Sometimes I kind of let it slip my mind that celebrating the kids’ birthdays means that they’re a whole year older. I feel like this year I’m still half in denial that my kids are really growing up.

We celebrated 9 wonderful years of loving Portia on March 10th! She got lots of loving from her siblings, parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, and classmates! I feel like she was bringing home birthday spoils for the whole week. She loved the attention!

Portia is super fun at this season of her life (just like she was in the others)! She is creative, enthusiastic, opinionated, smart, and willing to work hard. She also really excels in academics, music, comedic timing, and making sure she is heard. We love having her in our family!

For her birthday, Portia got a dinosaur lego set. Here she is rocking her dinosaur to sleep. <3

She made this impressive tower of random things from her and Carter’s bedroom. It was taller than me!

Just having fun being herself!

Right now, Portia’s sport of choice is swimming. She loves going each week and is making great progress!

She is also taking piano lessons. She works very hard at practicing, and is richly rewarded for her efforts by her teacher. The other kids in music lessons are rather envious. But she is making wonderful progress and seems to enjoy it all.

No matter where we are, Portia finds a way to make it extra fun!

Some other things Portia enjoys right now are

• Reading–especially graphic novels
• Every conceivable type of craft
• Picking out clothes for the day
• Playing outside (finally!)

I feel like this post really isn’t enough to give you a good idea of just how terrific Portia is. You’ll just have to come hang out with her sometime!