A celebration in pictures

 

 At REI, preparing for her first summer of backpacking sleepaway camp with trail shoes and a frame pack

Is it possible that we've been blogging about this remarkable kid for almost nine years?!

A huge, admiring, warm-huggy, tight-squeezie, love-you-to-pieces happy birthday to the wonderful girl who made us parents 9 years ago today.

The girl who declined to open any birthday cards or presents that arrived in the mail last week, because she wanted to wait for her actual birthday.

But then who, on learning that she was born at 1:40 am, set her alarm for 1:38 this morning, at which point she got up, went to the living room, and opened all her cards and presents in solitude, before returning to bed. The rest of us discovered the evidence of the solo festivities when we got up at 7:00.

The girl I found online this past weekend, trying to submit her entry for this week's New Yorker cartoon contest. Except she didn't have an email address and was stuck.

The girl who participated in last Saturday's fundraiser 5K at school, planning to ride alongside Mom and Dad on her scooter. But when two good friends showed up, they did the race together, alternating scooter time and running time between the three of them. They negotiated easily, no squabbles, no whining. And once they crossed the finish line, Edith went to find her class "captain," another classmate, because she thought her class captain should ride the scooter in the Reunion Day parade.

The kid who is in bed chortling over a Downton Tabby feline parody of one of her favorite shows.

The kid who has become her own person at whom we marvel and who is such a wonderful part of all our lives.

We haven't posted any pics in awhile. Here are a few, of birthday girl and sis.

 

 9th birthday, at Taco Bell (her choice). An updated version of 5th birthday, at the Franklin Institute:

This was a birthday of all things cat...except the cat itself. Relatives got the message, and Edith is happily awash in cat outfits, books, photographs, cartoons, etc.

Saturday at Baldwin's 125th anniversary celebration, Grade 3 dressed as minions.

 Alice with her piano teacher, Miss Oxana

 The feeling is mutual

 Alice with her babysitter, Audrey... like Edith, member of a Class of Gold (They rotate through five colors; all classes of the same color have a reunion the same year, but for the 125th everyone wore their class color and paraded.)

 

An adult cast party...

...at which the girls made new friends with my colleague's daughters

And going back a bit...

 

With cousins and Pappy in Delaware

 Easter

 

Being a bird

Will try to get more photos off the cameras and online sooner rather than later...