There were some boys from their school that happened to be there too. I didn't notice until the boys' moms pointed it out to me, but apparently the boys were making quite a game of chasing Monica and Sarah around during the night! (o: Wow - has it already come to that? (o: My baby???