Maia is 8 Years Old!
Maia is 8 years old! She is such a feisty, determined, hilarious, snuggly girl! She takes great pride in her nickname of the “Dictionary Princess.” She loves reading and goes through piles of books in her room every night when she probably should be sleeping. She definitely prefers figuring things out for herself and has her own ideas about how to do almost everything. Her most repeated refrain is “It’s Fiiiiiine Mama.” She assures me that she’s got this and she is confident that she does. She loves animals and stops to pet every dog we pass as we walk to school. She knows all their names too. She still wants to be a builder when she grows up and she loves making things with Papa and she loves building lego kits. She also loves the Great British Baking show and baking in theory, although we spend more time reading recipes than actually making things, and she doesn’t often eat much of what she bakes. She still loves all the baking shows she can find!
Maia January 2021
Maia February 2021: She and the other kids made a washi tape clubhouse in the top of DZ’s closet. She loves climbing, creating cool crafts with tape, and hanging out with her siblings!
February 2021: Quarantine Hair =)
March 2021: Botanic Garden!
April 2021! Bunny Hunt. Some favorite moments: “The bunnies really are devious sis!” This was Maia’s favorite bunny spot. She had to use the map to find it. Maia decoded Robot Turtles in her cryptogram, and then she unscrambled the rainbow letter stickers on her house to find the code word for the lock. Maia got four letters though deciphering her next cryptogram and figured out it was the dishwasher. Time to go on Wheel of Fortune! Her comment “Really?!? IN the dishwasher?!?” She did not think this was a good choice on the part of the bunnies.
May 2021. We had a great Girl Scout hike at the Botanic Garden! The girls were especially interested in the bugs they found. Maia named these Pill Bill, Pill Lil, and Pill Will and brought them home to be pets. She is so adorable and still a dedicated Scout!
June 2021! Maia went to Camp Incredible with her favorite teacher, Mrs. Elliott! She was really proud of this shirt from her Cave Camp.
June 2021: Maia and I had a really fun week together while the other kids were having their turn for camp. We went to playgrounds, splash pads, Sonic, and we had picnic lunches with Eric.
July 2021! Strong girl at Climb Tulsa Camp!
August 2021: I went through a crazy lego plan to rebuild sets and then organize them into tubs by theme, so of course the kids LOVED legos this summer! Maia helped me rebuild some and did a lot of free play with the sets I assembled. She loves adding animals and making awesome stories about them. The polar bears on the speeder bike were particularly cute.
Back to School! Maia is in second grade!
September 2021: Skating and reading at the same time… “It’s fine Mama!”
October 2021: Maia’s a brownie! We had a fun bridging ceremony and she picked a badge she wanted to lead this year.
October 2021! Maia loved reading the Harry Potter books so much she asked to be the Golden Snitch for Halloween! It was adorable although she did not anticipate how much her siblings would like catching her!
November 2021: Greatly enjoying hiding her Gryffindor sweater from me so I can’t get a clear pic. She occasionally makes a bid to be in Slytherin instead of Gryffindor ;)
Thanksgiving 2021: Maia wrote she is thankful for her family, friends, teachers, her school, house, her agility, her reflexes, electronics, and oxygen . I think she covered it!
Maia’s 8th Birthday Party! We had the party in November =)
Maia got birthday donuts from OK country donuts to celebrate at school! We were so glad to get to do this tradition again!
December 18th: Maia’s actual birthday was baking day on the advent calendar, naturally. She loved baking this cookie tree and piping it… but later she decided that it would look better solid green so she smoothed it out with her fingers… A good way for her to get to eat as many of the cookies as possible ;)
December 2021: Maia loved going to Hogwarts for Christmas!
Maia started at her new school on Book Character day! She was thrilled to get to wear her snitch costume again, and she immediately adored her new teacher Miss Price! We love being so close we can walk to school together and make friends in the neighborhood.
Maia asked if we could paint her room purple. I sent Papa a pic of us buying paint from Lowes and he immediately asked when he could help! The color is Grapolicious and SO Maia! And all the new bookshelves are helping her expand her book collection nicely.
Checking on Maia in the mornings is always an adventure, you never know what she’s gotten up to while trying to fall asleep. This day she slept with the new silicone baking set mom got her, plus about a dozen Heroes in Training books. This was pretty tame as she actually ended up in the bed. So cute.
Maia loves building with her Papa!!
Pusheen Cookies! We checked this book out of the library and Maia wanted to make all the things!
Maia loves her first grade teachers! She got to have Mrs. Elliott again since she looped with her class. They know her well, she is very talkative and excited when she knows the answers to things! Mrs. Elliott is the one who calls her the “Dictionary Princess!” They worked really hard with her on handwriting too.
Building Girl! She put together all the new furniture I got for the office!
We had a Marvel Movie Marathon in the winter of 2021 and Maia loved it! She is the bravest where movies are concerned and she thought the movies were awesome, and it led to many fun dress up moments like this one!
Maia is definitely voted kid most likely to actually go outside voluntarily when it snows! She will don her outdoor gear multiple times and venture out on her own, whereas the others have to be convinced to join her. She loved these snow marbles and she loved sledding with the sled the Martins gave us!
Baking Fun! Maia made this Victoria Sponge from her Paul Hollywood baking book! She couldn’t decide which jelly to use with it so she decided we should taste test them all! She made whipped cream and we had samples with lemon, apricot, strawberry and cherry jelly. She liked the lemon and cherry best! It was DELICIOUS! And so fancy with her powdered sugar designs. This is one we actually all ate and would like to have again! The Great British Baking Show wins again!
Maia’s Girl Scout Tie Dye Party! It was so awesome to get to party in person again! =)
Sibling Sleepovers! Maia loves playing with her siblings and staying up late to do talking games. =)
Bridging ceremony!
Cooking playdate with Aunt Jen! She learned to make fancy chicken, edamame, and donuts. She loves visiting Aunt Jen! She also gets to play with the puppies =)
Slime incident 2021: Maia has dried slime in her hair…. I think an entire batch . She told me the night before she accidentally got some slime I her hair but I did not understand the extent of the situation. 3 long episodes of Wild Kratts while rubbing vegetable oil and then combing it through her hair, then rinsing, conditioning, and then shampooing…. Her hair is looking pretty clean at last . I asked her what she learned and she would only go as far as… “maaaaybe don’t put slime in your hair?” She didn’t want to commit to that promise
I told Maia since Clifford couldn’t come to the book fair this year because of Covid. I might try to make one out of cardboard…. She replied “That just proves Clifford is a person.” Evidence. She’s so clever, and she is a great help when I get projects going.
Maia wanted to earn the Eco Friend badge! She planned for the troop to make campfire cupcakes to learn how to build Eco friendly campfires, we played hit the Habitat Trail and thought about how to help animals while playing elaborate games with our lego animal sets.
Yes, she slept in the new dishwasher box. She claimed it immediately!
She still loves building complicated structures out of pillows!
Two Thumbs and Two Feet up for this book. Baking and Science in a Graphic Novel, right up her alley!
