A Sophie Start

This post is a little late, and possibly slightly redundant right now, but I reflected on it all of last week, before the world turned upside down, and I want to post in any case as it is still true. 

Sophie is one of the best ways to start the year. 

I always feel a little sad that her birthday falls in the holidays (no school cupcakes for you my child), and right after Christmas (everyone is so tired of gatherings and presents right now), but there is something beautiful about this little birthday. Sophie was eight this year. Her birthday was highly anticipated and planned, but also spontaneous and fun. 

She made her own cake this year. And she and Rachel wore their matching Death Star Pokeball Shirts (mostly just to annoy me I think, since they know I don't like matching). Notice their hand made bottoms though? (Sophie's shorts and Rachel's skirt). 

One good thing about the timing is that Steve usually has the day off too, which makes it easy for us to plan activities to do together. So, we took our little space loving eight year old to the Planetarium to see a show. This was part of her present, which she was pretty gosh darn excited about. The other part from us was the Kingdom of Wrenly books. These were met with great exclamation and delight too. Books are the best present are they not? 

At the Planetarium, you get a brief 10minutes to look at the exhibits before the show. Thanks to Covid, that's all you'll get. We will have to go back when there are no social distancing restrictions and spend some more time there. Despite the rush, we did have a great time and Sophie loved the show. 

We walked around the Botanical Gardens at Mt Cootha and had a picnic with some cousins. 

Came home to make Lego. This was a set she had dreamed of getting for about six months, so was pretty delighted to get it. It's so many of her dreams in one. Both girls actually regularly tell us that when they grow up they are going to go live in the wild, or in a caravan somewhere. 

She went to jujitsu, first time since before Christmas, then we had family over for dinner. Simple finger food; party pies and sushi (maybe she's more like me than I know ;)) and the cake. Looking at these photos I'm reminded how delightful it can be to have a birthday and be with people you love. 

Thanks Sophie, for being a lovely way to start the year.