Grace

Life is the same old adventure with this one. She loves school as much as ever with one possible exception. Grace loathes penmanship. She is at the same time very imaginative and loves to write. This presents a sizable problem when it comes time to write final copies of projects and book reports. She whips out lengthy, descriptive paragraphs and then requires large amounts of time to copy out her final drafts. Many a tear has been shed, poor girl. But, this seems to be her only complaint where school is concerned. Well, this and days off. She would rather be at school!

Pictured above and below are a couple of shots from a fun activity at school. The first graders finished up their unit on ancient Greece with a day of Greek Olympics. Each class represented a city-state (Gracie's class was Athens) and they had five stations where they battled it out. I was glad I got to be there to help out. They all wore togas and wreathes of golden laurel leaves. And the competition was fierce. Sheesh.

Grace remains a most avid reader. Like her dad, she is most content when in the middle of 4-5 books at a time. And also like her dad, she finishes them up regularly. Usually there is a scramble as she leaves every morning to make sure she has enough reading material in her backpack for the day. And she often has her nose in a book as she walks out to the pickup line after school. With everything she is filling her mind with everyday, she still shows an impressive ability to memorize. She has a recitation due once a month, just like in years past. Some of the poems on the second grade list are lengthy. Every month when we choose what recitation she will work on, she usually has one most of the way memorized just from listening to other kids recite it on previous recitation days. It would be so useful if my brain would function more like this once in a while!

January brought another piano recital. Grace played An Irish Dance and Silent Night. She chose to sing along as she played Silent Night. She is still a fearless performer. A little while after this, the music coordinator of our ward asked me if Grace would sing a solo in Sacrament meeting. When I asked her, she responded, with one eyebrow in the air, "Mom, what do you think." She was thrilled. Clearly, we are wasting our time with sports and gymnastics. We need to find this girl a stage. But in the meantime, we are so happy that she loves to do these things.

Speaking of sports and gymnastics... after a year and a half of going to gymnastics every thursday, she gave it all up to play a season of volleyball. She had been begging me to sign her up and I finally found a team that a couple of girls from our ward play on. The coaches were outstanding and Grace had a great time. She had to work pretty hard. The team she joined has been playing together for several seasons. So, Grace had a little catch up work to do. She had lots of opportunity with two practices and a game every week. The coaches always commented on how happy she was - always smiling, never discouraged. By the end of the season she was getting her serves over the net and returning volley. She can't wait to play again.

Grace has developed some really great friends in her class. Many of them have been in the same class for three years now- a result of the APEX program she has been a part of. It has been a treat getting to know these kids and their families. Grace's friend, Geneva, who came to Grace's baptism, invited our family to join in her family's celebration of Chinese New Year. They made an incredible amount of delicious food, and hosted quite a lot of people. We were so glad to be there. Geneva's dad and Grandpa made the rounds and gave all the children these beautiful embossed envelopes. Our kids were shocked to discover that the envelopes were stuffed with one dollar bills. (Grant's eyes were seriously so enormous... "That's, like, 20 extra chores Dad!!") Geneva was eating with us and said, with a smile, that Chinese New Year was better than Christmas.

We just love the little person Grace is becoming. Her free spirit is tempered only by her extreme concern for fairness and the happiness of others. She could care less about her hair and her clothes (something that at times frustrates me- Cori is often encouraging me to lay off...). Her handwriting is as messy as her room (which is messy, by the way). She is constantly starting projects and leaving chaos in her wake. She worries herself to tears about the way her friends treat each other. She loves to hold and care for JJ. The projects she makes are almost always for others (she made rainbow loom bracelets for her whole volleyball team). She is a peacemaker. She has unshakable confidence that she uses for good - most of the time. She is a cheerful collaborator in all the work and play we do around here.