Sixth Graders are middle schoolers not elementary

Today Lily entered the halls of her school as the top dog sixth grader. She walked in determined, prepared, and organized for the challenge. She is a good student and I rarely worry about her with any teacher. She can handle most situations she is placed in. This year she has chosen to join the orchestra at school – she will play the cello! I hope she really enjoys it.

She had her clothes laid out neatly on her floor the night before inside of her color-coded, and meticulous closet.  She was the first one up and ready, and had her bed made perfectly. This is just who she is. She would never think of misplacing something in her room because everything has a place. She just got the privilege of having her own room and is quick to remind me that "her room would never look like _________" – fill in the blank with a negative label.

**this is where the part where I need to insert that I am choosing to dote and be a proud mom who brags about her awesome daughter for the rest of this entry!**

This introduction is to portray just how Lily is one of a kind. We say that a lot over her at our house – you are one of a kind Lily! When she was a little girl I think we were both frustrated and overwhelmed a lot with each other. We are both pretty head strong and like things done our way. A lot of people may dub that as a negative thing, but as I've gotten older and learned it is mostly a positive thing and something that makes Lily so special. How else could she be such an exceptional pianist. Her will and determined nature and passion enable her to produce some amazing things musically. She has a gift, and behind that gift she has motivation and hard work. When time calls for a consequence for her we tell her she can't play the piano and it works every time! She absolutely loves it and is connected to it. In fact, she has recently started saving her extra money she earns forr her own piano. She would love a grand piano, but has settled for an upright. I gave her the idea that if she first buys an upright she can teach piano lessons in college and then save $ from those lessons to get her "big piano".  She is a dreamer and a planner and I think she just might pull this one off – check back in 15 years. 🙂

In May Lily started taking piano lessons from a young 16 year old girl prodigy. She has been a wonderful mentor to Lily. I am so grateful my prayers were answered to find a great and affordable teacher that would inspire Lily to keep her talent sharp. Lily is know learning the well-known and difficult songs:  The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag. The real versions! Go pick up a piece of that music and see if you can play it – I can't! It is impressive and sometimes I can't even believe it is real. She is on a great track. I dropped her off at lessons last week and a Annie (piano teacher's mom) can to the car and asked if I knew what I had gotten myself into. I was confused and she explained that her daughter Annie was just like Lily at her age. She further warned that if Lily so desires and continues in this direction we would need to be prepared for the dedication involved financial and time. We will see what happens and what Lily decides is her goal. It will be fun to see. I am happy to support her in any way. I am just happy she loves music and that is good enough for me. When one crosses the line into resenting and hating music it's gone too far – in my humble opinion. I just want her to keep loving it and growing. Mostly music should be used to bring joy to yourself and bless other peoples lives….ok Lily – if you ever read this?

Friends are very important to Lily now. She wants to hang out all of the time and have something fun to do along with it. She is always looking for ways to get together and make a memory or bond with people. Some of her friends are Brynne, Kallie, Abrea, Emma, Katie, & Hannah. She still thinks boys are gross and stupid – all except Sam Puzey and he is our "cousin".

Lily is also taking her soccer skills to the next level and ready to start Fall Club Soccer this season. She is on an all girl sugar team and I am excited to see what awesome things will happen with this group. Lily like to play – doesn't love it, but she is excited about it and being with some of her friends.

Neat things about Lily are that she is kind, caring, and nurturing. She is one amazing babysitter – she does laundry, dishes, and makes and invents the coolest and funest games kids would ever want.

She is so close to achieving her Faith in God award in primary. She is completely honest in all that she does and I really like that I can trust her. Her testimony is growing and she wants to do what is right and be kind to others as Jesus would. She is trying hard to develop good habits of prayer and scripture study. She likes to do the right thing and sees things in black and white. She gets worried about the lyrics to songs on the radio immediately changes the channel, the same is true for movies, tv. etc. She has a sensitive spirit to things in the media that drive the spirit away and I think that is just wonderful! Keep it up Lily!!

It has been so great to get to be her mother and understand how much she needs to feel respected by other people. She can move heaven and earth if she knows you genuinely respect her. She just wants to be understood and listened to and treated fairly. Give her that and she will give you more back. Simple.

I was driving down the rode the other day and I started tearing up thinking about this girl. I thought of what an amazing person this is that has come to live in my home – and I get to be her mom. What a humble opportunity it is to watch her develop and grow into such a fine person so far. I know she will have a bright future ahead as she stays true to who she is. She is going to make one great mother! I just LOVE this girl so much – she brings me so much joy!

Lovin’ Lily

So Lily was excited about doing something special for valentine's day. This is such a perfect holiday to fit her personality! Anyway, she made each person in her class a valentine water bottle that said "Love Juice". Attached was a packet of lemonade to mix with the water. She had a blast making them up and labeling them. Only problem was that the crate of 20+ water bottles was too heavy to take on the bus. So I took them to school, only to discover that she was very particular that her friends not see them before it was time for delivery.  So her teacher, Mrs. Hexam, helped her find (during the middle of class) a hiding place across the hall. She is a very patient and nice teacher.

Another lovin' Lily moment came in a photo shoot that Stacy (Lexi's friend) and Lexi did for Lily one random night.

Fall Festival and a double digit birthday

Lily participated in fall festival and was soooo excited when she got her score sheet back – 100 points, a perfect score! I am biased, but also realistic and when I say she deserved it, you'll have to believe me. She practiced extra hard and played her very best. She put a lot of pressure on herself to do her best and she should feel so proud of what she was able to accomplish. Her teacher will be helping her enter another festival in a few month for song writing. Lily has made up a few of her own songs (songs that I thought she had learned from a piano adventure book). Her teacher will help her put her song on paper and record it to CD. I am excited for Lily to do this and she is very excited to spend her own $10 to do it. She found out about this festival right after her birthday and decided this would be the perfect use of her birthday money – I agreed.

Speaking of birthdays….Lily is now sporting two digitis when she writes her age down, 1 – 0. She had a fun birthday. She really wanted to invite friends over to play – so that is what we did. Her friends rode the bus over and then I took them to pizza hut to get their book-it pizzas. After that we traveled to the new Kiwi Loco Yogurt shop and got some yummy yogurt. Her friends from her church class, Hannah Miler and Emma Moss, were who she chose to celebrate with this year.

Whole Class of Lily’s


This is Lily pictured at the Ryan Shuppe Concert

I got back from parent/teachers conference with every mother's dream report. Lily's teacher said, "I just love Lily. I wish I had a whole class full of 'Lily's'." I really appreciate Lily too. Lily is very self-motivated and a thoughtful person. She is a pleasure to have around. She is usually found writing a story or pretending to be a teacher or playing the piano. She recently took up the violin in an after school program offered through our school. She also just joined the geography club. She is very conscience of eating "healthy", even though she is a normal kid and forgets she is trying to be healthy. It makes me smile. She is an awesome big sister and is also very dependable. I find her going to bed at night with a book in her hand and a quest to keep up on her reading chart for school. 

She loves positive reinforcement and words of affirmation. When they are used she exceeds all expectations! We love Lily in our family. Her dad always tells her, "you're one in a million, Lily!"

Age 10 is a good year for miss Lily.

4H Style Review

The 4H style review was last week and Lily was so excited to earn one of the special honor ribbons! She worked hard on perfecting her modeling turns and smiling really big and not being nervous – and it paid off! After she was done modeling, she was able to come and sit by our family to watch the 37 other girls. She asked, "Mom, did I do good enough?" I let her know that her best is always good enough for me. I was also excited that the judges felt the same. We were all sure proud of miss Lily. Her 4H group name was the sassy sewers, there were 4 of them in the group.

This is what was said as she modeled on the stage:

"Next up we have Lily Parker. Lily is ready for many fun late night parties with friends in her newly made, belted robed with shawl collar. Polar fleece in a colorful bubble fabric was the perfect selection for miss Lily! The ruffle sleeves give it just the right amount of "sass" for a giggly nine year old girl. The turquoise satin pajama bottoms remind everybody of her favorite color. Her pillow pet, Purplicious, looks ready for fun with a matching face mask. Both are ready for snuggling up on cool nights to come! Thank you, Lily!"

Comments:

Grandma and Grandpa Parker said…

We were sure proud of you and your fancy bathrobe. You did a great job and we thought you were just beautiful.
Monday, August 22, 2011 9:22:33 PM

Michelle said…

You are so talented Lily-I love your style!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 8:21:54 AM

Magan said…

So darn cute!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 7:17:28 PM

I got Great Glitterific Glasses!

I just got new glasses! They are purple and they are called "Glitterific!" (Because they have glitter on the sides). I went to the eye doctor, Dr. Hatch, and he said that I need glasses! I have been having a lot of fun lately, I am learning 4 songs in the Hymn book, I made a robe for sewing, and now I have new glasses! I can see much better and I am going to get contacts next year! I am exited to show my friends at school, and I am sure they will be surprised! I asked Mason if I look good in glasses, he just said I look too different! I also got a glasses case that matches my glasses. I think that it is fun to clean my glasses! My mom and I were looking for the right pair of glasses for about 30 minuets! We finally found the perfect "Glitterific" ones! They are comfortable, too!

Devleoping Talents

 

Little Lily has been developing her talents this summer. She was ecstatic when I  told her she could take piano lessons this summer. She cheerfully went to her lessons, and practiced without being asked. It is in her blood! She loves to tickle the ivories. This summer she was able to get through one whole set of Level 2A piano books! That was very exciting for her.  She set a goal in January to learn the song, "Tell me the Stories of Jesus" from the Children's Hymnbook (Not simplified). She worked very hard on it, and can now play it very well! We were so happy for her. All of the hard work paid off because she is on to her next goals. I mentioned that if she could play that song, she could probably play some of the hymns in the hymnbook. She thought that sounded fun. We drove to Deseret Book and picked her up her very own spiral hymn book. She was so thankful and excited it made my happy.  She hugged her hymnbook in the store and showed it off to everyone we saw the rest of the day. I introduced, "Sweet Hour of Prayer" to her. She took it and now has most of the notes down! She is finding it fun to try and sight read several other of the easier hymns. It reminds me of what happens to kids when they learn how to read…you can't keep them away from books. 

Lily has also been taking sewing 4 H this year. She has the same teacher for 4H that she has for piano, and she is lucky! Holly Miller is one top notch lady, who Lily will probably grow up to be like someday! Lily and Sis MIler worked very hard the entire months of June and July to make this most darling bath robe! LIly finished hand stitching the neckline tonight and is ready for the fair in a few weeks.

I'm sure proud of Lily, but mostly just because she is Lily. She doesn't have to do any of these extra things to be special to me – she is a beautiful girl on the inside!

Etiquette Lunch

For an end of school party this year, Lily's teacher had an Etiquette Lunch. Lily sure anticipated it and was quite a little lady seated at her table, using her best manners! She has been a wonderful third grader and will be an just as amazing in fourth grade.


friends: Emily, Lily, & Bailey

Comments:

Anne said…

You look very classy and full of manners Lily, so fun!
Monday, May 30, 2011 7:16:10 AM

Michelle said…

Wow-great way to end the year! looks like fun!
Wednesday, June 01, 2011 8:38:16 AM

One of a Kind

Stephen and I often refer to our third child, Lily, as "one of a kind", and she is in so many ways! Today I have a story to prove one of those ways…

Last night as I tucked Lily into bed she showed me some coupons she had been making. They said things like, "will babysit for free", "will mow your lawn", "will vacuum your house". She wanted me to get the keys to the car and drive her around the neighborhood to drop off the coupons to all of our neighbors. I thought it was such a thoughtful gesture, but the hour was much too late. So I offered to help her make a flyer to take around today instead in hopes of a deferment. She went for it!

When she woke up, the first thing she reminded me was of making the flyer. When she got home from school, some of the first words out of her mouth were, "can we make the flyer now?" I put her off long enough to finish a project and she was so helpful with JT and Olivia so I could hurry faster. Finally at 5 o'clock this evening we sat down to the computer and made up this flyer. She was soooo excited to make her list of the people she wanted to take it to. I drover her around and she delivered the flyer to 7 lucky recipient's doors all by herself and with a smile. As she walked to the doors I was silently praying in my heart that someone will really take her up on her offer someday, because it would mean so much to her. Right before bed was her/my payoff. A call came in while we were saying family prayer. Stephen played the message out loud after the prayer.  A very sweet and kind man (Uncle Trevin's dad) left her the perfect message saying how kind and thoughtful Lily was and that he was sure he would need help later and he would give her a call. As I noticed Lily's satisfied face, my heart felt joy for Lily.  She loves to serve as much as her dad. She has also uncovered the secret of service at a young age- that when you willingly serve you are rewarded with as good a feeling as the person you serve.

She really is one of a kind. I learn a lot from Lily's thoughtfulness and caring nature and am humbled to be her mother.

American Girls Late Night

Lily and Olivia had so much fun a week ago having a late night with Taylor and Brooke. They are the best mom's any doll could ask for – and good teachers to them too! They had so much fun playing with their dolls that the movie we had planned to watch was shelved as to free up more time for doll care. I made each girl crochet flower rings and their twin doll's a bracelet to match. It was a lofty aspiration, but was fun to see the smiles that came from the effort.